Hazel Acland Tree's Blog, page 7

Calling all doula trainers/antenatal teachers ~ free review books available

  This month I’m offering to give away copies of my book A Doula’s Journey to doula trainers and antenatal teachers, only asking for postage costs to get the paperback to you. Why? Because I want this book to reach as many newbie doulas and birthing families as possible, and you are in a unique […]

How did pink get ghettoized as a girls’ color?

‘Pink or Blue, We Have No Clue . . . ‘  Recently I’ve been curious why baby boys get dressed in blue and girls in pink. There seems to be such an abundance of new baby clothes and tiny outfits that define gender, well not only clothes. So I’ve done a little research and come […]

If our bodies know how to give birth why go to prenatal sessions?

We hear this a lot in some natural birthing circles; that our pregnant bodies know how to birth just as they knew how to conceive and grow the child during gestation. I’ve heard the lecture that says the only thing standing between us and our perfect natural birth is the neo-cortex (thinking) brain, whose activation […]

Awakening feminine power

Something incredible is happening right now as all around the world women are waking up to the power of the feminine. Within the feminine is the power to create, simple as that, it is the biggest creative force on the planet. Bigger than Microsoft, bigger than Apple, even bigger than Google because it is more […]

Get your free Kindle eBook of A Doula’s Journey now

Happy Valentines day, wherever you are, whoever you are with, may you know the blessing you bring to the world. There is no-one in this world like you for you are completely unique and special. Without you the light of the world would glow a little less because your candle adds it’s flame to the […]

Kindle eBook Valentine promotion

Here we are back again in the blossoming of spring. Feeling blessed by the abundant life that is all around, inside and out I want to share this feeling with you, share some of the rich abundance and wealth that is dancing in my heart. As many of you know, year ago my novel was published, […]

Solstice Blessings!

Welcome to the gateway into the Mother Night ~ the longest night of the year for those of us in the northern hemisphere. The Winter Solstice is a tipping point, the north of the Earth reaches its furthest point form the sun. The dark night is a place of dreaming and visions. Ride the horse of Rhiannon as she travels through dreams transporting them to the place between the worlds where they can create their own visions, giving them a gift of what they need most, helping them to make real their dreams.

Then from the darkness new light is born, on the endless journey of birth, death and rebirth. Throughout the world gods and goddesses of light were being born during the Winter Solstice celebrated through festivals of light to mark the rebirth of the sun. The Egyptian goddess Isis delivered Horus whose symbol was the winged Sun. Mithras, the Unconquered Sun of Persia, was born during the solstice, as was Amaterasu, the Japanese Goddess of the Sun. Rhea gave birth to Saturn (son of the Father of Time), Hera conceives Hephaestus, and Quetzalcoatl and Lucina (“Little Light”) also celebrate birthdays at this time. Lucia, saint or Goddess of Light, is honored from Italy to Sweden, crowned with candles to carry us through the darkness. The birth of Sarasvati, the Hindu goddess of knowledge and the Queen of Heaven, is also celebrated during Yule-tide. And the birth of Christ consciousness into the world… Christmas. The decision to establish December 25 as the “official” date of Christ’s birth was made by Pope Julius I in the fourth century AD, hoping to replace the pagan celebration with the Christian one, since this date coincided with the pagan celebrations of Winter Solstice with the Return of the Sun Gods occurring throughout the world.

In ancient Europe, this night of darkness grew from the myths of the Norse goddess Frigga who sat at her spinning wheel weaving the fates, and the celebration was called Yule, from the Norse word Jul, meaning wheel. The Christmas wreath, a symbol adapted from  Frigga’s “Wheel of Fate”, reminds us of the cycle of the seasons and the continuity of life. In Northern Europe, the year’s longest night is called ‘Mother Night’ for it was in darkness the goddess Frigga laboured to bring the Light to birth once more. The Young Sun, Baldur, who controlled the sun and rain and brings fruitfulness to the fields, was born.  Frigga’s blessing is invoked for all birthing women, and a white candle that last burned on the solstice is a charm to provide a safe delivery. The mistletoe’s association with the holidays come from the myths of the goddess Frigga. The plant’s white berries were formed from  Frigga’s tears of mourning when her beloved son Baldur was killed by a dart made from mistletoe. Some versions of the story of Baldur’s death end happily. Baldur is restored to life, and the goddess is so grateful that she reverses the reputation of the baleful plant, making it a symbol of peace and love and promising a kiss to all who pass under it.

Ceremony gives us a form with which to honour this flow of life, the interconnectedness of us all with each other and the beautiful world we live in.  And how do we in our modern busy world make the space to mark this time, to carve a space out to honour where we are in our journey? It doesn’t need to be complicated, just with intention is enough.

Try turning off the artificial lights and spending time in candlelight, filling the house with candles. Maybe your living space feels cluttered and reflects the chaos inside? Take time to clear out what you no longer need and make space for the new to come in.  Thinking about the last year, is there anything you wish to let go of? Write it down on a piece of paper and then burn it ~ releasing the old, transforming the present. Or invite friends and family around to celebrate together in a circle as our ancestors have done since the beginning of time.

However you choose to mark this time know that all over the planet others are joining with you in heartfelt intention, to celebrate this tipping point.

Blessed be and may we all find peace and strength in the darkness and return to the growing light refreshed and restored.

 

~thanks to Goddess Gift for inspiration around the ancient myths

Following Moon Time

In very Ancient times when we followed Moon time, women often gave birth en-masse – they had conceived on a full moon (ovulation) and then gave birth together 9 Moons later in mass rituals. There is an ancient birthing chamber in Malta, an island of the Goddess, where women ritually entered the chamber, gave birth together, and then emerged with babies – as if from the Womb of Gaia.

In other tribes, as women birthed new souls into the world with the ecstatic orgasm of mass ritual, all women and crone elders of the community would dance, sound and chant in a Womb Circle round the women to help their journey. This would create a massive web of life-force energy to bring new life forward. One of the most famous of these ancient mass-birthing sites is Avebury.

Eventually we may once again live in a world that honors shamanic birthing; where communities of babies are conceived by the powerful light of the Full Moon in deeply loving Sacred Union of Soulmates, and women and men journey together for 9 Moons opening into their new experience of parenthood, as the baby grows inside, nourished by love, harmony, healing food, sacred love-making, orgasms, sound vibration, massage, laughter, delight, and Primal Love. Where the growing babies communicate telepathically with their parents.

Culminating in a mass births 9 Moons later, as the babies are welcomed into the world to the sound of drums, chanting, as grandmothers and mothers form a sacred Womb Circle around the birthing women, generating Shakti life force to support the women on her awakening journey into orgasmic birthing. Where a baby’s first experience of this world is celebration, community, love, communion. Where the mother merges with Cosmic Womb in the Divine ecstasy of Creation and the father opens his heart in ecstatic love.

Begin to imagine how the world would be if it were populated by people who had been birthed in this way? We can dream this way back into being.

~ From ‘Pilgrimage into the Womb: Awakening the Holy Grail’

Today is a different day

The buying of clocks to put in every room of the house felt a bit excessive, a bit neurotic, but I couldn’t stop myself. Compare this to a house that previously didn’t have a single clock except from the one on my phone. Our household mainly ran on ‘doing what and when we felt like it’ time.

But today all that has changed, today I woke to the sound of an alarm. It was light outside, the clouds soft, and somehow knowing that I wasn’t the only parent doing this today helped. There were thousands of parents up and down the country getting up, drinking coffee, going through this ritual of new beginnings. His clothes paid out last night were still there, the creases ironed out ~ ironing me?! Gosh! Again this house has never seen an iron; shake out the clothes and wear them till they’re flat.

But today is not like yesterday, nor the day before. Today my son went back to school, after two years (nearly to the day) of self-led learning, to enter the conventional classroom where he will learn what is on the syllabus and whatever else he picks up in the playground. I remember the day we walked away from the previous school and went to the beach, we walked hand in hand and discovered geology through rocks eroding into sand, discovered how the moon moves the tide and the birds glide on air currents.

But today a new experience has presented itself and so we set our sails to catch the wind and prepare to sail with this new breeze, not knowing on what shore we will wash up. Today I let got of my son in the corridor outside the classroom, knowing that he will set his own sail, tilt his own rudder and is confident enough to know the strength of his own boat. I bless him, and all those children who today let go of the shores of their motherland to sail together.

Cycles of life

Coming home last night along winding country lanes, as the blood-sun was sinking behind leafy trees, mist swirled between the high Devon hedges. The grass heavy with cold dew and my skin felt the cold that was creeping in along with the darkness. The cycle of seasons is tangibly changing this week, the long hot days of summer, that have seen me languishing in rivers and woods, is drawing to a close. The hedgerows are now dripping with bountiful harvest; blackberries and elderberries hang where once the sweet white blooms of elderflowers and bramble flowers reflected the beginning of a season now turning in another direction.

I must confess here that the weather is one of my passions; I love it, all of it. I love the heat of cloudless, blue skies and full sun. I love cool drizzle that settles on my eyelashes and creates a visual rainbow kaleidoscope. I love the passion of storms: wild winds, lightning and crashing of thunder. I love the grey skies that wrap the world in a soft blanket, gently muting bright colours. I love clouds as the expression of the sky’s soul. I love weather and how it reflects the ever-changing cycle of season, reminding me of my internal cycle of life, death and rebirth.

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