Into the Cracks: Grief Work in the End Times
Reflections on the Death Card & October 23rd Grief Studio
Hi everyone,
With everything going on post Hurricane Helene, I feel incredibly lucky that unlike many others here, my place of work hasn't washed away. And I feel incredibly lucky that my work is resourcing and does not feel like the usual "business as usual" for me.
Events like Hurricane Helene are exactly why I am doing this work. Writing, being with plant stories, creating, and being with grief together is deeply resourcing and regulating. It also directly helps me support my communities here (both financially, logistically, and emotionally).
Like many grief and death workers, I turned towards this work because I wanted to do something that felt relevant in the face of so much collective loss and uncertainty. I felt cracked open by grief. I wanted to create more spaces for more folx to make refuge in the cracks together, to regulate, to find ways together to weave deeply attuned and resourced communities who love, care, dream, and create courageously in times of change and grief.
Before the hurricane, I started an offering called ​Grief Studios​. The first was held the night Hurricane Helene arrived.
I left our first Grief Studio feeling elated and grateful for all of your shares and presence. I think I danced around my kitchen afterwards as I told my roommates how it went. This was the night the storm hit us.
Attuning to the seasons and collective grief together means attuning to their beauty as well as climate chaos. But this night, I was blissfully unaware of what was coming, enjoying the sound of the steady rain, curious why my roommates had entered the room while I was holding the session (they backed out quickly when realizing I was on our call).
On our bio break, I came downstairs and saw my roommates standing on chairs outside in the downpour, cleaning the clogged gutter, giddy, soaked, wearing bathing suits or rain jackets or shirtless. They had come in to tell me that water was gushing into the basement (something that has happened here many times here). Unclogging the gutter appeared to be helping. I went back upstairs to finish the session.
We awoke to a level of destruction in our region that I have never witnessed in person.
Since then, a veil has been lifted between those of us here and the realities of climate change. Climate chaos is not looming, it is here. And it will catch us off guard and humble us. In the face of such precarity and unknowns, I am remembering on deeper and deeper levels how community, courage, play, and imagination are some of our biggest resources.
And I’m returning to the death card.
How do we want to live? Reflections on the Death Card
Being with death and catastrophe invite us to live in accordance with what matters most to us.
Before we got power and wifi back a few days ago, I got to speak with Cecily Sailer of ​Your Creative and Magical Life ​podcast, from the parking lot of a whole foods here where there happened to be wifi, about the Death tarot card in the context of climate catastrophe.
We had scheduled the call prior to the storm.
Rather than reschedule, it felt like exactly the right context in which I wanted to talk about the death card - not from a place of future comfort, with pillows padded around my desk and my fancy microphone and headphones that I bought for doing audio recordings - but from my phone, in a parking lot, in a moment of uncertainty and discomfort, in the midst of our regions' devastating loss and the portal that is Hurricane Helene.
I'm so grateful for our conversation and Cecily's work.
Connecting and reflecting with Cecily in this moment of uncertainty felt incredibly grounding and reminded me of ways that storytelling, meaning making, and connecting with one another across region and experience can be huge nervous system medicine.
Join us for our Samhain Studio on October 23rd: Making Life in the Ruins
Our next grief studio will be our Samhain Studio on Wednesday, October 23rd, from 6-7:30pm eastern time. We will be exploring the Death tarot card and making life in decay and the ruins of capitalism.
How to Join Grief Studios
There are 2 ways to join us:
1) If you are already (or would like to be!) on substack, you can ​become a paid subscriber to my Grief Spells substack.
2) If you are NOT on substack and don't want to be, you can ​subscribe without going through substack. ​
Cost: $16-20 per month (cancel anytime)
Free for those impacted by hurricane season
If you are directly impacted by Hurricane Helene (or any of the hurricanes this season) and seeking a free spot in our upcoming Grief Studio, please RSVP here.
10% of proceeds from Grief Studios will go towards ​Many Lands Mutual Aid​ in Gaza, who still need our support. All of our struggles are connected. Massive thank yous to everyone who has directly donated to mutual aid there and here and all places it is needed.
If you'd like to directly donate to WNC mutual aid, click ​here​. And please know that your support of local small businesses', makers', teachers', and artists' work is also part of sustaining our region in times of economic uncertainty. Many of us who are still able to work are not just sustaining ourselves but pockets of our communities as our loved ones and households navigate loss of work and workplaces.
Sending big care,
Mara June