Fall Grief Ritual Series

Three consecutive offerings for metabolizing the sorrows of the world in sacred, communal, earth-based ritual.

As the days darken and the leaves fall, we invite you to gather and release that which you can no longer carry alone. The breadth of suffering in the modern world is too much for our sweet, dream-filled psyches to hold.

We are facing an unprecedented loss of insects, birds, cultures and languages at a pace that is wildly out of balance with the scarcity of soul-based practices in our day-to-day lives. Your heartbreak and outrage are holy. Yet, we become sick and hardened from carrying these feelings alone.

This grief ritual series is an antidote to privatized suffering. Come, let's heal and strengthen our capacity to love this world together. "Ritual is a form of a continuous prayer." - Sobonfu Some, Dagaran Grief Teacher

What to expect:

• An intentional arc over three weeks:

• Week 1: Preparation and Connection

• Week 2: Grief Ritual

• Week 3: Integration and Praise Ritual Community agreements for Safety and Clarity

• Times: 10/18/26 @ 5:30-7:30pm, 10/25/26 @ 5:30-8:30pm, 11/8/26 @ 5:30-7:30pm

• Multiple ways to participate No advice giving nor “fixing” others’ grief Confidentiality

• Various formats of activity: Individual, small group, and whole group activities Drumming, singing, free-writing, and poetry Earth-based ritual from Joanna Macy’s The Work that Reconnects

  Who this is for:

  We welcome all people. However, if you have experienced an acute traumatic loss in the last six months, we do not recommend this particular offering. Feel free to contact the organizers if you have questions about this.
  

Meet JoJo

JoJo Phoenix (they/them) is a prayerful and playful human living a life centered on connection, peace, and courage. They are a grief ritualist, the founder of Ground Swell dance, and a somatic intimacy coach within their business, Touch and Change. After decades of living in fear and experiencing five acute years of chronic, unexpected loss, JoJo Phoenix began engaging in weekly grief rituals. In the spring of 2024, spirit led them through a 90 day nature-based grief ritual. This experience fortified their faith in life, themself, and in the healing that’s possible when we grieve within a ritualized container.

Since then, JoJo Phoenix completed Entering Healing Ground: a five month grief tending training and has facilitated public grief rituals for the Missoula community and Montana Pride Camp while offering private grief rituals to individual clients. JoJo Phoenix has trained 800 people in trauma-informed facilitation. Their lens on grief and their facilitation ethos are shaped by over a decade working closely with incarcerated people through their community organizing and employment at Yoga Behind Bars, The Post-Prison Education Project, and The Bail Project.

To connect with JoJo www.touchandchange.me

Meet Niki

Niki/Nik Leffingwell is a queer storyteller, life-long melancholic soul steeper, and mom of three who grew up on the shore of Lake Michigan and made Missoula home in 2016. In her 15 years as a nurse, she has worked in settings varying from large city hospitals to the homes of families grieving the death of a child.

Feeling overwhelmed with the inadequacy of the medical system and their own unyielding dark night of the soul, Niki attended their first women’s circle and grief ritual in 2017. The land-based rituals they participated in were overseen by their mentor and teacher Yasmin Suarez Shaddox (Soulskin Journeys) and are influenced by Celctic mythology and ecological/initiatory practices from the Animas Institute and School of Lost Borders.

That experience sprouted a living, animate journey with grief, which is ongoing and includes drumming, trees, and lots of snot. Nik first assisted in a multi-day Soulskin retreat in 2023 and this past August, they had the privilege of co-facilitating their first grief ritual with their co-lifer JoJo Phoenix. In addition, Nik continues to work and apprentice with Yasmin in bringing the living being that is Soulskin to this emerging soul-centered world. We have faith in the night.

Registration for this event is $150 for all 3 events, or $50 per each event.

Pre-registration is strongly encouraged to help ensure this event can move forward as planned.

Tickets are non-refundable. However you may graciously send someone else in your spot if something should come up.  

Thank you for helping us create well-supported, successful events.