Welcome to
Holy Lament
The Transformative Path of Loss & Longing
A journey in community through the Landscape of Loss
with Mirabai Starr
Welcome to the refuge of
Holy Lament
We welcome anyone who yearns to turn toward their grief in this community journey.
Grief is not an illness or a mistake; it is a natural and sacred response to life’s inevitable losses. It is also a crucible for transformation.
Society conditions us to get away from painful feelings as swiftly as possible, and thereby deprives us of what our souls naturally know: there is holiness in heartbreak, beauty in the wound, metamorphosis that unfolds when we enter the cocoon and allow ourselves to dissolve.
You don’t need to make this journey alone. A circle of like-minded companions, in the hands of wise and loving guides, awaits you here.
Have you experienced a shattering loss that reconfigures the shape of your soul?
Do you have an inner pull to enter the heart of your heartbreak, rather than push it away or try to fix it?
Are you wishing there was a place you could go to dedicate yourself to a process of conscious mourning?
Would it be comforting to know that, even though the grief journey is completely individual, there are certain universal features of the landscape of loss you can trust?
12 Thresholds through the Landscape of Loss
A Community Journey with Mirabai Starr
In this annual membership, we will walk together through 12 Thresholds of Grief.
We tenderly extend this invitation to people experiencing all forms of loss: a breakup, illness, loss of a job, significant life change, the death of a loved one, and any other version of the human condition that shatters your previous reality.
What to expect within
Holy Lament
The Transformative Path of Loss & Longing
We will draw on teachings from the mystics from across the world’s spiritual traditions as we make our way through the garden of the human spirit. We will pay special attention to the connection between grief and longing for the divine.
Live Calls
On the 4th Wednesday of each month at 11am Pacific, our community will gather for a live practice and Q&R with Mirabai. All sessions are recorded and questions can be submitted beforehand.
Weekly Videos
A new video will be available each week catered to the month's threshold with an explanation of each threshold, supporting practices and conversations with renowned guests.
Monthly Emails
Each month, Mirabai will email you her poetic reflections for that threshold plus a writing prompt for the month's threshold.
Community Connections
Willow and friends will support you in a dedicated online community group to nurture your Holy Lament journey.
While we offer certain guideposts in the wilderness of grief, we acknowledge that your journey is your own. It is both comforting and empowering to discover that others have walked before you, and that many of your individual responses to profound loss, while perhaps unexpected and even destabilizing, are shared. You are utterly unique, yet you are not alone.
By engaging with the journey of Holy Lament, you will...
Remember what your soul has always known: that you belong to the human family, and loss is a shared reality
Affirm that there are many forms of loss and many ways to grieve
Recognize when a particular feeling you may be having is a natural expression of the grief process rather than a sign that something is wrong with you
Find comfort in knowing that those who have walked before you have left footprints you can follow through the wilderness
Experience renewed capacity to experience the beauty and sacredness of life
Develop a robust container of compassion to be able to hold others as they grieve
Compile a body of writing on your story of transformational loss
Meet Mirabai
Mirabai Starr is an award-winning author of creative non-fiction and contemporary translations of sacred literature. She taught Philosophy and World Religions at the University of New Mexico-Taos for 20 years and now teaches and speaks internationally on contemplative practice and inter-spiritual dialog. A certified bereavement counselor, Mirabai helps mourners harness the transformational power of loss. Her latest book, WILD MERCY: Living the Fierce & Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics, was named one of the “Best Books of 2019”. She lives with her extended family in the mountains of northern New Mexico.
Meet Willow
Willow Brook is an earth loving facilitator, educator, seeker, artist and friend on fire for love, truth and embodied liberation. With a lifetime of experience on an interspiritual path and a decade of experience teaching in classrooms across the world, Willow brings devotional song and prayer into everything she does. She facilitates grief gatherings, guides yoga and was a resident at the iconic intentional community, Lama Foundation.
"Hearing Mirabai’s deep wisdom is more than being supported or accompanied, it is also experiencing moments of clarity when you suddenly shift to another perspective. Grief can be threaded with grace, I learned from Mirabai’s teachings. My burden of grief lightened when she reframed the stages of grief as stations. And then, Willow's gorgeous melodies that point to the heart of the Divine comforted and lifted me up."
-Wendy Brown-Baez, author of Heart on the Page and Ceremonies of the Spirit
Is Holy Lament for you?
It is important to us that you have the necessary support beyond our community container.
*Wild Heart does not provide crisis intervention and does not replace the care of psychologists or other healthcare professionals.
This gathering is an invitation to those who are willing to sit in the unknown and turn toward grief as a transformational journey.
X This program may not be for you if...
X You are seeking a psychological framework for your grief process
X You require trauma support and don't have it
X You are expecting a specific set of tools and techniques to show you how to grieve
X You wish to be initiated and indoctrinated into a particular spiritual belief system to rescue you from your loss
X Expecting a certificate or licensure
We invite you to join Holy Lament if...
-You are able to sit in the unknown
-You are ready to turn toward grief as a transformational invitation
-You sense the fragrance of the sacred emanating from your heartbreak
-You have an accompanying network of support in your everyday life
-Your heart cries yes to the song we are singing
Seeking 1:1 Support?
While Mirabai no longer offers 1:1 sessions, we have a circle of practitioners deeply steeped in Mirabai's teachings who provide exquisite containers to dive deeper alongside Holy Lament and other Wild Heart offerings.
Wild Heart Individual SupportJoin Holy Lament
We are currently tending to our community and look forward to welcoming you when we open the doors again in July.
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