Descent is a Book Circle, sound journey, and community exploration of grief and renewal, guided by Francis Weller’s seminal book, 'The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief'. Over six weeks, we will travel together through Weller’s Five Gates of Grief, weaving reading, reflection, sound healing, ritual, and Circle practice into a living exploration of the heart.

This is not a traditional book study. It is a lived experience of the teachings, an embodied descent into the wisdom that grief holds, allowing the words to move from page to body to soul. Through sound, breath, and ritual, we will meet the many faces of grief, the personal and the collective, the ancient and the newly stirred and discover how, when witnessed, grief becomes a river back to life.

Descent is a sanctuary for what lives unspoken in the heart, an invitation to sit with what has been lost, to honour love in its many forms, and to let sorrow and beauty walk side by side.

Our Why

We live in a culture that asks us to move through grief quickly, to be strong, to carry on. Yet grief is not a problem to solve but a threshold to cross, one that reveals our capacity to love more deeply.

Both of us have walked through our own descents and learned that when grief is given space and witness, it becomes a portal to profound aliveness, connection, and meaning. We co-created Descent because grief is not meant to be carried alone. It belongs in community, held by ritual and witnessed by compassionate hearts.

Grief: The Call of Our Times

Grief is perhaps the most essential work of our time. We are living through cascading losses, personal and collective, visible and invisible. The death of loved ones, yes, but also the death of relationships, identities, dreams we once held. The grief of bodies that have changed, of childhoods that were hard, of the Earth as She suffers. The ache of loneliness in a hyperconnected world, the weight of ancestral trauma we carry without knowing, the sorrow of watching injustice unfold.

Grief can arrive as sadness, but it can also show up as exhaustion, numbness, rage, anxiety, or a persistent feeling of emptiness. It can be the heaviness you wake with, the tears that come from nowhere, the inexplicable ache in your chest. It can be sudden and sharp or slow and quiet, woven so deeply into the fabric of your days that you forget it's even there.

Who Is This For? 

Descent welcomes all who feel called to explore the landscape of grief, not only those carrying sorrow, but also those who sense that grief is a profound teacher waiting to be understood beyond the intellect.

This journey is for those who wish to experience grief as a living practice, to feel its textures, its wisdom, and its medicine.
It is for anyone curious about the role grief plays in love, belonging, and the renewal of the soul.

You do not need to be in acute grief or have lost someone to come to this Circle. You may simply feel a quiet pull toward this work, a longing to understand grief more deeply, to make space for what has been silenced, or to learn how to sit with others in their sorrow with greater compassion.

No prior experience with grief work, ritual, or circle practice is needed,  only a willingness to arrive with an open heart and let the teachings move through you.

Over the six weeks, you will experience:

• Guided exploration of Francis Weller's Five Gates of Grief through selected readings and reflective practice

• Sound healing and breathwork to help grief move through the body and release what words cannot touch

• Poetry and ritual that honour both the weight of sorrow and the lightness of gratitude

• Community connection with others who understand that grief is not weakness but courage

• Personal ritual practices including contemplative exercises

• Integration support to carry the wisdom of this journey into your daily life

• Gentle witness and belonging in a circle held with care, confidentiality, and reverence

Those who walk with grief in this way often find a softer, more compassionate relationship with their own sorrow and the sorrow of others, along with relief from isolation, a deeper connection to the sacredness of life, and a renewed sense of aliveness that comes from being fully met in their emotions. They leave with meaningful tools, rituals, and relationships that allow them to hold both sorrow and joy, loss and love, with greater confidence and tenderness.

The Book

We ask that you have your own copy of Francis Weller's The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief to read alongside this journey. Selected passages will be explored together in Circle, and having the book will allow you to deepen into the teachings at your own pace between gatherings. The book is widely available through bookshops and online retailers