The Metal Element and the Alchemy of Grief

Workshop Overview

10am–1pm

Drawing on Five Element acupuncture, we’ll explore the Metal element, the many forms grief can take, the importance of having our losses witnessed, and what it means to carry grief without allowing it to become the final author of our lives.

During the morning, we’ll explore:

• The Five Elements within Chinese medicine
• The Metal element in nature and within ourselves
• The Lung and Large Intestine and the cycle of taking in and letting go
• The meanings and poetry contained within selected acupuncture points
• The many different forms and expressions of grief
• Grief, ritual and the importance of community
• What we retain, what we release and what may be transformed

There will be time for conversation, personal reflection and gentle Qigong, followed by a closing meditation.

This is not group therapy. Nobody will be expected to advise, analyse or “fix” anybody else—and if you don’t want to say a word, you don’t have to.

Sourdough bread, biscuits, snacks and herbal teas will be served throughout the morning.

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The Well of Grief

David Whyte

Those who will not slip beneath
the still surface on the well of grief,

turning down through its black water
to the place we cannot breathe,

will never know the source from which we drink,
the secret water, cold and clear,

nor find in the darkness glimmering,

the small round coins,
thrown by those who wished for something else.

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Stillness is vital to the world of the soul. If as you age you become more still, you will discover that stillness can be a great companion. The fragments of your life will have time to unify, and the places where your soul-shelter is wounded or broken will have time to knit and heal.

You will be able to return to yourself. In this stillness, you will engage your soul. Many people miss out on themselves completely as they journey through life. They know others, they know places, they know skills, they know their work, but tragically, they do not know themselves at all. Aging can be a lovely time of ripening when you actually meet yourself, indeed maybe for the first time.

—John O’Donohue