Lamentation: A Breakthrough
The wilderness of the past week, which led to the recent writings, precipitated my Return. Of course it did, although for me when I am in that bleak and barren place I always fear I will die there, either it will kill me or I shall give up and let go once and for all. "This too shall pass" and thank goodness it has. I don't know if I give much credence to the 12.12.24 numerology of the week but it does feel like a great deal of clarity is emerging from the chaos.
One of the things that has been with me and on me recently is the 3-legged stool of my work in the world. I am director and facilitator for Sacred Circle Training Co CIC and in addition to running our radical Death Doula courses we have also launched some shorter courses for the new year and a brilliant, groundbreaking Community Death Educators programme for the summer. I am also in talks with Sweden and Aotearoa (NZ) about bringing the courses there. (www.journeywithdeath.com)
Being said director and facilitator is definitely the most time consuming, labour intensive aspect of my Work; I am also one of 3 founding members of a Co-operative, a Community Benefit Society for Earth Hospice / Hafan Ddaear which I will be sending a lot of information out about in the coming week as we ready ourselves once and for all to launch our Community Share Offer to raise the funds to purchase a very special building and land of spiritual and cultural significance on Ynys Mon, Anglesey, to be the first (of many) Earth Hospices.
The third leg of the stool is my personal work in this world, me, the Oak Tree that is AG Derwen, author, speaker, facilitator, explainer of things, eccentric, visionary etc Goodness knows how best to describe myself! Well... at the end of this bleak week of internal wilderness wondering I am significantly clearer. I have tentatively stuck my head over this parapet before so it's not a completely new revelation, it's just that I am coming ever more clear, ever more sure this is what I should lead with.
And that is "Lament Teacher". There are very few of us around. I know of many people, and ever more people year on year, who identify themselves as "lamenters" or something similar. Folks who by their organic process find themselves wailing and draw great comfort from the catharsis. There are also many "lament leaders" around, I know of at least 10 globally - people who stand up and encourage others to lament with them, who use their own lament as leadership, who instigate and facilitate lament.
But I only know of a small handful of us in this world that have not just the skills but the theory, the knowledge of the anatomy of lament, the layers, the multiple applications, the different expressions as it emerges through different people. The clarity to see lament as a personal, collective and systemic expression. The long lived experience and the capacity to translate that to folks of different levels of experience how to deepen, expand or evolve in their own lament practice.
I will follow this article with an in-depth story of how I came to be in this incredible position. Such a rarity at a time when the World needs lament so much! I will do my best to credit the influences on me, human and more-than-human to give the story of my credentials or lack of credentials - depends on how you see it - so that no one thinks I am claiming something lightly, this is a long and difficult path I have been on.
It has just been for such a long time a luxury to imagine that I could teach lament and lament leadership for a living; all sorts of weird gremlins raise their heads when I start to think about how to charge, how to package, how to fucking market such an ancient and precious thing. This is where this newsletter comes in. It is currently making me £100 a month, which is great thank you, if only it could make me £3000 a month and cover all my outgoings? Then I wouldn't need to be too particular about how the monies came to me for being a lamenter in this world. I could just be free to follow my calling.
What I have been waiting for is the resources that free me so I can teach lament; what I have realised is that the resources will come WHEN I teach lament. It feels wearisome on the one hand, more teaching, more content writing, more more more but actually, No, not more... focussed, clear, pointed and willing. With that I sense the Flow will come. I think I shall put together a short book of theory that I can share and even sell, but I will do it through these articles on this website. So you can follow here, if you don't yet subscribe for £5 per month, please DO... let's get it up to 600 monthly subscribers giving me that £3000 per month!
May what started as a blog about Peace Building, be that very thing. Lament is the cornerstone of truth, reconciliation, reparation and atonement. Without it, there can be no emotional healing. So... another iteration in this Process! Thank you for reading, please encourage others to do so too.
Alexandra