"Grief and love are sisters, woven together from the beginning. Their kinship reminds us that there is no love that does not contain loss and no loss that is not a reminder of the love we carry for what we once held close."
Francis Weller
The Five Gates of Grief
Dear sisters
We are calling out to you from the heart of winter with our eyes wide like the owl who seeks her prey in the night. What gems will we find when we have the courage to look into our depths?
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Rather than scurry towards the light, can we revel in this darkness together and find a true deepening into our feminine nature so we may rise with hope?
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As women, we carry the wisdom within us to transmute the heaviness and pain of our human existence into strength and love. The time is now.
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Join us for a sacred weekend of claiming our birthright as women to tend to our depths while being held in a basket of sisterhood. Lay down what you no longer need to carry and come home resourced with the nutrients of the Feminine and Winter.
We are living in
unprecedented times where loss and grief is pervasive to the human experience. Unprocessed grief can manifest in many ways such as a heaviness, anxiety, sadness, anger or a longing to feel more alive and connected.
In this ceremony, we rekindle how to move through the many shades of grief so that we may deepen our capacity for resiliency and aliveness.
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You have radical permission to move through any feelings that arise including: numbness, apathy, sadness, rage, confusion, despair, frustration, joy, gratitude and anything else that is alive for you.
The medicine
of communal grief is not only to allow ourselves to release emotions that keep us from feeling fully alive, but to also learn how to hold space for others and awaken deep empathy, compassion and a sense of shared humanity that is essential in these times. True community comes with vulnerability.
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You are welcome in this space as you are, whether you are actively grieving or not. For some of us, we may not understand why we feel called to grief tending and community ceremonies, yet we trust that the medicine we need will be revealed.
Our practices include
Singing, Drumming & Dancing
Wailing & Raging Ritual
Embodied healing practices informed by Joanna Macy, Sobonfu Some, Francis Weller, Somatics and more
Sacred Witnessing
You receive
Two days of deep time to connect with your authentic self and compassionate women
Nature immersion including access to a private beach & old growth forest
Healthy, nourishing lunches & dinner
Integration support
Orcas Island has been a sacred site for healing ceremonies for thousands of years. We are grateful to the Coast Salish People who originally stewarded this land with balance and reverence, and who continue to guide us to be in right relationship with this land and waters.
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Camp Orkila is full of majestic old growth trees and access to a beautiful sandy beach. Attendees are invited to explore the land with nature-based rituals.
“It felt like it has awoken a deep bond of sisterhood and understanding. I felt like it was not my first time but it definitely was. I am learning to sit with grief and express it healthily while having more focus on gratitude for what I do have. It was magical, primal, ancient, type 2 awesome fun!”
- Participant in 2023 Women's Retreat with Hayley & Erin
About Erin
Erin Quies Wild experienced her first grief ceremony with Sobonfu Some in 2002 after her dad died suddenly and she has been tending to her personal grief as well as collective and planetary grief ever since. The depths of loss have brought her exquisite humility, empathy and an abundance of gratitude.
She now weaves regenerative grief coaching into her work with others. Erin currently co-facilitates community grief ceremonies around the PNW. She is a mother, a ceremonialist and a doula of birth and rites of passages of all kinds.
She has had a private practice on Orcas Island since 2008 specializing in therapeutic & ceremonial bodywork and healing. Erin has been facilitating retreats, doula trainings and workshops for 20 years.
About Hayley
Hayley Shannon is a somatic healing arts practitioner and dancer who is devoted to a path of embodiment and healing. She has been guiding Dance Healing for eight years where she supports others to connect with their body's authentic wisdom, oftentimes processing grief that leads into more resiliency and wholeness. Her own grief path deepened while studying somatic expressive arts therapy at Tamalpa Institute in California, as she connected with the stories in her own body. This path deepened as she participated in grief and gratitude ceremonies with her friend Ahlay Blakely and mentor Nala Walla.
As it became clear that grief tending was a part of her path, she began coordinating grief ceremonies for her community on Orcas Island and eventually stepping into facilitating. She's studied the Five Gates of Grief with Francis Weller and continues to be humbled by the lessons that emerge when we commune with nature and others in an honest and embodied way.
Your committment
$222. Payment plans are available.
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Some work trade is available.
We begin Saturday morning at 9am and will be on "ritual time" until around 4pm Sunday evening. Please be prepared to leave your devices at home or off (unless you need to check on your kids etc).
