Our work is informed by a rich weave of teachers and traditions, to whom we are greatly indebted for the beauty, depth and power of what we do.
Thanks to Sobonfu Somé and Malidoma Somé, wise beings and teachers from the Dagara people of Dano village in Burkino Faso. In their village, collective grief rituals happen regularly, not just for individuals to release any burden they may be carrying, but to keep the village a healthy place for all. Sobonfu passed into spirit in January 2017, after dedicating much of her life to bringing the wisdom of her culture to the west. Malidoma died in 2021.
Books by Sobonfu: Falling from Grace, Spirit of Intimacy and more can be found here. You can also find many recordings of her talks on YouTube and beyond.
Books by Malidoma include: Of Water and the Spirit and The Healing Wisdom of Africa
Joanna Macy studied Life sciences, Buddhism and the harm caused by the nuclear industry, and sat with the challenge of how to engage people to take action on an issue whose results are so diffuse, spread across the planet, and across centuries into the future. With others she developed Despair and Empowerment work – acknowledging that many people are not apathetic, or uncaring but simply overwhelmed into numbness or paralysis by the scale of the environment, social and political problems we are facing today. Now called “Active Hope” or “The Work that Reconnects”, this open source body of work offers resources, teachings and group processes that bring us together in gratitude, in honouring our pain for the world, enabling us to see with new eyes and go forth into the world with a renewed sense of interconnection, empowerment and motivation to act for good. The book Coming Back to Life is used by many as a huge resource of suggested practices for workshops.
Joanna died in July 2025. I wrote about my journey with her and the Work that Reconnects here.
Maeve Gavin, founder of Wawy of the Village, brought together many teachings to weave accessible and powerful grief spaces, including the Grief Tending in Community processes offered through this network.
Her final project, the Keening Wake, researched and made more public the practice of keening – a tradition indigenous to at least parts of the UK and Ireland. (image is from the keening wake website)
Maeve died suddenly in October 2018, age 39. We miss you, bright spirit and beautiful teacher.
Others whose work we draw on
Martín Prechtel was adopted by the Tzutujil people of Guatemala, where he became a shaman and elder and took part in many of the rituals of the village. His teaching and writing describes a way of living where humans are interwoven with each other, with beauty, the natural world, and spirit – understanding Praise and Joy as two best friends who share the same apartment, in the house that is Love. You can read about the vital importance of praising and grieving in this culture in his book “The Smell of Rain on Dust“
Francis Weller in the USA has written beautifully about the importance of grieving in books including “The Wild Edge of Sorrow” and others, and introduced the concept of “Gates to Grief” as a way of remembering the many sources grief can flow from.
And there are increasing numbers writing, speaking, holding spaces and apprenticing to grief. We’ve included some fellow travellers who offer spaces for grief on this page
You must be logged in to post a comment.