Grief Ritual Weekend
with
Victoria Markham
May 29, 30, 31, 2020
"We are not broken and we don't need fixing."
Victoria Markham
Victoria Markham
Join us over the weekend of May 29, 30, 31 when we sit in circle with Victoria Markham as she ushers us through a wild and beautiful Grief Ritual.
There is a spiritual hunger deep in our Western culture. Our cultural norms often exclude the heart and spirit we need to fully experience, embrace, and heal the realities of our lives.
Although death is intrinsic in our own lives and the lives of those around us, it has yet to be accepted fully as a normal rite of passage. The pain of being a griever in a culture that has lost the support systems for grief is often unbearable.
When we try to go out into our culture “as we are”, we can see how little the human collective knows about being with someone else’s pain and anguish. We are often met by great discomfort over our pain, and fed platitudes of recovery and hope.
This grief ritual was designed as a modern meeting of the need of grievers to be held and to share openly with other grievers without weeding through other people's projections on how or where we should be in our grief walk.
In this ritual we will build a community that embraces the great discomforts of life alongside the resilience that is also available to people who undertake such transformative events like the death of a loved one or the loss of a marriage. This time together is a deep dive into the possibilities available to us when we accept and invite grief into our lives.
There is a spiritual hunger deep in our Western culture. Our cultural norms often exclude the heart and spirit we need to fully experience, embrace, and heal the realities of our lives.
Although death is intrinsic in our own lives and the lives of those around us, it has yet to be accepted fully as a normal rite of passage. The pain of being a griever in a culture that has lost the support systems for grief is often unbearable.
When we try to go out into our culture “as we are”, we can see how little the human collective knows about being with someone else’s pain and anguish. We are often met by great discomfort over our pain, and fed platitudes of recovery and hope.
This grief ritual was designed as a modern meeting of the need of grievers to be held and to share openly with other grievers without weeding through other people's projections on how or where we should be in our grief walk.
In this ritual we will build a community that embraces the great discomforts of life alongside the resilience that is also available to people who undertake such transformative events like the death of a loved one or the loss of a marriage. This time together is a deep dive into the possibilities available to us when we accept and invite grief into our lives.
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Being Together
This ritual is designed for those who are ready to be a part of a community of grievers. We will create an intimate group with a foundation of trust and privacy. Advice giving or platitudes will be set aside as we undertake a ceremony that will denounce silence and connect with what lies deep in our souls. The shadow, the pain, the beauty, the grace, the fumbling. The messy parts. The parts where we hurt someone else. The parts where we were hurt. Unrefined. We will come together to grieve openly within a safe container while we learn to let go of our lives as we have known them. |
This ritual is designed to
- Build community for those who have experienced the death of a significant person in their lives.
- Welcome those who are experiencing the grief we face within the life we are living, such as grief around divorce, illness, abuse, abandonment, loss of a home or career.
- Provide a resource for grievers from all faiths and lifestyles. Non-denominational. Non-judgmental.
- Hold a safe container for the darkest depths of grief and resilience.
- Provide a gathering space to support one another in expressing grief.
- Be a space where feedback and platitudes are not part of the journey.
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Meet our guide, Victoria
Victoria Markham is a global powerhouse on a mission to redesign the way we view grief and heal trauma in our Western, modern culture. After the death of her 3-1/2 year old son, Victoria realized the most meaningful and the most needed service in this world was to help people through life’s great grief. Drawing on resources from indigenous cultures, personal experience, and study in the fields of trauma and Eco-psychology, she brings a fresh and needed perspective to those who are walking the lifelong path of bereavement. She is the founder of the 501c3 Life Cycle Global in Ashland, Oregon, the creator of programs for Lifecycle Center, and the producer for documentary film RE:MEMBER. |
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Her work doesn’t just focus on death but also on the great deepening life asks of us all along the way. The grief we face within the life we are living, such as grief around divorce, illness, abuse, abandonment, loss of a home or career, are all relevant to how we will handle our loved one’s dying or our own impermanent nature.
Truth and honesty have become the foundation of Victoria's practice. The old paradigm of therapy and sitting across from one another in a room with a slotted time frame is over. Victoria is taking grief back into the places once practiced within intact cultures across the globe. Death takes us into a more wild approach to healing and learning to love this life on life's terms.
By sharing her personal journey, she ushers us through the raw and unedited truth of grief, through mentorship and advocacy, learned by her lifelong journey with the Navajo, the Africanas, the Hawaiian peoples and the Latino culture.
Her degree in Eco-Psychology, 15 years in social work, and her 20-year study and practice of “rites of passage” has led her to an in depth study of trauma from a somatic point of view.
COST FOR THE WEEKEND: $335
Timing for the weekend: Friday 5pm to 8:30pm, Saturday 10am to 8pm, Sunday 10am to 3pm.
What is included: Group viewing and discussion of the documentary, RE:MEMBER, all rituals, all supplies for rituals, daily snacks & water, group dinner on Saturday night.
What is not included: Housing, lunches on Saturday and Sunday, dinner on Sunday night.
Victoria recommends that everyone eat an early dinner on Friday evening, eat a good breakfast and bring a healthy lunch for Saturday and Sunday.
Our meeting space is in downtown Redlands, close to restaurants and hotels.
For those traveling from out of town, we will be 27 miles from Ontario International Airport.
Timing for the weekend: Friday 5pm to 8:30pm, Saturday 10am to 8pm, Sunday 10am to 3pm.
What is included: Group viewing and discussion of the documentary, RE:MEMBER, all rituals, all supplies for rituals, daily snacks & water, group dinner on Saturday night.
What is not included: Housing, lunches on Saturday and Sunday, dinner on Sunday night.
Victoria recommends that everyone eat an early dinner on Friday evening, eat a good breakfast and bring a healthy lunch for Saturday and Sunday.
Our meeting space is in downtown Redlands, close to restaurants and hotels.
For those traveling from out of town, we will be 27 miles from Ontario International Airport.
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