Megan Eberhardt

We are living in never-before-seen times. We are connected to more people, places, and information than humans ever have been and yet are experiencing unprecedented levels of disconnection, isolation, and loneliness. And no matter what we do the news finds us- inserting into our psyche images and stories of tragedy, destruction, greed, and hate. All while we carry our own personal losses of loved ones, relationships, identities, dreams of how our life would unfold, and so much more. Many of us feel lost or empty at times and a grief we can't quite explain. How do we make sense of all of this? How do we navigate life in these wild times? How do we keep our heart alive amidst the madness?

On top of all there is to feel, this modern productivity culture we find ourselves in has no room for our grief. And so our grief has been pushed into the shadow realms, into the margins of society. We have been taught that grief is to be felt alone if you can even feel it at all. Perhaps we got the memo early on from our caregivers that our grief made us unworthy of love and we should feel shame about it. But we humans are a communal species and we were never meant to grieve alone. And up until fairly recently we never did! Communal grief tending has been practiced in various forms by land-based peoples around the globe for thousands and thousands of years. 

We are coming to understand our culture has been wrong about grief. That it needs to be shared. And that we need each other to help care for it. Community Grief Ritual is one powerful step towards each other. It's one powerful step towards our aliveness, our joy. Because to suppress any feeling is to suppress all feeling!! To welcome our grief is to welcome our joy, aliveness, and the full range of human expression. Francis Weller, a well-known grief ritual facilitator, author, and therapist, says we go to grief ritual to make our hearts more spacious, more capable of falling in love with the world. Come, let us fall more in love with the world together.

In this Community Grief Ritual we will sit in circle, we will sing, we will listen deeply and share with each other using the practices of council, and have the opportunity to visit the grief altar and honor our grief in a ceremonial setting. We will move through our time with care towards trust and connection with ourselves, each other, and the more than human world. While we ask that in choosing to attend that you intend to participate fully, we also have so much grace for the not knowing of how it will feel to sit in such a circle and what will arise in us asking for our presence. You will have sovereignty to pass on an opportunity to share and to hold silence rather than speak.

This time is calling for radical acts of re-imagining, re-membering, and re-invigorating our relationship to ourselves, our emotional landscape, our family and community, our ancestors, and the greater web of life that we are a part of. 

Come grieve with us. The circle is already forming. 

In-Person Retreat Schedule:

Arrive between 1 and 2pm Friday November 13th

Begin @ 2pm Friday November 13th. No late arrivals accepted.

End by 1pm Sunday November 15th. Lunch provided before leaving.

Location:

We will be gathering at the beautiful Siena Retreat Center in Racine, Wisconsin on the shore of Lake Michigan about 90 minutes from Chicago. There is private lake access and walking trails.

Lodging:

All participants will have their own bedroom including their own bathroom. All rooms are ADA accessible by elevator. There are communal gathering spaces available throughout the weekend; however, on the guest room floors silence is observed. There is no reduced pricing for shared rooms.

Meals:

Your registration includes 6 meals starting at Friday dinner and ending with Sunday lunch. All food will be gluten-free and vegetarian and much of it sourced from local farmers markets. Lunches and dinners are catered by a local chef and breakfasts will be simple with options of toast (gluten and gluten free), instant oats, fruit, yogurt, and boiled eggs. Coffee, tea, and filtered water available all weekend. Participants will have access to a fridge throughout the weekend and a toaster and microwave for breakfasts.

Registration:

The event fee is $575 / person. Supporter fee is $650 / person and a limited amount of Early Bird Supported fee is $495 / person until 8/31/26. Please reach out to megan@rootedinthestars for alternative payment schedule or to pay by Zelle or Venmo.

Cancellation policy:

If a request for cancellation is received thirty (30) or more days prior to the start date of a retreat, a refund of the retreat cost minus a $50 administrative fee will be issued. If a cancellation request is received between thirty (30) days and fourteen (14) days prior to the start of a retreat, 50% of the retreat cost will be refunded. If a cancellation request is received less than fourteen (14) days prior to the start of a retreat, none of the retreat cost will be refunded.

Facilitator Bio: 

Megan Eberhardt is a cultural activist and community songleader based out of Chicago, Illinois. She spent a decade of her adult life living in Northern California where she dove deeply into the study of nature connection and cultural regenerative arts. It was there she apprenticed with an astronomer for over 8 years and began teaching the stars, studied with thinker and author Martin Prechtel, and began organizing community song circles and grief rituals. Now returned to her roots here in the Midwest, Megan currently leads singing at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music, facilitates community grief ritual, and teaches the stars under dark skies across the Midwest. At the heart of her work is her devotion to fostering aliveness, belonging, and connection in and among us and with the natural world. Some of her teachers include Martín Prechtel, Orland Bishop, Stargazer Li, Liz Rog, Francis Weller, and Laurence Cole.

Megan's grief ritual story:

"I stumbled upon grief ritual 7 years ago at a 3-day community singing gathering. I walked away from those few hours with Laurence Cole more alive and present than I had ever felt in my life. I knew immediately that I needed to live in a world where the people come together to grieve and that I would do what it takes to make it happen. Within months I attended several more rituals, trainings, and even organized a few grief gatherings for my then community in Northern California. Then came the Pandemic and I returned to my roots and family here in Chicago and soon realized I couldn't find local grief ritual. I heard a calling to begin offering this work. It's now been over two years of offering several grief rituals a year in the Chicago area and beyond. It is my deepest honor to share this powerful technology of community healing."

Support Team:

This event is being supported by a team of wonderful people including Geo Case, Kora Adam, Sheila McAnanly, and Sarah Schroeder-Lebec. They each bring prior experience of community grief rituals, their enormous hearts, and a wealth of life experience which include roles such as licensed therapist, chaplain, facilitator, clinician, healer, mother, and more. Charles Murphy will support on drums. 

Highly recommended reading: The Wild Edge of Sorrow by Francis Weller and The Smell of Rain on Dust by Martín Prechtel.

FAQs:

What kinds of things will we be doing?

We will have opportunities to share and listen in the large group setting and in small groups using the practices of council. We will be teaching simple songs and singing together. We will have time for journaling, connecting in nature, rest, and time to bring our grief to the grief altar in a ceremonial setting. There will be an opportunity to honor ancestors (genetic, chosen, non-human). There will be optional morning practices for early birds.

What kinds of grief are welcome?

Any and all grief is welcome in the circle. Some examples are loss of loved ones, trauma, family relationships, health crises, the state of the world, politics, ecological losses and destruction, loneliness, ancestral burdens, shame and unworthiness, and harms you have caused.

Who is this for? 

Anyone who read this event description and feels the call to participate. We welcome folks of all gender expressions, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and identity. No prior experience with community grieving needed. We welcome you wherever you are on your grieving journey including feeling totally numb, having never grieved with others, overflowing with grief, etc.

What is the lineage and origin of this Community Grief Ritual?

This form of Grief Ritual comes by way of Laurence Cole and Francis Weller who learned from both Malidoma and Sobonfu Somé, now ancestors originally from Burkina Faso, West Africa. Whom upon arriving in the United States in the late eighties discovered that something needed to be done around our lack of grieving and the cultural illnesses derived from that. Malidoma and Sobonfu created what we now call Grief Ritual specifically for Westerners out of their experience growing up as Dagara people. Most of what we will do in our ritual time is not specifically Dagara: singing, sharing in council, honoring ancestors, having a chance to express our grief in community. These are timeless practices older than civilization. And we would not be here doing this if it wasn't for Sobonfu and Malidoma. Deep ongoing grateful bow to these ancestors, their culture, and lineage. They have each written several amazing books and google can help you can find audios and videos of each of them.

Can I come late? Or sign-up if I know I have to leave early? 

No.

Can I pay by Zelle?

Yes. Email megan@rootedinthestars.

Can the chef accommodate my dietary needs?

Gluten-free and vegetarian will be all that we can accommodate. Much of the food will be sourced from local farmer's markets. If you have specific menu questions you can reach out and we can try to answer them.

From participants of previous Community Grief Rituals:

"Megan’s offering was my first experience with community grief ritual, which is saying a lot considering I have been in the healing profession for almost 20 years as a licensed clinical social worker, and I will return to this group over and over again. For those of us longing to hold others and be held in community, to have spaces that honor and even revere our full humanity, and even those of us who have no idea if we are longing for this because we have yet to experience it, this group is like a warm hug and a sweet lullaby. It is a beautiful reminder of our innate wisdom and capacity for healing. We are not alone." -S.L.