Link round-up for September: Mothers, godparents, advocates, and more

Link Round-Up

I started Pagan Families so that Pagan moms (and dads and grandparents and…) wouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel when welcoming babies, so you could have access to ideas, advice, prayers, rituals, and community support as you navigate the spiritual life of pregnancy and parenting. One way of meeting this goal is gathering up Pagan and Pagan-friendly baby welcoming resources from around the web and sharing them on social media. Here’s some of the best of those links from September: 

• Nadirah Adeye, On Mothering, Sacred Sensual Style: “While I am committed to raising my son in a style that supports him in exploring his own emotions and thoughts, the United States is not as forgiving of young black men who make mistakes as it is of young white men. I cannot raise my son in the free style that I’ve observed in many pagan/hippie/attachment/gentle parenting communities. So I’m merging free flow with cultural consciousness and mothering him Sacred Sensual Style…”

• Jennifer Mills, What If I Were A Normal Mom? “I was pregnant with Emily before I was married and the events of September 11th hit just after my first trimester during that sacred time when I dreamt of bringing a child into a safe, predictable, and “normal” life. It was the perfect storm for an early crash and spiritual burn out.”

• David Dashifen Kees, Interfaith God Parenting: “As a god parent, I think it would be incumbent upon me to not only help the child to understand the spirituality and/or religion of their parents but to at least inform them of my own.”

• Yvonne Aburrow, Pagan Sacraments: “Pagans do not perceive a need to purify either the mother or the child after birth, considering that people are born innocent. The child will typically be welcomed into the community and given a name, but will not be committed to any particular religious tradition, as most Pagans believe that children should be able to choose their religion when they are old enough.”

Here At Pagan Families

At Pagan Families, in addition to great posts from our regular contributors we had a guest post on Advocating For Pagan Children in the Public School System by Aurora Lightbringer and the first in a new series reviewing Picture Books For Pagan Families by Meg Yardley. We also updated the contact info in Aileen Peterson’s Birth Guardian profile from last year.

Birth Announcements

In September on Facebook we also shared many sweet summer baby birth announcements. In whatever season you welcome a baby, if you’d like to share with the page, you can pm me or email [email protected] and I’ll post your birth announcement and/or baby photo. I’d also love to publish more Pagan birth stories here on the blog.

More links?

I keep an eye out for great new websites, blog posts, books, etc. related to Pagan Families but I’m sure I miss things. What have you enjoyed reading lately? Links, please!