An old chameleon looks up at a bush.
He decides to climb it.

As he climbs the bush he meets a caterpillar
The caterpillar is SCARED!
He is supposed to become a butterfly,
but to become a butterfly he has to go into a cocoon.
And the cocoon is dark!
It is lonely.
What if it hurts to become a butterfly?
He doesn’t want to do it!

The old chameleon says…
If you don’t you don’t go in your cocoon you’ll never become a butterfly.
Doing something scary to become something new will be challenging! And you can do it.

The old chameleon leaves and continues to climb.
And then he meets a spider.

The spider is MAD!
Every day he builds his web, and every day it gets destroyed!
Then he has to rebuild it all over again.
He doesn’t want to do it anymore!

The old chameleon says…
If you don’t build your web,
you wont catch any food or have a place to sleep.
Make building your web a normal part of your day!
And enjoy the process.

The old chameleon leaves and continues to climb.
And he meets a honey bee.

The honeybee is SAD.
Every day he collects pollen to make honey for his hive.
But a human keeps eating the honey!
And he doesn’t want to collect pollen anymore.

The old chameleon says…
If you don’t collect pollen to make honey for your hive,
your bee family won’t have any food.
Focus on feeding your bee family,
And just accept that this human eats some of it.

Then old chameleon climbs to the top the bush and he accidentally rests on a flower

He then changes Colors

~~~~
Dearest Atreyu,
The Moral of this story is that life can be hard. Things happen that are out of our control.
We need to accept them and surrender to them. Finding gratitude and being brave.

Maybe… we can even “turn lemons into lemonade.” By accepting what we cannot control, we can make the process as enjoyable as possible.

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The journey of conceiving and birthing a child holds significant spiritual meaning for us at FaeTerra. We seek to explore the deeper connections, love, and spiritual aspects involved in the process. Here are some points to consider regarding the spiritual dimensions of conceiving and birthing:

1. Connection and Communication: The process of conceiving and bringing a child into the world involves a profound connection between two individuals. It is seen as a sacred union and an opportunity for deepening love and understanding. We believe in establishing a spiritual connection with the unborn child, using practices like meditation, visualization, or ritual to foster a sense of communication and bonding.
2. Sacredness and Divine Creation: Conception and childbirth are often viewed as acts of divine creation or manifestations of spiritual energy. We recognize the sacredness and transformative power of bringing new life into the world. This perspective can add a spiritual depth and reverence to the process.
3. Overcoming Hurdles: The journey of conceiving and birthing can be challenging physically, mentally, and spiritually. It may involve overcoming various obstacles, such as fertility issues, pregnancy complications, or personal growth and healing. Some individuals may find solace and strength through spiritual practices, rituals, or seeking guidance from spiritual leaders or mentors.
4. Alchemy and Soul Merger: We believe the process of conceiving and birthing is seen as a form of alchemical transformation. It is viewed as a merging of souls, where the energies of the parents combine to create a unique and spiritual being. This perspective emphasizes the profound nature of the journey and the potential for personal and spiritual growth it offers.

Ultimately, embracing the spiritual dimensions of conceiving and birthing can be a way for individuals and couples to cultivate a sense of meaning, connection, and empowerment throughout the transformative journey of bringing a new life into the world.

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As mothers in this very strange world….It’s our job to wash away the pain of our own mother, and her mother, and her mother’s mother. We get to change the story of our current culture. We are the empowered mother now.

The post The Age of the Mother appeared first on FaeTerra.

Traditions around the world use labyrinths~ and every one uses the SAME number of rings = 7.

My spirit mama told me it takes 7 years to complete a cycle of life. In fact, scientists say that in 7 years ~ our cells have completely renewed themselves! We truly become a new person.

And! When it comes to the transition from maiden to mother, each ring of the labyrinth tells story of our initiation, our decent, our resurrection and our rebirth.

~~~~ We call this the Map! ~~~~~

#1

The first ring of the labyrinth is our initiation cycle ~

 For you, this could have been  the moment you got pregnant. Or maybe it was the moment you went into labor. Honestly, I think the first ring of my labyrinth began when I married my husband Adam.

#2

The second ring represents your descent~

It’s Inanna’s journey into the underworld. The unknown. She must loose herself so she can find herself again… but she’ll be different.

#3

The third ring represents creation~

It’s where new life begins. it’s usually the third year that mother understands what it means to be a mother. And she starts to sink into her new role. It’s also when many of the trials in the first two years subside, and the mother can come more Into herself.

#4

The fourth ring represents completion and a stability ~

In this cycle you may feel more secure in yourself and in your environment. Something that you were working on in the last three cycles, has come to a stable place.

#5

The fifth ring represents resurrection~

You have rebirthed yourself – and you are emerging from the labyrinth with a new personality, a new point of view and a new strength.

#6

The sixth ring represents the rising~

You now feel like you can teach the journey to others.

#7

The seventh ring represents the exit~

Just like the 7 chakras, or the 7 days of the week…

It takes 7 cycles, and possibly 7 years, to fully anchor the mother self.

For many, these rings represent years of life. For others… it has a different meaning to their soul.

~~~~

When we use myth to understand the human experience~ we need to compare the symbols – from various cultures and traditions.

When we do this the patterns repeat themselves. Those patterns are our map for life.

Pam England calls the labyrinth, “the Laborynth.”

And she explains it as the cycles within the birth journey itself.

Each ring is marked with contractions, and the spiral journey represents the turns the baby makes as it moves through the birth canal.

The labyrinth represents every life journey, because patterns mirror each other.

The labyrinth can represent the labor itself~~

 the years following birth~~

the end of one stage of life and into another ~~

and our entire life journey from birth to death.

Understanding the Life Map, can help us as we transition from one stage of life to another.

And!!! with every ring of the labyrinth there are many turns within it! There will be ups and downs in every stage.

We all need to understand that life is not linear.

And it’s definitely not a fairy tale

(unless that fairy tale is following the hero’s journey model.)

Life is a wild journey. A hero’s journey. For the purpose of our soul’s growth.

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“It doesn’t matter HOW you gave birth, what matters is that YOU DID!”

To all the mothers who birthed at home ~ YOU did it!

To all the mamas who birthed in the hospital~ YOU did it!

And to all the mothers who birthed unexpectedly or traumatically~ YOU did it!

~ ⭐️ 🌙

No matter HOW you gave birth~
all women go through a similar initiation as they enter motherhood.

There will be a death, a transformation, and a re-emergence.

According to myth,
The maiden to mother initiation is a hero’s journey.

And birth is a Rite of Passage in which we shed our maiden form, and through a series of trials, emerge as our mother selves.

The ancients understood this.
And they created rituals to help the people navigate life transitions.

~ ⭐️

The Red Thread reminds us that all women are connected to each other. We are mirrors with similar stories ~ linked through our births, our ancestral lines and our “HERstory” as women.

For me personally,
I’ve been studying myth for as long as I can remember & I have been teaching the women’s mysteries for over 12 years.

In myth, and especially in the women’s mysteries, life is cyclical. We enter periods of darkness in order to transform.

The darkness is MYSTERY. It’s the unknown.
We are uncertain of what will happen and who we will become.

We can embrace the journey—>
By sharing with each other vulnerably in circle!
By doing rituals to prepare ourselves for transformation!
By Celebrating each other!
By Surrendering to the mystery!
& By nurturing ourselves in postpartum!

Then we can emerge as the mother self!

Deeply in love with our child, our family, our community, and ourselves ~ because we are supported, and our inner foundation is strong!

~⭐️

I plan to do this series next year, when I can be away from my baby boy. He is 5 months old!! ❤️

The pregnancy and postpartum groups will be held in a RED TENT… utilizing ritual, ceremony, myth, art, movement and somatic embodiment practices. Bringing care back to the “Traditional” practices of the goddess.

I hope this series can supplement modern doula care ~ as a program that focuses on women’s emotional, spiritual and psychological health ~ during the child bearing year.

The post The Red Thread: Pregnancy and Postpartum Groups appeared first on FaeTerra.

After childbirth you loose yourself

The women’s mysteries would say, “The blood is now milk.”
And the new mother enters a special sort of limbo.

Everything is about the baby.
Self care can feel non-existent & the trial of being a new parent~
may take some to their wits end.

(Thank goodness for those milky love hormones!
I truly, have never been so tired.)

But It’s said “9 months in ~ 9 months out.”
And at the end of this 18 month period (approx), we have been initiated.

Our soul has made space to be able to take care of another human being.

~~~

Next~ comes the return of the BLOOD.

For many moms~ the journey of the milk is more comfortable than the return of their menstrual cycle.

In the women’s mysteries, the menstrual flow is called
“the time when women come back to themselves.”

And, although it is hard to loose ourselves in “the milk phase“~
giving all of ourselves to our child ~ can feel easier than the self inquiry work ~ that the return of the blood now requires.

Our PMS symptoms will remind us where we are out of balance, and that we need to take our space.

….

After a year of normal cycles~

We emerge ~ as our solidified mother self.

The “she” we will be ~ for the next stage of our life.

~~~~

The path to becoming a mother has a rhythm. Much like the hero’s journey.

There is the initiation, the decent, and the re-emergence.

Which happens many times over!

Each cycle breaks us open to cleanse, and then rebuild a new layer of ourself.

Life, when looked at from the perspective of the soul, is a spiral.
And its purpose is growth.

~~~~

Art by Brett Manning

The post MILK & BLOOD: How Our Hormonal Changes Effect Motherhood appeared first on FaeTerra.

☥* Blood Rites *☥

HER daughter walked
toward the Red Tent
to learn the wisdom of women.

She had just started her first MOON.

Blood dripped into her undergarments,
caught by a piece of fabric her mother stitched together for her.

She had no idea what this blood meant,
except that coming to Tent meant something special…

SHE was greeted at the door, and an elder marked her third eye.

“WELCOME MY DAUGHTER! 🌙
The time has come for you to learn the power that lives in your belly.
YOU are connected to the moon & to the stars.
You are the Earth and linked to every woman in this circle.”

Around the girl are women in all phases of life.
Maidens, Mothers, and Crones.

Women about to have sex for the first time.
Women ready to conceive their first child.
Mothers with many children.
Elders who no longer bleed, and who are ready to share their wisdom.
~~~~

The ☥* Blood Rites * ☥ mark the phases of woman’s life journey.
When women go through Rites of Passage it is often associated with the Blood.

Menarche, First SEX, and Giving Birth–→
for example, all involve the shedding of some blood.

In conscious cultures, these are times of celebration~
Though! They are also times of great change.

In order to move from child to adolescence with menarche,
or to move from maiden to mother when we give birth,
Aspects of the old self dies, so SHE may transform into something new.

~~~~ 🌙
Today, in the Red Tent, the girl will be initiated into her adolescence. She must understand that in order to become a woman,
she has to give up the naivety of being a child…

The elders in the tent wrap her wrists with a red thread,
and explain to her that her moon time is more than just blood!

Within her, lives the stories of her ancestors and her potential for future children.
Her womb is linked to every woman’s womb.
Her experiences mirror all women’s experiences.
And each woman is living out an archetypal myth.

Now that she has had her menstruation, she will learn that her work in the world is both in the seen, and the unseen.

Because with each moon time she will feel the collective pain,
and she will be asked shed that which does not serve her.

This happens within herself, in her own darkness, moving it into the light.

She holds a GREAT POWER! And a responsibility to respect her body as a temple space.

🌙
The women adorn the girl with Henna and jewels depicting symbols of spiritual potency.

Henna and tattoo have been used by tribal cultures to celebrate our Blood Rites for a very long time ~
whether it be Menarche, or loosing one’s virginity (which has often been linked with marriage), or giving Birth.

Henna is painted on women to infuse them with “the mark of GOD.” This protects them from spirits during vulnerable life shifts, and it reminds her that she is sacred.

~~~ ☥
The women CHEER as they celebrate this girl, who is now a WOMAN!

She will be invited to the Red Tent every New Moon.

A time when women go inward and celebrate themselves.
A time when we link our moon blood to the darkness in the sky, and also to each other.

Together in circle, we will share stories of each other’s
First Blood, First Sex, Marriage, and Births.
We will celebrate women in menopause as they step into Elder.

We will learn the Women’s Mysteries and “the Things We Don’t Talk About.”

Together, we will disconnect from a patriarchal society,
and remember that WE ARE THE GODDESS.

The post ☥* Blood Rites *☥ appeared first on FaeTerra.

When I got pregnant, I expected that I would have someone to guide me into my next phase of life.

Maybe my mother ~ or my best friends who had children of their own… but no.

And I thought, that since I had traveled the country, helping women set up Red Tents in their neighborhood- that by the time I got pregnant I’d have a large support system.

But that didn’t happen either.
Instead I felt very alone.

I tried to find my security in hiring a birth team…
but as I was interviewing midwives and doulas- I witnessed a lot of judgment, criticism, fear, & “rights and wrongs”~ for birth, for motherhood, for parenting…

All of which seemed to stem from their own traumas…
And a need to control life…
when life is wildly uncontrollable.
~~~

Women’s disconnection from their bodies & nature has increasingly gotten worse in our modern times.

And I decided, that if I was going to learn about motherhood I’d have to refer back to the old world.

I needed to learn about Traditional Birth Care practices.

What did midwives do before modern medicine?
When more women died, and there needed to be more psychological & spiritual care.

How did different cultures support the maiden to mother transition?

What did they do that’s the same?
What did they do that’s different? ….

When I speak about “traditional birth care,”
I’m speaking about care that is rooted in the natural world and the spiritual worlds.

This type of care includes rituals that help us psychologically transition from one life phase to the next.
There is a great initiation that occurs in birth, that involves shamanic support.
And it is essential to celebrate and honor the new mother’s rite of passage~

A rite of passage that is NOT dependent on HOW she gave birth.
What matters is that she DID.
~~~

Here comes my ideas for “The Red Thread” project…

Which in my mind is a continuation of “Our Red Tent” project.
Which helped women learn their maiden mysteries, sex, blood rites and shadow work…
our interconnection as women, the power of our wombs, and our sovereignty.

Now that I’m in the mother phase of life, I’ve been writing down the stages of a woman’s hero’s journey- from marriage to conception, to birth and the years postpartum.

I am studying everything I can~ about what ancient cultures did to nourish the new mother, and to prepare her for her new role.

….
Layla B hosted an incredible postpartum birth summit recently: https://www.laylab.co.uk/sps2

Which interviewed postpartum birth workers around the world ~ to share their ancient traditions. From Guatemala, to India, to Morrocco, to Egypt, to Thailand…
from Native American to African American to Anglo Saxon.
~~~

The RED THREAD reminds us that all women are connected.
We are connected to our past~ as we birth our future.

I myself am 8 months pregnant…
And I’m somewhere between who I was and who I am becoming.
So, this Red Thread project is just coming into form.

It will continue to evolve itself… And I’ll write about my journey.

I hope to create workshops and services that share my personal findings with other women…
Because I do not believe that we are supposed to evolve alone.

P.S. I made this “Blood Rites” logo. Do you like it? 🙂
I’ll speak more about the BLOOD RITES in birth later

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