Eileen Elizabeth on Grief, Nature, and the Rituals We Need

Death and decay are among the most natural processes that exist. And yet, we often approach them with fear rather than recognizing them as part of the natural world.

In her new book, Carrying the Bones: Rituals for a Dying World, writer, multimedia artist, and professor Eileen Elizabeth explores the ways we mourn, not only for the people we’ve lost, but for relationships, places, ecosystems, traditions, and even the world as we know it. This beautiful book weaves together memoir, cultural analysis, poetry, and reflections on ritual and asks what we might gain if we allowed ourselves to sit more fully with death and grief rather than rushing to move forward.

In this episode, Monica and Eileen talk about the role nature has played in mourning throughout history, the ways American culture and capitalism shape our relationship to death, and what it means to grieve not only those who have died, but those who are still living and the world itself. They also talk about creating personal rituals and whether grief can become not just an experience of loss, but a way of reconnecting with the natural world, with one another, and with what we still have to carry forward.

Show Notes

• Carrying the Bones: Rituals for a Dying World by Eileen Elizabeth
• Eileen Elizabeth on Instagram 
• Boshemia Magazine
• Biophilic Solutions on Substack 

Keywords: grief, mourning, death, death rituals, mourning rituals, ecological grief, climate grief, environmental grief, nature connection, environmental crisis, ritual, spirituality, secular spirituality, Indigenous traditions, capitalism, grief and capitalism, wilderness,Carrying the Bones, Eileen Elizabeth

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