These ceremonies are specifically for women.
I am offering them as small, intimate group ceremonies of no more than eight women.
If you have something you wish to work on privately, or in greater depth, then the work also lends itself well to one- to one ceremonies.
As women in western culture, perhaps we are not taught to honour and pay attention to our wombs- unless there is dis-ease there. Prevention is far better than cure, and if there is dis-ease or dysfunction, a good place to start with healing is listening to our bodies, allowing them to speak to us about the distress or oversight.
It’s important to get a sense of our womb as a physical form in the pelvic area, to notice maybe how little attention we put there, and how the womb responds with pleasure to our attention being put there, and how we can receive communications from different parts of our body, our heart and our womb, that give us a different perspective on life from the chatter of our minds’ eyes.
There is a deep connection within women between the heart and the womb- this can be experienced as a meridian, or energy cord that connects the two, running down the front of the body, as the heart communicates with the womb via electromagnetic energy, and vice versa, and the brain connects with them both.
It is important to be aware of the energies of the first and second chakras that are associated with the pelvic organs- connected to mother earth and how these are connecting in with the heart chakra, connected to higher consciousness and both internal (self compassion) and more external (compassion towards the planet and others).
The energy of the first chakra is associated with tribal issues, both of the family and the cultural groups into which we are born. It contains the emotional imprint of our family traditions and belief systems, and how our sense of identity within the group is formed, on which we base our sense of emotional and physical health, and the knowledge we have the physical power to survive.
The first chakra represents our grounding, our connection to Mother Earth via the chakras on the soles of our feet, and allows us to realise the interconnection of not only our tribe or family, but all of life as part of an energetic and spiritual community.
The second chakra relates to our relationship with others and to our physical environment- how we can get our physical needs met, our sense of control over things that may affect us, such as money, authority, what choices we can make about our relations with others.
The second chakra reflects polarity, both the polarity between the ego and it’s shadow, and the heart and truth of self, and the polarities which we make in an attempt to make sense of this inner dynamic.
It offers us the possibility of working with conflicts of interest and choice, which may lead to change of direction, and more choices to be made. It’s blessings and fetters are the feeling of the need to remain in control of the ever-changing situation that is our physical life. We have an innate need to create; whether this is to create children, or works of art, or creative solutions to things in our environment that don’t feel right to us, or changes of polarity in our inner psyche that cause us unrest.
As women, we are shamed for our menstrual cycle. This cycle was honoured and welcomed in indigenous cultures who had not yet lost their connection with the Earth in the way we have by and large- in industrialised cultures.
Menstruating is something that half of the world’s population of childbearing age do, each month, and yet it isn’t spoken about, or the onset of menses at menarche, celebrated as the amazing life event that it is for young women.
It is labelled ‘the curse’ and adverts on TV for ‘feminine hygiene’ products show the menstrual flow as blue ink! There are jokes about moody women and their PMT- I’m not surprised we get moody at this time of month- when out being-ness and essence as women is ignored or castigated as being something deeply unclean!
Without periods, we cannot have children- the survival of humans depends upon us ovulating, and creating, or renewing the cycle inside our womb with the help of our hormones- and bleeding.
So these ceremonies are designed to help us connect our hearts to this beautiful centre of creativity, in our wombs, to explore what the womb might tell us, about our creativity, our truth of self as a woman, to revive our relationship with this magical part of our bodies, to let go of the shaming we may have inherited implicitly, or had foisted upon us directly, as we came into menarche.
More personal work could also be around releasing the grief of miscarriage or abortion, infertility- the loss of an opportunity for the womb to carry and nurture a pregnancy and new life, perhaps with the intention of welcoming in another conception.
I have trained as a menstrual health educator and worked for a number of years as a childbirth doula, and so the heart-womb- body-mind connection is one that I see as being of great importance to our mental and spiritual health, whether it is physical children we are bringing into physical reality, or ideas and creative projects we are wanting to give birth to.
See also, ‘cacao and your mental and menstrual health’ ...
