Francis Weller: Our Apprenticeship with Sorrow

Sounds True: Insights at the Edge

Tami Simon

Religion, Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 25 February 2025

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Right now, we may be surrounded by grief, anxiety, fear, and uncertainty. But we don’t have to drown in our sorrows or deny the painful realities of these trying times. In this podcast, join Tami Simon in dialogue with psychotherapist, bestselling author, and “soul activist” Francis Weller to explore a new and empowering approach to grief—one that is essential for both our personal well-being and our capacity to be of service to others.

Listen now to a much-needed conversation about the attitudes and skills involved in “an apprenticeship with grief,” including: how grief softens and opens the heart; metabolizing grief, and the choice to engage instead of endure; how to “offer a bottom” to your grief to mitigate feelings of anxiety or panic; the energy of melancholy; relinquishing our culture’s heroic ideal; containment and release—the two requirements of grief; navigating “the long dark” of our times; getting into “village mind” and embracing a communal approach to grief; breaking the pattern of denial; how grief work brings you more fully into the present moment; waking up from “the amnesia and the anesthesia”; being an adult in your relationship to grief; simple rituals you can explore to engage grief with deeper intention and meaning; attuning to the rhythm of “the archaic psyche”; our soul responsibility—to register the losses of the world; ancestral grief; patience; the elements of soulful living; the invocation of courage and faith; and more.

Note: This episode originally aired on Sounds True One, where these special episodes of Insights at the Edge are available to watch live on video and with exclusive access to Q&As with our guests. Learn more at join.soundstrue.com.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, friends. My name's Tammy Simon and I'm the founder of Sounds True, and I want to welcome you to the Sounds True podcast, Insights at the Edge. I also want to take a moment to introduce you to Sounds True's new membership community and digital platform. It's called Sounds True One.
0:20.6	Sounds True One features original, premium, transformational
0:24.7	docu series, community events, classes to start your day and relax in the evening, special
0:32.6	weekly live shows, including a video version of Insights at the Edge with an after-show community
0:40.8	question-and-answer session with featured guests. I hope you'll come join us, explore,
0:47.5	come have fun with us, and connect with others. You can learn more at join.soundstrue.com.
0:54.5	I also want to take a moment and introduce you to the Sounds True Foundation, our nonprofit, that creates equitable access to transformational tools and teachings.
1:07.3	You can learn more at SoundsTrueFoundation.org.
1:11.2	And in advance, thank you for your support.
1:15.1	In this episode of Insights at the Edge, my guest is Francis Weller.
1:20.5	Francis is a psychotherapist, a writer, and a soul activist.
1:26.3	His 2015 book, The Wild Edge of Sorrow,
1:30.3	is a book that I would call an underground classic,
1:35.3	a book that people talk to each other about.
1:39.3	In it, he invites us into what he calls an apprenticeship with sorrow. We're invited to meet grief in its many
1:52.4	different forms. Francis has introduced thousands of people to grief rituals and their healing power. And he also trains people in how to hold
2:08.2	space for such rituals. He's writing a new book. It's called In the Absence of the Ordinary
2:16.8	Soul Work for Times of Crisis.
2:21.0	And I have a great deal of enthusiasm and heart for this conversation.
2:28.0	Francis, welcome.
2:30.3	Thank you, Tammy.
2:31.6	It's such a pleasure to be here with you after knowing about you and listening to you for many years. It's an honor to be sitting with you today.
	...

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