Retreats and Rituals | schneewitta.com

I am offering Rituals and Retreats mostly around the topic of loss and grief. Here you find a few words about Communal Grieving and Ritual.

Why communal Grieving?
To grieve and praise what we love.

"Grief has never been private; it has always been communal. 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." Francis Weller

What is communal grieving?

“Communal grieving offers something that we cannot get when we grieve by ourselves. Through validation, acknowledgement and witnessing, communal grieving allows us to experience a level of healing that is deeply and profoundly freeing. Each of us has a basic human right to that genuine love, happiness and freedom.”⁠
Sobonfu Somé⁠

Communal grieving is a process in which a group of individuals come together to mourn and process any loss. This can be a loss of a loved one or a shared experience, an ending relationship, change of home or work, transition, ilness, aging or a missed community.

Communal grieving can take many forms, such as funerals, memorials, or other public gatherings.

The purpose of communal grieving is to provide a sense of support and connection for those who are grieving. By coming together, individuals can share their experiences and emotions, and feel less alone in their grief. Communal grieving also serves a cultural function, as it reinforces the importance of shared experiences and community support, as we come together in grieve with the things we love.

Communal grieving can help individuals to process their emotions and move forward in a healthy way.

I am offering Spaces for Communal Grieving as Rituals:

Trauerfeuer / Grieving Fire Rituals Temple Of Sorrows for any kind of loss in Life.

In addition I am also Prototyping Rituals for Communities, Familys Companies and Organization's.

Most of them are facilitated with a big Team. Songs, Stories, Sharing, Movements are part of these spaces.

„We grieve the loves we’ve lost. We grieve our abilities vanishing through illness or age. We grieve the loss of faith in our religion. We grieve our children leaving home. We grieve the paths we didn’t walk. We grieve the family we never had. We grieve the suffering of the planet. But while grief may look like an expression of pain that serves no purpose, it is actually the soul’s acknowledgment of what we value. Grief is the honour we pay to that which is dear to us. And it is only through the connection to what we cherish that we can know how to move forward. In this way, grief is motion.

Yet in our culture, we are deeply unskilled with grief. We hold it at a distance as best we can, both in ourselves and in each other, treating it as, Joanna Macy says, like “an enemy of cheerfulness.” There is unspoken shame associated with grief. It is sanctioned in very few places, in small doses, for exceptional occasions such as death and tragedy. Beyond that, it can feel dangerous and weak. Perhaps because we fear we’ll drown in our despair, or because it means falling apart in a world which values ‘holding it together’ above all else. But grief plays an essential role in our coming undone from previous attachments. It is the necessary current we need to carry us into our next becoming. Without it, we may remain stuck in that area of our life, which can limit the whole spectrum of our feeling alive." Took-pa Turner

What is a Ritual?

“While we have much to learn from indigenous cultures about forms of rituals and how ritual works, we cannot simply adopt their rituals and settle them neatly onto our psyches. It is important that we listen deeply, once again, to the dreaming earth and craft rituals that are indigenous to us, that reflect our unique patterns of wounding and disconnection from the land. These rituals will have the potency to mend what has been torn, heal what has been neglected. This is one way that we may return to the land and offer our deepest amends to those we have harmed.”

Francis Weller

A ritual is a set of actions, words, or symbols that are performed in a specific way and often have a deep symbolic meaning. Rituals can be religious or secular, and can serve a variety of purposes, such as marking a significant life event, honoring a cultural tradition, or providing a sense of structure and meaning in daily life.

Rituals are often repetitive and involve a set of prescribed steps or actions that are performed in a specific order. They can involve objects, such as candles or incense, and may include specific words or prayers. The repetition and structure of a ritual can create a sense of familiarity and comfort, and can help to reinforce a sense of community and belonging.

Rituals can also serve function, particularly in situations where individuals are dealing with grief. The act of performing a ritual can provide a sense of comfort and help individuals to process their emotions in a healthy way.