III
You are walking single file, a line of mourners drawn across the landscape, moving north.
The spirit leads the way, coiling the length of golden thread around its waist as it walks, the hummingbird still in hand. The journey has been long, but you are aware that even this weariness is a sacred offering from life, your breath hushed and sweet in the damp air. Each part of the forest observes the procession; the trees bowing their branches with the weight of loss, and flowers dipping their heads in thanks for pollination.
This, you realise, is part of the hummingbird’s final great migration - carried now by the forest that it had once flown so far to reach.
SONG: CYCLES
This song is me trying to see the cycle of life as an unbroken circle.
Dissolving the idea that death is the opposite of life.
It’s about transition of forms, and letting go of the attachment to my brother being in the human shape I am used to. He becomes a bird, seeds… and finally, formlessness.
I wrote this in New York, a few days after my grandfather also passed on. He got sick suddenly and passed quickly - just three months after my brother. I was on the other side of the world, in total shock.
There is a single remaining member of the patriarchal line in my family now - my father, who has terminal lung cancer. Embedded somewhere in this song is the passing of the mantle to me now... to water new seeds and tend the garden more gently than it has been tended in the past.
LYRICS & SKETCHES: CYCLES
The ‘Cycles’ title track that nearly was…
This arrangement has an almost Celtic feel to it, which happened without discussion & felt perfect…
My surname is ‘O’Rourke’ (Irish), and this song speaks about the patriarchal lineage of my family ending with my brother.
The cover art for the Cycles EP, shot by Tim Kent (Stackhat)
RITUAL: A GRIEF OFFERING
This Ritual is a little different… it is an offering from me to you. To your loved ones, your ancestors, your heart…
Nature is our greatest ally in healing. Trees are an unending source of wisdom - with their roots in the underworld, their bodies on our plane, and their branches in the upper realms. Their capacity for holding, teaching and healing us is immense.
INTENTION:
Through this ritual, I will work with the trees as an ally, to honour and transmute collective grief, and call on them to assist us in healing.
I invite you to send me something you would like honoured or transformed, and allow me to take it in to ritual for you; to the trees in the sacred rainforests of Gumbaynggir land. Some of the trees here on this country are 600+ years old, and the wisdom and love they hold is incredible.
WHAT TO SHARE?
It could be a note or piece of writing about grief, or something you’ve lost, or about a loved one… it could be a photograph of someone or something that reminds you of them, or a picture of a place you held dear & are now missing… anything you want honoured in a grief ritual.
I will collect your offerings (in the form of photos & writing), and move in procession through the forest; weaving a thread with your offerings around the body of an ancient tree in a prayer of honouring and deep listening.
Use this form to send your writing, or upload images. You can also reply to my email if you prefer.
CONNECT
Share some writing, reflections, and your contributions for the Grief Offering with me via email (or the form above)… or, connect with the community at the Dream Army Discord HERE. There are some beautiful conversations & kindred spirits waiting for you there.
It’s still not too late to share your Rituals from Parts One & Two, and I would love to see/read them!
Need a primer on Discord? I get it - I was confused at first, too! Click HERE for a simple rundown.
INTERMISSION
In the creating of this forest funeral experience, many times I questioned myself.
“Will anyone really engage with this? It’s about grief. It’s about death. People [referring largely to colonisers & colonised peoples] don’t talk about those things.”
And you know what? I’m right. There is a severe lack of ritual, reverence and openness around death, and grief of all kinds in modern capitalist culture. Ironically, I think it’s killing us.
If we don’t talk about this now… when? Do we wait until we experience a heart-shattering loss, to be open to the idea of sitting with grief? Do we wait until we have no choice at all, to be confronted with the reality of our shared mortality?
I don’t think we have to. Nature is teaching us about these things all the time. Did you know even crows have funerals? They cry & mourn, as a community. One crow will call out, and all crows in the area will join the mourning circle - not just ‘relatives’ - everyone.
What if we radically reached out to each other, in our grief? Not just in our grief about death - but in our collective grief. In all grief.
In our grief for the planet, and our grief for imagined futures that may not come to pass. In grief that feels as large as the universe, and in grief that we know is fleeting and small.
This is what I want for you, for us. To reclaim community, to free ourselves from the systems that mandate we become as emotionless as possible, as disconnected as possible, to serve some great wheel of capital.
Radical softness is power. Let’s open ourselves to it.
