EVENT DESCRIPTION

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This Grief Ritual Retreat was inspired by the village grief rituals of the Dagara tribe of West Africa, first brought to the West by traditional Dagara healer Sobonfu Somé, and draws richly from the work and teachings of ritualists and soul activists Francis Weller, Michael Meade, Martin Prechtel, and Joanna Macy. During this gathering we will be spending time both at the ocean and at a beautiful private coastal residence, creating a sudden village through the sharing of cross-cultural ritual and ceremony, song, rhythm, poetry, and alchemical empathy. By sharing and releasing our grief in community we will build resilience, strength and vitality to guide and support us through these turbulent times.

 

We have all been touched by the hand of grief in many ways and through many gateways, whether through lost dreams, illness, broken relationships, or the death of loved ones, or through our sense of fear, dread, outrage, despair, numbness and overwhelm from the social and environmental injustice and devastation in our world. Throughout history traditional cultures have come together to create circles of healing and belonging by sharing in communal rituals of mourning, praise, remembrance, and celebration of life. In this way we strengthen our hearts, minds and spirits, and increase our capacity to respond to life's challenges with compassion, courage and wisdom.

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FACILITATOR

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Lara Lwin Treadaway weaves group ritual, earth-based ceremony, poetry, music, song, storytelling, and ways of council to guide and support healing and transformation in community. She believes that sacred grief work, ancestral healing, earth reconnection, and the creative arts are pathways to restoring deep belonging within ourselves, between each other, and with the other-than-human world. Lara's personal story includes many rough initiations through grief, loss, and trauma, leading to a hard-won respect for the alchemical journey of transmuting pain into medicine for the world.

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SPECIAL GUEST

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Denny Dyke is a labyrinth artist who creates his circles in the sand after the tide has gone out. Since he started creating these ancient pathways on the Oregon coast more than 20,000 pairs of feet have walked them. Denny will join us during this weekend to create a labyrinth by the ocean for us to walk in meditation. Click here to watch a video of Denny Dyke's labyrinth art shown on PBS. 

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LOCATION

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This event is being held by the ocean at a beautiful private property in Coos Bay, Oregon. Accommodation is available at the same property and details of local AirBnb's are also available on request. More details will be provided on registration. There is limited space at this retreat so early booking is recommended. Feel free to reach out with any questions. 

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RECIPROCITY

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This event is being offered on dāna (donation), in the spirit of the gift economy, where each person is invited to offer support for this event through a combination of their ability to give and natural impulse to contribute. The suggested donation, based on similar events, is $150 - $300. Accommodation is being offered at an additional $15 per night. 

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TESTIMONIALS

from participants of previous Drinking from the Well Grief Rituals

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I can’t even begin to say how beautiful, brilliant, deep, delicious, wise, impactful, meaningful, moving, powerful, fierce, profound, real, and deeply healing this gathering was. I spent a year at Kalani-Honua on the Big Island of Hawaii following two years at Esalen so I have experienced

many healing events, retreats and workshops, and I have to say that I was so thoroughly cleansed, impressed, moved, touched,

wrung out, inspired and lifted up by this Grief Ritual Retreat that I still can’t believe it. I highly recommend this

experience to everyone I know! Amazing work!!! Amazing!!!

~ Montgomery Norton, San Luis Obispo, CA

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In a short time, I had come to know and care for my fellow Villagers, made friends, heard stories, saw inside their hearts briefly. A true community holds the capacity to experience many things together without busting at the seams. Grief bonds when held with compassion and

understanding. Grief shows us our capacity for Joy as well. A community that learns to hold both is strong, resilient, and

capable of changing the world. Thank you, Lara Lwin Treadaway, for guiding us.

~ Michelle Madgett, San Luis Obispo, CA

 

The structure of the days was prescient and full of open space for creativity and more work. It never felt too heavy. It was

all so beautiful. I need to take time to write about it or it will soon be like a dream. Thank you for your depth,

your lightness, your clarity, your sense of love and deep profound history of this movement of the

heart and spirit needing to come alive at this time!

~ Bob Banner, San Luis Obispo, CA

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Thank you, Lara, for an incredible gift of healing. It will be a memory I will travel with and share with others wherever

I go. So glad our paths came together during this time in my life. From a very grateful heart.

~ Jean Edwards, San Luis Obispo, CA

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I cannot suggest enough how much this event changed me. For anyone feeling the loss of another or loss of a dream.

This event helped me, in my darkest time, to begin my healing process. Sign up, you will not be disappointed.

~ Scott Roberts, Ashland, OR