Food is the product of the earth; the earth is a mother goddess, literally the matrix of our physical existence. We are all products of the stars: earth, animals, plants; all the elements were forged in the reactions in the heart of stars. We are what we eat, so it is important to eat healthily [...]
pregnancy
Eating and spirituality when you’re growing a baby
Food, nutrition, and nourishment can raise a bewildering array of questions during the childbearing year. Can I eat a healthy vegetarian diet while I am pregnant? What foods should I eat and what should I avoid? How much weight should I gain? Should I be concerned about gestational diabetes? Will I breastfeed or bottle-feed my [...]
Ten Moons: The Inner Journey of Pregnancy, Preparation for Natural Birth
A review by Niki Whiting I admit I am completely intrigued by the idea of shamanic midwifery. Jane Hardwicke Collings, an Australian, has forged this path, combining traditional midwifery with shamanic concepts and work with the Divine Feminine. She trains other women, midwives and doulas, in this process, which, from her websites, is more of [...]
Prayer Beads as a Pregnancy Practice
by Kira Nuit Growing up Catholic, I’ve prayed a rosary or thirty. The experience is meditative and calming. Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam also have rituals involving beads. Beads may have been among the earliest ornaments created by humans. Their colors please the eye; their textures and weight please the hands; their soft clicks please the [...]
Review: Birthrites
Birth is the archetypal rite of passage for a woman, containing the essential elements of any ritual: separation from normal life, a profound transition during which the participants occupy a timeless time, followed by re-entry into society in a changed state. It can also be seen as a holy sacrament; the entry of a soul [...]
The first Spirit Babies ceremony in San Francisco
By Silverwing On the night of the Winter Solstice this year, between fifty and sixty people gathered in the chapel at the First Unitarian Universalist Church in San Francisco. Women and their loved ones came to honor their ‘spirit babies’ – those who had been lost due to a miscarriage, abortion and stillbirth. It was [...]
How the Spirit Babies Interfaith Ceremony came to be
By Silverwing Many years ago, a friend told me about the Mizuko Jizo, a Japanese deity that watches over the spirits of those who were miscarried, aborted or stillborn. There are temples with gardens of hundreds of these jizo statues. There is a place in Japanese society for women to grieve openly about their pregnancy [...]
Meditations during pregnancy
By Jackie Singer Greetings to all of you from the UK. Sarah Whedon contacted me recently when she found a copy of my book, Birthrites, in a bookshop in San Francisco. I’m touched that it was an actual physical book in a real life bookshop! I imagine the pages in her hands, and feel a [...]
The Pagan Health Survey on Pagan pregnancies
Did you take The Pagan Health Survey last year? The results of this survey were interesting for many reasons, including the little bit they tell us about how Pagans approach pregnancy and birth. Cultural anthropologist Kimberly Hedrick conducted the research using participant-observation, interviews, and an internet survey with 1,598 respondents. She presented her results at [...]
Responding to Ina May: The sacred is multiple
Editor’s note: I asked some of our regular contributors to each respond to a quote from midwife and natural birth advocate Ina May Gaskin. In her new book Birth Matters Gaskin wrote: Birth… matters because the journey through pregnancy and birth offers an irreplaceable way for women to explore their deepest selves – their minds, [...]