MOTHERARCHY

And so…

The Midwife completes her work by doing nothing.

Things arise and she lets them come,

Things leave and she lets them go.

Creating, not possessing,

Facilitating, yet laying no claim.

And when her work is done, she forgets about it, and so it lasts forever!

~ The Tao of Midwifery

You are a Revolutionary.

If you aren’t yet claiming that title, I am suspecting that you have received the calling to become just that in the world but there’s an imposter feeling in there making noise. 

I began that way too. 

The way of the Wise Woman is one, also, of the Matriarch. She is the aspect of self who is no longer interested in just the noise.The hidden Wise Woman in each of us knows that there is more that she has to offer the world, society, her community than what she currently is. 

She has a basket of tools, gifts and knowledge but doesn’t yet know how to bring them to the world around her in a way that feels valuable and impactful. Some of those basket offerings may be buried so deep down beneath overwhelm, depletion, confusion and, again, that imposter syndrome, that they need to be witnessed and held safe by a life midwife who understands patience and the pace of true birth in order to come out into the world. 

I was 6 months pregnant with my third baby when I got a clear (actually audible) message to explore doula work.

Having been invested in writing and journalism my entire life up until then, I was kinda surprised to hear this and second guessed…for about 30 minutes.

But then I didn’t hold back. Went home and signed up for an arbitrary doula workshop that was quite honestly about as basic as you could get.

I appear impulsive when I get clarity. I have never regretted it and I could not help but seek and search for more and more. I began attending births immediately and knew without a doubt that something holy was being disturbed by technological and institutional  influences. 

Witnessing the desecration of birth and of women woke the dragon up in me; this was my path into the sacred rage, need for justice, truth, fairness and old wisdom that has propelled me to be a rather solitary birthworker who ultimately decided to perpetrate what she knows to work rather than fight what doesn’t.

I then went into deep mentorship with one of the wisest crones and midwives I think the western world has known. Whapio of The Matrona has been my teacher, mentor, friend and elder through over half of my career in birth and it is because of the richness that she has brought to my life in this world of transformation that I know how imperative it is to have matriarchs in the community imparting legacy, knowledge and guidance to others who want to take the torch too.

Instead of continuing to fight the good fight, I stepped fully into being a home birth doula and having gleaned so much wisdom from that alone, the call to teach others who wish to make a difference through real action and lived experience rather than words has become significant. 

ast year, after a few years of being asked to guide other women in their journey towards radical responsibilty,  I answered that call and co-mentored 6 incredible women through 13 months of deep exploration in order for them to find who they are in the realm of space holding for transformation, with the childbirth continuum as the backbone. It was a slow, beautiful, significant, deep, evolving and radical journey for us all. 

And so you find me here. Creating another whole year of study, ceremony, circle, devotion and mentorship for those who wish to keep the spiral spiraling.

In 12 years of birth work, I have attended over 100 births, a large portion being home birth.

I have created and facilitated 100’s of circles and ceremonies for rites of passages, including Menarche, Mother Blessings, Placenta Honorings, Closing of the Bones Ceremonies, Divorce ceremonies, Birthday Ceremonies, Wedding Ceremony, Pregnancy Loss Ceremonies, Moon and Wheel of the Year circles plus 24 weekend retreats.

Being a Ceremonialist is as much a part of me than Doula is.

I work closely with our plant relatives, growing, harvesting and crafting them into medicine that i give freely to my birth clients and community. My heart and spirit belongs with the world of green allies and I apply the Tao of Midwifery to this realm of my work too: laying no claim. Folk medicine is my jam. Herbalism is for all.

It is my privilege to be the recipient of wisdom and legacies that were handed to me from an elder (Whapio) who was taught by the Black Granny midwives of the Deep South and a spiritual mentor (Sarah Durham Wilson) who spearheads so much profound and change-making activism and work in the realms of decolonization and deconstructing capitalism and  patriarchy in us all as well as being my guide in leading other women through their Maiden to Mother archetypal journeys and healing.

I chose these teachers/guides/mentors because our hearts are connected in values, beliefs and the way we wish to make change in the world. I honor them deeply.

Above everything, my devotion is to return birth and blood rites including the body, the Earth and love, back to people as their inherent, basic but holy birthright. 

To do this, we simply have to begin at the beginning, with the landing of the babies into our safe homes, hands and Earth. We have to become a web of working women dedicated to sitting in true council with one another, taking radical responsibility for ourselves and turning to one another to repair and make waves of change from a rooted, love-centered, educated yet spiritually attuned place, falling, dying and rising as Inanna does on her delicious descent. 

Once the extraneous is gone, the real Wise Woman is born.

And so it is that you are called and together, Motherarchy begins, 

Here are the details of the coming year.

Opening Ceremony (online) 

Wednesday September 11th 2024.  7-10pm.

Bi-weekly Zoom Circles 

7-9:30pm

2024

September 25th,

October 9th/23th

November 6th/20th

December 4th/18th

2025

January (thursday) 2nd / (wednesday) 15/29

February 12th/26th

March 12th/26th

April 9th/23rd

May 7th/21st

June 4th/18th

July 3rd (thursday), 16th/30th (wednesday)

August 13th/27th

There will be at least 3 guest speakers over the course of the year.

Closing Ceremony - In person. 

13th September 2024

 A Day Retreat of Ceremony, Ritual,  Initiation, Certificate and Completion.

Location TBA. Local to Calgary.

One-on-ones

We will complete 3 one on ones over the course of the year together.

These will be 2 hours at a time, either in person if you are local or via video call if not.

This will be your chance to go deep with me when it comes to your personal goals, aspirations, visions, challenges and growth spurts in regards to your own personal transformation and vocation in holding space for initiations. 

Dates in January , May and September TBA. 

Energy work

You will have access to energy work with me at 50% of the regular cost from October 2024 unti end of August 2025.

Reiki and Thetahealing are the formal modalities that I list as my certifications but as the years have gone by II can say that these sessions are intuitive readings that are a conglomeration of bespoke and innate shamanic/ancetral medicine and ways.

In person reiki would be given at a cost of $50

Distance reiki would be given at a cost of $40

Curriculum

This is a bare skeleton of what this year and month will entail.

As we move and flow and grow together we weave in all and everything that feels relevant: the ancient and the modern, the practical and the mystical, the shamanic and the physical, herbs, homeopathy, physiology…

It's a mystery where we might go together but yet it's all known.

Once a month the online gathering will be  a traditional circle format, ritualistic in nature,  in which we all share aspects of our lives and experiences as women. This might include meditation, journaling.

We will live and learn the way that birth teaches us best: in flow, moving with the surges and rests, in keeping with the seasons of the land and body, but with an archetypal and well working blueprint.

The blueprint is that of Inanna, which is the descent, death and rise of life/breath/birth and is the backbone of the cycling initiation which is dying and being reborn.

The monthly modules will follow the Gates that Inanna descends to meet her true self. This is a basic and simplified skeleton of what it will entail:

First Quarter: Pre-Conception.

Call to adventure, In the Heavens, topics involving preconception and conception, meeting your maiden, element of Air, Waxing Crescent Moon, Beta brain.

Second Quarter: Pregnancy.

Sinking into Self, topics involving gestation and how to guide self and others through this as sovereign and courageous beings, Becoming Queen/Mother, element of fire, Full Moon, Alpha + Theta Brain.

Third Quarter: Birth.

Decimation of all ideologies, topics involving the climax/pinnacle and merging of birth and death, how to be the holder of tension and all that is, meeting your Wild Woman and being with the intense/innate sensory experience, element of water, Waning and Dark Moon, Deep Delta Brain.

Fourth Quarter: Postpartum.

Returning to self and The Rise, topics involving postpartum and placenta, how to collect from the ashes, how to hold space for others to do that as a guide without infantalizing, remembering and honouring death as sacred, element of Earth, New Moon, moving between the myriad of brainwaves for life.

In every module from October there will be a portal page (password protected) that holds information for you.

There may be many things included, from written herbal lore, rituals, recipes, guided meditations, music playlists, video teachings, links to resources and teachings about the current topic.

Each module will cover an academic subject, teachings on the herbal or homeopathic support that I recommend, one circle per month that is academic and one circle per month that is for our reflections and connection.