Hope and healing for a profoundly fractured world—a pathway home to the brightness, pains, and gifts of being aliveThe bestselling book on grief and loss from psychotherapist Francis Weller: “One of the best books on grief I have ever read. … It helped me turn to and understand my grief in ways I never had before. It has helped me feel alive again.” —Anderson CooperProfoundly moving, beautifully written, The Wild Edge of Sorrow is a balm for the soul and a necessary salve for moving together through difficult times. Grounded in ritual and connection, this book welcomes each grief with care and attention, opening us to the feelings, experiences, and sacred knowledge that connect us to each other and ultimately make us whole.Psychotherapist Francis Weller introduces the 5 gates of grief, helping us come to terms with grief and loss within a culture so fundamentally detached from the needs of the soul.The first gate recognizes that everything we love, we will lose. Here, we meet the pain of losing a loved one; the grief of illness; and the tender invitation to touch the depths of our losses and loves.The second gate helps us uncover the places that have not yet known love: our secret shames, our shadow sids, and the neglected pieces of our soul that need restoration and care.The third gate meets us at the immense sorrows of the world.The fourth gate, what we expected but did not receive, offers wisdom for tending our wholeness after the love, care, and validation we need are withheld.The fifth gate opens to our ancestral grief: the traumas, pains, losses, and unrealized dreams of those who came before us.With grief rituals, reflection prompts, and deep, ageless wisdom, The Wild Edge of Sorrow is a genre-defining invitation to healing and renewal. Weller helps us rediscover wilwhat modernity has made us forget…and reconnects us to our most profound and human yearnings. Less a self-help volume than a blessing, this book is a homecoming for the soul.

The official companion to The Wild Edge of Sorrow—reflection prompts, timely exercises, and rituals of renewal for moving with grief and loss from bestselling author Francis Weller “[The Wild Edge of Sorrow] blew me away. I underlined things on nearly every page." —Anderson Cooper, All There IsInspired by Francis Weller’s revelatory bestseller, The Wild Edge of Sorrow Workbook offers a guided pathway through the sacred depths, unexpected turns, and soul-restoring work of grief.Chapter by chapter, Weller walks readers through writing exercises, embodied practices, guided reflections, and rituals from The Wild Edge of Sorrow. The workbook is designed to be flexible: you can work section by section as you read the book or dip into standalone chapters that resonate with your own specific experiences. Weller invites you to cultivate a conversation with your grief, to understand your pains and losses in new and poignant ways—and he welcomes you into a deepened relationship with the anima mundi, the soul of the world.New exercises include:Orientation: An apprenticeship with sorrowWriting practice: Supporting your grief workReflection prompt: Deepening your kinship with the living earthInvitation: Holding a ritual spaceJournal prompts: The Five Gates of GriefIn a profoundly fractured world, Weller’s gentle and compassionate voice calls us back into ourselves—our griefs, joys, pains, and the ineffable qualities that make us human…and opens us up, once again, to the interdependence and healing connections that make us whole.

We are at a threshold. As we face uncertain futures, the familiar is falling away. This book invites us to embody new ways of being and connecting so we can navigate troubled times togetherFrom the bestselling author of The Wild Edge of Sorrow, a beautifully packaged collection of 17 essays on meeting this moment with clarity, care, and skill Praise for The Wild Edge of Sorrow: "It blew me away. I underlined things on nearly every page." —Anderson CooperIn his singular and inimitable voice, psychotherapist and author of The Wild Edge of Sorrow Francis Weller offers 17 soulful essays to help us move together through the anxieties, difficulties, and sacred transitions of 21st-century life.In the Absence of the Ordinary frames our current era as a rough initiation—an upending experience of profound trauma and transformation that demands we reorient our ways of thinking, being, and relating. Through essays like “Some People Wake Up…,” “The Gift of Restraint,” and “Gratitude for All That Is,” Weller offers clarity and wisdom on how to face the sobering stakes of our time—while offering the nourishment and support we need to embody the new roles this initiation requires.Section 1, “When the Bough Breaks,” names our collective traumas and peels back the false armor of modernity. We’re called to the depths, to understand the power of descent, and to cultivate the necessary skills of initiation.Section 2, “Care of the Soul,” differentiates between the connected soul and the individualistic self, inviting us back into alignment with the wider world of belonging. We learn to approach our experiences with reverence, work with our grief, and develop restraint, repetition, and self-compassion.Section 3, “Meanwhile, the World Goes On,” gives shape to the emptiness we carry and the ways modernity has severed us from our birthright of interconnectedness with the natural world. It offers rituals of gratitude and practices of kinship to restore our bond with the living Earth.In each essay, Weller fortifies us to become immense—to meet these unpredictable times with presence and faith, to restore our souls’ place in the soul of the world, and to hold steady, amid and for it all.

Hope and healing for a profoundly fractured world—a pathway home to the brightness, pains, and gifts of being aliveThe bestselling book on grief and loss from psychotherapist Francis Weller: “One of the best books on grief I have ever read. … It helped me turn to and understand my grief in ways I never had before. It has helped me feel alive again.” —Anderson CooperProfoundly moving, beautifully written, The Wild Edge of Sorrow is a balm for the soul and a necessary salve for moving together through difficult times. Grounded in ritual and connection, this book welcomes each grief with care and attention, opening us to the feelings, experiences, and sacred knowledge that connect us to each other and ultimately make us whole.Psychotherapist Francis Weller introduces the 5 gates of grief, helping us come to terms with grief and loss within a culture so fundamentally detached from the needs of the soul.The first gate recognizes that everything we love, we will lose. Here, we meet the pain of losing a loved one; the grief of illness; and the tender invitation to touch the depths of our losses and loves.The second gate helps us uncover the places that have not yet known love: our secret shames, our shadow sids, and the neglected pieces of our soul that need restoration and care.The third gate meets us at the immense sorrows of the world.The fourth gate, what we expected but did not receive, offers wisdom for tending our wholeness after the love, care, and validation we need are withheld.The fifth gate opens to our ancestral grief: the traumas, pains, losses, and unrealized dreams of those who came before us.With grief rituals, reflection prompts, and deep, ageless wisdom, The Wild Edge of Sorrow is a genre-defining invitation to healing and renewal. Weller helps us rediscover wilwhat modernity has made us forget…and reconnects us to our most profound and human yearnings. Less a self-help volume than a blessing, this book is a homecoming for the soul.

Noted psychotherapist Francis Weller provides an essential guide for navigating the deep waters of sorrow and loss in this lyrical yet practical handbook for mastering the art of grieving. Describing how Western patterns of amnesia and anesthesia affect our capacity to cope with personal and collective sorrows, Weller reveals the new vitality we may encounter when we welcome, rather than fear, the pain of loss. Through moving personal stories, poetry, and insightful reflections he leads us into the central energy of sorrow, and to the profound healing and heightened communion with each other and our planet that reside alongside it.The Wild Edge of Sorrow explains that grief has always been communal and illustrates how we need the healing touch of others, an atmosphere of compassion, and the comfort of ritual in order to fully metabolize our grief. Weller describes how we often hide our pain from the world, wrapping it in a secret mantle of shame. This causes sorrow to linger unexpressed in our bodies, weighing us down and pulling us into the territory of depression and death. We have come to fear grief and feel too alone to face an encounter with the powerful energies of sorrow. Those who work with people in grief, who have experienced the loss of a loved one, who mourn the ongoing destruction of our planet, or who suffer the accumulated traumas of a lifetime will appreciate the discussion of obstacles to successful grief work such as privatized pain, lack of communal rituals, a pervasive feeling of fear, and a culturally restrictive range of emotion. Weller highlights the intimate bond between grief and gratitude, sorrow and intimacy. In addition to showing us that the greatest gifts are often hidden in the things we avoid, he offers powerful tools and rituals and a list of resources to help us transform grief into a force that allows us to live and love more fully.

Hope and healing for a profoundly fractured world—a pathway home to the brightness, pains, and gifts of being aliveThe bestselling book on grief and loss from psychotherapist Francis Weller: “One of the best books on grief I have ever read. … It helped me turn to and understand my grief in ways I never had before. It has helped me feel alive again.” —Anderson CooperProfoundly moving, beautifully written, The Wild Edge of Sorrow is a balm for the soul and a necessary salve for moving together through difficult times. Grounded in ritual and connection, this book welcomes each grief with care and attention, opening us to the feelings, experiences, and sacred knowledge that connect us to each other and ultimately make us whole.Psychotherapist Francis Weller introduces the 5 gates of grief, helping us come to terms with grief and loss within a culture so fundamentally detached from the needs of the soul.The first gate recognizes that everything we love, we will lose. Here, we meet the pain of losing a loved one; the grief of illness; and the tender invitation to touch the depths of our losses and loves.The second gate helps us uncover the places that have not yet known love: our secret shames, our shadow sids, and the neglected pieces of our soul that need restoration and care.The third gate meets us at the immense sorrows of the world.The fourth gate, what we expected but did not receive, offers wisdom for tending our wholeness after the love, care, and validation we need are withheld.The fifth gate opens to our ancestral grief: the traumas, pains, losses, and unrealized dreams of those who came before us.With grief rituals, reflection prompts, and deep, ageless wisdom, The Wild Edge of Sorrow is a genre-defining invitation to healing and renewal. Weller helps us rediscover wilwhat modernity has made us forget…and reconnects us to our most profound and human yearnings. Less a self-help volume than a blessing, this book is a homecoming for the soul.

The official companion to The Wild Edge of Sorrow—reflection prompts, timely exercises, and rituals of renewal for moving with grief and loss from bestselling author Francis Weller “[The Wild Edge of Sorrow] blew me away. I underlined things on nearly every page." —Anderson Cooper, All There IsInspired by Francis Weller’s revelatory bestseller, The Wild Edge of Sorrow Workbook offers a guided pathway through the sacred depths, unexpected turns, and soul-restoring work of grief.Chapter by chapter, Weller walks readers through writing exercises, embodied practices, guided reflections, and rituals from The Wild Edge of Sorrow. The workbook is designed to be flexible: you can work section by section as you read the book or dip into standalone chapters that resonate with your own specific experiences. Weller invites you to cultivate a conversation with your grief, to understand your pains and losses in new and poignant ways—and he welcomes you into a deepened relationship with the anima mundi, the soul of the world.New exercises include:Orientation: An apprenticeship with sorrowWriting practice: Supporting your grief workReflection prompt: Deepening your kinship with the living earthInvitation: Holding a ritual spaceJournal prompts: The Five Gates of GriefIn a profoundly fractured world, Weller’s gentle and compassionate voice calls us back into ourselves—our griefs, joys, pains, and the ineffable qualities that make us human…and opens us up, once again, to the interdependence and healing connections that make us whole.

We are at a threshold. As we face uncertain futures, the familiar is falling away. This book invites us to embody new ways of being and connecting so we can navigate troubled times togetherFrom the bestselling author of The Wild Edge of Sorrow, a beautifully packaged collection of 17 essays on meeting this moment with clarity, care, and skill Praise for The Wild Edge of Sorrow: "It blew me away. I underlined things on nearly every page." —Anderson CooperIn his singular and inimitable voice, psychotherapist and author of The Wild Edge of Sorrow Francis Weller offers 17 soulful essays to help us move together through the anxieties, difficulties, and sacred transitions of 21st-century life.In the Absence of the Ordinary frames our current era as a rough initiation—an upending experience of profound trauma and transformation that demands we reorient our ways of thinking, being, and relating. Through essays like “Some People Wake Up…,” “The Gift of Restraint,” and “Gratitude for All That Is,” Weller offers clarity and wisdom on how to face the sobering stakes of our time—while offering the nourishment and support we need to embody the new roles this initiation requires.Section 1, “When the Bough Breaks,” names our collective traumas and peels back the false armor of modernity. We’re called to the depths, to understand the power of descent, and to cultivate the necessary skills of initiation.Section 2, “Care of the Soul,” differentiates between the connected soul and the individualistic self, inviting us back into alignment with the wider world of belonging. We learn to approach our experiences with reverence, work with our grief, and develop restraint, repetition, and self-compassion.Section 3, “Meanwhile, the World Goes On,” gives shape to the emptiness we carry and the ways modernity has severed us from our birthright of interconnectedness with the natural world. It offers rituals of gratitude and practices of kinship to restore our bond with the living Earth.In each essay, Weller fortifies us to become immense—to meet these unpredictable times with presence and faith, to restore our souls’ place in the soul of the world, and to hold steady, amid and for it all.

Hope and healing for a profoundly fractured world—a pathway home to the brightness, pains, and gifts of being aliveThe bestselling book on grief and loss from psychotherapist Francis Weller: “One of the best books on grief I have ever read. … It helped me turn to and understand my grief in ways I never had before. It has helped me feel alive again.” —Anderson CooperProfoundly moving, beautifully written, The Wild Edge of Sorrow is a balm for the soul and a necessary salve for moving together through difficult times. Grounded in ritual and connection, this book welcomes each grief with care and attention, opening us to the feelings, experiences, and sacred knowledge that connect us to each other and ultimately make us whole.Psychotherapist Francis Weller introduces the 5 gates of grief, helping us come to terms with grief and loss within a culture so fundamentally detached from the needs of the soul.The first gate recognizes that everything we love, we will lose. Here, we meet the pain of losing a loved one; the grief of illness; and the tender invitation to touch the depths of our losses and loves.The second gate helps us uncover the places that have not yet known love: our secret shames, our shadow sids, and the neglected pieces of our soul that need restoration and care.The third gate meets us at the immense sorrows of the world.The fourth gate, what we expected but did not receive, offers wisdom for tending our wholeness after the love, care, and validation we need are withheld.The fifth gate opens to our ancestral grief: the traumas, pains, losses, and unrealized dreams of those who came before us.With grief rituals, reflection prompts, and deep, ageless wisdom, The Wild Edge of Sorrow is a genre-defining invitation to healing and renewal. Weller helps us rediscover wilwhat modernity has made us forget…and reconnects us to our most profound and human yearnings. Less a self-help volume than a blessing, this book is a homecoming for the soul.

Noted psychotherapist Francis Weller provides an essential guide for navigating the deep waters of sorrow and loss in this lyrical yet practical handbook for mastering the art of grieving. Describing how Western patterns of amnesia and anesthesia affect our capacity to cope with personal and collective sorrows, Weller reveals the new vitality we may encounter when we welcome, rather than fear, the pain of loss. Through moving personal stories, poetry, and insightful reflections he leads us into the central energy of sorrow, and to the profound healing and heightened communion with each other and our planet that reside alongside it.The Wild Edge of Sorrow explains that grief has always been communal and illustrates how we need the healing touch of others, an atmosphere of compassion, and the comfort of ritual in order to fully metabolize our grief. Weller describes how we often hide our pain from the world, wrapping it in a secret mantle of shame. This causes sorrow to linger unexpressed in our bodies, weighing us down and pulling us into the territory of depression and death. We have come to fear grief and feel too alone to face an encounter with the powerful energies of sorrow. Those who work with people in grief, who have experienced the loss of a loved one, who mourn the ongoing destruction of our planet, or who suffer the accumulated traumas of a lifetime will appreciate the discussion of obstacles to successful grief work such as privatized pain, lack of communal rituals, a pervasive feeling of fear, and a culturally restrictive range of emotion. Weller highlights the intimate bond between grief and gratitude, sorrow and intimacy. In addition to showing us that the greatest gifts are often hidden in the things we avoid, he offers powerful tools and rituals and a list of resources to help us transform grief into a force that allows us to live and love more fully.