Download high-resolution image

In the Absence of the Ordinary

Soul Work for Times of Uncertainty--Essays on grief, change, and sacred transitions

Author Francis Weller

Paperback

$19.95 US

North Atlantic Books

5.51"W x 8.48"H x 0.49"D | 9 oz | 56 per carton

On sale Aug 19, 2025 | 192 Pages | 9798889842613

Add to cart Add to list Exam Copies

We are at a threshold. As we face uncertain futures, the familiar is falling away. This book invites us to embody new ways of being and connecting so we can navigate troubled times together

From the bestselling author of The Wild Edge of Sorrow, a beautifully packaged collection of 17 essays on meeting this moment with clarity, care, and skill

Praise for The Wild Edge of Sorrow: "It blew me away. I underlined things on nearly every page." —Anderson Cooper

In his singular and inimitable voice, psychotherapist and author of The Wild Edge of Sorrow Francis Weller offers 17 soulful essays to help us move together through the anxieties, difficulties, and sacred transitions of 21st-century life.

In the Absence of the Ordinary frames our current era as a rough initiation—an upending experience of profound trauma and transformation that demands we reorient our ways of thinking, being, and relating. Through essays like “Some People Wake Up…,” “The Gift of Restraint,” and “Gratitude for All That Is,” Weller offers clarity and wisdom on how to face the sobering stakes of our time—while offering the nourishment and support we need to embody the new roles this initiation requires.

Section 1, “When the Bough Breaks,” names our collective traumas and peels back the false armor of modernity. We’re called to the depths, to understand the power of descent, and to cultivate the necessary skills of initiation.
Section 2, “Care of the Soul,” differentiates between the connected soul and the individualistic self, inviting us back into alignment with the wider world of belonging. We learn to approach our experiences with reverence, work with our grief, and develop restraint, repetition, and self-compassion.
Section 3, “Meanwhile, the World Goes On,” gives shape to the emptiness we carry and the ways modernity has severed us from our birthright of interconnectedness with the natural world. It offers rituals of gratitude and practices of kinship to restore our bond with the living Earth.

In each essay, Weller fortifies us to become immense—to meet these unpredictable times with presence and faith, to restore our souls’ place in the soul of the world, and to hold steady, amid and for it all.

"In partnership with poets, places and practice, Francis Weller teaches us that it is time to know nothing, time to become immense, time to become seasoned adults through ritual and initiation, time to do our soul work, time to apprentice slowness and listen to trees, and time to, in the words of Rilke, let the future speak ruthlessly through us."
—adrienne maree brown, author of Emergent Strategy and Loving Corrections

"Come on down to the river. Pull up a log. Lean into the fire. Francis is here, casting spells and opening a hidden door to the animate underworld and to the unremembered sacred. This book is visionary, heart-rooted, nature-inspired, psyche-shifting."
—Bill Plotkin, author of Soulcraft and The Journey of Soul Initiation

"With poetic and penetrating insight, Weller invites us on a journey of the soul, one that reveals—in the dark passages of loss and grief—our collective immensity, belonging and luminosity."
—Tara Brach, author of Radical Acceptance and Radical Compassion

"Read this book. Better still, pray it silently. Or aloud."
—Bayo Akomolafe, PhD, author of These Wilds Beyond Our Fences

"Weller’s new book is an island of solace in a darkening sea."
—Kathleen Dean Moore, author of Wild Comfort

"Weller’s missive serves as a beacon of hope, encourag-ing us to nurture a wild, rich existence despite the looming uncertainties ahead. A numinous and compelling read."
—Jonne Cacciatore, PhD, author of Bearing the Unbearable

"What Weller invites us to embrace in the "Long Dark" is not our valor and virtues so much as our colossal loss and grief."
—Joanna Macy, author of World As Lover, World As Self

"Weller reaches deep into the holy ground of our awakening ... and, with fierce kindness, invites us to become purposeful apprentices of fear, sorrow, and loss. I highly recommend this book."
—Duane Elgin, author of Choosing Earth, The Living Universe, and Voluntary Simplicity

"Weller is a luminous dharma lamp of wisdom in these turbulent times and a skilled, much-needed sherpa of the underworld, here to guide us through the unknown. Buy this book, send it to everyone you love!"
—Rashani Réa, earth steward, farmer, artist, and creatrix of Beyond Brokenness, Beneath All Appearances

"This book is both an initiation ceremony and a refuge for feeding life, even at the most difficult times."
—Trebbe Johnson, author of Radical Joy for Hard Times

"More than reading this book, . . . I want to live into the potential it envisions and share it with everyone I love. "‘You are necessary,’ Weller writes. ‘It is time to become immense.’"
—Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, author of The Unfolding and host of The Poetic Path

Francis Weller, is a psychotherapist, writer, and soul activist. He is a master of synthesizing diverse streams of thought from psychology, anthropology, mythology, alchemy, indigenous cultures, and poetic traditions. He has introduced the healing work of ritual to thousands of people. He founded and currently directs WisdomBridge, an organization that offers educational programs that seek to integrate the wisdom from indigenous cultures with the insights and knowledge gathered from Western poetic, psychological, and spiritual traditions. His writings have appeared in anthologies and journals exploring the confluence between psyche, nature, and culture, including The Sun magazine, the Utne Reader, Kosmos Journal, and Ruminate. He is the author of Wild Edge of Sorrow and is currently completing his fourth book; Facing the World with Soul and Why It Matters.

Francis Weller View titles by Francis Weller

About

Section 1, “When the Bough Breaks,” names our collective traumas and peels back the false armor of modernity. We’re called to the depths, to understand the power of descent, and to cultivate the necessary skills of initiation.
Section 2, “Care of the Soul,” differentiates between the connected soul and the individualistic self, inviting us back into alignment with the wider world of belonging. We learn to approach our experiences with reverence, work with our grief, and develop restraint, repetition, and self-compassion.
Section 3, “Meanwhile, the World Goes On,” gives shape to the emptiness we carry and the ways modernity has severed us from our birthright of interconnectedness with the natural world. It offers rituals of gratitude and practices of kinship to restore our bond with the living Earth.