free gathering
Yule Grief Circle & Reiki Release
Honoring the years darkest night. Celebrating the light's return.
Join us for this sacred grief circle to observe Yule, an ancient pagan celebration of the winter solstice: the longest night of the year and the turning point when light begins its gradual comeback. Rest in the depth of winter. Bear witness to what the darkness has taught you. Plant seeds of intention for renewal.
december 20 at 12pm mountain time
held on Zoom
"The darkness declares the glory of light."
— T.S. Eliot
Yule marks the winter solstice, when we reach the year's deepest exhale before the slow inhale begins. A time of profound stillness and quiet potency, honoring what has gestated in darkness and acknowledging the first stirrings of renewal.
The longest night asks us to sit with what we've learned in these dark months and consider what we're ready to bring into the lengthening days ahead.
Our circle will begin with a guided meditation and reflection on the year's losses and lessons. We'll explore what we're ready to leave behind in winter's depths - and what small seeds of hope or intention we're planting as the light inches back. We'll experience a collective Holy Fire Reiki release to honor our grief and support what we're letting go, and close with a ritual of acknowledgment for what we've survived and what we're calling forward.
Celebrate the solstice in sacred community with us
We can't wait to meet you all.
december 20 at 12pm mountain time
held on Zoom
Your hosts
Dr. Melissa Delizia
Melissa Delizia, MSW, LSW, DSW (she/they) is a death doula, educator, professional coach and social worker whose work lives at the intersection of sacred care, transformative education, and social justice. With a Doctorate in Social Work and certifications in grief companionship, deathcare, and sacred ceremony, Melissa brings both clinical insight and spiritual depth to their offerings.
Their practice is rooted in ancestral connection, mediumship, and energy work, with a focus on holding space for queer and trans individuals navigating death, dying, and grief. Melissa approaches this work with reverence, tending to the liminal with embodied presence and a belief in the healing power of collective care and ritual.
As an educator and adjunct professor, they are dedicated to reshaping how death is taught and understood—centering marginalized experiences, challenging systems of harm, and cultivating spaces where grief and identity are honored in all their complexity. Whether teaching or learning, Melissa holds a deep commitment to equitable deathwork and heart-centered education.
Lauren Carroll
Lauren Carroll, co-founder of La Mort, is a Death Educator & Holistic Funeral Director who is passionate about weaving community and family back into the death space. Her work centers around re-aligning our culture with Mother Earth and helping humans remember how to love one another. She is a former board member for the National Home Funeral Alliance and co-founded The Deathwives. She lives on an urban farm at the base of a mountain where she tends to her animals, raises her two children, and dances around bonfires on the full moon with friends while listening to Nick Cave.
Our Teaching / Learning / Creating Style at La Mort
We leave behind the polished, gate-keepy approach to education. We teach in ways that carry story and experience. We listen. We laugh (a lot). We go off-script sometimes. We cry (with you)(for those you’ve loved)(for those we’ve loved). We like science and studies and logical frameworks, but also mysticism and poetry and all that stuff. We really love to honor history and those who came before. We move through some serious curricula, but don’t take anything too seriously. We dedicate ourselves to seeing you, and want you to feel seen. We deeply honor our intuition and yours. We lead with integrity (always). And we welcome the odd-balls and misfits, because it takes one to know one.