The power of ritual is profound. It’s woven deep into the rhythms of societies, and its power lies in the marking of a transition, from one state to another. It often means a death of some sort: something needs to pass, before something new can arrive. But few of us are comfortable with death, literal or metaphoric. My guest today is Sarah Kerr,a ritual healing practitioner and death doula whose work supports the living, the dying, and the dead. She facilitates private and public healing rituals, and regularly presents on topics of death midwifery and holistic death care. Sarah has a PhD in Transformative Learning, and a Master’s degree in Environmental Studies. Her doctoral research explored the ways that modern western people can restore and re-create meaningful rituals for the significant transitions of life, and she has been a student of spiritual and shamanic healing modalities since 2000. In our conversation we unpack what a ritual is; explore how we loosen our fixation on the physical and the outer and the visible and the tangible; how grief and grieving differ; and how to understand our life as a spiral rather than a relentless trajectory. You can meet Sarah at www.soulpassages.ca, on Instagram at @soul.passages and on her YouTube channel. This show is brought to you by The Advice Trap, Michael Bungay Stanier’s latest book. You can access a wide range of tools to help #TameYourAdviceMonster at www.TheAdviceTrap.com. If you’d like to spend more time with Michael and people he admires, sign up for The Year of Living Brilliantly. 52 teachers over 52 weeks, each teaching one brilliant insight. Absolutely free.