Wild Edge of Sorrow : Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief

Hope and healing for a profoundly fractured world—a pathway home to the brightness, pains, and gifts of being alive

The bestselling book on grief and loss from psychotherapist Francis Weller: “One of the best books on grief I have ever read. … It helped me turn to and understand my grief in ways I never had before. It has helped me feel alive again.” —Anderson Cooper

Profoundly moving, beautifully written, The Wild Edge of Sorrow is a balm for the soul and a necessary salve for moving together through difficult times. Grounded in ritual and connection, this book welcomes each grief with care and attention, opening us to the feelings, experiences, and sacred knowledge that connect us to each other and ultimately make us whole.

Psychotherapist Francis Weller introduces the 5 gates of grief, helping us come to terms with grief and loss within a culture so fundamentally detached from the needs of the soul.

• The first gate recognizes that everything we love, we will lose. Here, we meet the pain of losing a loved one; the grief of illness; and the tender invitation to touch the depths of our losses and loves.
• The second gate helps us uncover the places that have not yet known love: our secret shames, our shadow sids, and the neglected pieces of our soul that need restoration and care.
• The third gate meets us at the immense sorrows of the world.
• The fourth gate, what we expected but did not receive, offers wisdom for tending our wholeness after the love, care, and validation we need are withheld.
• The fifth gate opens to our ancestral grief: the traumas, pains, losses, and unrealized dreams of those who came before us.
  
  

With grief rituals, reflection prompts, and deep, ageless wisdom, The Wild Edge of Sorrow is a genre-defining invitation to healing and renewal. Weller helps us rediscover wilwhat modernity has made us forget…and reconnects us to our most profound and human yearnings. Less a self-help volume than a blessing, this book is a homecoming for the soul.

FRANCIS WELLER, MFT, is a psychotherapist, writer, and soul activist. A master of synthesizing diverse streams of thought from psychology, anthropology, mythology, alchemy, indigenous cultures, and poetic traditions, he has introduced the healing work of ritual to thousands of people. The core of his work is creating pathways to reclaiming our indigenous soul, what psychologist Carl Jung called the "unforgotten wisdom" that resides in the heart of the psyche. To further his work, he founded and currently directs WisdomBridge, an organization offering educational programs that seek to integrate the wisdom from traditional cultures with the insights and knowledge gathered from western cultures.