Womb blessing

My glorious, life affirming day, in pictures.

Blessing

Seeing the consultant yesterday has really thrown me into a tail spin and I am feeling very over whelmed. I had not expected to be so fearful of the road to recovery!

As ever, there is always a time and place and everything has its purpose though, and I was reminded last night that coincidences often happen for a reason.

Last night, the full moon, there was a world wide Womb Blessing atunement (see here http://www.wombblessing.com/), where over 30,000 women joined to share a meditation and give and receive energy. How timely that it should fall on an evening when I could really do with a little boost.

I attended the first Womb Blessing at the Yoga Sanctuary last August with Lucy (and weirdly, looking at posts around then, I don't think I mentioned it! Shocking!! How bizarre what you think you talk about and what you actually do!). Since then more and more women have got involved and there is now an atunement every couple of months.

The coincidence here is that this is the first one I have felt utterly compelled to do, since my first experience last August. Lucy was worried that I might not want to go ahead after my stressful day, but it was exactly what I needed and we had a great evening, with lots of talking and sharing.

Am I unique in wanting to be aware of more? I am often surprised at how much I need a spiritual opportunity in my life, and how much I miss it when I don't achieve it as often as I would like. I guess the more unsettled I feel with the world at large, the more I retreat and re-connect with myself and my own ancient wisdom.

Moonlodge and Mandala for August

I have had two gorgeous evenings celebrating womanhood, myself and our connections.  I spend all of my time being a mother, a wife or a would be athlete, and sometimes its just fabulous to be me and celebrate life.
Thursday night was the womb blessing and my last intro to yoga at The Sanctuary.  I struggled to find my feet at the sanctuary at first, they are a world away from my world, but rather at the last I found that actually their way is pretty amazing. 
Then on Friday night Lucy and I went to Holly's, for our full moonlodge and Mandala evening.  We took some inspiration from the womb blessing, and together with an amazing curry curtesy of Holly, we had a meaning evening.

This one has an Aztec feel to it.  I think the metal plate and skull beads lend themselves to a Mayan theme or similar, don't you think?  We noted during the making of it, that the other two were 'natural' ie food and then flowers, so it was ok for the colours to be hap hazard, but this was beads and therefore needed some thought - although I couldn't tell you why!!

And in other news, I cycled my furthest distance on my own last Friday.  31 miles up Portsdown hill.  I actually hated every moment of the way back, it was wet and windy and the tonne lorries were hurtling past little old me, and I had a little cry when I got in (you know me!) but I did it and I am aware of the achievement!!  Together with some great cycling I have been doing with my amazing Dad of late, I seem to have worked up the courage to put my money where my mouth is..  I'm going for a taster cycle with Fareham Wheelers tomorrow morning.  I AM TERRIFIED!  Will I spot them ok to meet up?  Will I have everything I need?  Will I be able to keep up?  Will I be able to do the distance?  Will there be any women?  What on earth will we talk about....?  I have to keep thinking of the first time I did a spin class, the first time I ran 5k..  All these firsts.  I am not the same person I was at the beginning of year.  I can do this.  I bloody can and I will, of course, report back.  Think of me!!

Mandala for July

I feel like I have a lot to reflect on and be grateful for right now, and an evening moonlodge making a mandala was just what I needed.  Lucy brought the ingredients this time, a beautiful cherry tree stump and herb cuttings from her garden.

 I love that Holly started in the middle (her third is pictured top here, with the 'starburst'), she moved away from linear design - I shall attempt to remember this next time!

 I was lucky to be hosting and get to have the mandala rest in my sacred space.  The view from the house was just gorgeous and I felt very privileged last night.

Even this morning, my Day of the Dead skull (This is what I have dubbed it anyway!) still looked impressive.  Of the two we have made so far, this is my favourite.  I love that I intentionally drew a skull on the last one, and this one just accidentally ended up looking like one!

Moonlodges and Mandalas

I blogged a few posts ago about a Sacred Woman workshop offered by the yoga sanctuary and I'm not sure if I mentioned anything about it afterwards?  The workshop itself was great, the afternoon was lovely, if not really what I was expecting.  I decided that I probably wouldn't get much out of the ongoing course, but that I would really like to explore yoga some more (Yoga starts next Thursday and I can't wait!). 

Lucy and I came away from the afternoon full of inspiration and with Holly, we got together for a moonlodge or red tent type evening.

Its hard to describe what a Moonlodge is, because all of my experiances have been led by the same group of people in the past.  I enjoyed this description "The Moon Lodge is the place of women, where women gather during their menstrual time to be at-one with each other and the changes ocurring in their bodies. Long ago, during this special time of moon cycles, women were removed from duties of family and allowed to retreat to the Moon Lodge to enyoy the company of their Sisters.

Traditionally, the Moontime is the sacred time of woman when she is honored as a Mother of the Creative Force. During this time she is allowed to release the old energy her body has carried and prepare for reconnection to the Earth Mother's fertility that she will carry in the next Moon or month. Our Ancestors understood the importance of allowing each woman to have her Sacred Space during this time of reconnection, because women were the carriers of abundance and fertility.

As Grandmother Moon is the weaver of tides ( the water or blood of our Earth Mother) so a woman's cycles follow the rhythm of that weaving. When women live together in a common space, their bodies begin to regulate their menses and all will eventually have their Moontime concurrently. This natural rhythm is one of the bonds of Sisterhood.

Women honor their sacred path when they acknowledge the intuitive knowing inherent in their receptive nature. In trusting the cycles of their bodies and allowing the feelings to emerge within them, women have been Seers and Oracles for their tribes for centuries."
taken from http://www.moonsurfing.com/moonlodge.html

I suppose essentially it is a meeting of women who have come together to just be.  What they do or share during a Moonlodge is up to them.  The details of our first moonlodge I shall leave sacred, however I am keen to share the mandala we made.

A mandala, according to the Collins dictionary is

mandala (ˈmændələ, mænˈdɑːlə)
— n
1.	Hindu & Buddhist art any of various designs symbolizing the universe, usually circular
2.	psychol such a symbol expressing a person's striving for unity of the self
[Sanskrit: circle] I like to think of them as sacred art.  I specifically chose to make the formation of ours mindless, and so therefore relaxing, and the resulting art was not the point - using edible and natural objects to create art doesn't lend itself to anything that will last.  There is a great description here 'creating them is a meditation and leaving them signifies the beauty and impermenance of life.' Anyway!!  I am quite sure I over thought the process, and when Lucy and Holly read this entry they will be like 'what?!'  Either way, I was delighted with the results and have many ideas for making them in my Sacred Space outside..  Enjoy!