This is not a state of psychosis or emotional breakdown, but rather “…a state that is beyond our normal way of perceiving and experiencing ourselves and the world. There’s no way out, though we try to escape by armoring ourselves against pain and in the process diminishing our lives and our consciousness. Once the ritual began, people spent time weeping at the water shrine and shouting their outrage to the fire. For example, the betrayal of our Great Expectation that life is supposed to be far more magical, authentic, intimate, and alive than what has been offered to us as normal. And if you are going to work with the soul, you need to learn this rhythm, because this is how the soul moves.

The Wild Edge of Sorrow by Francis Weller, Michael Lerner

In this episode, Francis teaches us about initiations—what they are, why they are important for finding our place in this world, and the power they hold in ushering in personal growth and cultural belonging. This well of grief was deeper than anything else I had faced in my life, and the terrain was suffused with emptiness and darkness.Noted psychotherapist Francis Weller provides an essential guide for navigating the deep waters of sorrow and loss in this lyrical yet practical handbook for mastering the art of grieving. We need the living fire of authenticity to meet the flames of sorrow, and the tender elixir of the sacred to reflect the holiness of our naked encounter with the human condition. Weller holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay and two master’s degrees — in clinical psychology and transpersonal psychology — from John F.

The Wild Edge of Sorrow) Francis Weller Quotes (Author of The Wild Edge of Sorrow)

Approach it with the suffering shell of yourself, as a starving person, as a learner, a lover, and a friend.The Wild Edge of Sorrow , however, is brimming with sentences that take me beyond what I already know, much as a great poem can, to utterly new dimensions of whatit means to be courageously alive to myself and the world around me. Grief is akin to praise; it is how the soul recounts the depth to which someone has touched our lives.

Home [www.francisweller.net]

I was young, and I knew I was in need of a mentor, someone who could teach me the art of sitting with others in therapy. The Threshold Between Loss and Revelationinfuses our lives with an immediate sense of perspective—deeper than, and beyond, conceptual understanding, inviting us to consider that suffering is an option, not an inevitable, ongoing condition! He clearly saw that he had unwittingly made an agreement to live small and to consistently tell himself what a good life he was living. We must learn to modulate our exposure, allowing things to ripen and mature in the container of the heart before revealing our secret inside flesh to others.In The Wild Edge of Sorrow, Francis Weller offers his readers a breath-taking and dramatic journey of inner discovery into personal pain resolution, plane-tary healing and Soul development.

The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sac…

But then every time we encounter defeat, inadequacy, or loss, we’re at war with ourselves, and that’s a bitter fight. In his 2011 book on grief Entering The Healing Ground, the Five Gates are clarified, but then explained in more depth in The Wild Edge of Sorrow. Describing how Western patterns of amnesia and anesthesia affect our capacity to cope with personal and collective sorrows, Weller reveals the new vitality we may encounter when we welcome, rather than fear, the pain of loss. There is often a feeling of shame attached to the survivors of suicide, a hidden doubt that they might not have done enough to prevent this death. Subconsciously, we are awaiting the presence of others, before we can feel safe enough to drop to our knees on the holy ground of sorrow.Today, at fifty-nine, he uses what he learned whenever he sits down with a client in his psychotherapy practice or facilitates one of the grief retreats he organizes.