Grief: The Sacred Gateway with Chaya Aronson, Kaitlyn Cronin, and Marie Echo

Grief is a sacred gateway to so many dimensions — love, joy, rage, creative fire. It is a threshold we must traverse to come into healthy relationship with each new phase of our lives, and with every loss we experience. Everything we love, we will lose. And in that truth lives something sacred — a portal to the fullness of our humanity. Grief, when met with courage and community, becomes a gateway to love, rage, tenderness, and creative fire. It is the threshold we must cross to enter each new chapter of our lives with our whole selves intact. So often, when our tears want to surface, we either contain them or cry them alone. Our grief is meant to be witnessed — a brave and vulnerable act. Join us at Earthdance for a weekend grief ceremony — a held, intentional container where your tears can finally be witnessed, your losses honored, and your aliveness reclaimed. This gathering is for anyone carrying loss — personal, collective, ancestral. You do not need to be in acute grief to belong here. You only need to be willing to feel. Arrival/Check-In: Friday, November 13th from 4-7pm front of the Farmhouse. Dinner at 6pm. Opening Circle: Friday, November 13th at 7:30pm Day Pass (NO Overnight Stay): Saturday, November 14th Day Pass includes 3 meals and all event offerings. Departure after the last evening offering. Final Clean: Sunday, November 15th at 2-3pm. Lunch 1-2pm. Departure: All participants will depart after the final group clean after 3pm on Sunday, November 15th. We begin by coming home. In our opening ritual, we reconnect to the deep love of Great Mother — our original source of belonging. Knowing that many of us carry wounds from the mother who birthed us, we open to the taproot of love in our Great Earth Mother. This is the heart of our time together. We will honor and tend each of our personal griefs that we carry in with us. And we will turn toward the collective grief so many of us hold in our bodies — the weight of witnessing violence, the heartbreak of this world. In the afternoon, we will hold our full community grief ceremony, filled with song. So much of our difficulty finding belonging stems from the lack of village. Today we will grieve in the village — witness one another, hold and be held. Saturday evening, we gather for a ritual theater piece that weaves into a death and chocolate experience — a sensory and ceremonial passage through the cycles of time. An evening of contemplating and honoring death through storytelling, somatic practice, community discussion, decadent herbal infused chocolate, music, and ritual. As the Earth turns toward release and decomposition, we gather to make space for grief, honor our ancestors, and connect more deeply with the web of life and the teachings of Death. Through shared truffles and thought-provoking prompts, we’ll explore our beliefs, edges, and experiences around death while creating space for heartfelt connection, reverence, curiosity, and whatever is arising. We do not grieve to feel better. We grieve to feel more alive. When grief is held inside — unfelt, unwitnessed — it becomes a wall between us and our vitality. When it moves through us, it clears the channel. On Sunday morning, we turn toward the light — levity, laughter, dance, joy. When we clear the channel by moving our grief, next right actions become clear. What becomes possible now? What are the next right actions toward the world we wish to live in? GRATITUDE LODGE Financially Strained $225.00 to Financially Abundant $700.00 CAMPING Financially Strained $200.00 to Financially Abundant $675.00 COMMUTER Financially Strained $175.00 to Financially Abundant $650.00 GRATITUDE LODGE Financially Strained $275.00 to Financially Abundant $775.00 CAMPING Financially Strained $250.00 to Financially Abundant $725.00 COMMUTER Financially Strained $225.00 to Financially Abundant $700.00 GRATITUDE LODGE Financially Strained $325.00 to Financially Abundant $825.00 CAMPING Financially Strained $300.00 to Financially Abundant $775.00 COMMUTER Financially Strained $275.00 to Financially Abundant $750.00 Financially Strained $105.00 to Financially Abundant $305.00 *Saturday, November 14th Day Pass includes 3 meals and all event offerings. Departure after the last evening offering. No over night stay. Financially Strained $45.00 to Financially Abundant $205.00 *Saturday, November 14th Death and Chocolate Evening Pass includes the workshop and all that it offers. Arrivals at 7:30pm. Departure after the offering. No meals or over night stay included. We are excited to offer up to 3 FULL Weekend and 3 Saturday Day Pass Equity & Access Discounted Tickets to individuals who have a financial need. We know that for those who come from marginalized populations showing up to spaces filled with primarily privileged groups can be a challenge and prioritize such individuals when granting these discounted tickets. Earthdance makes efforts to support Equity & Access at all its events, thi