Rolla Red Tent Event!

Jun30

On August 2, 2014 in conjunction with Rolla Birth Network’s annual MamaFest event, we will be hosting the Missouri Premiere of Things We Don’t Talk About: Women’s Voices from the Red Tent. I am thrilled to bring this film to Missouri and I hope many, many woman come to enjoy the Red Tent atmosphere during MamaFest. We aren’t just showing the film, we’re also having a real Red Tent event with free activities available from 4-8:00 (film itself from 6-8:00). If the event goes well, I’d love to continue hosting Red Tent events at other points during the year (perhaps quarterly). I already priestess a small monthly women’s circle and have done so for several years, but a Red Tent event would be broader in scope and open to many women of all kinds of belief systems and backgrounds.

Red Tents are safe spaces for all women that transcend religious/cultural/political barriers and just be about coming together in sacred space as women. While I personally have a Goddess-oriented perspective, Red Tents honor the “womanspirit” present within all of us. Within the safety and sacredness of the Red Tent, women’s experiences across the reproductive spectrum are “held” and acknowledged, whatever those experiences might be. (As well as menopause, menstruation, assault, grief, loss, etc.—it definitely isn’t just pregnancy related!)

In our Red Tent at MamaFest, we will have jewelry making, henna tattoos, tea, and bindis. I have a mini ceremony/ritual to do before the film starts, the film screening itself, and then a scarf dance and song to close it out. This is meant to be an inclusive setting/experience for women of many backgrounds and beliefs!

I’m still collecting red fabric and decor for our Tent and it is really exciting to me to finally be doing this, since I’ve imagined doing it for a long time! (Goodwill last week was a jackpot of red curtains!)

You can learn more about the film and about Red Tents in general by checking out filmmaker Dr. Isadora Leidenfrost’s YouTube channel.

I’ve also written some Red Tent themed posts in the past:

Tuesday Tidbits: Red Tent

Red Tent Resources

Tuesday Tidbits: Pregnant Woman

100 Things List!

Etsy Shop Update

Jun26

“It is now time for all women of the colorful mind, who are aware of the cycles of night and day and the dance of the moon in her tides, to arise.” –Dhyani Ywahoo (in Open Mind, 11/22)

We made several changes and additions to our etsy shop this week. In addition to adding some of my favorite goddess pendant design (above), we re-ordered our listings to include a section specifically for “seconds“—these are items with small flaws above the norm (all of our pieces are organic and always have minimal imperfections!) or are designs that have been discontinued. If you’re a bargain hunter, this section is the place for you!

We added some new birth spiral doula earrings too!

We also added Healing Hands pendants with a variety of new gemstones.

And speaking of Healing Hands, yesterday I got together with two friends to make memorial jewelry for miscarriage care packets and memory boxes for “Healing Hands for Hope,” a project associated with the local pregnancy loss support group (hosted by Rolla Birth Network). Brigid’s Grove donates most of the charms used for this project as well as some of the beads and other supplies:

We made 25 baubles for miscarriage packets and five tree pendants for memory boxes!

Visitors to the Rainbow Group booth at MamaFest on August 2nd will have a chance to make a memorial piece for themselves for free or to donate a charm to a care package for another babyloss mama.

As well as a jewelry booth with all of our pewter pendant designs and build-your-own charm bracelets, I will also have free simple jewelry making (for any occasion) available in the Red Tent sponsored by Brigid’s Grove!

100 Things List!

May21

As part of Leonie Dawson’s Amazing Year workbook, I wrote a list of 100 things to do in 2014. My blog has been fairly quiet lately, but that doesn’t actually mean I have been! A lot of the energy previously used for blogging has been diverted into other exciting projects on my 100 Things list. 🙂 I finished my second free gift offering for newsletter subscribers at Brigid’s Grove (if you aren’t signed up yet, fill in your email on the right hand side of the screen at the BG website and you will receive the free book within 24 hours). This freebie is a 56 page book of earth-based poetry. Most of the poems were originally published on my other blog, but there are several released only in this book (so far).

We’re also offering a spring giveaway of one of our new healing hands pendants AND also a 10% off discount code for our etsy shop (2014SPRING10OFF).

“…Medicine Woman reminds you

to sleep when you’re tired

to eat when you’re hungry

to drink when you’re thirsty

and to dance

just because.

Medicine Woman

let her bind up your wounds

apply balm to your soul

and hold you

against her shoulder

when you need to cry.

Medicine Woman

Earth healer

she’s ready to embrace you…”

via Amethyst Healing Hands Pendant by BrigidsGrove.

Even more exciting from a personal perspective is that I actually finished writing my thesis. Yes, after all my many days of joking, “Oops! I didn’t write my thesis today!” I suddenly really did write it. I had more done than I thought and all I needed was some class-free, focused writing time (my spring school session ended this past Saturday) to get it to a finished position. It might be a first draft if significant revisions are requested/needed (the format is somewhat non-traditional), but I’m hopeful it might be a last draft too! I’ve been working on my D.Min since 2011. I realized last year that I had almost the right credits to do an M.Div first (since my existing master’s degree is in social work instead, I had to take a LOT of M.Div classes as part of the D.Min program), I just had to add a thesis and a couple of classes to the work I’d already done. So, I call it a “pitstop,” because I don’t really need to do it and I’m actually working on something else, but…here I go! I also found out recently that I really only have three D.Min classes and my dissertation left. I’m giving it at least another year on the dissertation though. When I started the thesis idea, I had more like eight classes left, so it seemed like further away and “might as well.” After two partial starts and two different prospectuses submitted, I switched gears again and I actually used my Earthprayer book above as the basic frame or structure for the thesis. I’d been attempting to work with a 400-page document and then I realized it was way too much. The Earthprayer book had ended up being a distillation of some basic themes from my year in the woods experiment and I thought, “ah ha! I’ve accidentally been working on my thesis without knowing it!” I developed it with articles and essays and my theory and process of theapoesis and magically I produced 84 pages and 26,000 words! (My thesis handbook says it should be 80 pages and 25,000 words. Go, me!)

I also booked an official screening of the Red Tent Movie: Things We Don’t Talk About. It will be held in Rolla on August 2nd in conjunction with Rolla Birth Network’s annual MamaFest celebration and it is the first ever screening of this film in Missouri! Before I booked it, a friend surprised me with this lovely little Red Moon painting and said it was for me to use in my eventual Red Tent. I felt motivated after getting it and booked the screening the next morning.

After doing this and apparently feeling the freedom of being off of work for the next two weeks, I took advantage of a full moon special and somewhat impulsively decided to sign up for the Chrysalis Woman circle leader program! This was on my Leonie Dawson 100 Things list with a question mark. Now, it is a question mark no more because I signed up and paid…hope it was a good idea! I’ve only downloaded the manuals and listened to the first week’s materials so far, but I really like it. It feels very thorough and comprehensive and feels like a good value for the discounted price it was being offered for. I’m still a little surprised at myself that I did it though!

I read a post from Elisabeth Esther a few days ago about being all blogged out and I realized this feels true for me too. I’ve been diverting a lot of my writing AND creating energy this year into other projects that I feel really good about and my blog-time is simply falling lower and lower on my priority list.

I also read this post from The Minimalists:

It was Henry David Thoreau who famously said, “It is not enough to be busy. The question is: what are we busy about?” And if I were to append his quandary, I’d say, “It is not enough to be busy. The question is: what are we focused on?”

You see, there is a vast delta between being busy and being focused. The former involves the typical tropes of productivity—anything to keep our hands moving, to keep going, to keep the conveyer belt in motion. It is no coincidence that we refer to mundane tasks as “busywork.” Busywork works well for factories and robots and fascism, but not so great for anyone who’s attempting to do something meaningful with their waking hours.

Being focused, on the other hand, involves attention, awareness, and intentionality. In my case, people sometimes mistake my focused time for busyness. That’s because being completely focused apes many of the same surface characteristics as being busy: namely, the majority of my time is occupied.

via Not Busy, Focused | The Minimalists.

This helped me understand why I bristle I little bit when I am described as “busy” or people say that I’m “too busy,” or whatever little cracks people tend to make about being an “overachiever,” or whatever. While I sometimes feel too busy or overloaded or stretched too thin, etc. it doesn’t feel like busy work or “filling time,” it feels like being focused and enjoying lots of projects/being firmly and passionately devoted to quite a few things at once.

Breastfeeding as an Ecofeminist Issue: Collage Project

May15

Since January I’ve been working with an independent study student from Prescott College on a self-designed course called Breastfeeding and Ecofeminism. Her class ended this month and her final project was a collage making the connection between the world body and the female body and reflecting the idea that how we treat women and their bodies as a culture is mirrored by our global treatment of the planet (and, conversely, if we change how women’s bodies our treated, our treatment of the planet will also change). As she worked on her collage, she also made a series of digital collage images for use on social media (see above), using quotes from her reading for the course.

“Governments and commercial companies will ‘invest’ billions in expensive new technology: roads, bridges, airports, dams or power generation plants, ‘for the good of society’. They may even ‘invest’ in schools and hospitals, but the crucial primary investment in the emotional, physical and mental health of all humans, which breastfeeding and mothering provide, is invisible.”

—Gabrielle Palmer (The Politics of Breastfeeding, p. 333)

As my student remarked, this is an atrocity. AND, it is one that is largely “invisible” to the average person.

I also find this quote relevant from The Politics of Women’s Spirituality:

“Human life is valuable and sacred when it is the freely given gift of the Mother—through the human mother. To bear new life is a grave responsibility, requiring a deep commitment—one which no one can force on another. To coerce a woman by force or fear or guilt or law or economic pressure to bear an unwanted child is the height of immorality…If they were genuinely concerned with life, they would be protesting the spraying of our forests and fields with pesticides known to cause birth defects. They would be working to shut down nuclear power plants and dismantle nuclear weapons, to avert the threat of widespread genetic damage which may plague wanted children for generations to come…” (p. 420).

For one of her digital images, she chose one of my favorite quotes from Reweaving the World in an article that touches on birth as an ecofeminist issue:

Here are some photos of her final collage project:

“Knowledge serves no purpose if it is not spread around. As the poor get poorer and the rich get richer, an entrenched ignorance is kept in place through a culture created and maintained by commercial interests.” – Gabrielle Palmer, The Politics of Breastfeeding

Talk Birth Wordwalls

Mar19

In the
womb
we begin
enclosed
and safe
nurtured
by our
mother’s
body
soul
connected
to soul.

We are fed
and
encouraged
to
grow
to take
the
steps
to life
beyond
the womb.

–Linda Ervin quoted in To Make and Make Again: Feminist Ritual Thealogy by Charlotte Caron

A couple of days ago, my brother was home sick from work and sent me an email with two photos attached. He said he was sick and messing around with different things and made me two wordwalls using the most commonly used words on my blog. Not only that, but he made them into cool goddess shapes also! What fun. 🙂

Aside from things like “posted” and “February,” I really got a kick out of seeing the words that were the biggest (meaning used most frequently in the last several weeks of my blog).

I am getting read for a new session of classes to begin as well as working feverishly on my own classwork. Today, I spent many hours working on my fourth paper for my Ritual Thealogy class. I realized I hadn’t made a post this week yet and it is already Wednesday and then as I closed To Make and Make Again, which was my text for this class, the little poem I opened with caught my eye in the Appendix of the book.

This past weekend I was in St. Louis where we had a booth for Brigid’s Grove at a women’s spirituality gathering. It was very successful! But, not a lot of time leftover for blogging!

Wednesday Tidbits: Activism!

Feb5

Rolla Birth Network is pleased to be one of the co-sponsors of the upcoming production of The Vagina Monlogues, Eve Ensler’s classic feminist empowerment play.

The local production of The Vagina Monologues will benefit the Russell House, a shelter for battered women and their children. The event is specifically planned as part of V-Day:

“V-Day is a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls. V-Day is a catalyst that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money, and revitalize the spirit of existing anti-violence organizations. V-Day generates broader attention for the fight to stop violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM), and sex slavery.”

Last year we had a candlelight vigil on Valentine’s Day in honor of One Billion Rising. While that was a wonderful project too, this play production is much more ambitious and is very exciting! Here are some more details:

Local cast members (including my very own talented and awesome doula! 🙂 )

Rolla Area Citizens for Women 2014
Presents a Benefit Production of

Eve Ensler’s
THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES

FEBRUARY 21, 2014 at 7:00 PM

Venue:
Cedar Street Playhouse
701 North Cedar Street
Rolla, Missouri 65401

$5.00 Minimum Donation per person CASH ONLY
Benefits The Russell House

I’m really looking forward to going!

Another Missouri-local opportunity specific to birth advocacy and midwifery activism is the annual Friends of Missouri Midwives Cookie Day at the Capitol coming up next week:

Yes, it is true, Barbara Harper will be there! Isn’t that cool?! I heard her speak at the CAPPA conference in 2010 and very much enjoyed her presence and devotion. I hope the weather cooperates so I can see her grace our Capitol building with her poise and information!

“Let us initiate our daughters into the beauty and mystery of being strong and confident women who claim their right to give birth and raise their children with dignity, power, love, and joy.” –Barbara Harper

One of the opportunities that is also going on this month that is not local, but virtual instead, is DeAnna L’am’s Red Tent Summit. It is free to register and participate. I have not yet carved out the space I need to actually tune in, but the lineup of speakers and wealth of topics is amazing!

Also, while all of these particular events are offered with a wonderfully upbeat spirit of intent and energy, I also feel like sharing an activism-related quote that I’ve had saved in my drafts folder for a long time that acknowledges the important role of anger and activism:

I’m not afraid to say it. Hell, isn’t anger kind of a prerequisite for activism work? As a birth worker I get to watch abuse after abuse, injustice after injustice – over and over again. I mean, really, what spurs the need for activism work if not injustice? And injustice stirs up indignant anger.

We have this huge deficit with the word, “anger.” Somehow, whenever it is said, we cling to this connotation that it – the word, the feeling – is inherently BAD. It took me a lot of years to come to the understanding that there are no “bad” or “good” feelings – that emotions just are. They are states of being which reflect either met or unmet needs.

Anger is usually a catalyst emotion…

via I am an Angry Activist.

I’ve self-identified as an activist since at least 1996 (when I first began working at the same battered women’s shelter for which the Vagina Monologues production is benefiting, actually!) I do find that some anger (or sheer disbelief!) at injustice is part of the fuel that drives my present-day activism. In fact, social justice was at the heart of my response several years ago when asked why I became a childbirth educator:

…the question was posed, “why did you become a childbirth educator?” I responded with the following: because I care deeply about women’s issues, social justice and social change and I feel like women’s choices in childbirth are intimately entwined with this. Because I believe peace on earth begins with birth. Because the births of my own sons were the most powerful and transformative events of my life. And, because I believe every woman should have the opportunity to feel and know her own power and to blossom into motherhood with strength, confidence, and joy. ♥

…On a discussion board once, someone asked the question “what’s at the root of your love of birth?” I was still for a moment and let my intuitive, heart-felt, gut level response come to me and it was this:

Women.

Women’s health, women’s issues, women’s empowerment, women’s rights.

Social justice….

via Why, indeed? | Talk Birth.

I’m currently finishing a book about women’s rituals and this paragraph caught my eye last night in relationship to my own experience of birth activism (and other activist work):

“One of the other problems in areas of small population is the relationship between local and regional leadership. Often, people who are competent local leaders are recruited to work regionally or nationally in their organizations. This policy frequently leaves a vacuum at the local level because leadership is not broadly enough based in those communities.”

I’ve seen this happen with myself, noticing that as I became involved with birth activism on a national level, my time for local birth activism was necessarily reduced. (And, then as my interests and commitments broadened beyond birth, the time for birth activism of any kind reduced.) I also see it happening with digital commitments—basically, the more I do for people on a virtual level over the internet, the less I have to give on a face-to-face local level. I’m still sitting with this realization and wondering what to do with it. The organizers of the One Billion Rising event in Denver this year recently contacted me to ask permission to read one of my poems aloud during their event. I was thrilled to say yes, but then I also thought about my local community and how most people here would not be familiar with my poem at all. So, Denver hears it, but my own local area does not. Interesting. I also found out this week that one of my essays about my grandma was translated into French and published in a French magazine. Cool, yes, but again gave me pause…

Related past posts:

Birth Violence

Tuesday Tidbits: Domestic Violence

Domestic Violence During Pregnancy

Guest Post: Abuse of pregnant women in the medical setting

Business of Being Born: Classroom Edition

Tuesday Tidbits: The Role of Doulas…

Community Organizing

Birth Matters!

Taking it to the Body, Part 4: Women’s Bodies and Self-Authority

Birth Labyrinth

Feb1

The labyrinth is a powerful metaphor for each woman’s unique journey of pregnancy and birth. I first discovered the “LabOrinth” via Birthing from Within and Pam England and I quickly incorporated into my birth education classes, making two homemade posters to discuss in class—one illustrating “clock watching” birth and one illustrating birth as a labyrinth. When I send gifts to long distance pregnant friends, I usually include a drawing of a womb labyrinth and this quick explanation:

The journey through birth is like a labyrinth—it has unexpected twists and turns, but it takes you where you need to go. You can find your way blindfolded if you need to, you can walk, run or crawl, and you’ll get to the center—to your baby—in your own time and in your own way. The postpartum return is also a labyrinth, one that can take some time to integrate into your life, being, and “new normal.”

Based on a drawing from my second pregnancy of a womb labyrinth, my husband carefully worked carving a small womb labyrinth design into clay and then making a mold from it and casting the design in pewter. The result is a little uneven and asymmetrical, much like life itself, but I love it! I took the new pendant to the woods with me and this is what I said about it’s meaning…

Womb Labyrinth

Birth journey. Each of us walks our own path. In the center, a baby waits. And, so too, wait deep truths about ourselves. Our own courage, our own fears, our own strength, our own power. One foot in front of the other. That’s how the journey is made. You set out for the threshhold, unknowing. Maybe a little fearful. Maybe intrigued. Maybe anticipatory. Maybe excited. And you start to walk. One foot in front of the other. Sometimes our journeys drop us to our knees. Sometimes we feel around in the dark, searching for something to hold onto. Sometimes we skip and twirl along the path. Sometimes we run. Sometimes we pause and sit down and wait. Sometimes someone walks with us, holding our hand. Maybe even giving us a little push from behind. But, ultimately, it is our own private journey. When we get to the center, we will discover what it is that we know that no one else does.

As I mention to pregnant women, the return journey of postpartum is a labyrinth as well…

Postpartum Labyrinth

The journey of postpartum is a labyrinth too. Carrying our babies in our arms, past sleepless nights, through endless days. Through worry and tears, through sharp, sweet, timeless moments of a joy so bone deep it knows no words and in a love so endless that it defies description. And, we walk. Sometimes we bounce. Sometimes we sway. Sometimes we sing a little tune. Sometimes we beg. Sometimes we scream. Sometimes we sit down and say we can’t keep going. Sometimes we skip through the sunshine and dance in the moonlight. Sometimes we can’t believe how much fun we are having and how wonderful this is. Sometimes we feel so alone, we think we might break. And, yet, we keep going, and we emerge, blinking at the newness of it all.

This new pendant is one of the designs released for the launch of Brigid’s Grove, my collaborative project with my husband. We’re hosting giveaways on our website throughout the month of February to correspond with our launch and one of these pendants will be offered as a giveaway! We’ve also got an etsy discount code, a free digital Ritual Recipe Kit, and more to check out on the Brigid’s Grove website and Facebook page.

New Projects!

Jan17

“Grace reveals to you a great mothering love that you can step into, that’s been here before you and will be here after you. Grace will be with you as you open your arms, as you release your children and send them out into the world. If you listen carefully, you can hear grace whispering its thanks to you for being a mother to these souls.” –Denise Roy (Momfulness)

As we enter 2014, I’ve got a couple of huge projects on my priority list. One is that I must commit to using my writing energy to focus on completing my thesis project, meaning thesis is first, rather than what I do with my leftover time (and thus blogging, by necessity, moves into the “leftover” time slot). And, two, after having quit his job this summer to join the rest of our family in our home-based life, Mark and I have been very hard at work on our new, shared project: Brigid’s Grove! This site will be an “umbrella” to embrace all of our projects, particularly our shared endeavor of pewter-casting and jewelry-making. Brigid’s Grove will officially launch on February first and we’re working on some launch products for our etsy shop as well as a special site launch discount code AND a fun and useful freebie, which will be a collection of my ritual “recipes” (outlines for mother blessing ceremonies and other rituals, not food recipes!). You can sign up for our newsletter now and you will then get the ritual kit on our launch day.

We’ve also been working on a new womb labyrinth pendant to have ready as one of our official launch products! It will be ready for Feb 1st and we will have a brand new nursing mama pendant design to unveil then too.

As anyone who has given birth knows, it can feel hard and even scary to let go and transition into new things. I’ve written about how I’ve recently retired as the FoMM newsletter editor after seven years of volunteer work. Last year I stopped offering birth classes and this year I’ve stopped offering birth classes. However, I’m also recognizing that letting go of some things, opens the way for new things to be born. One of my fears in letting go of my face-to-face birth work was in letting go of the opportunity to “make a difference” through one-on-one connection with pregnant women. Well, surprise! There are lots of different ways to make a difference and that can even be through jewelry and art. For example, this week one of my etsy customers sent me a picture of her laboring while wearing one of our birth goddess pendants! (And, she DID IT. I got a picture of her beautiful baby too. ♥) And, Rolla Birth Network has also started offering a free monthly mother-to-mother Birth Circle and I’m excited to be a part of that project too.

The colors of creativity!

(I can’t sculpt now without thinking about my Rainbow Way “releasing our butterflies” post. These are my “butterflies” and they’re flying! ♥)

I’ve got more on my mind, like the fact that my baby girl turns THREE this weekend, but this is all I’ve got in me to write for now! 😉

2013 Book Year in Review

Jan7

It is time for my annual book list! (last year’s list is here) I keep track of my annual reads using Goodreads. As soon as I finish a book, I add it to my appropriate bookshelf and then at the end of the year I can easily look back at it and see what I’ve read! In addition to the 68 books below via Goodreads, I also read 8 others that did not have a Goodreads listing (otherwise, easy peasy to use Goodreads to track books—that is, if tracking books holds any interest for you!)

If I did a review of the title, it is linked to in my comments. I’d also love to know what were your favorite reads of 2013? 🙂

Also, remember that my organized, birth-specific, ongoing book recommendations/reviews are here: Talk Books

title	author	rating	date added
Open Mind: Women’s Daily Inspiration for Becoming Mindful read this all year (it is daily meditation book) and I loved it!	Mariechild, Diane	5 stars	Dec 30, 2013
Journey of the Priestess	Shepsut, Asia	4 stars	Dec 30, 2013
Cooking Like a Goddess: Bringing Seasonal Magic Into the Kitchen	Johnson, Cait	4 stars	Dec 26, 2013
Birthrites: Rituals and Celebrations for the Child-Bearing Years Post series about this book here	Singer, Jackie	4 stars	Dec 25, 2013
Meet Marie-Grace (American Girls: Marie-Grace and Cécile, #1) I got this doll for Christmas. No, I did not need another American Girl doll, BUT she was on sale via a steals site of some kind and I could NOT resist her.	Buckey, Sarah Masters	3 stars	Dec 24, 2013
V is for Vengeance (Kinsey Millhone #22)	Grafton, Sue	3 stars	Dec 13, 2013
When God Was a Woman This was one of my first readings in feminist thealogy. I had to re-read it for one of my D.Min classes.	Stone, Merlin	4 stars	Dec 05, 2013
Cut, Stapled, and Mended: When One Woman Reclaimed Her Body and Gave Birth on Her Own Terms After Cesarean Loved this! Review here.	Rosewood, Roanna *	5 stars	Dec 01, 2013
My Kitchen Cure: How I Cooked My Way Out of Chronic Autoimmune Disease with Whole Foods and Healing Recipes Surprisingly good and fun! Review here.	McCormick, Mee Tracy	4 stars	Nov 23, 2013
The Rainbow Way: Cultivating Creativity in the Midst of Motherhood Affirming and important. Post for the associated blog carnival is here.	Pearce, Lucy H. *	5 stars	Nov 23, 2013
Blessed by Less: A Spiritual Approach to Clearing Your Life of Clutter Read for Patheos book club. Review here.	Vogt, Susan V.	4 stars	Nov 22, 2013
The Unschooling Handbook : How to Use the Whole World As Your Child’s Classroom	Griffith, Mary	4 stars	Oct 08, 2013
West Country Wicca: A Journal of the Old Religion I don’t consider myself wiccan and parts of this book were hokeylicious, but parts were very interesting.	Ryall, Rhiannon	3 stars	Sep 29, 2013
Priestess of Avalon Priestess of the Goddess: A Renewed Spiritual Path for the 21st Century : A Journey of Transformation within the Sacred Landscape of Glastonbury and the Isle of Avalon One of my favorite priestess reads of the year! Highly recommended!	Jones, Kathy	5 stars	Aug 28, 2013
The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future This was another second reading for my D.Min coursework.	Eisler, Riane	4 stars	Aug 25, 2013
From Pain to Parenthood: A Journey Through Miscarriage to Adoption Used quotes from this book in this post.	Kahler, Deanna *	3 stars	Aug 11, 2013
Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life I read this book for a year-long course in compassion for my D.Min program. I keep meaning to do a post series about it, but have not yet done so.	Armstrong, Karen	3 stars	Aug 10, 2013
The Woman Who Rides Like a Man (Song of the Lioness, #3) My all-time favorite books from childhood. Being interviewed by First the Egg about childhood favorites inspired me to start reading them aloud to my kids. They love them too! (I do edit very slightly for minimal sex content) And, no fewer than two of my own children’s names were inspired by these books–the same character, no less! 😉	Pierce, Tamora *	5 stars	Aug 09, 2013
Keep Simple Ceremonies: The Feminist Spiritual Community of Portland, Maine Cool format, interesting ideas.	Eiker, Diane	4 stars	Aug 04, 2013
The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth Read for another D. Min course.	Sjoo, Monica	4 stars	Aug 01, 2013
Cybill Disobedience: How I Survived Beauty Pageants, Elvis, Sex, Bruce Willis, Lies, Marriage, Motherhood, Hollywood, and the Irrepressible Surprising commentary on birth and breastfeeding (including nursing twins into toddlerhood!)	Shepherd, Cybill	3 stars	Jul 25, 2013
Introduction to Human Services: Through the Eyes of Practice Settings New edition of textbook for one of the classes I teach. Yes, I did actually read the entire thing.	Martin, Michelle E	4 stars	Jul 21, 2013
Virgin Mother Crone: Myths and Mysteries of the Triple Goddess	Wilshire, Donna	4 stars	Jul 18, 2013
Thealogy and Embodiment: The Post-Patriarchal Reconstruction of Female Sacrality dense and academic and GOOD.	Raphael, Melissa	5 stars	Jul 14, 2013
The Magical Household: Spells & Rituals for the Home	Cunningham, Scott	1 star	Jul 08, 2013
Lady of the Northern Light: A Feminist Guide to the Runes	Emmer-Gitlin, Susan	2 stars	Jul 04, 2013
A Woman’s Way To Wisdom	Ball, Pamela J.	2 stars	Jul 01, 2013
Blood, Bread, and Roses: How Menstruation Created the World available to read online here.	Grahn, Judy	3 stars	Jun 30, 2013
Seeking the Mystery: An Introduction to Pagan Theologies	Kraemer, Christine Hoff	4 stars	Jun 30, 2013
The Wander Year: One Couple’s Journey Around the World	McIntyre, Mike *	4 stars	Jun 27, 2013
Honoring Menstruation: A Time of Self-Renewal	Owen, Lara	5 stars	Jun 21, 2013
Reaching for the Moon	Pearce, Lucy H. *	4 stars	Jun 10, 2013
Bridging the Gap	Blanton, Crystal	5 stars	Jun 07, 2013
Priestesses Pythonesses Sibyls – The Sacred Voices of Women Who Speak with and for the Gods	D’este, Sorita *	3 stars	May 17, 2013
Calling the Circle: The First and Future Culture	Baldwin, Christina	3 stars	May 13, 2013
Midwifing Death: Returning to the Arms of the Ancient Mother	Madre, Leslene della	4 stars	May 09, 2013
Moon Mysteries	Sims, Nao	4 stars	May 04, 2013
Woman Prayer, Woman Song: Resources for Ritual	Winter, Miriam Therese	3 stars	May 02, 2013
Thea Gallas Always Gets Her Man Fun and sassy mystery novel about an IBCLC. Review here.	Panzer, Kristen *	4 stars	Apr 26, 2013
Journey to the Dark Goddess: How to Return to Your Soul	Meredith, Jane	4 stars	Apr 21, 2013
More or Less: Choosing a Lifestyle of Excessive Generosity	Shinabarger, Jeff	3 stars	Apr 19, 2013
What Dying People Want: Practical Wisdom For The End Of Life Read right before my grandma died. Post here.	Kuhl, David	4 stars	Apr 18, 2013
Eve Hallows and the Book of Shadows (The Nightmare Series, #2) Read aloud to boys and they chose rating.	Gray, Robert *	5 stars	Apr 14, 2013
The Art of being a Healing Presence Read during my grandma’s illness. Commentary here.	Miller, James E.	4 stars	Apr 09, 2013
The Maternal Is Political: Women Writers at the Intersection of Motherhood and Social Change Some quotes and thoughts in this post.	Strong, Shari MacDonald *	4 stars	Apr 08, 2013
She Is Everywhere! Volume 3: An Anthology of Writings in Womanist/Feminist Spirituality Have this as a digital copy that I somehow managed to lose and cannot find! So frustrating!	Saracino, Mary	4 stars	Apr 07, 2013
The Art of Family: Rituals, Imagination, and Everyday Spirituality Talk Books post here.	Bria, Gina	3 stars	Mar 30, 2013
The Alternative Medicine Cabinet	Gruver, Kathy	3 stars	Mar 25, 2013
The Midwife’s Tale Author interview and brief review here.	Thomas, Sam *	4 stars	Mar 24, 2013
Gift from the Sea Quotes and connections here.	Lindbergh, Anne Morrow	5 stars	Mar 16, 2013
The Great Convergence (The Book of Deacon, #2)	Lallo, Joseph R. *	3 stars	Mar 11, 2013
Foundations of Social Policy: Social Justice in Human Perspective Now I remember why I didn’t get as many books finished in 2013. Switched to a different, much shorter, textbook for the 2014 session of this course!	Barusch, Amanda S.	3 stars	Feb 24, 2013
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking Written about here and referenced in this post about being an introverted mama.	Cain, Susan *	4 stars	Feb 24, 2013
Refuse to Do Nothing: Finding Your Power to Abolish Modern-Day Slavery Read for Patheos book club and written about on that platform. Eventually will post here also!	Moore, Shayne	3 stars	Feb 17, 2013
The Earth Speaks: An Acclimatization Journal	Matre, Steve Van	5 stars	Feb 02, 2013
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter, #7) Listened to complete book on CD with kids.	Rowling, J.K.	5 stars	Jan 31, 2013
Moods of Motherhood Very much enjoyed! Referenced in this post and this one too.	Pearce, Lucy H. *	5 stars	Jan 30, 2013
The Magickal Retreat: Making Time for Solitude, Intention & Rejuvenation	Pesznecker, Susan	4 stars	Jan 20, 2013
Child of the Mist (These Highland Hills, #1)	Morgan, Kathleen	2 stars	Jan 16, 2013
Red Moon	Gray, Miranda	4 stars	Jan 13, 2013
Gathering for Goddes, a Complete Manual for Priestessing Women’s Circles	Mihaltses, B. Melusine	4 stars	Jan 07, 2013
Jump Up: Good Times Throughout the Seasons with Celebrations from Around the World	Teish, Luisah	2 stars	Jan 07, 2013
Shakti Woman: Feeling Our Fire, Healing Our World Touched upon in this post.	Noble, Vicki	5 stars	Jan 06, 2013
Pagan Every Day: Finding the Extraordinary in Our Ordinary Lives	Ardinger, Barbara *	2 stars	Jan 06, 2013

Books not able to be entered via Goodreads:

Runes of the Goddess by PMH Atwater (5/22/13)Menarche–a journey into womanhood by Racheal Hertogs (6/29/13)

Prosperous Priestess Handbook by Lisa Michaels (7/4/13)

Surviving online group work (7/11/13. Booklet, basically)

Inner Goddess Revolution (7/14/13. Cheap)

Father’s Seed, Mother’s Sorrow (reproduction theory. Extremely interesting. More about this one later. 12/3/2013)

Earthdance, Birthdance (Nane Jordan MA thesis. Very good! 12/4/2013)

Love and the Goddess (free Kindle book, 12/6/2013)

Birthrites: Ritual

Dec28

“This is my body; this is the temple of light. This is my heart; this is the altar of love.”

–Sufi song (quoted in Birthrites)

I received a lot of wonderful books for Christmas this year. One that particularly caught my attention was Birthrites: Ceremonies and Rituals for the Child-bearing Years by Jackie Singer. While it doesn’t contain any ritual outlines, per se (which I had been hoping for), it does contain a lot of thoughtful information. I especially appreciated that it includes information about creating ceremonies to acknowledge a variety of outcomes during the childbearing year, including infertility, abortion, and miscarriage, as well as full-term birth. Two quotes from Birthrites about the value and purpose of rituals in general:

Making ritual diverts our attention from the everyday tasks of survival, and for a brief time allows us to notice and comment on where we are. Faced with the awesome experience of findings ourselves conscious in an unpredictable universe, making ritual is a noble attempt to confer rhythm and coherence to our lives…

…there is a paradox inherent in the whole concept of new ceremony, because part of the power of ceremony is that it has the weight of tradition behind it. In times of continuity, ritual would be something handed down by the elders. Perhaps this is an ideal, but we do not live in times of continuity. Rather than abandoning the whole idea of ritual as irrelevant, we need to respond to the challenges of our fast-changing age by renewing ritual practise in a way that honours the past but makes sense to us now.

This reminded me of my own previous post about blessingways and the role of ritual:

…We’re blessing each other. When we “call down a blessing” we’re invoking the connection of the women around us, the women of all past times and places, and of the beautiful world that surrounds us. We might each personally add something more to that calling down, but at the root, to me, it is an affirmation of connection to the rhythms and cycles of relationship, time, and place. Blessings come from within and around us all the time, there’s nothing supernatural about it.

I also think, though I could be wrong, that it is possible to plan and facilitate women’s rituals that speak to the “womanspirit” in all of us and do not require a specifically shared spiritual framework or belief system in order to gain something special from the connection with other women.

In another book I finished recently, The Power of Ritual, the author explains:

“Ritual opens a doorway in the invisible wall that seems to separate the spiritual and the physical. The formal quality of ritual allows us to move into the space between the worlds, experience what we need, and then step back and once more close the doorway so we can return to our lives enriched.”

via Blessingways and the role of ritual | Talk Birth.

This post is part of a four-part series of short posts from Birthrites.