When I started this fall portal mourning series I had an inkling this fall may be tender… fall is beautiful but it always filled me with melancholy as a child, now I understand why: it’s full of release, of dying and death (just look outside,) this isn’t a bad thing, it’s actually quite wonderful because death feeds life. Dying leads to rebirth (eventually)… AND we live in a death phobic mostly grief illiterate society… so these things aren’t celebrated, rather they’re avoided. As I’ve developed practices to dance with death, to tend to grief, the fall isn’t melancholy for me anymore, it’s a teacher and a friend. Which is a good thing because this fall has been sad, for me personally and for the collective.
This series was originally just for my paid subscribers but I want to share this full video and recipe with everyone because damn there’s a lot to mourn right now.
When I’m grieving it’s helpful to name what’s hurting and what’s giving me life in the same sentence, and to keep doing this until my throat and heart feel heard. I sometimes do this while walking, taking one step and naming a sorrow, and moving my other foot and naming a joy… maybe this will help you too- here’s my example:
I move my left foot and say “My grandma died this month” I move my right foot and say “and my mom is fully healed from her close encounter with death.” I move my left foot again and say “Fascism is sweeping the world again” I take another step “and the trees around are collaborating with the wind and insects to sing symphonies of ancient wisdom to be learned and celebrated.” I take another step “I just got two more rejections for grants to fund my documentary” I move my other foot “Three artists I deeply respect just volunteered to create the score and stop motion animation for my documentary on death and community care”…
And on I go, moving a foot, and saying a joy, moving another foot, and saying a grief. For some reason the moving and the expressing and the acknowledging all mixed together helps. Let me know if this helps you?
About the video exercise this week: Acupressure or pressure points are a way to active different points on the head, which stimulate not only that area, but corresponding parts of the body. Activating the body can be helpful when you find yourself frozen in grief, because often a physical stimulation, can in turn stimulate the emotional body as well.
Watch the video above to try it out and perhaps drink the elixir below right before you do:
Ingredients:
1/4 teaspoon cardamom powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1/4 teaspoon ginger powder
1 tablespoon cacao powder
1 tablespoon honey
mylk of your choosing
a pinch sea salt
Directions:
Add the cardamom, cinnamon, ginger and cacao powders to a mug.
Boil a pint of water and pour the water into the mug while mixing.
Once all the powders are dissolved, mix in the honey and mylk
Garnish with a pinch of sea salt
Cardamom, cinnamon, and cacao all support blood flow which can lead to lower blood pressure due to improved blood circulation, so you can imagine that this effect on the heart, could affect the whole body, as when our blood is moving, that means the waters within are moving, which means our grief (if stored in the body) is also moving rather than sitting just on the heart space.
If making those^ leaps with me is confusing reply to this email and I’ll go into more scientific and somatic grief theory details for you. For now I need to return to my mourning process and if you need extra support right now- our next somatic new moon mourning & moving gathering is on Saturday November 30th at 1pm Eastern/10am Pacific and you can read this post to learn more about that:
Video Credits:
I originally made this video as a bonus resource for my self-guided mourning ritual bundle. Check it out if you’re in need of support processing acute or lingering grief about the death transition of a loved one (human or companion animal), ecological grief, or the death of a circumstance (i.e. relationship, job, home).
Mourning singer, animal communicator, sonic journeyer FayePatrick Kennedy created the score for this video.
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