When The Softness Stings: Grief After Ritual
- Ash Doucet
- Jul 18
- 2 min read
You light the candle
You whisper the words
You soften
And then the ache comes in
This is something one one warns you about on the spiritual path:
That sometimes, when you open your heart in devotion what spills out is grief. Old, sticky grief or tenderness so sharp it feels like bleeding.
This is the second threshold. The part that come after ritual.
The Hidden Descent
Ritual is not always clean. It is not a linear process. Sometimes we leave the altar not feeling peaceful but disoriented. Because when we let our guard down for love and softness, we create space. And the soul will use that space to speak.
You may feel:
unexplained sadness
a longing for something you can't name
old memories rising
fatigue, fog, or raw vulnerability
None of this mens you're doing it wrong. It means the ritual worked.
What You're Feeling Is Integration
Grief often comes after softness because we've finally stopped bracing. We've opened the gates. What fows through isn't just light. It's everything we've been holding back.
This is not regression. It's release.
Your body remembers what you have silenced.
And now that you are safe enough to feel
It will offer it back to you.
Not as punishment but as a homecoming.
A Practice to Hold Yourself
If you've done ritual work recently. Shaddow work. Or even just made space for stillness. And you find yourself feeling undone try this:
Name it gently
"This is part of my return"
Lay on the earth or your bed
Place one hang on your heart, one on your belly. Feel gravity hold you.
Why This Matters
We often abandon ourselves in the name of healing. We chase the next ritual, the next insight, the next release. But descent asks us to stay.
To sit in the afterglow even when it stings.
This is the return. Not to performance. Not to perfection. But to presence.
If this speaks to where you are. If the grief is loud or the softness feels sharp know that you are not unraveling alone. You are being remade. And every tear that rises after ritual is a sign that someting real has finally been touched.
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