THIS IS THE COUNTER CULTURE TO SOCIAL MEDIA.
This is real connection.
Those of you who have followed my story will know I moved to Wales with “Community” as my goal…and interestingly along side my failed community venture (read more about that here!) I’ve come to see that I did manage to create community…..in the Red Tent, in our Mother and Daughter Lodges, in our Menopause groups and in our friendships…
This is the reason why I have stepped back from the workshops I was previously running for Celebrating Menarche, Womb Wisdom, Cycle Awareness, Moon Pause – as I step more into empowering women to know they can do these for themselves!
I wrote my Menarche book when I was pregnant with my third child as I was planning to step back more from workshops and focus on being a mum- and I had come to realise the mothers coming to my workshops needed to hold their girls themselves, with their friends and community- why come and be celebrated by a group of strangers when you can create your own beautiful day, with friends and family, your way, with your own ideas and your daughters input?
We all have the ability to step up and reclaim our rites of passage.
And when I witness these ceremonies, held by friends and family there is so much more emotion, authenticity, as each woman steps forward with a gift or blessing- they are women who have known this person most of their lives, they can honour them with real feeling, a remembering story, a witnessing story.
In our mother and daughter lodges we had gathered for a couple of years before our girls started their moontime, so we had built relationship, we had talked many, many times about celebrating them, and when the time came, witnessing each girl being seen, really seen in their beauty and their gifts, their shining faces as we painted them with ochre, sang and spoke of their inner truths that we knew, because we had been a part of their lives and their growth…this is community, this is celebration, this is sacred!
It’s the same for the Moon Pause women- as part of my Moon Pause Journey, I did a vision quest and fast in my friends woods and as I left to enter 4 days of solitude, I put out the call for my women’s community to greet me on my last day, to witness me as I emerged from my quest, to hear the story of my days, to bring me gentle nourishing food, so we could feast and ground together.
As they sang to me and washed my feet, listened to my insights, and mirrored my story, I sobbed for I felt seen, really seen, possibly for one of the first times in my adult life.
For when we gather together in community, we SEE each other, we know our gifts, we see who is the one who knows her herbs, who is the one who has healed this and that, who is the crafts woman, who is the builder, who is the seer, the healer, the womb whisperer, the dancer, the homeopath, the doula, the yogini….and who is still a bit lost and needs support…..we know who to turn to when there is a need that matches their gift, their medicine…..
And when we gather around our girls, we see them, and they need to be seen by women – with love. Of course they are being seen all the time with selfies and social media, but being seen by your community of women, by the mothers, aunts, grandmothers….being seen and witnessed with authenticity, this is counter culture to social media– this isn’t just “likes” on a post. This is real connection.
And so I will continue to mentor and empower women to step up and step into community- for there’s still work to be done, for how can we celebrate our girls first blood if we are struggling with our own womb connection, how can we sit with other women if we haven’t cleared the ancestral residue of the witch burnings, how can we move though the threshold of moon pause if we are in denial, clinging to youth and fertility and repressing our inner wild woman?
I’ll be here, gently challenging, guiding, planting seeds….
The seeds I offer are my Love your Period Course where I take you into deep womb connection and teach womb love, acceptance and cycle awareness.
Broken Basket Woman– coming to terms with the journey of perimenopause, gathering tools to support this new territory of Wise Woman, guiding you as you emerge as Medicine Woman!
Red Girl- for women wanting to go back, heal childhood wounds, reclaim their own Menarche (first period) so they can stand in their power and authenticity when the time comes to hold their daughters and girls in community.
All these courses are on line and have Facebook support groups- but of course women are encouraged to begin their own group- whether its a red tent, moon group or just a women’s circle. Some women have taken the courses together, and held a camp for a weekend to witness each other in ceremony, some have gathered just for a day to share first period stories…it can be as simple or elaborate as YOU want…it’s YOUR circle, YOUR ceremony….
Its time we made these rituals and ceremonies our own….
Clear the fear- you will not be burned, drowned or tortured for this…not on my watch!
Connect with me…..
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