Moonsong - Women's Mysteries

“Pregnancy – The Inner Journey”

2012-01-24T19:32:00.000-08:00

b i r t h i s a s a c r e d a c t

"an experience that has far reaching consequences and effects on the newborn, the Mother and the whole family. Birth is a rite of passage and by its very nature it provides the way in for a woman to know her inner strength and inner knowing - vital ingredients for mothering.

Mothers are gifted through birth not only with their beautiful babies but with a new look at their Divine selves. Birth teaches us where we are at with the fundamentals of life such as surrender, letting go and trust. The best preparation for birth is a conscious pregnancy, spending time contemplating and updating your inner beliefs and attitudes, and connecting with your baby inside you, hearing the voices feeling the feelings, seeing the visions, all the while developing your natural mothering essence." JHC

HONORING THE SACRED

FEMININE PATH

IN A WOMAN's LIFE

SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS NSW
Wednesday March 28th – Friday March 30th 2012
9:30am – 5pm daily
Fully catered, non-residential $450

MELBOURNE
Wednesday April 18th – Friday April 20th 2012
9:30am – 5pm daily
Fully catered, non-residential $550

more information here

Jane Speaks at Woodford

2012-01-13T22:09:00.000-08:00

Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen

For those of you who cringe at the term Lady, allow me to remind you that the original meaning of Lady was Priestess of the Moon, which is quite in keeping with today’s talk’s theme.

And Gentlemen, gentle - men, well the world needs as many of them as possible!

So the Red Tent, Sacred Women’s Business.

Who knows about the Red Tent ?

The Red Tent is part of the much needed honouring of the feminine that our culture requires.

The Red Tent is part of the spiritual practice of menstruation and the living of the wisdom of the cycles.

The Red Tent is a place, a space, that women retreat to when they are bleeding, menstruating, when they have their moonflow.

The Red Tent or Moon Lodge or Blood Temple can be an actual space or a virtual space, or a state of mind, one way or another it needs to exist.

The Story Goes

That the women of the tribe, or community, would gather together in the Red Tent at their bleeding time and they would let go, rest, sleep, dream, nurture themselves, reflect on their moon just ended and vision their moon coming.

During her bleeding time a woman is tired so she will sleep because her dreams at this time are prophetic, and hold valuable information. During her bleeding time a woman can literally let go of all the things, ways, beliefs, attitudes, behaviours, that no longer serve her and she can do this for all her relations.

In the Native American culture it is said that the whole tribe awaited and depended on the information that the women would return with from the Moon Lodge.

This practice is not new, it is ancient, and it changed when the patriarchal culture, in which we live, took hold several thousand years ago and dishonoured the feminine, making all things associated with women and especially her fertility, her sexuality, her blood, taboo, dirty, evil, bad, shameful etc etc.

The Red Tent was reinterpreted as a place to send women away to when they were bleeding because they were deemed dirty and needing to be separated from the rest of the people, especially their husbands and needed to be stopped from preparing food,lest they contaminate it.

I imagine you know this.

If this is new to you, I’ve written a booklet about it called Herstory,

that’s ‘her’ story as opposed to ‘his’ story, history – get it?

You can download it for free from my website – Moonsong

Prior to electric lights, which came into our lives in the late 1800’s, and then altered the darkness we experienced after sunset each night, all women ovulated on the full moon and bled on the dark moon.

We have an internal mechanism, related to melatonin production which rises according to the amount of light in the night and is also responsible for the rising of the levels of hormones that create ovulation and this all happens based on the amount of light in the night sky.

Our biological blueprint is that we ovulate at the time when there is the most light in the night sky, that is the full moon. And then we bleed 14 days after that, the dark moon. Women’s cycles are designed to be in synch with the moon and each other.Now, however, there is so much light pollution especially in the cities, so many other life stresses and oestrogen pollution so that women are mostly not in synch with the moon.

Women often move into synch with the moon

if they make it their practice to observe the moon,

and if they make it their intention to do so.

And as you all well know, women who live or work closely together often synchronise their cycles.

Now, in our modern culture menstruation is basically ignored, women are encouraged and maybe even forced to carry on regardless, ads for tampons show girls in white playing sport! However things are changing, in terms of menstrual awareness, in our land, its the best its been in years! I’m even standing here talking about it!

And women around the world are getting together, and making cloth pads to send

to Africa.

And there is much to be learned from our cycles. Its about reclaiming feminine wisdom

through reconnection with the women’s mysteries, and this means honouring your cycle.

It will teach you much:

Much about yourself

Much about life

and Much about the way of things

There is one cycle and it plays out over and over everywhere

and women, being the cyclical beings that they are

live it birth, growth, full bloom, harvest, decay, death, rebirth,

growth, full bloom, harvest, decay, death, rebirth, over and over . . .

Think of the seasons:

Spring – birth, growth

Summer - full bloom

Autumn – harvest

Winter - decay, death

Spring – rebirth…… over and over

Our life seasons have the same characteristics:

Spring: is the life season of youth, maiden and young man

Summer: is mother and father

Autumn: is maga and magus

Winter: is crone and wise old man

Same cycle everywhere just different speeds and metaphoric

The menstrual cycle, and that means the whole cycle from bleeding to bleeding again, is a cycle to live your life by.

You will be, actually, whether you realise it or not.

Bringing awareness to your menstrual cycle,

incorporating a spiritual practice with your menstrual cycle brings a higher consciousness to it. And this will enable you to flow with it. Utilise it, and learn from it. Rather than be oppressed by it.

Doing this honours you, the feminine and the Earth.

It is a healing practice and you will benefit from it as will the collective

and the Earth.

Your menstrual cycle IS your spiritual practice

The menstrual cycle is a portal into the sacred, spiritual, shamanic and transcendent dimensions of womanhood.

So are women’s rites of passage:

Menarche (the first blood),

Childbirth and

Perimenopause

I just want to read you some words I wrote when I was writing this last week..

"I’m writing this while I’m bleeding so there won’t be any excuses, just the cold hard facts, I won’t waste my time trying to talk you into thinking this is a good idea, bleeding women don’t do that. They speak their truth. I’m deep in my own inner space, fortunately alone at home. I look out the window and see the remains of the altar from last night’s Summer Solstice ceremony. There were 90 people here last night, gathered to honour and give thanks to Mother Earth, at Litha, the peak of the year, the longest day, the brightest light in the cycle of the seasons. And I remember back to last night when I facilitated the ceremony, how in my bleeding space, dressed in dark clothes and inwardly focussed, I led the ceremony in a very different way to how I usually do. I was more reserved, less words, more aware of the energy of the group, and able to shift the processes around that, rather than put on a Summer Solstice Ceremony show, which would be much more like what I would do if I was ovulating.

I think back, which is one of the main characteristics of the bleeding time, the point being, the opportunity to notice what you’re thinking and feeling so you can let go of what no longer serves you with your blood, to the earth,

I think back to last night how unfussed I was, more able to flow with what was, as within, so without"

As I’ve said, the Red Tent or Moon Lodge or Blood Temple can be an actual space or a virtual space, one way or another it needs to exist. If it does not exist, if a woman does not honour her need for retreat. Then what happens are all the physical symptoms that need to, to have the woman retreat into her inner space, her inner Red Tent as it were,

this includes all the friction, fights, arguments etc required in your close relationships

so that those people will avoid you, keep out of your way!

So, we create our much needed Red Tent, or much needed retreat space, unconsciously if we don’t do it consciously, so why not do it consciously and bust the myth that women are cranky when they are bleeding and in the week or so before.

Tell me,

do you really think you would be cranky, moody, upset, mad, angry, impatient etc etc if you knew when your blood came that you would be leaving your normal life situation

and heading to your retreat space to let go of what no longer worked in your life,

to learn what you can from your month just passed, to decide what you will take into the next cycle and what you will leave behind, to replenish, and renew yourself, and prepare yourself for the month ahead?

I doubt you’d be feeling cranky,

I bet you’d be feeling honoured and excited even!

Honouring your need for retreat time when you are bleeding is your responsibility,

not any one else’s, and it is so for both yourself and everyone you live with and relate to.

If you think your journey through your menstrual cycle and bleeding time doesn’t effect anyone else, just ask them.

Honouring your bleeding time in what ever way you can is part of the spiritual practice of menstruation. One way or another you must get the space you need at your bleeding time, this may end up being a long bath an early night to bed, or your dreaming time.

Your experience of your menstrual cycle is a barometer of your life stresses.

It is a stress sensitive process and therefore is a ‘read out’ of what you need to be dealing with. It is also a pathway to self awareness on your soul’s journey to wholeness;

Enlightenment through cycle awareness!

Many people have written about this,

psychotherapists, doctors, midwives, anthropologists.

It’s a well known path of personal and collective evolution.

Its not your hormones rampaging, its you.

Our menstrual cycles call us into our bodies, if things are amiss, one way or another she will get your attention and you’ll have the opportunity to take responsibility for yourself,

your life, what you eat, think, do, work, play etc . Or you can play the victim and blame your hormones like they are some unwelcome guest who’s taken over. See literally what’s going on and think metaphorically, that might give you some clues. Look for the patterns that reoccur in your life and how your menstrual cycle reflects that.

Your experience of menarche, your first blood, prepares you for your experience of menstruation which then effects how you give birth and then how you experience perimenopause.

Its all connected.

She who is initiated into the Temple of Womanhood at the Altar of Menarche,

is the woman who shows up at the Birth Altar in the Birth Temple.

So its no surprise that most women are drugged during childbirth to escape the pain, they learned how to do that well enough during their periods.

Young women are taught to not trust their bodies, if their periods are irregular or their flow is heavy or their pain is strong,they are prescribed the pill to bring them into order,

so they can be predictable, controlled, on time, and not be inconvenienced by their bodies messages that happen to have them make life style and diet changes better for health.

And then this all happens again at birth in so many ways: with over 30% inductions because women don’t give birth on time – there’s no right time, just when the baby is ready, and there’s never been a baby that stayed inside forever you know. And the rampant use of drugs during labour to numb women. Funny how we’re meant to say no to drugs except during menstruation and labour when they totally mess with our ability to listen to our bodies, to hear the inner wisdom and without doubt influence the unborn ones detrimentally! Numbing herself in labour, a woman gives up the opportunity of experiencing and so realising that she has everything she needs inside her that she and her baby ‘work’ together to birth and also she drugs her baby. Drugged babies, probably most of us here, have a default of vagueing out, especially when the going gets tough.

Medicating yourself with drugs during menstruation means you carry on regardless,

just NOT what you’re meant to do, if you do, you miss the opportunity for letting go, for renewal and then you get on this treadmill, same ol’ same ol’. If you don’t let go of what shows up during your third week, masquerading as symptoms of PMS, then guess what grows bigger next cycle!

Each of the four weeks of the menstrual cycle, and this is the case even if your cycle is longer or shorter than 4 weeks, have the energy, characteristics and qualities of the four seasons of the earth that we all know so well.

Day one is your first day of bleeding:

Week 1 is as if late winter and early spring

week 2 is late spring early winter

week 3 is late summer early autumn and

week 4 is late autumn early winter

So weeks 3 and 4 have the characteristics of autumn and winter, the descent, the move or pull inward, and just like how the deciduous trees lose their leaves at this time,

the same thing happens metaphorically for us, everything that is no longer needed in your life shows up so you can let it go with your blood and start fresh and new with the spring growth energy for your next cycle.

This phenomena, this opportunity for letting go of what no longer serves us, which shows up to us as irritations in weeks 3 and 4 of our cycle because irritations are what WILL get your attention. These things that show up irritating us then, ARE the things that no longer serve us the things, ways, beliefs, attitudes we need to let go of.

This natural process has been turned by our culture and the medical model, into pathology, which means something is wrong and needs to be fixed and its been named as a syndrome – PMS or premenstrual syndrome. It’s the time when women stop complying, their opportunity for renewal, and rebirth,brings everything that’s not working in their life into full view, and instead of being seen for the wonderful opportunity it is, it is seen as moodiness, crankiness, and all the 100 or so physical symptoms that combine with it, which are really messages from our body

to get us to change what’s going on, there are so many symptoms associated with this time, its been relegated to disease and guess what, it can be fixed with the Pill.

Do you know, that the Pill is the most prescribed medication in the world!

tis so famous its called THE pill! And its all about controlling women’s cycles.

It creates a pseudo pregnancy, your body thinks you are pregnant. So you wont ovulate and risk conception. When you bleed on the pill, it's not a real period. It’s a withdrawal bleed because you drop the synthetic hormone levels And that makes you bleed.

And we all bathe in, cook with and drink the water that contains all the hormones from the millions of women on the pill as their waters rejoin the main waters. And this contributes along with fertilisers used in farming and animal feed to the oestrogen pollution and dominance we experience that messes with our bodies.

So, like every other cycle, if you try to control it, you miss its wisdom, its healing

and its growth and evolutionary opportunities, and, often to your peril.

Honouring the menstrual cycle is the spiritual practice of menstruation, this means bringing consciousness to the process and what goes on around it.

Disposable sanitary products not only cost a lot of money over and over, and are made with chemicals and take 100s of years to biodegrade, they also contribute to the huge use of pesticides in the cotton farming to create them and landfill, blocked drains and sea pollution. You can honour yourself, your cycle and the earth by using reusable cloth pads or mooncups/keepers or sponges.

You can make prayers with your blood

You can dedicate your eggs not just to babies,

to world peace, to love..

Get to know yourself through understanding your cycle

Chart your cycle, notice how differently you feel each day

See the waxing and waning of your energy, your libido, your creative urges,

observe your moods how they change each day and week.

Come to know yourself.

I have created a ‘how to chart your cycle handbook and journal’ called

13 Moons (that’s how many moon cycles there are in a year)

And a ‘ready reckoner’ called the

Spinning Wheels

which tells you the energy of each day of the lunar cycle, your menstrual cycle and the influence of the earth season and your life season. So you can, through understanding all these influences on you, understand why you feel the way you do on any particular day.

The reason I’m hear talking about this today is because I put a proposal to the Woodford organisers for them to have a Red Tent here this year, in full operation. A private women’s space, for those who are bleeding to retreat to and for others of us to be as priestesses and serve them. That wasn’t possible this year, but they asked me if I would come and talk about it, to start the process . . .

This isn’t just happening here

There is a worldwide movement

The Red Tent movement!

Women reclaiming feminine wisdom,

through reconnection with the women’s mysteries.

There is a Red Tent festival next year near Bangalow,

There is a movie called The Red Tent,

"Things We Don’t Talk About"

coming out later this year.

So,

Chart your cycle

Watch the moon

And practice the spiritual practice of menstruation,

especially the Red Tent,

You wont regret it,

Not only will this all help you enjoy and love your menstrual cycle,

It will prepare you for a conscious birth,

and for a healing enlightening perimenopause

and your life ahead as a wise woman who will teach these ways to the girls.

Jane Hardwicke-Collings

Midwife

Teacher of the Women's Mysteries

The School of Shamanic Midwifery

Moonsong

enquiries@moonsong.com.au

School of Shamanic Midwifery
enquiries@schoolofshamanicmidwifery.com

Moonsong Workshops Coming Your Way in 2012

2012-01-09T18:14:00.000-08:00

Moonsong Workshops Coming YOUR way in 2012

RECLAIMING FEMININE POWER THROUGH

RECONNECTION WITH THE WOMEN’S MYSTERIES

New South Wales:

East Kangaloon, Bowral area, Southern Highlands,

March 31, April 1, 2012, 930am - 5pm

Victoria:

Vines+Branches, 27 Bonds Rd, Lower Plenty,

April 21, 22, 2012, 930am - 5pm

bookings@moonsong.com.au

http://www.moonsong.com.au/moonsong_workshop.html

phone Jane 0408 035 808

Shamanic Drum Journeys available on Moonsong website

2011-11-05T19:49:00.001-07:00

Dear Everyone,

Greetings this Gibbous Moon!

I'm writing to let you know that the long promised Shamanic Drum Journey to your Womb, to meet your inner Goddess, is now available for free to download on my website. ENJOY!

And to accompany this gift are two more Shamanic Drum Journey albums for sale.

One with four journeys:

The Four Shamanic Drum Journeys is a collection of shamanic processes with instructions that can help you access realms and information to guide you on your path. Meet your Teachers and Guides, your Power Animal, and the realms the shaman-you can access.

And the other a special one for pregnant women to meet their baby:

A Shamanic Drum Journey for Pregnancy to Meet Your Baby, and Drumming for Labour has been created to enable mothers and mothers to be to meet with and commune with their baby inside, if they are pregnant, and their "soulbaby" if they are planning pregnancy. The benefits of this process are explained and accompanied by women's stories. Also included is a drumming track that can be played on repeat during labour for the benefits that will provide.

Best wishes and love,
Jane
xxx

Jane Hardwicke Collings
Midwife
Teacher of the Women's Mysteries
The School of Shamanic Midwifery

Big Picture Perspective

2011-09-04T05:30:00.000-07:00

In the current situation of the maternity care services of Australia, its so tempting to see the conspiracy to 'knock off' all the 'powerful' women, but truly I doubt 'they' are that smart.
We need to remember this sort of thing is actually happening 'across the board', in other parts of health care, in education, in agriculture, in mining, etc etc.
We live in a patriarchal culture and all these things are examples of the mindset that supports the culture. Technology and control.
And all these related situations are part of the one thing, the eventual evolution of consciousness.

So, to my mind, even though its reeeeeally hard, we must not take any of this personally.
'We' have an important role to play here and its to hold the place from which we come from, our ideals, our philosophy.
We may not see the change come in our lifetimes, we need to hold a bigger picture than our current jobs or the next birth or our registration and insurance situation.
We need to be thinking ahead, to our children's children and beyond, for the future generations.
The metaphoric seeds of change ( to the current maternity care services) that have been planted, are sprouting, many are being stomped on, and some will survive and go on to grow very strong, a new variety, adapted to the environment.
The women and men who are living this dream of the healed feminine, will raise their children to know this, and then they will, and they will etc etc.
This is may not have many short term or even middle term results, but it will be part of what will be.
People will look back on this time and wonder 'what the hell were 'they' thinking?'.
We need to keep on keeping on and actually let go of the fight, it drains our energy and resources.

The current situation of 'reverting to 'support person' from midwife when transferring or attending a woman in labour in hospital' is a great example.
This is actually progress, although it really is just reverting back to the same as the way it was before all the current 'developments'.
So what happens in that situation,depends, as it always did, on who you encounter on the hospital admission, ie whether the hospital midwives are sympathetic to the situation or not.
This is not a new thing, Im sure we've all had lots of practice with this.
And as it always has, it highlights the need for ALL midwives to support women's choices.

As it says in the Tao Te Ching - "...in any event, the more conscious force will win."
Be strong, see the big picture.
We require stamina, and strategy. Strategy that works long term.
Using the wisdom of Starhawk and the principles of permaculture, what we need to do is create the environment that creates the best conditions for what we want to grow, to be able to flourish.
So what does that look like in your home town? Probably what you are doing.
Keep on keeping on.
Trust the process.

Imbolc, 2011

2011-08-05T05:57:00.000-07:00

Here in the Southern Hemispheric, sending Imbolc, Candlemas, bright blessings to all.
So easy to feel the quickening where I am, Spring cometh!

Southern Hemisphere Imbolc

Imbolc's official day is August 2nd and actual day this year is August 8th. So we are right in the midst of it.

Aligning with the Imbolc energy - taking our cues from Nature, we can now ‘see’ the beginnings of our plans and dreams that have been gestating within us over winter. ‘See’ these dreams as ‘seeds’ and see what’s ‘sprouting’ after the months of incubation.

And its a waxing crescent moon which is the lunar version of the same energy, ie turbo charged!

Ask yourself:
Do my dreams and plans look like they have or will “sprout and grow”?
If they don’t, how do I feel about that?
What do I need to do to nurture the new growth?
Is it time to revisit my plan or dream making or am I getting the ‘dream’ I ‘need’?

As well as a time of new beginnings, Imbolc is a potent time to clear away past disappointments, to let go of old dreams and to step fully into the present, to ‘rebirth’ ourselves. Our ‘dreams’/desires and attachments reveal a lot about us and their manifestation, or not, is part of this information.

Imbolc is either dream ‘tweeking’ time or dream nurturing time.

Thinking metaphorically, ‘seeing’ your life as a garden, and thinking of ‘weeds’, what can you see peaking it’s head up again? Do you really want to take that through the next growth cycle again? to get bigger and stronger? Or can you ‘nip it in the bud’ so to speak and replace it with the ‘growth’ you want to see happen this cycle?

Time to be the loving gardener at the beginning of the springtime of this next year’s cycle in your life.

You can enact this energy ceremonially in a variety of ways.

* Create an Imbolc altar with things around you, both your treasures and gifts from Nature, that remind you of the energy of the beginning of Spring.

* You could literally nurture some seedlings so that you ‘see’ what it takes to nurture new sprouts. You could do this with your children, for quick results you could sprout alfalfa or other beans and perhaps name the sprouts for a new way of being or learning etc eg “as I care for these sprouts I care for the new part of me that will be braver/kinder/tidier/more focussed etc” .
* Light a candle, call on the energy and power of Imbolc.
Write down all your dreams and plans you’ve been “gestating”, see them as sprouts all in a row and now as the loving gardener, cull the sprouts that have less life force, those that ‘look’ less likely to survive and focus your energy on the sprouts that have the best chance over the coming cycle of survival and growth to their full potential. The conditions this coming cycle may suit some “sprouts” over others, bring that awareness into your culling process. That’s what this time gives you - the opportunity to ‘see’ which of your seeds/plans/dreams have the greatest chance of survival so you can let go of the others and nurture and focus on these. Notice any feelings or past issues that come up for you as you choose one ‘sprout’ over another and journal with yourself to find all that represents for you and how that may inhibit or obstruct your path forward nurturing your chosen ‘sprouts’. Let go of the ‘sprouts’ that aren’t going to make it, perhaps they will another time, perhaps not. Their life force, as in the garden, will ‘feed’ the remaining ‘sprouts’. Be ruthless and courageous with the culling of your ‘sprouts’. How many ‘sprouts’ can you manage/nurture this Spring? Maybe 4, maybe 1? You will know. And remember, you will get this opportunity every year.

* Start your Spring Cleaning, both literal and metaphoric. Empty out the old and make room for the new.

* Emerge from the darker part of the cycle into the building light as the days get longer and the sun gets warmer. It will still be dark early and cold during the weeks ahead but with a slow lengthening of the days. It is as if we slowly emerge from the dark where we have been relying on our inner senses to say “see in the dark”, to feel our way around in the darkness. Think of the metaphoric meaning of this and the opportunity to bring these inner senses out, to bring the skills of clairvoyance, clairaudience and clairsentience into our lives more. Do you know what your ‘access sense’ is? How you receive information?

* Prepare a feast of locally seasonal foods and give thanks at your table for all that this new cycle will bring you. Traditional foods of Imbolc include those that represent growth, such as seeds (sesame, sunflower, pumpkin, etc) as well as dairy foods, bread, cake, curry, onions, leeks, garlic honey and herbal teas.

* Herbs and flowers associated with Imbolc include: angelica, basil, bay, benzoin, celandine, heather, myrrh, snowdrop, rowan and all yellow flowers. Perhaps make a wreath of one or some combination of these or use them in your cooking or herbal teas.

Imbolc is the time to visualize life flourishing with abundance, creativity and renewed strength.

Earthdance Winter Solstice Gathering 2011

2011-06-22T05:34:00.000-07:00

Greetings this side of the Solstice!

We gathered to honour the Winter Solstice and the energies that flow through us at this time and did a beautiful lantern walk in the dark.

Workshops are coming up in Tasmania in July, October in the Southern Highlands, NSW and November in Springbrook, Queensland.

See: www.moonsong.com.au for dates and details.

Full Moon Wishes, April 2011

2011-04-18T03:02:00.000-07:00

Big wishes this full moon (now), perhaps for a bountious harvest, perhaps for you to reach your full potential, whatever your wish, your prayer, your intention, what becomes clear from here on as we move deeper in the descent part of the cycle of the seasons, are the lessons learned, the wisdom gained, the metaphoric seeds formed from the harvest of this cycle (started last spring).

Watch with interest as these reveal themselves to you.

New Websites for Moonsong and The School of Shamanic Midwifery

2011-01-19T00:59:00.000-08:00

Greetings!

Bathing in the auspicious energy of this first full moon of the year 2011, as the full moon energy shifts from Cancer to Leo, from the home to the stage!

It is with great pleasure in the sharing of this with you
and with immense gratitude for Leia Sidery's brilliance in creating them, that I announce and invite you to the launch of the new Moonsong website and the birth of The School of Shamanic Midwifery.com!

Please be invited to this virtual launch party, here under the full moon, get yourself your glass of champagne (virtual will do) and enjoy:

www.moonsong.com.au
www.schoolofshamanicmidwifery.com

Best wishes and love
Jane
xxxx

Earthdance Summer Solstice Gathering 2010

2011-01-04T21:32:00.000-08:00

"It is our responsibility to pause at this time and honour this cycle that we experience as the seasons of the earth. For to mark these times, awakens in us a knowing of the cycles of life and the wisdom that comes with that is what one needs to understand the scheme of things, the patterns and the flow.

This is also one of the ways that we can participate in the healing of the feminine, the Mother, our Earth, Mother Earth, by honouring Her and each other as part of Her, at these times. By stepping out of our homes onto the earth, standing together in a circle, focusing our attention of one thing together, tonight let that be gratitude, then we can make a difference in how things happen."

We gathered, 100 of us, on the lawns of AppleTreeHouse dressed in faery garb in a big circle around our central altar.

It was Litha, Midsummer, the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year and the time we had to be in flow with the energy and set our intentions, make our prayers and wishes and give thanks for what we want to see come to its fullest expression/manifestation in our lives.

We took a moment to forgive and to give thanks for all we had to give thanks for.

The altar was a beautiful collection of flowers from everyone's gardens and we supped on until the mists turned to rain.

Twas a blessing to be together and honour our Great Mother, the Earth, in the expression of her greatest fullness.

Blessed Be

Pregnancy The Inner Journey Reunion, Concord February 2010

2010-12-11T19:19:00.000-08:00

More beautiful babies, more amazing births, each a unique journey to the place of surrender, the place where a woman becomes a mother, whether that be for the first time or second or more. Each time another surrender and another becoming, as the mother-heart grows bigger and bigger.

November 2010 Pregnancy The Inner Journey Workshops

2010-12-08T03:07:00.000-08:00

The journey of motherhood, which includes preconception, pregnancy, birth and beyond into forever, when viewed from a shamanic perspective offers many lessons, insights and a deep knowing of the flow of nature and life. The Pregnancy The Inner Journey workshops allow us that experience and we are all forever enriched by sharing our stories and hearing those of "the other voices of our selves speaking". There were two pregnancy workshops held this early summer, one in the Southern Highlands of NSW and one in Kew in Melbourne.

(front left to right) Louise, Judy, Tania, (back left to right) Kate, Sharon, Adriana, Monika, Lizzy and Delphi

(front left to right) Diana, Charlotte, Harriet, Amanda, Liz, (back left to right) Stephanie, Melody, Donna, Aenea

Moonsong - Re-Membering Ourselves

2010-12-08T02:52:00.001-08:00

The Moonsong workshop is often a time when everything comes together and makes some sense. The influence our rite of passage into womanhood, our menarche (first blood), has had on our development into womanhood is often a missing piece in the jigsaw puzzle of our lives. So much of the journey is reclaiming the feminine power that was missed, taken away, not claimed and not even known during our experiences of menstruation, childbirth and menopause. During November, two Moonsong workshops were held, one in NSW, one in Victoria, and through the women who came more healing has occurred, more reclaiming has happened and the word will be spread.

AND, check out Renae's blog re attending Moonsong http://twothowandzen.blogspot.com/

(front left to right) Sally, Judy, Julia Rose, (back left to right) Sharon, Lizzy and Delphi, Bronte, Hazel, Leia

(front left to right) Alyce, Natasha, Charlotte, Melody, Heather. (back left to right) Renae, Peta, Liz, Stephanie, Jane

November Pregnancy Workshop Reunions

2010-12-08T02:47:00.000-08:00

Tis a beautious thing to come together again, for a re-union, a making again our one-ness that we experienced at the Pregnancy The Inner Journey Workshop when the babies were on the inside!

The stories shared by the women are true 'hero-ine's journeys', tales of traveling deep within and returning with the 'treasure'!

Each story tells the journey of a woman birthing not only her baby but herself as a mother, and that happens whether that be for the first time or the fourth. And for those not birthing babies, birthing the next version of themselves.

Beltane 'Welcome to Womanhood' Ceremony

2010-11-10T01:19:00.000-08:00

At Beltane we honoured two maidens with their 'Welcome to Womanhood' ceremony. Sitting in a circle together the women spoke about what they were told at the beginning of their menstrual cycles and what they wished they'd been told. They also shared what they have learned over the years from their menstrual cycle. This time, with several of the young women who have themselves had their 'Welcome to Womanhood' ceremony, many of the sharings were about how honoured and supported they had felt and do feel. The healing is happening. Blessed Be! And this time, a great privilege for me, was that I was actually the midwife at the birth of one of the maidens! Such an honour to be in attendance at two of her rites of passage!

My words to the maidens:
"May your life as a woman be filled with love and joy and at the inevitable times when it is not, may you know that this is temporary. And at the low times you need to feel them fully, knowing that 'this too will pass'. Remember that your bleeding time is our time to let go of what no longer serves you so as to uncomplicate your experience of life with unnecessary dramas, fears or worries. Blessings on you little Sister. May the moon light your way in the dark and the sun lead you to your brightness. And may you feel the Earth, our Mother, speak to you and guide you on your path."

The Spring Equinox or Ostara - September 23 approacheth!

2010-09-13T03:45:00.000-07:00

This is the time of equal day and equal night, the balance of light and dark, and so at this time we have the chance to invite balance into our lives. Add this to the energy of Spring, and as we see in our gardens, we also have the opportunity for new growth, fresh starts and new beginnings. Now would be the appropriate time for the Easter Egg hunt!

We celebrate Easter in the southern hemisphere at the same time as the northern hemisphere, simply because of generational habit, not seasonal appropriateness. The word Easter comes from the name of the ancient anglo-saxon spring Goddess Eostra or Eostara. And the Easter bunny and Easter eggs are all symbols of the fertility that is celebrated at the Spring Equinox. Eggs are a symbol of new life.

To honour and celebrate this time you could gather with some like-minded folk, or with your children and conduct a ceremony to give thanks for new ways, new opportunities and balance in your lives.

Here's a suggestion for a simple ceremony to honour the Spring Equinox with your family and friends.

Paint an egg, perhaps simply decoratively or perhaps with symbols to give particular meanings, to represent something new starting in your life, or something you would like to start. Make a 'nest', place it in the centre of your circle that you create together to do your ceremony. Do what you do to make sacred space, call for protection, guidance and support and focus together. Go around the circle and have each person explain what their egg represents for them, what their dreams and intentions for new growth this season are and then place the egg in the nest. Once all the eggs are in the nest have everyone focus on them and send their loving supportive energy. This can be done by visualising pink light flowing from your heart area. Conclude your ceremony going around the circle again with each person making a wish for their community and one for the planet.

Blessed Be

Imbolc 2010

2010-08-01T22:08:00.000-07:00

Imbolc, aka Candlemas, is this week on August 8th at 0045.

Following are some words about this seasonal shift and ancient festival and some suggestions on how to honour this time.

At Imbolc (or “Ground Hog Day” as its called in North America when it occurs on February 2nd) we see, feel and hear the beginning signs of Spring. Winter is over, Spring cometh. It may well still be very cold but the energy has shifted. It is the time we see new growth following the seeming dormancy of Winter. Imbolc is a time of hope, a time filled with the excitement of new possibilities for the future, either brand new possibilities or those we’ve dreamed up, ‘seeded’ over the winter. Imbolc was traditionally a Celtic Fire Festival dedicated to the Goddess Brigid.

At Imbolc, the seed, held in the dark Earth over the Winter has germinated, it finds it’s way through the Earth’s surface to see the light, to show itself, to grow.

Aligning with the Imbolc energy - taking our cues from Nature, we can now ‘see’ the beginnings of our plans and dreams that have been gestating within us over winter. ‘See’ these plans and dreams as ‘seeds’ and see what’s ‘sprouting’ after the months of incubation.

Ask yourself:

Do my dreams and plans look like they have or will “sprout and grow”?

If they don’t, how do I feel about that?

What do I need to do to nurture the new growth?

Is it time to revisit my plan or dream making or am I getting the ‘dream’ I ‘need’?

As well as a time of new beginnings, Imbolc is a potent time to clear away past disappointments, to let go of old dreams and to step fully into the present, to ‘rebirth’ ourselves. Our ‘dreams’/desires and attachments reveal a lot about us and their manifestation, or not, is part of this information.

Imbolc is either dream ‘tweaking’ time or dream nurturing time.

Thinking metaphorically, ‘seeing’ your life as a garden, and thinking of ‘weeds’, what can you see peaking it’s head up again? Do you really want to take that through the next growth cycle again? to get bigger and stronger? Or can you ‘nip it in the bud’ so to speak and replace it with the ‘growth’ you want to see happen this cycle?

Time to be the loving gardener at the beginning of the springtime of this next year’s cycle in your life.

You can enact this energy ceremonially in a variety of ways.

* Create an Imbolc altar with things around you, both your treasures and gifts from Nature, that remind you of the energy of the beginning of Spring.

* You could literally nurture some seedlings so that you ‘see’ what it takes to nurture new sprouts. You could do this with your children, for quick results you could sprout alfalfa or other beans and perhaps name the sprouts for a new way of being or learning etc eg “as I care for these sprouts I care for the new part of me that will be braver/kinder/tidier/more focussed etc” .

* Light a candle, call on the energy and power of Imbolc. Write down all your dreams and plans you’ve been “gestating”, see them as sprouts all in a row and now as the loving gardener, cull the sprouts that have less life force, those that ‘look’ less likely to survive and focus your energy on the sprouts that have the best chance over the coming cycle of survival and growth to their full potential. The conditions this coming cycle may suit some “sprouts” over others, bring that awareness into your culling process. That’s what this time gives you - the opportunity to ‘see’ which of your seeds/plans/dreams have the greatest chance of survival so you can let go of the others and nurture and focus on these. Notice any feelings or past issues that come up for you as you choose one ‘sprout’ over another and journal with yourself to find all that represents for you and how that may inhibit or obstruct your path forward nurturing your chosen ‘sprouts’. Let go of the ‘sprouts’ that aren’t going to make it, perhaps they will another time, perhaps not. Their life force, as in the garden, will ‘feed’ the remaining ‘sprouts’. Be ruthless and courageous with the culling of your ‘sprouts’. How many ‘sprouts’ can you manage/nurture this Spring? Maybe 4, maybe 1? You will know. And remember, you will get this opportunity every year.

* Start your Spring Cleaning, both literal and metaphoric. Empty out the old and make room for the new.

* Emerge from the darker part of the cycle into the building light as the days get longer and the sun gets warmer. It will still be dark early and cold during the weeks ahead but with a slow lengthening of the days. It is as if we slowly emerge from the dark where we have been relying on our inner senses to say “see in the dark”, to feel our way around in the darkness. Think of the metaphoric meaning of this and the opportunity to bring these inner senses out, to bring the skills of clairvoyance, clairaudience and clairsentience into our lives more. Do you know what your ‘access sense’ is? How you receive information?

* Prepare a feast of local seasonal foods and give thanks at your table for all that this new cycle will bring you. Traditional foods of Imbolc include those that represent growth, such as seeds (sesame, sunflower, pumpkin, etc) as well as dairy foods, bread, cake, curry, onions, leeks, garlic honey and herbal teas.

* Herbs and flowers associated with Imbolc include: angelica, basil, bay, benzoin, celandine, heather, myrrh, snowdrop, rowan and all yellow flowers. Perhaps make a wreath of one or some combination of these or use them in your cooking or herbal teas.

* Make candles as was the tradition at this time. Use them for your spell work, they will hold the energy of hope and potential that this time brings.

Imbolc is the time to visualize life flourishing with abundance, creativity and renewed strength.

Tasmanian Workshops July 2010

2010-08-01T03:55:00.000-07:00

At Oyster Cove in Hobart in July, with the help of the magnificent Kristan and the support of the generous Elise, I gave a Pregnancy The Inner Journey Workshop, a residential Moonsong that was actually a party and two divine gatherings of Maidens and Mothers.

Invoking the Birth Goddesses at the Pregnancy Workshop

Dana and Glenys making Goddess Eyes

Dana, Jane, Chelsea, Glenys and Sam

Moonsong Workshop, Oyster Bay, Tasmania July 2010

2010-08-01T03:44:00.000-07:00

Moonsong at Oyster Bay in Hobart with a group of friends, exploring the women's mysteries and reclaiming feminine power.

Oyster Bay, Tasmania, Moonsong Altar

Sending healing prayers to the Earth

Maidens and Mothers Moonsong Tasmania July 2010

2010-08-01T02:41:00.000-07:00

The Maidens and Mothers I met with last year gathered again. Twas a lovely reunion, 2 of the maidens had reached menarche during the year and they shared their experience. Such a blessed opportunity to hold such preciousness with the honour it so truly deserves.

Drawing pictures of their inner journey

The next day a group of 10 mothers and maidens gathered for an introduction to the menstrual cycle. The mothers all shared what they had been told before they started their cycle, what they'd learned through their years of menstruation and what they wish they'd been told as young girls. The gathering helped to demystify the menstrual cycle for the girls, introducing the opportunity inherent in the cycle for renewal on the physical, emotional and spiritual planes and provided some healing and insights for their mothers.

Pregnancy Workshop Reunion

2010-05-13T04:16:00.000-07:00

The May 2009 Southern Highlands Pregnancy Workshop had their reunion, one year on. And what a beautiful thing it was! Beautiful mammas and their so, so scrumptious babies. Rachel returned from New Zealand for the reunion and Kristan from Tasmania. We sat in circle, called the Goddess, and gave thanks.

The women told their birth stories and shared what they learned about themselves from the experience and how they saw / felt this was the next piece for them in their life journey. It's such a revelation to view our childbirth experiences like this, bringing consciousness to the process and respect to our journeys.

Autumn Moonsong Workshops

2010-05-11T23:21:00.001-07:00

In April in Melbourne, eight of us gathered again around our central altar, co-created this time with talismans that each woman brought to signify where she was in her menstrual cycle and her life cycle.

The many faces of the Goddess.

And in May at my home in the Southern Highlands, Moonsong on Mother's Day. A special gathering blessed by the attendance of 2 beautiful teenagers.

May Moonsong Southern Highlands
The Moonstick Ceremony

Autumn Pregnancy - The Inner Journey Workshops

2010-05-10T03:29:00.000-07:00

In Autumn in Melbourne, 10 of us gathered around our central altar and shared a special time together. There were so many Goddess Eyes created those days, lots of women's wisdom shared and a deep connection to our inner knowing and the sacredness of pregnancy, birth and motherhood.

One of the subjects that we dialogued on was Orgasm as Teacher and Preparation for Childbirth. Much deep wisdom connecting a woman's experience of orgasm with clues for what she will need in labour and how her partner can best be with her at that time was shared. See my blog on http://www.kindredcommunity.com/ for some words on this subject:

http://www.kindredcommunity.com/blogs/guests/jane-collings/orgasm-as-teacher-and-preparation-for-childbirth/p/2039

Melbourne April Pregnancy - The Inner Journey Workshop

In May, at my home in the Southern Highlands, 12 of us gathered for a Pregnancy Workshop, 10 pregnant women, the majority with their first babies and 3 of the second time Mums returning for their 2nd Pregnancy Workshop. As well as the regular juicy stuff in a Pregnancy Workshop, this week we also sang with Ganga and belly danced with Monica.

May Southern Highlands Pregnancy - The Inner Journey Workshop

EarthDance Samhain Gathering 2010

2010-05-03T03:10:00.000-07:00

We honoured and celebrated the seasonal sabbat of Samhain, Hallowe'en, in the dark, under the starlit night and a waning moon. Dressed in scary costumes, the likely suspects arrived with carved pumpkins and photos of their departed loved ones for the altar.

We honoured our ancestors and the turning of the wheel of the year, scryed in the crystal ball, burned our fears away and then played traditional Hallowe'en games - eating donuts hanging from strings with no hands and bobbing for apples.

In the dark, with the campfire glowing we feasted on pumpkin and autumn vegetable soup, damper, sausages and pumpkin tarts. Then finally! - we got to handing out the treats.
Lots of fun.

The gathering was a perfect melding of suitably solemn and riotous fun. And we all were reminded of the inevitability of endings, of death, and our responsibility to be Present and in full awareness of the sweetness of life.

Blessed Be.

Pregnancy - The Inner Journey Workshop, Concord, February 2010

2010-03-02T21:59:00.000-08:00

On February 20th and 21st, at the Sydney Pregnancy Centre in Concord, the beautiful Temple cared for by the wonderful Kylie Hennessey, yoga teacher, Calmbirth Practitioner, Mother of 2, we gathered for a weekend Pregnancy The Inner Journey workshop.

It's such a blessing to create sacred space, sit in circle with each other and feel and know the sacredness of being a woman.

EarthDance Summer Solstice 2009

2010-01-14T01:53:00.000-08:00

Our EarthDance community honoured and celebrated Litha, the Summer Solstice, together last December. We made a big circle, 60 or so of us, all ages. We sang, danced, drummed, set our intentions and feasted. Kylie invoked the faeries and they were everywhere!

And, to align with the energy of the season, Midsummer, the peak of
the sun, the time of maximum potential, equivalent to the energy of a full moon and ovulation - each family visited the central altar, set down a flower, and gave thanks for what they wanted to see come to 'full bloom' in their lives.

And, as it usually does each time we gather to mark the sabbats, it
rained. As they say - "good ceremony brings rain!"

Moonsong Workshops November 2009

2009-11-26T00:42:00.000-08:00

The Moonsong workshop is like a dawning for so many women. The information shared is not new, its all actually going on in front of our eyes and in our bodies all the time, but our culture has suppressed it.

Going back in time to our menarche is an enlightening experience.

Themes and patterns in our lives become more obvious and so then does choice.

I have had the pleasure of facilitating the menarche ceremonies of two of the young women who came to the Southern Highlands Moonsong this November. In the role of midwife, 13 years ago I also held one of them, when she was 2, up under my arm so she could see over the pool edge, whilst guiding with my other hand, her baby sister, back toward her mother as she was being born in the water! Its a beautiful thing to have the babies coming to the workshops now as young women!

Moonsong was such a beautiful and inspiring workshop, I have been re-living it, talking about it, dreaming about it and embracing the cycles of my life. So - an enormous thank you for being such a wonderful facilitator and teacher... How lucky I feel to have met you.

Anna Foletta co-founder of Barefoot magazine

There is something magical and very familiar with women of different ages sitting together in a circle, sharing stories and experiences. Moonsong provided lots of opportunities to do that, in a gentle and supportive environment - plus so much more. The weekend with Jane was refreshing, informative and hugely inspiring.Through learning about the moon cycle and life cycles of a woman, I have got in touch with my inner womanand recognized how powerful She was. Yay! This is a workshop that every woman should do.

Natalia

Pregnancy - The Inner Journey Workshops November 2009

2009-11-26T00:34:00.000-08:00

The Pregnancy Workshops are an amazing experience.
Each time, with each different group, a multitude of wisdom comes forth.

I see my role as creating the sacred space, the container, and then the magic happens. Goddess, wise woman words come from each and everyone there.

And we are all reminded again, that we know what we need to know, that we have all the resources we need within us and that however our journey of pregnancy and birth unfolds, it will be perfect. Not perfect as in really really good, but perfect as in alignment with our life journey, the experience we need to have next to take us where we need to be.

Pregnancy - The Inner Journey Workshop, Templespace, Melbourne

November 2009

I just want to say thank you again for a lovely few days. I feel so enlightened to the possibilities of pregnancy and childbirth and I thank you for facilitating the workshop so beautifully. You are a special lady and I’m happy to know you.

Katie Krantz, pregnant

I have just attended my third 'Pregnancy-the Inner Journey' workshop. I am 30 weeks pregnant with my second child. The wisdom and insights shared and gained have been just as profound as my first workshop with Jane, which I attended prior to consciously conceiving my son. The nature of the sacred space that is created by Jane and the other women attending allows an incredible opportunity for insight and healing. I felt very safe, held and heard and so very blessed to witness the vulnerabilities and deep wisdom of the other women, together we all wove a web of love, support and understanding. I feel wonderfully empowered as a woman and in awe of the mystery and magic of pregnancy, birth, mothering....life !! I believe all women, pregnant or planning on being pregnant, would greatly benefit from this workshop!!
Emma

November 2009 Workshops

2009-11-26T00:17:00.000-08:00

November was a month full of workshops. Goddess Bless the energy of Spring and Summer!

We had a Pregnancy the Inner Journey Workshop and Moonsong in a beautiful venue called TempleSpace in Warburton, Melbourne.

And the same, the week later at my home in the Southern Highlands, NSW.

The Goddess Conference, Queensland, Beltane 2009

2009-11-05T04:26:00.001-08:00

"There are many Avalons"
She said through the mic, the embodiment of Vivienne addressing the circle of priestesses.

We'd gathered to honour the Magdalene at Beltane at Mermaid Waters in a Temple.
We remembered again.

The GAIA (Goddess Association In Australia) Conference was a beautiful gathering of beautiful women from all around Australia.

The conferences have been going for 6 years, the first 3 in Melbourne led by Avril Web and the last 3 on the Gold Coast led by Patricia Corner, High Priestess of the Pomegranate Grove.

There was much to be learned, healed, heard, honoured and celebrated.

I gave a session on Healing Previous Childbirth Experiences and as Shamanic Midwife facilitated a journey for the women visiting the five altars of Mary Magdalene - Voice, Truth, Self Love, Dedication and Maturity.

Magdalena was a scapegoat, desecrated by the patriarchal church, restory-ed into a whore. Before the lies were told, she was a priestess, in full connection with her power, an equal to Jesus. She represented feminine power that the Church sort to control and was made the sacrifice. And it was a long long time again before strength, power and equality to men was given back to women. And in some places it still hasn't happened. Known as the biggest cover up made by the Catholic Church, this story was the feature of an ABC Compass program recently and it was reported that not long ago the Catholic Church made a public apology for the lies they told about Mary Magdalene.

In the Temple we danced, sang, laughed and cried.
Hard to leave.

Replenished, refueled and realivened
I returned to Avalon.

EarthDance Beltane Camp Oct 2009

2009-11-05T03:59:00.001-08:00

Our community celebrated and honoured the seasonal sabbat of Beltane with a combination of ceremony, play, fun, learning and ancient rituals. We practiced chi exercises, geomancy, held rites of passage for 3 teenagers and wove a May Pole.

We call it a Moe pole now, since we do it in Movember. It was an especially beautiful Moe Pole this year, we'd protected ourselves from the rain by calling a dome of cover above us and sang Joy Joy Jooooyyyy as we wove the ribbons in an ancient ritual symbolizing the coming together of the masculine and the feminine, weaving our prayers and intentions into a beautifully wrapped rod of power connecting heaven and earth. A site to behold. As the dance finished a giant raven flew low over our heads around the whole circle.

The boys rite of passage, Secret Men's Business, culminated in the two boys painted up with ochre returning to the camp fire at dusk, holding blazing flares on high to light the Beltane fire. The women, girls and younger children dancing around the ring calling them in. Rich with symbolism our rituals express the Beltane energy.

The women held a Menarche ceremony, welcoming a new sister to womanhood. A beautiful sacred circle, all the women dressed in red, lavishing the maiden with wisdom, love and presents.

We closed the gathering, opened the circle, feeling such gratitude for how blessed we are to do this.

Moonsong Workshop Oct 2009, Cottage Point, Sydney, NSW

2009-10-29T04:55:00.000-07:00

Nine of us sat in sacred circle at Brigitte's beautiful temple home at Cottage Point between the Spring Equinox and Beltane.

The first morning we had a visitor, a three foot Goanna! and she blessed our gathering with her medicine of curiosity and power.

Herstory was a powerful reminder and awakening and reclaiming our feminine power together as we traveled through the cycle wheel, seeing the patterns and remembering what we knew, was a simple and profound process. Especially beautiful was our MoonStick ceremony on the sands of the bay.

“A women gathering is always a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with our selves and remember how special and unique females are, but Moonsong was much more than this: I discovered the little goddess that lives inside me and forms part of an ancient sisterhood perfectly synchronised with the rhythms of natural cycles, from the circle of life and death to the changes of seasons, the moon phases and our most inner being. Everything is interconnected and beautifully woven by the old wisdom of Herstory, which must be remembered and cherished by every woman to be kept alive. Jane guided us into our untold story with her sweetness and charm, she made us smile and laugh and cry and feel grateful for being part of such a wonderful universe. A life changing experience. HO!”
Martina, Manly NSW

Spring 2009 Moonsong Newsletter

2009-10-05T01:13:00.000-07:00

Hail Spring!

If you'd like me to email you a copy of my Spring Moonsong Newsletter, email me on janecollings@bigpond.com
There is an excerpt from Birthing With The Goddess in this newsletter.
Best wishes and love,
Jane

Winter Moonsong Newsletter

2009-06-24T17:16:00.000-07:00

Greetings this winter!
If you'd like me to email you a copy of my Winter Moonsong Newsletter, email me on janecollings@bigpond.com
Best wishes and love,
Jane

Autumn Moonsong Newletter

2009-03-12T14:12:00.000-07:00

Please email me on janecollings@bigpond.com if you'd like the Autumn Moonsong Newletter. its too big to put on here.
Jane
xx

2009-02-11T09:08:00.000-08:00

THIS IS THE SOUTHERN SUMMER 08-09 MOONSONG NEWSLETTER
THAT THE PREVIOUSLY POSTED ARTICLE APPEARED WITHIN.

THE SOUTHERN AUTUMN 09 MOONSONG NEWSLETTER WILL BE PUBLISHED VERY SOON.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO RECEIVE A PDF EMAIL VERSION OF THE NEWSLETTER PLEASE CONTACT ME
janecollings@bigpond.com

Moonsong Newsletter Number 5
Southern Summer
December 2008

Greetings and welcome to the fifth Moonsong Newsletter.
Her first birthday!
She had a rebirth in the Spring, as you do, with my son Sam, graphic designer extraordinaire, creating a different look from how he started her a year ago.
I thank Sam so much for his magnificent creativity.
As his Mother – the female personification of summer, the theme of this newsletter – I shall take a moment or many, to give thanks for my children – Sam, Ella, Ellie and Jackson and grandboy Bentley! and to give thanks for their healthy, happy lives.

Ive just been on a vision quest, Kym Kennedy, Paul (my husband) and I ‘did’ base camp. There were 6 courageous questers out there, 19 -28 years old, Kym’s son, our son, two of the others - a brother and sister, I’ve known since they were 5 and 7. It’s a blessed thing to see the great round of being, the children wanting to go on vision quest like they saw their parents do. I’m wise enough to know that what I choose as my path isn’t necessarily going to be what my children choose for theirs, so I give great thanks that it turned out this way. For Kym having her son ‘out there’ gave her the opportunity to go deeper into her own process about mothering. “I so desperately wanted to see him, to see if he was alright, however I ‘saw’ that to honour my child’s journey, I need to honour his needs rather than mine.”

SUMMER 2008
Contents
About the season – Summer
News
Feature article – Reclaiming Motherhood as a Spiritual Path by Re-Sacralising Pregnancy and Birth, a Midwife’s Musings
Recommendations

About the seasonSummer
By Patricia Monaghan

Let us go to the garden to understand.
Look: everything is full, fleshed out.
A few months ago, plants stood small and separate in the brown earth.
Now leaves press, rows crowd, into each other.
Summer is a season that seems but a moment. Everything seems to happen at once. Everything seems on the verge: peaches redden, corn tassles. Tomatoes fill the air with acridity, roses with their heady spice.
The sun is high and hot, the days are long and ripe.

This is the season of urgency. There is never enough time. Everything must be done now. This is the season of too muchness: too many blackberries, too much zucchini, too many tomatoes. It is a time of dense sensuality.
The air is syrupy on humid nights as peaches poach on the stove and steaming glass jars wait. The air is cool on the porch where breezes sway the vines as a stately full moon rises. It’s the season of gifts: potlucks and fairs, baskets of over ripe fruit, extra produce brought to friend’s homes.

Nature is in a splendour of excess. Even the garden’s villains are excessive: the starling flock taunting from the apricot tree, the myriad crawling pests, the slugs creeping through the evening’s cool.
The weather too is excessive. This is the time of violent winds that tear apart the harvest. Of sheeting rain that shreds and drowns. Of drought and failure: corn desiccated on the stalks, soil blowing in fierce grit winds.
Summer is bountiful. Summer is extreme. Earth is not kind nor gentle, save on those pale nights when even the sky holds still for a moment, and, through the hush of a sleeping world, the heart beat of time is heard.

So, too, for women, the summer of life. She is in her prime, full of energy.
Life is endless, endlessly crowded. It draws her here, there, here, with new desires and demands. Every sunrise is an opportunity, every noon a driving compulsion, every sunset a dawn into night’s possibilities. She is full and brash and busy. She takes and discards lovers; she produces children and art; she creates a self and home. She is exhilarated by her power, exhausted by possibility. She says yes to everything, everything grows and burgeons from her energy, she is a forcefield of affirmation.
But this is also the time of loses so huge they seem to stretch to the horizon: parents gone, children in pain, the world convulsed with war. Tornados of feeling sweep through her, this woman in summer years. Sometimes she feels a vast hunger, an enormous yearning, as though her soul can never be sated. Sometimes she feels as though beauty is a thin membrane stretched over pain. In the midst of excess, she feels wrenching want, for there is never enough: enough time, enough tears, enough love.
Summer comes to women more than once. It opens, a wave of green energy, driving us to productiveness and passion. Summer can explode upon a woman at any time, whenever the force of life rages through her, whenever life’s ache opens her eyes to the magic and beauty in each moment.
The magic of the season rests in transformation: seed into fruit, embryo into child, idea into reality. Daily the magic occurs, so fast we fail to see it. But within this flux of transformation, there are moments of perfect stillness: a hawk pivots perfectly in a tight sky circle; a star glows a single second before falling. Inside those moments, power lives. Power that is beyond the normal magic of growth and death. In these moments, time can reverse it’s self, all forms may change, all directions can flow into their opposites. This is the secret of witches and initiates: to recognise these moments and, falling into the vast space behind them, become timeless and free.
Go into the garden for understanding. Let power flow through you. Touch yourself. Touch each other. Transformation rests within you and among you. You are always transforming yourself. Just watch. Just watch.
From “Seasons of the Witch”

Summer is a joyous time, a full time, a busy time. And this summer right here, right now, has its own particular scent and flavour to it. The summer of ‘08/’09 the time when…. So many things! For me, one of the significant elements of this time is the heightened sense of the global community. The global environmental concerns, the world economic situation, the USA presidential elections, etc etc, and the influence these all have on each of us no matter where we live or what we do, how little or how much we have contributed to the situation personally, we’re all in this together. There feels to me, in the air, in the cosmic web that links us all, a sense of relief and hope. I hadn’t realised how worried I was about the future of so many things until I felt the relief and hope sweep through me that accompanied the election of Barack Obama as US President.

Don’t let summer busyness get in the way of honouring the season - the dance between the Earth and the Sun, the feminine and the masculine. You can easily make an altar to summer that you and your children, if they are there, can tend. Creating an altar is an ancient human practice that brings our focus to a particular thing/theme/event, in this case season, providing us with an opportunity to direct our attention to it, go deeper in relationship with it and ‘get’ whatever that deepening provides.

Choose a place that you will see often on your movements through your home or somewhere that particularly lends itself to being an altar. You’ll know the perfect place. Decorate it with special things you have and things from nature that make you think of and feel all the different aspects of summer. Perhaps light a candle on the altar each evening or morning, making particular wishes or setting intentions that are in keeping with the energy of summer – full potential, ‘full bloom-ness’. For example “I give thanks for…. being its full potential/ expression/manifestation.”

The stories that we’ve told ourselves over the eons to explain the way of things, the cycles, the great round, involve archetypal energies/characters and epic encounters with supernatural beings or events. In the Spring newsletter I spoke of the Greek story explaining the events that created the seasons. Spring was the jubilant reaction of Demeter, the Mother, to the return of Persephone, Her daughter, from the Underworld. The Greek story of Persephone’s abduction by Hades to the Underworld, is in fact, the patriarchal version of the story, part of the myths from the Classical, Hellenic period written down by Hesiod and Homer in the seventh century BC. The story that predates this, and originates from the matrifocal cultures of pre-Hellenic times (prior to1500BC, some 3500 years ago) says that Persephone chose to go to the Underworld to help the lost and wandering souls of the Dead, to receive and renew their souls, to help them on their journey.
Classicists and archaeologists have pieced together from the archaeological evidence and references to Goddess worship from as early as 25,000 BC and from the writings of the Classical Period starting around 1000BC, an image of our Pre-Hellenic past. They have deduced from the artefacts that have survived from that time that the people lived in harmony with each other, animals and nature. A celebration and respect for the mysteries of the body and spirit are depicted in the remnants of pottery, friezes and jewellery of that time. The stories of the later Classical period in Greece, the time of the ‘birth of democracy’ and patriarchy have very different themes of deceit, treachery, alienation and brutality.
The stories share that the seasons were a reflection of Demeter’s,grief at being apart from Her Daughter Persephone, and when Persephone returned each year from the Underworld, Demeter would rejoice and Spring, then Summer would bless the Earth and Her people. When Persephone left again Demeter would grieve for Her and the Earth would experience the seasonal reflection of that with autumn and winter.
For more information on this, research the works of Marija Gimbutas and read “Lost Goddesses of Early Greece” by Charlene Spretnak.
Thanks to Glenys Livingstone for reminding me to go deeper.

Goddess sculptures dated older than 20,000 BC

SUMMER’S FESTIVALS
The Summer Solstice or Litha, Midsummer, is the longest day and shortest night of the year. The Southern Hemisphere’s Summer Solstice is Sunday December 21st this year.
Our community will gather around a bonfire , we’ll go around the circle with each person expressing gratitude for whatever they are thankful for and then giving thanks for whatever they want to see come to ‘full bloom-ness’ or ‘fruiting’ in their lives. You could gather with friends to do this or do it with your family or by yourself. The idea is simply to align with the energy of the season, the energy that is - of full bloom, of fruiting, of maximum potential, of beauty, ripeness, full light and use this energy to fuel your life, your prayer, your intentions.
Lucy Cavendish in her wonderful book “White Magic – and inspiring guide to an enchanted life” adds that “Litha also is the feast of the fairy, and at this time, doors between the worlds open, and we can peek through and dwell for just a little time in the Otherworld of the fairies – a place where youth is everlasting, and enchantment, plenty, beauty, love and joy are ours for all time. For just a moment, Litha gives us a glimpse of life in all its perfection. It encourages us to seize the day, and to dwell completely in the magic of the present moment.”
We invoked a fairy ring with our children when they were young. The only preconceived idea they brought to the process was faith. Paul and I, in contrast, thought we were playing a game, but we got right into it. Well, ‘lo and behold’ as they say, I saw a fairy! Ellie, about 5 at the time, carried her hands gently cupped around a pink ball of glowing light to me saying, “Mummy look, a fairy.” We all saw it and we all saw it a little differently.

Summer Solstice 2006

In the first edition of the Moonsong Newsletter, last summer, 2007, I wrote
“Make a ‘wish list’ and review it next summer solstice. Be careful what you ask for! And remember wishes don’t always come true how you might expect them to!”
Did you? What’s happened?

Lammas or Lughnasadh on February 2nd 2009 is the second summer festival. Lammas is the first of three harvest festivals. It’s the half way point between the Summer Solstice and the Autumn Equinox. At Lammas the fruits of Summer are ready, its a time to celebrate the bounty of life.

A wonderful way to honour this time is to gather your family and friends around a bounty-ess cornicopia-like feast and give thanks for all that life brings to you, for the harvests of your efforts and the gifts of the Earth.
A few good things to contemplate and discuss at that feast:
What has your year long growth cycle produced?
What have been the ‘fruits’ of your labour?
What worked to produce a bounty-ess harvest? What didn’t?

Our metaphoric harvest, as well as our literal harvest, needs to sustain us all winter whilst nothing grows and the seeds of the new lay dormant in the Earth, the time of inward reflection and contemplation. The harvest needs to sustain us well into spring when the new shoots will grow. At Lammas, we have the opportunity to assess the fruits of our labour, and see whether our spring and summer activities of this year, in the metaphorical garden of ourselves, in fact yielded, and will yield further into autumn, the harvest we wanted and hoped for. Perhaps we need to learn new ‘gardening techniques’, again metaphorically speaking, for a greater, more sustaining harvest next year.

Notice how you feel the energy of this part of the summer season affecting you. Notice what you need to notice, learn what you need to learn, change what you need to change and heal what you need to heal. That’s the opportunity, that’s the gift.

The harvest festivals continue into Autumn. The seeds from these harvests will go back into the Earth, and be what will be reborn in the Spring. This happens literally in the garden and metaphorically in our lives. Perhaps if you’re not happy with the ‘seeds’ your current harvest will create, then you might choose to plant different ‘seeds’ for your new growth cycle next Spring. Make new plans, start new ways so you don’t repeat anything that didn’t work so well from the last cycle.
This same cycle and opportunity occurs each lunar cycle and menstrual cycle.
So much opportunity!

News
The Father’s Evening reunion was a testimonial to the benefit of these gatherings. The fathers who came loved sharing their birth stories and were keen to be involved in future Father’s Evenings as the ‘old boys’ to offer their support to the new Dads.

“I realised during the labour, that all I had to do was be, be there, be me.” Phil

“Being the father, is the greatest role that I play as a man. It’s a wonderful, life changing experience to become a father, to be at the birth is magical.” Michael

“I loved the birth. There was no past or future just the moment.
The birth was my complete world. It didn't allow any distractions but just
the process and the excitement of what was to come.” Nick

Phil and Charlie

The School of Shamanic Midwifery (SSM) will be commencing in October 2009 and at the time of writing this, its full and I’m taking bookings for the SSM2 program (Oct 2010-Nov 2011)! Each yearly program will have a maximum of 15 students. The first program, SSM1, will be held in a combination of venues in Southern Highlands, NSW and Melbourne, Victoria. Current plans have the SSM2 to be in a combination of Southern Highlands and Northern NSW/Queensland venues.

The program, which runs over a year, involves Moonsong and Pregnancy – The Inner Journey Workshops, weekend gatherings around specific moon phases and a vision quest. The students will come to know and explore the shamanic journey, experience the shamanic journey and prepare to facilitate the shamanic journey, especially in the realm of pregnancy, childbirth and mothering.

We had a magnificent Earthdance Beltane weekend. Four beautiful maidens had their menarche ceremony and we danced a thrilling Moe Pole! Moe Pole? A May Pole in Moevember!

Gabrielle, Elly, Matilda, Amellia

Alison and Greg

NOVEMBER PREGNANCY WORKSHOP

The most recent pregnancy workshop was a group made of an even split of pregnant women and midwives and doulas. T’was a lovely three days in my lounge room. I so love the magic that a group of women can create. We journeyed well together, women from different cultures, backgrounds and experiences, creating a sacred circle to explore, heal and celebrate pregnancy, birth and motherhood.

Dearest Jane,
Just to say a big thank you for the most amazing three days, the energy was magnificent.
It has been the catalyst for an inner revolution and a reconnectedness that has been healing to my heart and spirit, beyond words. I have reconnected with my own pulse, my rhythm, my flow and my baby and I journey together and weave the magic.
I feel like I have been rebirthed, with the Divine Feminine as midwife. Thank you for carrying and living Her work I feel so blessed by your presence in my life and the circle we women have created during the workshop.
Love and blessings, looking forward to the Summer newsletter...
Jaia xx

Herewith an interesting piece by Marianne Williamson about the recent American election.

YES WE DID
By Marianne Williamson

America has had a non-violent revolution.

As long as there are historians writing about the United States, this moment of fundamental re-alignment of our national purpose will be remembered, pored over and analyzed. It will be seen as one of the shining points along the evolutionary arc of the American story. Yet it will never submit itself to being summed up in a nice little package that reason alone can understand.

It's been noted before that Americans get excited about politics every forty years. Then, in the words of comedian Will Rogers, "We have to go sleep it off."

We were certainly excited in the l960's. And this is 2008; exactly forty years since the most dramatic and violent year of the Sixties decade: the year when both Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. were literally killed before our eyes.

At that point, a generation of young people -- looking much like the youthful army so out in full force today, only grungier -- marched in the streets to repudiate an oppressive system and to try to stop an unjust war. And then bullets stopped us. The shots that killed the Kennedy's and King carried a loud, unspoken message for all of us: that we were to go home now, that we were to do whatever we wanted within the private sector, yet leave the public sector to whomever wanted it so much that they were willing to kill for it. And for all intents and purposes, we did as we were told.

According to ancient Asian philosophers, history moves not in a circle but in a spiral. Whether as an individual or as a nation, whatever lessons we were presented once and failed to learn will come back again but in a different form. For the generation of the Sixties and for our children, the lessons of that time -- as well as its hopes and dreams and idealism -- came back in 2008.

During our forty years in the desert, we learned many things. Then, we marched in the streets; this time, we marched to the polls. Then, we shouted, "Hell no, we won't go!" This time, we shouted, "Yes, we can." Then, we were so angry that our anger consumed us. This time, we made a more compassionate humanity the means by which we sought our goal as well as the goal itself.

In the words of Gloria Steinem, "I feel like our future has come back." And indeed it has. For in the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., "No lie can last forever." What Bobby Kennedy tried to do, and was killed for trying; what Martin Luther King tried to do, and was killed for trying; what the students at Kent state were trying to protest, and were killed for daring to; Barack Obama and his army of millions of idealists with the audacity to hope have now succeeded at doing.

Praise God. Praise God.

And that praise to God didn't just go out last night, when Obama's election to the Presidency was finally achieved. That praise was part of what allowed the waters to part here in the first place. Millions of Americans have been deeply aware that this kind of historic and fundamentally positive effort has not gone well in the recent past, and the spiritual understanding of this generation of Americans -- an understanding not yet fully formed forty years ago -- created an invisible light around the Obama campaign. How many people over the last twenty-one months have posted, in their own way, angels to Obama's left and angels to his right, angels in front of him and angels behind him, angels above him and angels below him? I know I have, and so has everyone I know. Hopefully we will continue to do so.

The Obama phenomenon did not come out of nowhere. It emerged as much from our story as from his -- as much from our yearning for meaning as from his ambition to be President; as much from our determination to achieve collective redemption as from his determination to achieve an individual accomplishment. And those who fail to recognize the invisible powers at work here -- who see the external drama of politics yet fail to discern the profound forces that moved mountains by moving the American heart -- well, they're just like Bob Dylan's Thin Man to whom he sang, "You don't know what's going on here, do you, Mr. Jones?"

Back then, Mr. Jones didn't know what was going on, but many of us did. We knew what was going on then and we knew what needed to happen; we simply weren't mature enough and we were too wounded then, as people and as a culture, to pull it off.

This time, we both knew and we did. We knew who we had to become and we knew what we had to do. The violent American revolution of 1776 entailed separating from another country. The non-violent revolution of 2008 -- a non-violent revolution that did not quite fail, yet also did not quite succeed in the l960's -- has entailed separating from who we used to be.

In the l960's, we wanted peace but we ourselves were angry. This time, after hearing Gandhi's call that we must be the change we want to see happen in the world, we came to our political efforts with an understanding that we must cast violence from our hearts and minds if we are to cast it from our world; that we must try to love our enemies as well as our friends; and that when a genius of world-historic proportions emerges among us, we cannot and we must not fail to do everything humanly and spiritually possible to support him. For his sake…and for ours.

Having gone to a higher place within ourselves, a higher level of leadership began to emerge among us. A higher level of leader now having emerged among us, he calls us to an even higher place within ourselves. And from this spiraling dance, these two forces together can and will, as Obama has told us, truly change the world. Having moved one mountain, we will now go about the work of removing the ones that remain.

With God's help, yes we can. Yes we did. And yes we will.

--- by Marianne Williamson,
author of Healing the Soul of America Visit www.marianne.com

Feature Article
Reclaiming Motherhood As A Spiritual Path By Re-Sacralising Pregnancy And Birth
A Midwife’s Musings

A spiritual path is a journey concerned with the sacred, the spirit, the soul.
A spiritual path is a journey to wholeness.
A unique journey for each soul, each life time.
It is a journey of self discovery, trust and faith.
Whilst each person’s journey is unique, there are certain common experiences, specific events and particular times during our lives, that have profound effects on us, creating signposts on our spiritual path.
Pregnancy, birth and motherhood are such times.

Pregnancy is always the beginning of another phase of a woman’s spiritual journey.
During each pregnancy a woman has the opportunity to come to know her intuition, her inner wisdom, her inner strength, her connection with all women and her divine nature - all essential prerequisites for mothering.

“Since finding out I was pregnant I’ve had a blossoming of my heart. I feel more alive and heart centred, its really strong. I’m so much more sensitive, I saw a dead wombat on the side of the road, which I often see, and I couldn’t stop crying. In the usual situation of seeing a dead wombat I get out of my car, drag the wombat off the road and check the pouch for babies, this time I just sat in the car crying and crying.”
Patting her swelling belly she says “Motherhood is making me feel whole and connected to my spiritual responsibility which is mothering, being mother and knowing mother from the inside. Because there is another being here, that I am responsible for, I’m being more mindful, more careful. And I feel myself being so much more mindful and careful of all children. I feel a connection with the Goddess, the Earth, because I feel like I am becoming whole. It’s as if I have ‘stepped into myself’, it feels very strong..” Jaia

Pregnancy is often the first time that a woman, and a man, notice that there’s more going on than they can see! For many, pregnancy brings up the important spiritual questions – Where does life come from? Where does life go? Why do certain things happen? Pregnancy draws a woman inside herself. There is a compulsory shift from the rational, left brain, masculine approach to the non-rational, right brain, feminine way. This becomes an invitation into her inner world and a pathway to deeper knowing and understanding, part of her spiritual journey. Or as it is for some who don’t make the shift, evidence of a hormonally induced madness, an inconvenience.

“I’ve always been a bit of a follower, wishy washy, drifting along. I didn’t step up and make the big decisions, I was never the instigator of things. Now that I am pregnant I recognise my inner power, its been a journey of discovery, finding faith in my own power and stepping up to that therefore taking responsibility for myself and my baby.
Pregnancy has awakened in me more faith in femininity and faith in myself as a woman. I’ve had faith in other things about myself for example my intellectual side, I know I can do that. Where as using my intuition instead of my intellect hasn’t been so comfortable, that’s been a big part of my journey. So now I am embracing this feminine way, its what I need to be right now. I challenge myself to use my left brain, but when I do, it doesn’t satisfy me. It does in a lot of ways but something is missing. I see the part of me that is right brained, doing university study, as the part of me seeking approval. Coming from my left brain, no one says well done, its different. So being pregnant has challenged my right brain focus. Will I be that again? maybe, but it will be totally different, more spiritually based, then something won’t be missing.” Mel

The spiritual potential of pregnancy, birth and motherhood challenges the dominant patriarchal paradigm. The spiritual aspects of the experience - finding one’s inner ‘all knowing’ wisdom, connecting with the divine essence of the baby, feeling the oneness of all life - don’t fit with the premise that pregnancy and birth are medical events. Today reproduction is mostly viewed as a medical speciality, with lots of technology and experts. The medical approach to pregnancy and birth, with its fear based beliefs and attitudes, with its multitude of tests and specialised technology has eroded away any trust a woman may have in her body and its natural biological processes for many generations. This has resulted in the dominance of the masculine way of thinking and being around pregnancy, birth and mothering. For most women today, pregnancy and the birth process, originally sacred women’s business, are feared, controlled and devoid of spirituality. Most women and men go along with this. This has and still weakens our link to the Earth, to Nature and to our inner nature. Since pregnancy and birth are the rite of passage into motherhood, what happens during pregnancy and birth choreographs a woman’s mothering and this of course affects her children, her children’s children, our future.

Mothering today for many children, often from six weeks of age, is outsourced. While the mother gets back to work, real work, paid work, and she is replaced by childcare workers who raise her children. Trapped on the materialistic, capitalist treadmill, we think we have to return to paid work after birthing our babies or we wouldn’t be able to have this, that or the other thing. The mothering instincts of many have been overridden by a yearning for the dollar. Already we are seeing the ramifications of institutionalised child care and the replaced mother and I dare say we shall for some time.

A group of 1364 children who had regular childcare from birth to school age were assessed through to their fifth grade year. Many of them were prone to disruptive classroom behaviour as they grew older. Astonishingly enough, these trends were present when any care was given for at least 10 hours per week by anybody but the mother, including the father, grandparents and other relatives! Types of disruptive behaviour observed included: bragging, arguing, cruelty, destruction of others property, disobedient at school, fighting, lying, cheating, screaming.

What happens in the early years of one’s life, how one is mothered, teaches one about love and determines the underlying attitudes one will have toward being loved and loving others. Animal mothers that are numbed at birth reject their babies and won’t care for them. Animal studies link maternal deprivation with abnormal brain development that leads to depression and violence.
Rates of postnatal depression and Attention Deficit Disorder grow alongside rates of intervention in pregnancy and childbirth. According to the WHO, 85% of births should be natural, in Australia, a typical example of the modern world, around 25% are and yet most of these actually aren’t because almost every woman has her placenta unnaturally taken from her.

“The future destiny of the child is always the work of the mother” Napoleon Boneparte

Pregnancy and birth have many layers of very specific biological purpose that are intended to ensure survival of our species. A pregnancy is meant to show a woman how amazing she is to be able to grow another human being, her own baby, inside her, without even having to think about how to, so she can trust in life and her ability to create life, the feminine. Birth is meant to switch on and awaken the instinctual mammalian mothering characteristics that will ensure that the mother will protect and care for her baby.
Mess with this and we see for example, women willingly handing over their babies at their most vulnerable ages to others for their care, whilst they pursue the dollar or a career or whatever.

All this is no surprise when you know the effects of institutionalised pregnancy and birth care. The way women are treated during pregnancy and birth subconsciously brainwashes them to believe that others, trained others, will be better able to care for their babies than they would, just like they - the trained ones – were able to understand her pregnant and birthing body better than she was. Dictated to by the clock and specific homogenised routines, external methods of measurement and control, she rarely has the chance to find or notice her inner wisdom, her own rhythm. Hospital midwives and doctors rely on the machines more than a woman’s intuition or feelings. When no time is made to read the signposts on her spiritual journey through pregnancy and birth, she may not notice the psychological obstacles that come up for her, presenting in various ways to get her attention (eg emotions, physical symptoms) and so she doesn’t get the chance to acknowledge, heal and then let them go. Pregnancy and birth are meant to take you into your depths, because that’s where you find who you really are. This is one of the key spiritual opportunities. In the process of shedding the outer layers of patterned behaviour, socialised and culturally accepted behaviours and the belief systems that support them, a woman finds out the raw real stuff of which she is made, what she’s capable of and what her purpose is. This is the spiritual journey of pregnancy and birth, preparation for motherhood. When birth isn’t considered sacred and the hugely influential pathway to motherhood, then the spiritual journey is missed and motherhood becomes the expression of this, one way or another. And the state of the Earth and our culture’s future will also reflect this.

“Motherhood started me on my conscious life journey – I thought, there’s more than just me now, I need to ‘step up’ “ Pip

If we see motherhood as a spiritual path, knowing that our babies have chosen us as their mother, that we made deals in ‘heaven’ with each other, then trust and deep respect are more likely to prevail for all aspects of the journey and those on it.
As I said in a speech at my recent 50th birthday party, specifically to my children who had each just spoken beautiful words to me: “Thank you for helping me be the best mother I can be. Being a mother is a very special thing, it’s a life, it’s a devotional practice, it’s an honour. And I thank each of you – Sam, Ella, Ellie and Jackson, for choosing me.”

History tells us of another time when the mother baby relationship was messed with.
By the 1700’s in England and Europe, most of the wise women and midwives had either gone into hiding or been burnt at the stake as witches. Women’s knowledge of the cycles and the reproductive freedom this gave her had been labelled as witchcraft, a killable offence. Women were told that they must use no contraception, and never deny their husband’s sexual urges. Many families had many children. ‘Women were taught that their children belonged not to them but to God, this eroded the instinctual maternal possessiveness that best fosters good childcare and mothers often left their unwanted babies in God’s care. With so many unwanted children there was the advent of Foundling Hospitals where the nurses, nicknamed the “killing nurses” were expected to do the State’s dirty work and make sure the unwanted children didn’t survive long. The first Foundling Hospital in London admitted 15,000 infants in the four years of 1756-60. In Europe the death rate for infants in Foundling Hospitals was 80-90% in their first year of life.

Today, women are told that their babies have rights that override what ever they think is right for their baby, women are threatened and forced to do certain things and procedures they don’t agree with or face having their children taken from them. The legal profession is facilitating children suing their mothers for pregnancy related issues, insurance companies are offering mothers insurance against pregnancy and birth complications for the baby. All this serves only to further erode any trust in the birth process and the motherbaby, mamatoto, connection, which then undermines the most important relationship of all, mother and baby. When the mother and baby relationship is disturbed no one wins.

Mother Nature, the Goddess, can help women reclaim pregnancy, birth and mothering as the spiritual path that it is. It is our essential nature to be mothers. It is what we know at our core to do, to be. Do your research when you are pregnant and don’t get talked into things you don’t want to do. Stand together with other women and stand up for your rights during birth. Find a homebirth midwife. Call the Goddess to guide, protect, support and nurture you. Gather together with other mothers and talk about your spiritual path of motherhood. Help each other see the blessings. I facilitate a weekly mother’s circle, we sit in a circle with the children coming and going. A talking bowl is passed around and each woman answers the questions: Where am I in my cycle? How am I experiencing that? How have I been challenged this week? What do I have to be grateful for this week? Probably one of the most profound effects this experience continues to have is women noticing how shared the experiences of motherhood are and how they can help each other, mostly simply by listening.

I have observed, guided and participated in women becoming mothers many, many times. And what I have seen is that the supported woman, the one who is encouraged to access her spiritual path of motherhood, finds it, lives it and we all benefit. Just as it ‘takes a village to raise a child’ it takes a community to hold, honour and respect the mother so she can be all she can be, living the spiritual path of motherhood. As guardians of the spiritual path of motherhood supporting each other, we “save the earth, one birth at a time.”

A Midwife’s Musings
That night I watched you transform from maiden to mother
Your witness, your guide.
I saw the Earth split open and swallow you whole.
You became as if Her
All Her
Always Her.
The Mother Goddess, the One we all know.
The One we all came from.
Great Mother of us all.
The birth force moved through you
A primal energy
You were almighty
You Great Mother.
All One.
And She’s still there, always there, never gone.
She speaks in your ear,
She speaks through your mouth,
Always there.
You show us faith sweet Mother
You teach us trust
You are the spiritual path.

Faith and trust are fundamentals of a spiritual path so that you keep going when the going gets tough. Faith and trust in the feminine are the fundamentals of the spiritual path of motherhood and the religion of being female.
I give thanks for each woman giving birth from her highest potential.
I give thanks for the honouring of Motherhood as a spiritual path.
Blessed Be

Pip, Cassarne and Kylie

Recommendations

I’ve added a link on my website to Persia Wildwood’s “Astrology of the Moon”.
I thoroughly recommend her reading for a deeper look at your moon sign and the lunar phase you were born under.
http://www.astrologyofthemoon.com.au

If you haven’t already, read “A New Earth” by Eckhart Tolle

“The Secret Pleasures of Menopause” by Christiane Northrup MD
This is a great book, and would make a fabulous present!

“Nature, Nurture, and the Power of Love” a DVD of Bruce Lipton
I’ve loved hearing the wisdom of Bruce Lipton, its another coming together of science and spirituality, evidence!

Love and Blessings to you all and have a fun summer,
Jane

janecollings@bigpond.com
www.moonsong.com.au
www.placentalremedy.com

Reclaiming Motherhood As A Spiritual Path By Re-Sacralising Pregnancy And Birth

2009-02-06T08:34:00.000-08:00

Reclaiming Motherhood As A Spiritual Path By Re-Sacralising Pregnancy And Birth
A Midwife’s Musings

A spiritual path is a journey concerned with the sacred, the spirit, the soul.
A spiritual path is a journey to wholeness.
A unique journey for each soul, each life time.
It is a journey of self discovery, trust and faith.
Whilst each person’s journey is unique, there are certain common experiences, specific events and particular times during our lives, that have profound effects on us, creating signposts on our spiritual path.
Pregnancy, birth and motherhood are such times.

Pregnancy is always the beginning of another phase of a woman’s spiritual journey.
During each pregnancy a woman has the opportunity to come to know her intuition, her inner wisdom, her inner strength, her connection with all women and her divine nature - all essential prerequisites for mothering.

“Since finding out I was pregnant I’ve had a blossoming of my heart. I feel more alive and heart centred, its really strong. I’m so much more sensitive, I saw a dead wombat on the side of the road, which I often see, and I couldn’t stop crying. In the usual situation of seeing a dead wombat I get out of my car, drag the wombat off the road and check the pouch for babies, this time I just sat in the car crying and crying.”
Patting her swelling belly she says “Motherhood is making me feel whole and connected to my spiritual responsibility which is mothering, being mother and knowing mother from the inside. Because there is another being here, that I am responsible for, I’m being more mindful, more careful. And I feel myself being so much more mindful and careful of all children. I feel a connection with the Goddess, the Earth, because I feel like I am becoming whole. It’s as if I have ‘stepped into myself’, it feels very strong..” Jaia

Pregnancy is often the first time that a woman, and a man, notice that there’s more going on than they can see! For many, pregnancy brings up the important spiritual questions – Where does life come from? Where does life go? Why do certain things happen? Pregnancy draws a woman inside herself. There is a compulsory shift from the rational, left brain, masculine approach to the non-rational, right brain, feminine way. This becomes an invitation into her inner world and a pathway to deeper knowing and understanding, part of her spiritual journey. Or as it is for some who don’t make the shift, evidence of a hormonally induced madness, an inconvenience.

“I’ve always been a bit of a follower, wishy washy, drifting along. I didn’t step up and make the big decisions, I was never the instigator of things. Now that I am pregnant I recognise my inner power, its been a journey of discovery, finding faith in my own power and stepping up to that therefore taking responsibility for myself and my baby.
Pregnancy has awakened in me more faith in femininity and faith in myself as a woman. I’ve had faith in other things about myself for example my intellectual side, I know I can do that. Where as using my intuition instead of my intellect hasn’t been so comfortable, that’s been a big part of my journey. So now I am embracing this feminine way, its what I need to be right now. I challenge myself to use my left brain, but when I do, it doesn’t satisfy me. It does in a lot of ways but something is missing. I see the part of me that is right brained, doing university study, as the part of me seeking approval. Coming from my left brain, no one says well done, its different. So being pregnant has challenged my right brain focus. Will I be that again? maybe, but it will be totally different, more spiritually based, then something won’t be missing.” Mel

The spiritual potential of pregnancy, birth and motherhood challenges the dominant patriarchal paradigm. The spiritual aspects of the experience - finding one’s inner ‘all knowing’ wisdom, connecting with the divine essence of the baby, feeling the oneness of all life - don’t fit with the premise that pregnancy and birth are medical events. Today reproduction is mostly viewed as a medical speciality, with lots of technology and experts. The medical approach to pregnancy and birth, with its fear based beliefs and attitudes, with its multitude of tests and specialised technology has eroded away any trust a woman may have in her body and its natural biological processes for many generations. This has resulted in the dominance of the masculine way of thinking and being around pregnancy, birth and mothering. For most women today, pregnancy and the birth process, originally sacred women’s business, are feared, controlled and devoid of spirituality. Most women and men go along with this. This has and still weakens our link to the Earth, to Nature and to our inner nature. Since pregnancy and birth are the rite of passage into motherhood, what happens during pregnancy and birth choreographs a woman’s mothering and this of course affects her children, her children’s children, our future.

Mothering today for many children, often from six weeks of age, is outsourced. While the mother gets back to work, real work, paid work, and she is replaced by childcare workers who raise her children. Trapped on the materialistic, capitalist treadmill, we think we have to return to paid work after birthing our babies or we wouldn’t be able to have this, that or the other thing. The mothering instincts of many have been overridden by a yearning for the dollar. Already we are seeing the ramifications of institutionalised child care and the replaced mother and I dare say we shall for some time.

A group of 1364 children who had regular childcare from birth to school age were assessed through to their fifth grade year. Many of them were prone to disruptive classroom behaviour as they grew older. Astonishingly enough, these trends were present when any care was given for at least 10 hours per week by anybody but the mother, including the father, grandparents and other relatives! Types of disruptive behaviour observed included: bragging, arguing, cruelty, destruction of others property, disobedient at school, fighting, lying, cheating, screaming.

What happens in the early years of one’s life, how one is mothered, teaches one about love and determines the underlying attitudes one will have toward being loved and loving others. Animal mothers that are numbed at birth reject their babies and won’t care for them. Animal studies link maternal deprivation with abnormal brain development that leads to depression and violence.
Rates of postnatal depression and Attention Deficit Disorder grow alongside rates of intervention in pregnancy and childbirth. According to the WHO, 85% of births should be natural, in Australia, a typical example of the modern world, around 25% are and yet most of these actually aren’t because almost every woman has her placenta unnaturally taken from her.

“The future destiny of the child is always the work of the mother” Napoleon Boneparte

Pregnancy and birth have many layers of very specific biological purpose that are intended to ensure survival of our species. A pregnancy is meant to show a woman how amazing she is to be able to grow another human being, her own baby, inside her, without even having to think about how to, so she can trust in life and her ability to create life, the feminine. Birth is meant to switch on and awaken the instinctual mammalian mothering characteristics that will ensure that the mother will protect and care for her baby.
Mess with this and we see for example, women willingly handing over their babies at their most vulnerable ages to others for their care, whilst they pursue the dollar or a career or whatever.

All this is no surprise when you know the effects of institutionalised pregnancy and birth care. The way women are treated during pregnancy and birth subconsciously brainwashes them to believe that others, trained others, will be better able to care for their babies than they would, just like they - the trained ones – were able to understand her pregnant and birthing body better than she was. Dictated to by the clock and specific homogenised routines, external methods of measurement and control, she rarely has the chance to find or notice her inner wisdom, her own rhythm. Hospital midwives and doctors rely on the machines more than a woman’s intuition or feelings. When no time is made to read the signposts on her spiritual journey through pregnancy and birth, she may not notice the psychological obstacles that come up for her, presenting in various ways to get her attention (eg emotions, physical symptoms) and so she doesn’t get the chance to acknowledge, heal and then let them go. Pregnancy and birth are meant to take you into your depths, because that’s where you find who you really are. This is one of the key spiritual opportunities. In the process of shedding the outer layers of patterned behaviour, socialised and culturally accepted behaviours and the belief systems that support them, a woman finds out the raw real stuff of which she is made, what she’s capable of and what her purpose is. This is the spiritual journey of pregnancy and birth, preparation for motherhood. When birth isn’t considered sacred and the hugely influential pathway to motherhood, then the spiritual journey is missed and motherhood becomes the expression of this, one way or another. And the state of the Earth and our culture’s future will also reflect this.

“Motherhood started me on my conscious life journey – I thought, there’s more than just me now, I need to ‘step up’ “ Pip

If we see motherhood as a spiritual path, knowing that our babies have chosen us as their mother, that we made deals in ‘heaven’ with each other, then trust and deep respect are more likely to prevail for all aspects of the journey and those on it.
As I said in a speech at my recent 50th birthday party, specifically to my children who had each just spoken beautiful words to me: “Thank you for helping me be the best mother I can be. Being a mother is a very special thing, it’s a life, it’s a devotional practice, it’s an honour. And I thank each of you – Sam, Ella, Ellie and Jackson, for choosing me.”

History tells us of another time when the mother baby relationship was messed with.
By the 1700’s in England and Europe, most of the wise women and midwives had either gone into hiding or been burnt at the stake as witches. Women’s knowledge of the cycles and the reproductive freedom this gave her had been labelled as witchcraft, a killable offence. Women were told that they must use no contraception, and never deny their husband’s sexual urges. Many families had many children. ‘Women were taught that their children belonged not to them but to God, this eroded the instinctual maternal possessiveness that best fosters good childcare and mothers often left their unwanted babies in God’s care. With so many unwanted children there was the advent of Foundling Hospitals where the nurses, nicknamed the “killing nurses” were expected to do the State’s dirty work and make sure the unwanted children didn’t survive long. The first Foundling Hospital in London admitted 15,000 infants in the four years of 1756-60. In Europe the death rate for infants in Foundling Hospitals was 80-90% in their first year of life.

Today, women are told that their babies have rights that override what ever they think is right for their baby, women are threatened and forced to do certain things and procedures they don’t agree with or face having their children taken from them. The legal profession is facilitating children suing their mothers for pregnancy related issues, insurance companies are offering mothers insurance against pregnancy and birth complications for the baby. All this serves only to further erode any trust in the birth process and the motherbaby, mamatoto, connection, which then undermines the most important relationship of all, mother and baby. When the mother and baby relationship is disturbed no one wins.

Mother Nature, the Goddess, can help women reclaim pregnancy, birth and mothering as the spiritual path that it is. It is our essential nature to be mothers. It is what we know at our core to do, to be. Do your research when you are pregnant and don’t get talked into things you don’t want to do. Stand together with other women and stand up for your rights during birth. Find a homebirth midwife. Call the Goddess to guide, protect, support and nurture you. Gather together with other mothers and talk about your spiritual path of motherhood. Help each other see the blessings. I facilitate a weekly mother’s circle, we sit in a circle with the children coming and going. A talking bowl is passed around and each woman answers the questions: Where am I in my cycle? How am I experiencing that? How have I been challenged this week? What do I have to be grateful for this week? Probably one of the most profound effects this experience continues to have is women noticing how shared the experiences of motherhood are and how they can help each other, mostly simply by listening.

I have observed, guided and participated in women becoming mothers many, many times. And what I have seen is that the supported woman, the one who is encouraged to access her spiritual path of motherhood, finds it, lives it and we all benefit. Just as it ‘takes a village to raise a child’ it takes a community to hold, honour and respect the mother so she can be all she can be, living the spiritual path of motherhood. As guardians of the spiritual path of motherhood supporting each other, we “save the earth, one birth at a time.”

A Midwife’s Musings
That night I watched you transform from maiden to mother
Your witness, your guide.
I saw the Earth split open and swallow you whole.
You became as if Her
All Her
Always Her.
The Mother Goddess, the One we all know.
The One we all came from.
Great Mother of us all.
The birth force moved through you
A primal energy
You were almighty
You Great Mother.
All One.
And She’s still there, always there, never gone.
She speaks in your ear,
She speaks through your mouth,
Always there.
You show us faith sweet Mother
You teach us trust
You are the spiritual path.

Faith and trust are fundamentals of a spiritual path so that you keep going when the going gets tough. Faith and trust in the feminine are the fundamentals of the spiritual path of motherhood and the religion of being female.
I give thanks for each woman giving birth from her highest potential.
I give thanks for the honouring of Motherhood as a spiritual path.
Blessed Be