This week, we are featuring one of our favorite past episodes — a tender, intimate, and deeply grounding conversation with the psychotherapist and soul-activist Francis Weller. 

We recorded this conversation almost a year ago, however, it’s feeling very alive and timely to us now. Francis’ transmissive presence and his “soul obligation to register the rips and tears of the world” — remains powerful medicine. He and Terry first turn to one another in the initiatory power of the pandemic (which was front of mind at the time). Then, as they intimately share their own griefs about our civilizational crises, they arrive in a fierceness and grit to protect all they love, as well their gratitude for the depth and grandeur of this precious life.

Francis Weller has worked for thirty-five years as a practitioner of soul-centered psychotherapy. He has synthesized insights from psychology, anthropology, mythology, alchemy, indigenous cultures and the poetic imagination in healing rituals and guidance for groups and individuals working with shame, judgment, and grief. He is the author of The Wild Edge of Sorrow and The Threshold Between Loss and Revelation and he is currently completing his third book, A Trail on the Ground: The Geography of Soul. 

A few of the questions they explore in the episode are:

• In what ways does our culture tend to react to loss with “amnesia and anesthesia?”
• Can we embrace our sorrow as a core faculty of being human — not just an emotion — so it deepens our depths and expands our capacities for joy and gratitude?
• How can grieving break through an inner barrier, and open access to the deep life of our soul?

For more information on Francis Weller or Terry Patten, check out the following resources:

• Francis Weller's Website: https://www.francisweller.net/
• Francis' books, The Wild Edge of Sorrow and The Threshold Between Loss and Revelation, and In the Absence of the Ordinary: https://www.francisweller.net/books.html
• Terry Patten's website: https://www.terrypatten.com/

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To explore the work we are doing, visit:

• A New Republic of the Heart website: http://newrepublicoftheheart.org/
• State of Emergence podcast website: http://stateofemergence.org/