Francis Weller: Our Apprenticeship with Sorrow

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February 25, 2025

Francis Weller: Our Apprenticeship with Sorrow

Francis Weller February 25, 2025

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.

Francis Weller, MFT, is a psychotherapist, writer and soul activist. He is a master of synthesizing diverse streams of thought from psychology, anthropology, mythology, alchemy, indigenous cultures and poetic traditions. Author of The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief; The Threshold Between Loss and Revelation, (with Rashani Réa) and In the Absence of the Ordinary: Essays in a Time of Uncertainty, he has introduced the healing work of ritual to thousands of people. He founded and directs WisdomBridge, an organization that offers educational programs that seek to integrate the wisdom from indigenous cultures with the insights and knowledge gathered from western poetic, psychological, and spiritual traditions.

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Francis Weller: Our Apprenticeship with Sorrow

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.

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