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Midwife’s Invocation

Dec5

Seated mountain pose

I’m currently taking a class based on Karen Armstrong’s book Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life. One assignment was to find a reading articulating a spiritual perspective/teaching on compassion. I turned to one of my new books, Sisters Singing, in which I had immediately marked a prayer called A Midwife’s Invocation. As a birth educator and activist, I have been devoted to birthwork as a cause for many years, something that for me is rooted in social justice as well as women’s empowerment.

Midwife’s Invocation, by Cathy Moore

I call on Artemis, huntress, protector of animals and birthing.
Help me to trust birth.
I call upon Diana, keeper of the moon, and the cycles of women’s lives.
Help me to listen to women.
I call on Hecate, wise crone who stands at the crossroads.
Make me a guardian of the passage.

Great goddesses, fill this vessel with your wisdom.
Guide my hands. May they be gentle and strong.
Guide my heart. May I be open to giving and receiving love.
Guide my words. May they be kind and true.
Guide my thoughts. May they be compassionate and free of judgment.
Guide my spirit. May I be connected with the higher beings.

I put my roots deep into Mother Earth.
I draw her energy into my belly for gestation and creation.
I draw her energy into my solar plexus to fire my will.
I draw her energy into my heart for opening to love.
I draw her energy into my throat to awaken my authentic voice.
I draw her energy into my third eye to enliven my inner knowing.
I draw her energy into my crown for connection with spirit

I call on all the women ancestors who have given birth before us.
Come gather round. Support this woman.
Guide her to access her power, confront her fear, and find strength.

I call upon my sister and brother midwives from past, present and future.
Encircle and embrace me with your loving intentions
For the sacred work we do.

As we ready ourselves to accept new life into our hands,
Let us be reminded of our place in the dance of creation.
Let us be protectors of courage.
Let us be observers of beauty.
Let us be guardians of the passage.
Let us be witnesses to the unfolding.

While originally written by a midwife for birthworkers, I really find this prayer to be inspirational for daily living regardless of my tasks. I wish to have a head, heart, and hands that are open in the spirit of compassion as I move through my daily round. And, I strive to cultivate the “witness,” both in relation to myself and my own life, but also to those around me—most people want to be seen, they want to be heard, to be witnessed. I’ve quoted the following poem snippet about that before:

Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.

-Mary Oliver

And, as previously noted, this is exactly why I write and blog–to tell about it.

—

Midwife’s Invocation is gratefully reprinted with permission from Cathy Moore.

Blessingway Poem: A Prayer for One Who Comes to Choose This Life

Nov26

A Prayer for One Who Comes to Choose This Life

By Danelia Wild

May she know the welcome

of open arms and hearts

May she know she is loved

by many and by one

May she know the circle of friendship that gives

and receives love in all its forms

May she know and be known

in the heart of another

May she know the heart

that is this earth

reach for the stars and

call it home

And in the end

may she find everything

in her heart

and her heart

in everything

Last week I attended a blessingway for a friend who moved away last year. We didn’t know each other very well when she lived here, but thanks to Facebook, we’ve kept in touch and have bonded this year due to some personal experiences and commonalities. The poem above from the book Sisters Singing felt perfect to me to share with her. She has waited with such hope and love to meet her new daughter.

I also made her one of my polymer clay birth goddess sculptures. I purposely overbaked it to make the pigment more deeply colored. This goddess is holding a heart-shaped gem for love.

Full Moon Calendar Mandala

Nov15

I drew this full moon calendar mandala as part of an assignment for one of the classes I’m taking (we are working on our “wheel of the year” and holidays, etc.). While it was not specifically part of the assignment to do so, I found that drawing this mandala image helped me to explore and express my ideas. It contains the dates of all the full moons in 2012, as well as representations of the waxing and waning moons for the entire year. I initially set this to post as private, so it wouldn’t be visible to my blog readers and would only be available to my class, but then I reconsidered and thought other people might be interested in seeing it as well:

Full Moon Calendar Mandala

More Readings for Women’s Programs

Oct26

I absolutely love collecting these kinds of things (almost as much as I love collecting quotes) and I figure that as long as I’ve bothered retyping or saving them, I might as well share them via my blog—that way more people can possibly benefit from or enjoy them!

Invocation:

Mother of the Medicine Wheel (from Sage Woman issue 81)

By Sharon Blessum

In the womb of the East Lodge

She gives birth in the morning.

She mothers us with smiles and songs.

In the strong sun of the South

She offers food from Her garden,

Enchantment for the mid-day of life.

In the benediction of the West

She colors evening with sunset

Wraps us in reflections of day.

In the old age of the North Lodge,

She will hold us in sweetness

Cross with us into the Land of the Ancestors.

—-

Opening Words/Chalice Lightings

May we be reminded here of our highest aspirations,

 and inspired to bring our gifts of love and service to the altar of humanity.

 May we know once again that we are not isolated beings

 but connected, in mystery and miracle, to the universe,

 to this community and to each other.

-Anonymous (Reading #434 in Singing The Living Tradition)

—-

Or (not sure of the source for this one, I had it jotted on a little piece of paper):

With the kindling of this flame,

We honor the mysteries and riddles that prompt us to ask questions;

We give thanks for community, in which we can seek their answers;

And we open our hearts and minds to our great and many freedoms.

—

Introductory Reading/Welcome

The Gaze of Love: A Body-Loving Invitation to all Women, by Patricia Lynn Reilly

Today, and everyday, let’s turn toward other women’s bodies, and our own, with mercy and unconditional acceptance, letting go of the competition and scrutiny-based sizing up of each other, letting go of the subtle put-downs and diminishments when we’re threatened by each other, allowing healing attention to flow one to another until the gaze of love heals us.

A gaze of love, calling wise women with their beautiful silver hair and life-lines out of hiding; inviting our smart, gifted daughters to reject the tyranny of thinness and to cease from harming themselves; welcoming the full, rounded bodies of our friends, bodies that refuse to be battered into shape by diets and admonishments.

A gaze of love so powerful, so encompassing, embracing the whole community of women, all sizes, shapes, colors, ages, and languages, with the widest welcome, the deepest affirmation, the highest calling, the loudest YES.

A gaze of love, inspiring us to bite into LIFE and the fullness of its possibility, to express LIFE through us in color and shape, sound and movement, to honor LIFE by turning our body-loving energy toward projects of justice, relationships of comfort, strategies of  wellness, and words of affirmation.

Knowing we’re all in this together.
One breath. One body. One life. And so it is.

Moon Salutation Yoga Series for Blessingway or Women’s Gathering

Oct25

At my blessingway with my second son, my mom led us through a moon salutation together outside and then we all entered the blessingway space via a “birth arch” made with the women’s arms (think London Bridge only all in a row making a channel of arms to pass through). This weekend, we had a women’s retreat with the theme of the sacred body and I found this moon salutation from the book She Who Changes for us to do together—seemed fitting that with a theme of the body, we should actually use our bodies! (In addition to the moon salutation below, I also have a handout with a birthing room yoga series available.)

Moon Salutation
I stand tall, heart open to the world, body full and present in all of its beauty.

(c) Karen Orozco, Portraits & Paws (Molly at 37 weeks)

(standing with arms in prayer position)

I open my arms wide to bring all of life into my being.

(opening arms and tracing the circle of the moon)

My arms form a temple above me, sheltering and protecting me.

I know that I am on holy ground.

(arms completing the circle extended with palms touching above the head)

Yielding now, softening, my body takes the shape of the crescent moon.

I see visions of women, young and old, helping and loving each other.

(bending to the side with arms still above the head and palms touching)

Rising up and bending to the other side, I know that my softness is my strength. I am tested, but not broken.

(bending to the other side)

Up again, I feel the sweet stillness, always present within me.

(arms above head, palms still touching)

I step wide now into a squat. Mother Earth’s ferocious powers rise up through my strong legs, hips and back. As woman, I give birth to all that is, caring for and protecting life.

(arms bent in priestess pose, legs bent and open in birth pose)

Straightening arms and legs, I am a star. I am the universe. Planets and galaxies whirl within me. I radiate in all directions.

(legs straight and spread widely apart, arms straight out to the sides)

Supple and yielding, I stretch to the side. I open my arms and look up, opening to love and compassion.

I reach, yearning and striving, and yet rest, accepting fully.

(triangle pose)

Turning to pyramid pose, I become quiet. Head to knee, I sense the inner workings of my own being.

(typical runners’ stretch)

Lunging, I stretch long and feel the glorious length of my body.

As I look up, the moon shines on my path.

(lunge pose)

Turning now, I touch the earth, hands on the blessed Mother, strong and steady.

Gratefully and tenderly, I bow my head.

(turning and bending to touch the earth)

Coming into a squat, I am connected with all animal and plant life. My body open and close to the earth, I know my body’s ability to give birth, to love, to work, to pray. I resolve to hold all of these activities as sacred.

(full squat)

 

The Moon Salutation continues with the poses repeated in reverse order to form a complete circle and cycle of the moon with the whole body. The combination of words and yoga movement creates connections between the body and the mind, enabling the meaning of the words to come into the body. The full meaning of the Moon Salutation can be appreciated only in the doing. It celebrates the female body and the earth body, affirming that the female body is sacred, an image of the body of Goddess. It names the connection between women and the moon, positively affirming cycles of change, in contrast to classical theological traditions. In the Moon Salutation, women’s changing bodies and the process of giving birth become images of the divine creativity of the Goddess. The Moon Salutation celebrates strength as supple and yielding, yet ferocious in the protection of life. These are images of strength as power with, not power over. In the Moon Salutation, the female body is not perceived negatively as it is in traditions associating femininity with the “weaker” light of the moon. Still, it might be asked: Does the Moon Salutation limit women to the body or the traditional roles associated with it? I do not find this to be so. In the Moon Salutation the female body is an image of all the creative powers in the universe. It can expand to include planets and galaxies. The female body is celebrated not only for its capacity to give birth, but also for its ability to love, to work, and to pray.

From: Carol P. Christ. She Who Changes: Re-imagining the Divine in the World, Kindle Edition.

The Blessingway Connection

Jul15

Last weekend, I attended a mother blessing/blessingway* ceremony for a dear friend. I have mentioned her here before, because she is on a pregnancy-after-loss (PAL) journey after having given birth to a tiny boy after 16 weeks of pregnancy last July (my own Noah was born at 15 weeks in Nov., 2009). My friend’s baby had been due in January, the same time my own “rainbow baby” was born. So, I’ve spent the last year being a couple of months “ahead” of her on the very complicated and emotional path of pregnancy after loss.  And, now she is preparing to give birth to her own new baby girl any day now. It felt very, very good to come together with friends to celebrate this strong mama, her journey, and her babies. I so clearly remember the feelings of “feeling the fear and doing it anyway” when it came to things like doing a belly cast, having pregnancy pictures taken, and, yes, having a blessingway—each of these commemorative events was tinged with a fear of possibly being a sad memory instead of a happy one. I remember worrying, “what if I look back at my blessingway and have to think, ‘but I was so happy.'” These thoughts aren’t necessarily rational or logical, but they featured prominently in my PAL experience. And, while I truly loved being pregnant and I was happy much of the time, I was so glad for it to be over and for PAL to be behind me. This is the feeling I had for my friend during her ceremony as well—pretty soon PAL will be over and you will be so glad to leave it behind and snuggle your new baby girl (I’m also very familiar with the companion fear of, “but what if my PAL journey ends with another loss? I’m not holding my new baby yet…”)

For many mother blessings, I pick out a quote or a poem or a reading to give to the mother.  Considering how much writing I do in my life, it is kind of surprising to me that I usually choose to give women other people’s words rather than creating something new for them (I do say original things aloud to them during the gifting time, in which we each take turns kneeling before the mother and telling her what she means to us). After some looking for perfect quotes, I knew that for this friend,  I needed to write something to her from my heart and not from someone else. So, on one of my womb labyrinth postcards, I wrote the following:

Nine months ago you entered into the long, challenging labyrinth of pregnancy after loss. You have walked with courage, strength, and grace. You have been SO BRAVE. And now you prepare to take the final step on the path—to greet the power and intensity of your birthing time. All of your love and hope and fear will become concentrated on the task of opening your body to welcome your precious new daughter into your arms and your life. She is coming. She is okay. And, sweet mama, so are you. This is a time of openness and surrender–in body, mind, heart, and soul. May you give birth with confidence, strength, bravery, vulnerability, and wild sweet joy and relief.

(c) Sincerely Yours Photography

One of the special things about blessingways is the sense of connection with other women. The ritual space creates an opportunity to speak and share with each other with a depth that is often not reached during day to day interactions (and definitely not usually at baby showers!). This winter, my friends and I started having quarterly women’s retreats. One of my reasons for wanting to do so was to bring some of that sense of celebration and power from our Mother Blessing ceremonies more fully into our lives and to celebrate the fullness and completeness of women-in-themselves, not just of value while pregnant. For these same reasons, I decided to pursue a doctoral degree in women’s spirituality—while birth work is still important to me, I feel very “called” to celebrate, work with, acknowledge, and respect the full cycle of a woman’s life.

“We are mothers, sisters, family wrapped in different cloth,
standing under the same wide sky
and we’ve come to the very end of our silence
together we’ve found our voice
and it is loud
and it is beautiful
and it sings a love song for our children”
—Mothers Acting Up

(c) Sincerely Yours Photography

——-

*For a general description and explanation of mother blessings as well as musings on “connection,” see my friend Hope’s post.

*Out of respect for Native traditions, I continue to try to refer to these ceremonies as “mother blessings.” However, my local circle of women has been holding these ceremonies for each other for about 30 years and they have “historically” been referred to as “blessingways.” Blessingway remains the term that feels most right to me—most genuine, authentic, and, truly, is part of my own life’s “traditions,” so a lot of the time, I feel like it is okay for me to continue using the word, rather than trying to force myself to use mother blessing instead.

Poem: Woman & Nature

Jun26

Woman and Nature

By Susan Griffin

 The earth is my sister;

I love her daily grace,

her silent daring,

and how loved I am

how we admire this strength in each other,

all that we have lost

all that we have lived

all that we know:

we are stunned by this beauty,

and I do not forget;

what she is to me,

what I am to her.

——-

My friends and I had our quarterly women’s retreat today and I used the above poem as our closing reading (I did alter it slightly from the original in the middle). To read it, have each participant read one line and the rest of the group repeat it after her. The italicized section is then read by the group in unison.

I also used the following as our opening reading:

 

Opening Words/Chalice Lighting

May we be reminded here of our highest aspirations,

and inspired to bring our gifts of love and service to the altar of humanity.

May we know once again that we are not isolated beings

but connected, in mystery and miracle, to the universe,

to this community and to each other.

-Anonymous (Reading #434 in Singing The Living Tradition)

—————–

I like to share these things I’ve collected here as well in case other women are googling for readings for women’s programs, retreats, or mother blessing ceremonies 🙂

Responsive Readings for Women’s Rituals

Mar14

As I noted in my previous post, I’m choosing some readings for an upcoming women’s retreat. Our theme for the spring is “personal power” and so these responsive readings from the book Readings for Women’s Programs by Meg Bowman and Connie Springer seemed perfect to me. The capitalized (or italicized) sections are read in unison by the group and the non-capitalized/italicized sections are read by the facilitator. I think they could work for any type of women’s ceremony (blessingways, etc.):

Self-Love

At my blessingway for my second son, May 2006

Self-love is respecting my own uniqueness,

my creativity and my talents.

LEARNING NEW SKILLS,

BEING ASSERTIVE

HAVING CONFIDENCE IN MY ABILITIES

Self-love is acknowledging my good qualities

and following my own guidelines.

SURROUNDING MYSELF WITH PEOPLE

WHO NOURISH ME AND ENHANCE MY SELF-ESTEEM.

Self-love is taking time to enjoy each day.

SURROUNDING MYSELF WITH COLORS AND BEAUTY,

GIVING PLEASURE WITHOUT GUILT

KNOWING THAT I DESERVE THE BEST

Self-love is loving and respecting my body.

REALLY TAKING CARE OF MYSELF

PHYSICALLY AND EMOTIONALLY,

GENTLY AND LOVINGLY

Self-love is seeing myself equal to others,

accepting myself and letting myself win.

NEVER PUNISHING MYSELF

OR HARMING OTHERS

TURNING MY NEGATIVE THOUGHTS

INTO POSITIVE ONES.

The more I love myself,

the more I can love others

and the more others will return my love.

SELF-LOVE

IS BEING MYSELF

AND ENJOYING MY LIFE.

Blessed be.

—-

To Be

BE healthy enough

To live each day to the fullest

BE strong enough

To know that I cannot do everything alone.

BE wise enough

To realize I don’t know everything

BE courageous enough

To speak my mind and to change my mind

BE understanding enough

To listen to those with differing views

BE secure enough

To reveal my own unique personality

BE generous enough

To assist those who need my help

BE frugal enough

To take care of my own needs

BE realistic enough

To let go of the past and live in the present

And above all, BE loving enough

To BE loved

To BE happy

To BE whole

To BE myself.

Blessed Be.