Grief: A Dark, Sacred Time

About Darrelyn Gunzburg

Darrelyn Gunzburg has a doctorate in medieval art history (University of Bristol) and is a tutor for the Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. She is the editor of The Imagined Sky and has written extensively for The Art Book and Cassone. From an early age her memories of her parents were the work they did for the Chevra Kadisha, a voluntarily organisation of men and women within the Jewish community whose sole function was the care of the dead from the time of death until burial. This guardianship, known as Chesed Shel Emes, represented an act of genuine kindness, since it could never be repaid by the recipient. Since death did not have a timetable, her parents could be called out at a moment's notice. The actual impact of death, however, made itself felt in their household at age of twelve with the loss of her grandfather. Her background as a circus fire-eater, working in the Australian film industry, studying theatre directing and playwriting at NIDA and working for ten years as an award-winning playwright before moving to the UK in 2002 taught her the value of story, an attribute she has used extensively in her ongoing work since 1988 as a practising professional astrologer. Her specialism is working with clients in grief and her published astrological work includes 'Life after Grief'.