Sacredness of Grief
- Moira Scullion
- Feb 18
- 4 min read
plus - a new retreat offering in May 2026
The Sacredness of Grief
If you have ever loved anyone or anything in this world, you are not exempt from sorrow.
Grief is not a mistake. It is not a weakness. It is the echo of love.
Over the past year, I’ve been deepening my understanding of grief through the work of Francis Weller and his book The Wild Edge of Sorrow. His teachings have helped me recognize grief not as something to fix or move past, but as something sacred — a living field that asks for our attention.
The tapestry of grief has lived in my body for as long as I can remember. But choosing to enter it consciously — willingly — has shifted me in ways I couldn’t have imagined.
I was adopted at birth. My nervous system entered the world through shock and separation. Some say babies are adaptive. And we are. But there are expectations written into the body that are older than thought. We expect warmth. We expect heartbeat. We expect the familiar rhythm that carried us from the unseen into form.
When that rhythm is interrupted, something in us registers it.
I remember feeling sadness as early as third grade. A heaviness I couldn’t name. I didn’t know it was grief. I only knew it felt lonely.
Maybe you know that feeling — the weight in the chest, the quiet ache that comes and goes. Maybe you’ve called it depression. Maybe you’ve just called it “something’s wrong with me.”
Over the years I experienced many losses, but I didn’t connect them to the feelings inside me. Not until my father died when I was twenty-four. On the outside, I functioned. On the inside, I was unraveling.
It wasn’t until I stepped into a spiritual apprenticeship — a community that made space for ceremony and truth — that the grief I had been carrying began to surface. In the presence of others, held and witnessed, I could no longer suppress what my body had been storing.
More recently, through divorce and through deep engagement with grief work, I gave myself permission to enter what I now call holy ground. When you step into the ocean of grief, it is rarely just about the current loss. Grief is magnetic. It draws forward everything that has not yet been mourned.
This can feel overwhelming. If you are alone, unsupported, it can feel like drowning.
That is why support matters.
Community. Friendship. A skilled therapist. Spiritual connection. A sense of belonging — not just socially, but at a soul level.
These have been my buoys.
When I’ve felt submerged, I have leaned into the relationships that remind me I am part of something larger than my pain. Sometimes that has meant calling a friend. Sometimes it has meant sitting quietly and reaching toward my ancestors — even without knowing their names — or toward guides in the unseen. Belonging is not always visible, but it can be felt.
And slowly, something inside me has shifted.
Grief has not disappeared. But it has become less frightening. It has become a teacher. A doorway into worthiness. A reminder that I am capable of loving deeply — and that love always carries risk.
So I invite you to look gently within.
Are there parts of you that have loved and lost but never been given space to mourn?
Does grief feel overwhelming? Or does it feel numb and far away?
Do you experience yourself as belonging in this world — or as standing just outside of it?
We live in tender times. Many of us are more awake, more aware, and therefore more sensitive than ever before. Unprocessed grief can make us feel isolated, guarded, or separate from life.
But when we allow grief to move — in safe, supported spaces — it reconnects us. To ourselves. To one another. To something greater.
This is the heart of the retreat I’ll be offering — a space to gently explore loss, abandonment, belonging, and worthiness. Not to force catharsis. Not to drown in sorrow. But to enter the waters together, with support, with steadiness, and with respect for the intelligence of the body and soul.
Grief is sacred because it reminds us that we love.
And to love — even after loss — is an act of courage.
Excited to share a new retreat!
ABANDONMENT AND LOSS
Moving through grief, worthiness and belonging
May 29-31 in LaGrange, IL
When we face loss in isolation, it can be overwhelming, causing us to shut down and turn away, leaving a lingering shadow of patterns of avoidance. However, when we gather with others, we find the strength to navigate through our shadows and heal our wounds. Join us as we nurture the scars of losing what we once cherished, the parts of ourselves untouched by love, and the expectations that went unmet. Together, let's foster a thriving community that grows in support of one another.
Co-Facilitating with Elias Patras
May your healing be mine and my healing be yours.
where I'll be posted tidbits on energy and spirituality.
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