a ritual space to remember, repair, and rebirth

The Altar of Kinship comes from a lifetime of dreaming of a place where grief and joy are equally welcomed. A place where you don't have to hide your grief. A place where grief is something beautiful to share and not shameful to carry. The Altar of Kinship is a space in which to gather, be together, not separate, to speak, to listen, to move, to write with an intention that the process of grieving and mourning is a human practice and that it is holy, sacred and profane, and that it happens on its own time and when allowed finds its own authentic expression.

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This may not be for everyone, but it may be for someone. It may be for you. It has certainly been the way that I have been able to process grief and mourn in a way that has meaning. I have been able to reflect upon death as a part of life, and out of the abyss that the destruction that death creates I have found personal, beautiful and meaningful ways to keep reaching for life.

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This is meant to be a laboratory of love. A place to deepen in self-love, to deepen in love for a fellow human being that is suffering, and to deepen in love for our collective as it moves through loss.

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Sunday, June 8th is the last gathering before I break for summer and head out to parts of Europe to explore, teach and perform.

 

This community gathering has been an honor to facilitate, and I believe a profound experience for the participants. I have been deeply moved by each person's willingness to be tender and bold, expressive and contemplative. We have been transformed. We have explored grief as a creative act and mourned together rather than apart. Many expressed gaining more insight, more peace, more expression and more space for life.

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And then there was the moment when a young man walked into the church looking for a place to pray because he was distraught over a significant loss and was immediately embraced and folded into the group. 

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There is consensus that these rituals come at a perfect time of such immense individual and collective death, grief and loss. At the least, we created a space to simply feel what is happening underneath all this change and love each other through the process.

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Sunday’s ritual is affectionally called "Call the Circle". Calling the Circle is an ancient practice of gathering in circle as a way of coming together in community to speak, to hear, to contemplate. The circle is a powerful shape and can immediately provide a sense of safety, security and belonging. We will "Call the Circle" and tend to everyone’s experience through movement, creative writing, and object making. Put everything on the altar and let it go.

 

Curious? Come join us.

 

Altar of Kinship – Mourning Ritual
Saturday, June 8 | 3:30–5:30 PM

Church in Ocean Park, 235 Hill Street, Santa Monica, CA

 

Please make sure to RSVP here → ey@elizabethyochim.com

 

Suggested donation: $30 / per event. You can pay at the door or Venmo @Elizabethyochim to reserve your participation.

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Photo of the Angelbird by Michele Mattei.

Wings by Motherplucker Feather Company.