Contemplarium Fall Ingathering

​Join the Fall Ingathering of the SF Contemplarium!

​The Fall Ingathering marks the culmination of the Season on Encounter (Aug–Oct), a moment to honor our encounters with loss of all sizes, great and small—people, hopes, objects, chapters of life. Through this honoring, our loss transforms into memory, story, and ancestorhood—the stuff that helps us remember who we are as we embark on the Season on Origins (Nov–Jan).

​(Read more about the Fall Ingathering and the start of the Season on Origins in the latest SF Contemplarium Newsletter.)

​Through an arc of rituals, we’ll enact the turn of the season together. You’ll have different ways to engage meaningfully, with group and solo options.

​Schedule :

• ​Pizza dinner (7–7:30pm)

• ​Welcome (7:30pm) — Doors close

• ​Ingathering

  • ​Opening Poem

  • ​Intro to the turn of the season

  • ​Storytelling reflection by Evan Izzo

  • ​Altar creation ceremony (representing a loss in clay)

  • ​Breakout activities (choose your own adventure)

    • ​Listening Circle

    • ​Children’s Books

    • ​Solo Journaling / Reflection

  • ​Altar release ceremony (salt and re-membering)

  • ​Reading of an original poem by Lorrie Chang

• ​Closing

​What to bring:

• ​Something to write on/with

• ​Optional: If you want to bring a memento (e.g. a photo or keepsake) of something or someone you have lost as a supplement to the altar creation ceremony, you may do so. Decorations like flowers are also welcome!

• ​An open heart

​Presented by the San Francisco Contemplarium, creating space in our city for honoring our human journey, through events and programming, physical objects and spaces, capacity-building, and facilitation.