Book birthday party: of life and labyrinths

June 6, 2013 By 3 Comments
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In 2005, my mother and I attended a Speaking of Women's Health conference event in Columbia, Missouri. While there, we attended a session on labyrinths. I had only briefly heard of labyrinths before this time and they were new to my mom, but we were both instantly captivated by the symbol, metaphor, and process and have remained so ever since. The speaker shared that there was a labyrinth on the grounds of Boone Hospital, designed for patients to walk and also open for community use. My mom and … [Read more...]

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Creating a Birth Altar, Part 2 (Unexpected Wisdom)

March 25, 2013 By 1 Comment

I recently described the birth altar that I created before my last birth. Some of the elements included on the altar came from quotes from a page-a-day calendar from a $1 Shop and some were parts of a t-shirt tag from the tag on a shirt I purchased from WYSH at an LLL conference in 2009 (why keep a t-shirt tag from 2009, you might ask? Because it had lots of cool things written on it! And, behold, it became a source of birth altar wisdom for me. Wisdom lurks in unexpected places!) I am struck … [Read more...]

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Creating a Birth Altar, Part 1

March 18, 2013 By 1 Comment

Inspired by birth altars created by artist Amy Swagman of The Mandala Journey, I decided I wanted to make a special birth altar for the birth of my daughter. My mom bought me a small, unfinished curio cabinet/shadow box to use for this purpose. The first thing I did was to paint it “placenta red” using a blend of red and purple paints to get the shade I wanted. This is my favorite “power” color. I had a variety of postcards, tags, and inspirational words saved and some of them … [Read more...]

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Placenta Magic

March 15, 2013 By 2 Comments
Belly cast from second pregnancy.

...And when you see this wondrous thing That grew me up so well, Say thank you to the Goddess Who made us from one cell...* --Dr. Sarah Buckley, "Ode to My Placenta" I've said for many years now that my favorite color is "placenta red." A deep, rich, life-saturated red. I'm amazed by the placenta. How cool is it that we can grow a whole new organ and then just release it from our bodies when it is no longer needed? Pretty cool. I think the reason the placenta might not get as much … [Read more...]

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December link round-up

January 10, 2013 By Leave a Comment
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On Twitter, Google+, and especially Facebook, I share lots of links and things associated with Paganism and childbearing. Today I've rounded up the highlights from December. A nice shout-out for Pagan Families from The Wild Hunt when we moved here to Patheos Information on birth goddesses from Maiden to Mother Thinking about the meaning of "bringing a baby earthside" at First the Egg Sister MorningStar reflects on freedom and midwifery Amy Swagman of The Mandala Journey created … [Read more...]

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How you envision birth at the deepest level

December 27, 2012 By 1 Comment
Moon Mother

By Julianne Davidson Birth art can help you understand how you envision birth at the deepest level. This exploration is like stepping into an ancient archetypal force and journey of self discovery. The actual process of creating birth art requires one to partake in the process of visualizing their birth. Consciously thinking about and imagining your birth aligns your goals, may set fears at bay and help you to understand true feelings about birth. Birth art can be meditative, relaxing, … [Read more...]

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Review: The Mother’s Wisdom Deck

December 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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I immediately resonated with the beauty of online images from the Mother's Wisdom Deck created by Niki Dewart, Elizabeth Marglin, and Jenny Kostecki-Shaw, so I was thrilled when I wrote to ask for a review copy and they mailed one to me right away. My kids participated in opening the deck and the preschooler immediately spread the cards out across our rug - a great way to begin to interact with a new deck. The four suits of this deck are a bit unusual: Natural Mother, Animal Mother, … [Read more...]

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How to make birth art

June 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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Note: Were you inspired by Amy Swagman's birth mandalas yesterday? Read this short essay in which she describes how to start making birth art of your own. The state of mind you're in when you create artwork is the same state of mind you are in when you labor and birth.  It is a fluid, intuitive, timeless space where you accept everything as the whole and have a harder time reasoning, rationalizing and compartmentalizing.  By making lots of art during pregnancy you are practicing being in … [Read more...]

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Birth mandalas

June 22, 2011 By 6 Comments
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  Pagan Families reader Sarah wrote to recommend Amy Swagman's Birth Art Mandalas.  I was stunned by them and immediately wrote Amy to ask if I could share them here.  She said yes! Making birth art can be a beautiful spiritual practice.  My partner and I made birth art when we took a Birthing From Within class to prepare for our daughter's birth and my God children got to paint all over my big round belly at our Blessing Way, but Amy takes birth art to a whole other level. Amy is a … [Read more...]

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