art by shea in the catskills

Humans have lived in profound relationship with the dead—familial kin, animals and places on the land—for time out of mind. It was not only normal, but well-advised, to speak to, make offerings to, and beseech the dead for what we needed and desired for our lives and communities to feel whole and integrated.

For those of us living in the global north, it is only in the last several hundred years that patriarchy and colonialism have violently ruptured this most ancient and fundamental relationship. In our time, death is seen as the ultimate failure, and the pace of the culture leaves no time to grieve, to be bereaved, or to remember the dead. Speaking to and asking the dead for help is seen as "woo" at best and "crazy" at worst.

In this community discussion, we'll talk about:

• the ways that our current dominant culture denies the reality of death as a wholly natural part of life and obscures and minimizes our relationships with the dead

• ways to make connections with our dead—human and non-human, biological and chosen kin drawing on psychological, imaginal and spiritual frameworks

• how during this time of the collapse of our climate and political systems, calling on the dead for help can fortify and sustain us now, and remind us to consider the kind of ancestors we will become to the living we leave behind

shea in the catskills 

is a queer artist, tarotist, intuition facilitator, organizer and part-time library clerk who has been engaging in ancestral practices for over 20 years—first as a zen buddhist monastic and more recently as a student of Perdita Finn, author of Take Back the Magic: Conversations with the Unseen World. shea facilitates workshops on using tarot to work with the dead and is the author of Tarot as Questions and 78 Faces of Power.