Rooted Woman

Further Reading/Viewing:

This week, I speak with Kass, a woman devoted to mothers living in a state of embodiment, regulation, and pleasure, offered through her somatic tools. She talks about....

• Her own postpartum experience and initiation
• Healing as sitting with the body, and its sensations and stories
• Pregnancy and birth as a womb cleansing on all levels
• The vulnerability of the postpartum time and rooting in ourselves above all, and sovereign pregnancy as preparation for knowing in motherhood
• The difference between physiological worry in motherhood and when it becomes an issue
• Kass shares a couple of practices for embodiment and regulation in difficult moments in motherhood
• Getting out and feeling emotions, and integrating our kids into it
• The importance of accessing and loving from our sexual energy/life force in motherhood

Kass is a soon to be mama of two boys, somatic practitioner, and sacred birth and postpartum keeper. After healing her own chronic pelvic pain and experiencing her homebirth cesarean, she works with women to remind them of their innate connection to their bodies’ wisdom. Her work is dedicated to the women creating a revolution of mamas prioritizing regulation, rest, pleasure, and play (ie you!). 

This week, Hannah Grace shares the wild and sweet birth stories of her two sons. Each story carries its own beauty and wisdom. Enjoy and be inspired!

Hannah Grace resides on her tiny forming homestead in the Appalachian mountains with her beloved partner and 2 precious sons. Motherhood and partnership is at the center of her life, allowing her sacred roles to transform her into her highest. After her title of mother, she is a somatic practitioner and former classically trained dancer who fuses together both worlds for her somatic dance offerings. She values living close with the land and elements and is forever a student of life. She loves conversations that include birth, babies, baking, bodywork, life preparedness, trauma healing, death, and when she asks “how are you?” she is ready for the full and honest answer.

Today I'm talking with Lindsay Courcelle, a myofascial release therapist and internal pelvic bodyworker, on the sacred pelvic bowl and the multi-faceted experiences we go through as women that affect us and are held in our bodies. We talk about the importance of sitting in consciousness in this space in order to free up energy for life and creative flow.

This week, Carrie shares the birth stories of her two children, including one of redemptive healing for her matrilineage. Within her stories, you can feel her devotion to uncovering her inner truth, and her commitment to birthing in her power - both for her own soul healing, and her matrilineage.

Carrie Michelle is living life to the fullest in Austin, Texas as a mother of two beautiful children.

As a transformational guide specializing in NLP and hypnotherapy, she empowers women to find their confidence to speak their truth. Carrie Michelle has mentored with sacred elders in postpartum, motherhood, soul-evolution  and emotional intelligence—holding certifications in a wide range of healing modalities.

Carrie Michelle is currently developing a 2024 Instinctual Living online course to help fellow mothers and women to unlock their intuition and live authentically—by their instincts.

She is passionate about embracing our natural instincts and finding joy in the little moments, she holds sacred the ‘heart’s raw truth’ that illuminates our individual and collective hidden wisdom within.

Zoe shares her dharma as a midwife, her experiences in midwifery and the difficult witnessing and taking part in obstetric violence. After a divine accident and miracle healing, she shares what comes next for her, including her powerful and deeply intuitive birth stories. Zoe beautifully illustrates what is possible for women who seek to live an embodied, truthful, and spirit-led life.

In this solo episode, I share a little more in-depth about the different ways we can become depleted along the motherhood continuum, and some ideas and practices for nourishment, replenishment, and coming into a state of renewed vibrancy.

Elissa shares her intimate story about becoming a single mom of her young son. I resonate with her relatable story and how she has gone through this process with so much intention for consciousness in regards to her personal healing and relationship. This is also a beautiful story of the many ways our children/spirit babies/souls guide us in our lives.

She shares about meeting her partner, having her son, the process of separating, and her reflections a year later. Elissa shares about how a trauma history can cause conflict in relationship, how a traumatic birth can cause fracture in the intimate relationship, and the freeing role of taking full responsibility in our lives.

There are SO many gems within this conversation, and I guarantee this will inspire and move you as a woman/mother, where you have sons or daughters (or want to be a mom some day).

We talk about...

• How parenting somewhat "begins" in the toddler phase
• Nicole's instinctual, embodied mothering approach and the weaving together of primal needs and mothering in modern times
• A discussion on boundaries with young children and the necessity of being physical
• Gentle parenting and animal, embodied parenting - and of course, kindness and respect is a core pillar and foundation. AND, what does true respect for children mean? At times, being an authority figure.
• The weight of responsibility when we don't take up the role of it for our children
• Under age 7, the children are the mother's domain
• Getting into a conversation about boys specifically and their path in life, the mother's role and leading them well into manhood
• Noticing how our children feel SAFE within hierarchy
• Inherent differences between boys and girls, and how she is teaching her sons how to interact differently with girls (which will inform how they treat women later on)
• Our responsibility as mothers to orchestrate their needs, and the difference between that and MEETING their needs ourselves
• What it truly means for Nicole raise boys with the intention of making them good, kingly men
• Her vision for her boys in the second plane of childhood, ages 7-14 - what she will bring in for them and her commitment to homeschooling

• Our job to be our children's gatekeeper and semi-permeable membrane vs mainstream approach of "you can't shelter them forever"
• Nicole's intention to have her children be in her family unit/orb their whole lives
• How our culture routinely and innately gaslights mothers (and babies)
• School as an alternate form of life and how it does not set up our children well for adulthood and "real-world" life
• Rampant distrust of self/embodied knowing in modern mothers; the wisdom of outsourcing as well as the shadow side, and her practice for developing internal knowing (hint: she looks to the animal kingdom)
• Getting to a place of radically calm and stable boundary setting, without guilt or anger
• The enmeshment and over-responsibility that happens for our children when we don't show up in these ways as mothers
• The crucial importance of honoring the mother-baby period, in order to usher our children out of babyhood and into healthy toddlerhood and beyond

If you haven't heard of fertility astrology or your lunar conception window, your mind will be expanded by some of this knowledge. Athena is such an open, authentic and interesting woman, you'll love this conversation and topics. Her humility, trust, humor, and true, candid honesty with herself along her pre-conception path is inspiring to me.

We talk about:

- Athena's path into herbalism (including the pop culture myth of echinacea and its actual traditional use), birthwork, and then fertility astrology

- History of fertility astrology and using its principles to potentially time conception and sex

- Hormonal fertility is most potent, and fertile moon phase is an additional but less potent access point

- The mystical connection women have with the moon and planets, and its entwinement with fertility

- Releasing what we are told/know about the rigid pattern of ovulation and examples of other animals in nature who release eggs based on the signal of sex

- Astrological influences and transits on conception

- Big 4 theories: gravitational pull on fluids, electromagnetic field that's being altered, moon light influence on hormones, the effect moon phases have on ionization - plus spiritual factors at play

- The many, many opportunities to deepen into trust that the pre-conception time and beyond offer us, as women

- "Women conceive how they live"

- Athena's own pre-conception paths: her current one full of humility, trust, and humor - along with her many layers of healing and shifting along the way

- The importance of witnessing during the motherhood continuum

- Her work with women in fertility through the lens of astrology (and more...)

- "If you don't conceive right away, its because there's something there for you."

Resources Mentioned:

Erika Wirth of Wirth Wellness and the Crunchy Mom Club podcast is on today to share her stories of healing her body on a deep level as she prepared for pregnancy, her sovereign pregnancy and birth experience, and then we have a conversation about respectful, new-earth parenting and mothering.

We talk about:

• How Erika witnessed her mother loving her role, and how that led her to knowing mothering was one of the most important roles she could choose in life
• Entering motherhood as a stepmother first, and the differences between step-mothering and biological mothering
• Her deep healing pre-conception path: healing depletion and chronic illness, and all the diet, lifestyle, gut healing, cycle, hormone, and boundary changes she implemented
• Her pregnancy and birth experiences, starting with midwifery care and then her choice to freebirth
• A conversation on the choices we make and the history surrounding birthing alone vs. having female friends
• How it was to integrate a new baby into the family dynamic and her beautiful and supported postpartum experience. Then the reality after her mom left and immediately put back into the overwhelm of (essentially) solo mothering
• The importance in these times of finding like-minded mothers to surround ourselves with, when choosing instinctive parenting
• How becoming mothers has changed both of us and a conversation on how we view children, their souls, and the call to approach our children in a truly respectful way.
• The importance of awakening and shifting how we view our children compared to the mainstream approach to children
• How the energy of the mother affects the energy of our children: "One generally finds that infants are the most content and cheerful in the hands of mothers who move with ceremonious slowness" - Dr. Emmi Pikler

In this episode, Amber shares her experience of healing very painful periods and depletion from many years of a vegetarian diet and pregnancy. Through the simplicity of prioritizing nourishing and ancestral foods, she found her path to vitality. Amber details what eating a nourishing diet looks like for her, and how her womb and overall health has shifted greatly since changing the way she eats.

Amber talks about changing the narrative around loving, attachment parenting to also include letting our village support us. She also speaks to her Muslim faith, some of the misconceptions as she sees it, the elevation of women and mothers within Islam, and the sacred feminine element she centers within her faith.

Resources Mentioned:

I'm so excited to open up this offering for my vitamin/mineral/probiotic/antioxidant-rich elixir for mothers:

This is a long title but within this topic, it truly encompasses SO much. This is a rich episode for women who want to become mothers one day and speaks to a huge part of the path that is often not touched upon much - that of learning through, supporting, and being with mothers/children/families.

We talk about:

• Her reflections on her relationship with children, as well as how her friends feel
• Emily's family culture and experiences growing up, interest in kids and becoming a mother
• How birth control plays a role in so many women not desiring motherhood
• The opportunity for maidens to soak up experiences and styles of parenting by being around mothers
• Women should consider the importance of family presence as an entry to a more easeful motherhood - these are universal helpful structures
• Emily's conscious dating experiences, and advice for finding a resonant life partner.
• "When you're not entirely sure in your beliefs of who you are, you're also going to attract those who are not sure of their beliefs and who they are"
• The toxic mainstream culture on birth and motherhood
• Maidens in friendship with mothers can witness the integration of children into life, to model and show a different way than the common tropes of sacrifice, separation, and resentment
• Prioritizing integrating our children into our lives rather than regular separation - this increases our joy, pleasure, and love for them, and contributes to the deep hormonal bonding and evolution as a mother
• Consciously choosing to step away from mainstream parenting for an opportunity for a more fulfilling experience
• How I've experienced witnessing my young daughter's pure maiden joy, and how it's healed any fragmented maiden or dark mother energy as inherited by the culture
• Shifting orientation and mindset in maiden-to-mother season through surrounding yourself with who you want to become
• Realizing that motherhood brings you more into your full and whole self more, leads to purpose-finding. and healing toxic unconscious paradigms
• The importance of embodying your most radical beliefs when dating to avoid conflicts later in parenting with hot-button issues
• Emily's current longer-term path of preconception, and her priorities
• The importance of men spending time around fathers before their time
• Emily's advice for maidens to make more mother friends and how to have a more reciprocal relationship
• How mothers and maidens benefit from prioritizing relationships with each other
• Learning and being around each other in all the phases of womanhood
• Emily's monthly maiden + mother circles and Mother-Child astrology readings

Coming back for season 2 in September!

------------------------------

Ways to Support My Work:

Emma is an inspiring woman who is deeply rooted in her ancestral Wise Woman ways of herbalism, ceremony and ritual, birthkeeping, and so much more. Enjoy this episode about peaceful birth, sitting in trust of the wisdom of the body, and leaning on herbal remedies for well-being.

We talk about:

• Emma's easeful, trusting, and magical pregnancy and birth story
• Sauna as a womb space for birth and death and ritual/healing in Northern traditions
• Women's deep need for blessing during their pregnancy
• Her challenging postpartum as initiation and the sense that modern women are truly not prepared for this time
• How she thought she would want to be alone in the postpartum time, but instead discovered she really needed other wise women around her
• The blend of instinct and modeling in mothering
• The loss of divine love, protection, and blessings on a large scale - from not calling in our ancestors to be with us in our births, which is a core aspect of Ancestral Midwifery
• The expansion of pregnancy, down to the bones
• The steep learning curve of mothering and how we come to nourishing ourselves and finding our inner peace in our journey to heal an imbalance of over-giving
• The necessity of prioritizing solo time as our step to re-villaging and avoiding resentment towards our partners
• A conversation about the reality of village and community living, and how we may not be ready to make those concessions culturally yet.
• How Emma weaves in healing, nourishing, and herbal practices throughout her life - for herself and for her daughter
• Great herbs and homeopathy for babies and children and integrating them into their lives

Resources Mentioned:

Enjoy this (part 2) conversation with Shakti Priya, where we deepen into the truly sacred path of conscious conception and the honor of bringing in life. She also shares deeper about these topics with the foundation of her tantric perspective. We talk about:

- Walking the path of conscious conception as a way to bring forth a child who isn't weighed down by the pain and burden of its ancestors

- How you bind your body and soul via blood oath with the father of your children, and how you carry and create his lineage through your body

- Conscious conception requires unlearning bad habits, purification, and deconstruction

- The importance of healing our wound with men before conception, and coming into harmony with the sacred masculine

- Where you are at during conception imprints upon your child for their very first cellular memory

- The tantric approach to alchemical union; tantra as deep embodiment

- "What is going on spiritually between the masculine and the feminine right now, is in the hands of the feminine"

- Shifting to what we can expect from men vs. what we should not

- Widening the lens to multi-generational healing

- The vision for healing our sister-wounds, bridging the ancient/cosmic ways and the future

- Shakti Priya's parents, model of mothering, and personal conscious conception journey as a way of life

- "My role is to create the foundation so that once these children come through, I can give them a life that is pure Heaven."

- Deepening into what the tantric path looks like for her - an infinite well, a way of life, surrender and receptivity, and leading you into full embodiment

- The invitation to bring more consciousness when a woman is feeling a strong primal urge to conceive

- "The practices are meant to open you up so that you can always be in practice"

- Ways to bring in presence, embodiment, and connection to Life practically

- Integration of technology into a path of awakening; recognition of their reality and listening to our bodies as always

- "Conscious conception in bringing forth leaders and ancient beings that are here to re-grid the planet. This is a big mission, and requires a lot of patience and extreme dedication to being real with yourself: how much pain are you in, how triggered do you get? If you're not in your highest state, that's an invitation to go deeper, to free yourself even deeper."

Listen to our first conversation, ep 25 | Maiden as Lifeblood of Our Womanhood + Her Archetypal Healing Journey

Enjoy this solo episode where I talk about what is working in my life, and reflections on how we weave nourishment into our mothering.

Season 1 is coming to an end this month! Wanna be on season 2? If you have a woman story, mother story, birth story, healing story, reach out to me at bethanywildeinfo@gmail.com

------------------------------

Ways to Support My Work:

Anna shares her stories of the calling to serve mothers, leading her into the system as a labor and delivery nurse, and her emergence out of that world after the traumatic first full-term birth of her son. She talks about psychedelic conception, early pregnancy loss at home, her story and approach with pre-eclampsia, and her most recent fast freebirth of her second son at home. Anna's stories are her evolution as a woman and mother; stories of cultivating deep trust and instinct through birthing in her power.

This is a special and thought-provoking conversation. I'm excited to bring on Kristin Hauser again (see Ep 18 for part 1) to deepen into talking about the experience of motherhood, womanhood, and womb vitality. Each sub-topic is so rich and could be expanded on a lot. In this episode, we talk about:

• What Kristin's integration and shifting as a mother of 3 looks like now, and how she's set up structure/support to make life more easeful
• How she maintains and carries her self-care practices throughout the season of early motherhood, and her devotion to nourishment
• What welcoming in more support has looked like for her
• How women have an innate and instinctive knowing and "North Star" to guide us, if we can trust it
• How different the evolution of a first-time mother is from those with older/multiple kids, and what experience can bring
• The menstrual cycle as a psychospiritual journey, and how we exchange Jing and Yin for spiritual expansion and to bring in children
• Jing is our Essence and genetic material, and there's different schools of thought in relation to how it gets used up or its potential to be replenished
• Pregnancy as a state of excess and how it can shift certain patterns in women (autoimmune conditions, painful cycles, yin deficiencies)
• Kristin's experience of a healing, regenerative 3rd pregnancy
• "We offer our Jing, or Essence...and in return, we also get closer to that Essence of who we are, each time [pregnancy]"
• How trauma depletes us further and uses our resources vs. an untraumatized pregnancy/birth experience - how it impacts your long-term vitality and how that Jing gets preserved or not, or how you come closer to or further away from your soul Essence
• How many women who miss out on an undisturbed, physiological birth are seeking to re-imprint that missed experience of altered states of consciousness through plant medicine
• The impact of powerful plant medicines on women's hormonal health, and learning about re-building from women who have experience with these medicines without burnout
• "The big issue is that we are not being initiated into the blood rites, or initiated into what the menstrual cycle can really offer us"
• Ways to find more balance in our Yang culture: "For mothers, their stress hormones are higher than anyone"
• Complications during the birth process can make it difficult for women to tap into the Yin state of their physiology, but we can re-build/restore/re-pattern (especially during the postpartum time)
• How we can use the postpartum time to restore our Yin and to not get stuck in those Yang states of physiology. It's a practice that expands during the early mothering years.
• "How can I choose to be in relationship to the pleasure of motherhood and the pleasure of my day to day life that can help sustain me over time?"
• Orienting more towards states of pleasure rather than dysregulation, overwhelm, and exhaustion in motherhood
• Staying in victim-mode obstructs mothers from fully healing their depletion, because it drains your vitality when you are disconnected from your own source of agency.
• Questioning the narrative around "vitality lost" and shifting the focus on areas that are going well
• Her stories about her mother
• Book suggestions

This week, Corinne shares her stories of entering motherhood without support and nourishment, its impact, and the many lessons learned along the way that inspired her current work in serving mothers in the postpartum time. She talks about:

- Her path into motherhood

- Her postpartum experience, the impact of lack of rest and supportive nourishment

- The foundation of birth and postpartum preparation is connecting to your instinctual nature and body; your Source

- Disturbance and sabotage of physiological breastfeeding within the mainstream culture, and Corinne's experiences. How so often we initially expect things to just work out, or be instinctual, and are shocked if it's not

- The turning point when she started to prioritize embodiment practices, nourishment, boundaries, and self-care

- Corinne's idea of an ideal postpartum time

- The prevalence of modern breastfeeding issues and many mothers who want to stop nursing early

- What being present with our children can bring up for us, and uncovering the invitation for presence/embodiment. Child consciousness

- The unraveling, letting go, and sacred surrender of the postpartum time

- Nourishing foods and embodiment practices as the foundation of RESILIENCE as a mother

- What her lifestyle/eating looks like now to re-mineralize and heal depletion, 2 years postpartum

- The nature of giving and receiving love in community-building

- More about Corinne's work supporting new mothers: she serves mothers in-person, including making food that is nourishing to the body AND soul. Online, she helps support women with postpartum preparation on all levels and with practical strategy (as she shares at the end, she is also offering these calls free for a limited time, so reach out to her!).

Resources Mentioned:

In this episode, I talk about some of the ways of how I see the regenerative nature of pregnancy, birth, and the early postpartum time. I focus a lot on the physical, but also touch on the energetic aspects. Within the portal of this initiatory time, there is an opportunity and a call for elevation on all levels.

Resources Mentioned

In this personal solo episode, I share about honoring my ancestry, what it means to me, and why it feels important to reclaim in these times. I talk about wanting to separate from my family when I was younger, and my more recent evolution into matriarch of my lineage, and discovering the strength and peace it has given me to connect to my ancestors and carry on old (and bring in new) traditions. I talk about the recognition of our full spectrum of humanity; how we can see both the gifts and release that which we do not wish to carry on in our family line. I share some personal stories, talk about the importance of introducing altars and sacred spaces into our children's lives, and how ultimately we carry our ancestors in our bones, even when the stories and rituals are lost.

This title comes from a song that I learned from a friend - you might have heard it in a women's circle as well.

Books Mentioned:

Reighn was my first guest on the podcast (listen to her birthing stories on ep 5. "Reighn's Stories of Birth, Resilience, and Nourishment") and now she comes back to do a deeper dive into her work surrounding eating and nourishment.

We talk about...

• What it means to eat for your physiology and why that is the guiding light for all of Reighn's nutritional advice
• Dogma and ideology in the wellness sphere
• Reighn's path with eating differently in different seasons of her life
• "Feeling good is not enough"
• Pro-metabolic and Weston A. Price are ways of eating for peak human physiology
• "Our ancestors would have considered eating vegan a great famine"
• The shift to seeing all responses as an intelligence and wisdom in our bodies and plants
• The complexities of sugar and the differences between ripe and unripe fruit
• Vitamin D, the "original hormone therapy", and the issues with supplementing
• Re-considering cod liver oil for those with certain ancestry and at certain times of the year
• Healing depletion after pregnancy/birth/breastfeeding, and pre-conception preparation
• The idea that there are physiological truths...is not quite the truth
• Some insight for those who feel they carry extra weight after pregnancy - "I allow my body to heal what it needed to heal, I let it be uncomfortable, and then it gave me the sign - okay, we're done. Time to move on."
• CRISPR technology, bioengineered bacteria use in our foods and its impact on the body
• When we are confused by health "experts" and manipulation tactics, coming back to our bodies and our instincts as the foremost expert
• The value of guides who truly bring the power back to those they serve
• Reighn's support as a guide in in sovereign healing and birthing

Resources Mentioned:

This class comes from a retired practitioner training, and this is a class women who want to know their history and wise women practitioners alike, will appreciate.

I talk about:

• The ego in expertise
• Licensure and the pillars of inherited systems
• Working with women as portal work and how it calls for the highest integrity
• A quick overview of the history of modern allopathic medicine: the smear campaign against wise women/healers/midwives and the spiritual ways of the people, the widespread shift in the hearts and psyches of the people what a healer is
• The co-opting of medicine
• Insidious hierarchical dynamics + indoctrination of modern educational and vocational training

Music credit: Edwina Masson

------------------------------

Ways to Support My Work:

We hear the beautiful birthing stories. But where are our motherhood stories, too? I am honored in this episode to bring on Ivy, who shares her maiden-to-mother journey, with all of its beauty and difficulties. This will be a balm to any new mother in the depths of the postpartum time, or a woman who is close to undergoing this rite of passage herself. Ivy's story, and others like her, are the medicine stories. As women, we are meant to share, gather, listen, be the story-keepers. Enjoy.

She shares...

- Ivy's relationship to motherhood, doula work, and her desire for a child before getting pregnant

- Witnessing birth from the outside vs. being the birthing woman

- What Ivy's postpartum journey was like; the aftermath of birth trauma within the system

- The nuance of "hard" in early mothering - expansion of capacity, heart expansion and softening.

- Postpartum as meeting the dark goddess while also being held in Love by the Great Mother

- Her internal energetic practices for coming into the "frequency of the goddess" during the postpartum time

- Each step along the initiation that is early motherhood perfectly prepares us for the next

- The expansive capacity of the human spirit, and our ability to alchemize our difficulties into our greatest treasures

- How she processed the profound grief of losing a beloved mother figure during her postpartum time

- The entwinement of birth and death, and its many lessons

- Who is Ivy now as a woman? Her answer: "I'm more me than I ever have been - it's such a relief."

- How as we get older, we get more free and unravel the binds that hold us

- The holiness and sacred honor that we are tasked with as mothers

- The importance of RECEIVING in the postpartum time and beyond

Ivy  Challis is yoga teacher, mindfulness educator, and mother. Before devoting herself to her role as a mother, Ivy’s passion was guiding people to experience a more profound connection with themselves, the earth, and the divine, through movement practices and energy awareness. She taught yoga and worked with people to offer deeply nourishing, transformative, heart healing. She now dedicates herself to her daughter and husband, passionately offering herself fully to her highest  calling. Ivy hopes to share her experience, knowing that the deepest  medicine we can offer as women and mothers is our stories and our authentic truth.

Music credit: Edwina Masson

------------------------------

Ways to Support My Work:

Shakti Priya is a woman I invited to come on, to speak to the hearts of maidens, and this conversation went into that and so many more expansive topics. This is a must-listen conversation for any woman to heal the wounded maiden aspects within that block us from the highest and most joyful evolution of our womanhood. Mothers and elders, we can never let the maiden within us die. You will feel the integrity of Shakti Priya as a woman that has walked this path herself.

We talk about:

- Shakti Priya's time moving into deep embodiment, maturity and wisdom, purification, healing her matriarchy through her time at an ashram

- Her purification and cultivation of the three pillars: Qi, Jing, and Shen

- Her issues with (mainstream, agenda-led, liberal) feminism. How the wound of losing trust in men leads a woman open to sexual manipulation.

- The ancient collective wounding of reproach - disappointment, resentment, hatred towards sacred masculine - and the disruption within women, divine unions, and families. The dark field that is created within that energy

- How our first cellular memories during conception form the idea of union

- The archetypal journey of the maiden and her spiritual tasks - the thresholds to cross and rites of passages to move through

- The energy of longing to be an integrated, embodied maiden. Shakti as feminine creative energy, erotic innocence, humility, and the unbending will to evolve

- "Receiving the tools to be able to guide yourself is key, but also knowing when to ask for help, knowing when the help that is coming towards you is truly divine intervention"

- Understanding and healing our masculine + union wounds as women

- Working through the maidenhood and matriarchy as the precursor to being a fully initiated mother who is in all of her light and beauty

- Supporting our young daughters in their embodiment and joyful maidenhood

- The inherent desire to create life after purifying the womb and thoughts for why so many young women don't want to become mothers

- Collective stories around birthing and motherhood and the current re-coding happening

- Remembering the shakti and inner maiden that always flows through us

- Why women have the primary role in collective change

- Patriarchy vs the dominator model, into the partnership model

- Shakti Priya's mentorship offering for the journey from wounded maiden into warrior maiden

Hope you enjoy as much as I did, listening to Neely's beautiful wild, freebirth of her daughter, including how she healed fibromyalgia naturally by addressing emotional aspects and aligning with natural living, and her incredible fast first birth. Neely is such a wise and peaceful mother, and I feel other first-time mothers would be inspired by her and her story. Enjoy!

Follow Neely @barefoot_birds on IG

Music credit: Edwina Masson

------------------------------

Ways to Support My Work:

Today I have on the intuitive Amber, on to share her stories of choosing to trust herself and her baby by birthing outside the system, after being told after a surgical fibroid removal that she would never be able to have a vaginal birth. Amber walks us through her path of healing blocked uterine (fallopian) tubes naturally, pregnancy loss, leaving the medical system at 32 weeks, and finding power and trust in her body's intelligence. We also have a conversation about her immediate postpartum and her choice to seek newborn medical care, weaving community in early motherhood, and words of wisdom and resources for other women who are dealing with womb imbalances who desire to get pregnant.

Amber McConnon has worked in organic vegetable seed for almost a decade. Her background spans from commercial seed production, to community outreach, to research. Working for years in organic agriculture had given her a holistic and systems perspective to draw from. She knew her body was designed to thrive and function perfectly if she supported it properly. After undergoing a therapeutic lifestyle change, wherein she embraced things like stoicism, mindfulness, yoga and clean intuitive eating, she and her husband were able to conceive and eventually welcome their son into the world last October. She shares her story of overcoming her own mental blocks, navigating the manipulation and fear mongering of the allopathic medical system, and planning for a VBAM (vaginal birth after myomectomy) at home unattended by any medical professionals.

This is a mini-class, taken from my retired practitioner training to both give women a preview of that well of knowledge, and also offer some information on this important and big topic. In this short class, I talk about:

- The nature of trauma imprints held in the pelvis, and both the traumatic and blissful experiences we hold here

- Women's experiences and socializations

- How the nature of womb to be receptive, alchemical + to amplify

- When a woman holds trauma here, it holds back her vital life force

- What integrity can look like when being a Wise/Medicine Woman

- Alchemizing pain and grief into bliss and joy

- The deep heart-womb connection

- Trauma as feeling safe within incoherence and disharmony, and attuning to new, uncomfortable rhythms for re-wiring

------------------------------

Ways to Support My Work:

This week I have a special woman on to share her work supporting women and couples in the preconception space, her wild, world-traveling journeys and raising 2 daughters with consciousness, intention and grace. And infused throughout is Jocelyn's heart on dreaming up a new earth by bringing in "wise, ancient souls"...

We talk about:

- Fertility blocks and conception as a state of yin

- Jocelyn's work with fertility and conception; the flower of life of all factors that affect our holistic health

- How women know what they need right underneath the surface with a shift from everyday consciousness

- Organic birth - stay human!

- How this new generation of girls is growing up different, appreciating a new type of feminism, seeking balanced partnerships and to be co-creators of the earth, etc.

- External achievement dynamic + matrix mindset, vs. seeing our children as our greatest achievements

- Returning to the profound mystery of creation + procreation

- Jocelyn's wild, world-traveling journeys with bringing in her 2 daughters

- Raising daughters well + what Jocelyn has brought/is bringing into their lives. Alternative education

- How important consciousness + owning our mistakes is in mothering

- Her daughter's middle childhood transition ceremony

- No one is a perfect, peaceful mother all the time. It's not about perfection, it's about intention

- Conception traditions + creating our own

About Jocelyn

Jocelyn Gordon is a Conscious Conception Coach and embodiment educator helping women and their partners up-level their self-care, remove fertility blocks, and prepare life and home for baby.

Having lived, danced, and studied birth traditions in Bermuda, the U.S., Indonesia, and New Zealand, Jocelyn understands the power of movement and the importance of cultural sensitivity. Touring with Wanderlust Yoga Festivals, being a six-time facilitator at the Bali Spirit Festival, and presenting on the mainstage for Mindvalley at A-Fest Thailand, taught her how to connect with hundreds while speaking directly to the heart of each individual.

Jocelyn's work integrates embodiment, leadership, and fertility wisdom to support individuals and organizations with innovation, creative problem solving, and mindful living.

Resources Mentioned:

Enjoy this expansive conversation from a woman who holds unique perspectives on male-female dynamics and energetics. I'm bringing her to share her philosophy and wisdom on the topic of how to raise boys well (and if you have daughters, check out episodes 10 + 15). Here's what we talk about:

- Where Anjelica is at in her 2nd pregnancy

- Going away from the narrative of depletion in motherhood, not accepting the martyr mother, and meeting needs of ALL members of the family

- How our body is a reflection of our energy stores, and the importance of preserving the maiden energy throughout the life cycle

- Her feelings about child spacing + the reality of infancy as up to 3 years

- How she feels her dharma is to be an advocate for boyhood, and her philosophy of raising boys

- Viewing character structure through the lens of astrology in addition to biological sex

- Current state of maturity in modern boys

- Her issues with the *modern* form of nuclear family

- Biological connections to gender roles and her issues with traditional gender roles

- How she sees the essential roles for mothers of boys in early childhood; cultivating in boys a relationship to the feminine that isn't dependent on his successes and failures

- Different ages + stages: natural desire to have additional male mentor(s), skill-building, to be tested

- Contrast of the female nature which tends to be harmonizing/social cohesion

- Inherent energies of young boys; honoring their natural aggression and working with them rather than suppressing, how boys are often scapegoated

- What the nursing relationship means for boys

- The importance of a healthy mother-father relationship and what projection occurs when it's unhealthy

- The spiritual and social scope of male-female relating and modern issues

- Inherent male archetypes to connect with in boyhood

Quotes:

"Once my child was two, the entire philosophy of self-led regulation pretty much collapsed. A child cannot live in a world of Mother alone after the primary stage of infancy. "

"The defining quality of manhood is Honor"

ABOUT

Anjelica is an advisor on polarity dynamics between men and women, and the multidimensional healing process of the individual. She is also an advocate of free birth, child-led education, and regenerative lifestyle practices. As a trained yoga and massage therapist who led herself through a debilitating healing crisis in her teens, she integrates many aspects of body-based spirituality into her offerings.

This episode's title is inspired by our conversation, but also a couple of different offerings from Kristin Hauser, an acupuncturist whose voice I appreciate for her grounded and articulate wisdom on womb cycle vitality and sexual identity in motherhood. We talk about:

• Where Kristin is at now as a new mother of 3
• The mother-victim archetype; its truth and how she has worked to move beyond that identity
• Taking radical responsibility + choosing a different orientation as a mother living in modern times
• Regenerative motherhood/mother alchemy
• Choosing support + family over a place you love. and creating a nourishing environment where you live
• Astrocartography and the energy of a place, including for everyone in the family
• Her path as a working mother and her experiences in online business-making
• Balancing the reality of working with raising kids
• Children seeing us work + integrating them into the reality of our work life
• Kristin's current offerings: Blood Mysteries school, 1:1 consultations, courses on womb cycle vitality, herbal products
• Human design as a business owner
• Peaceful, powerful birth as womb trauma re-imprinting, creating an energetically clear womb
• Sexual identity evolution in motherhood, shifting orientation to sexuality, how we need to guide the way in relationship
• A new vision and conversation on expansive feminine sexuality in motherhood
• Integrity and shadows within the pelvic care field

Resources Mentioned:

Enjoy these beautiful birth stories in this episode with Anisa Woodall, Preconception Nutritionist. She shares the stories of her two births and talks about the differences between her first midwife attended birth and her second freebirth. Anisa shares her wisdom throughout the episode on aligning with the body's intelligence to create a peaceful pregnancy, birth, and motherhood experience.

We didn't have the time to dive deep into preconception nutrition and preparation, but she is releasing her upcoming course (see resources below), for any woman who is preparing her body to get pregnant in the next 2 years.

Things we mention in this episode:

There is some background noise as I recorded this episode when I was driving home from a solo trip to the Texas coast. I still feel it's a valuable conversation to have on the topic of what it means to be a rooted woman (for me) and reflections on the path of emotional maturation. Enjoy

------------------------------

Ways to Support My Work:

In this episode, I talk to Laura Prentice, a woman who leads circles and classes for girls ages 9-18.

We talk about:

- About Laura's current maiden circle

- Integrating ritual, body literacy/awareness and seasonal connection into older girls' lives

- A girl's longing to be in community and in circle

- Cultivating a simple, sacred circle through ritual Laura's path to working with girls + becoming a FAM and body educator

- How to speak to girls about the magic in their bodies + modeling for the younger girls

- The more challenging parts of holding circle space + how having multiple facilitators is helpful

- The role of mothers and "aunties" in a girl's life

- About Laura's women + girls festival, where there will also be a menarche ceremony for girls 

- The five blood mysteries, girls vs. boys rites of passage and red tent initiation

- The inherent nature of initiation within a girl's/woman's body

- The Crone/Priestess/Menopause time in a woman's life

- Sacred songs for the death portal

- Laura's current + future offerings, including her mentorship to support women in starting these circles in their own community in-person. 

Today we have Afkar on to share her birth stories. Her quiet power, calm, and instinctual knowing is very felt. She shares finding her way in her first two births, and then choosing something different with a traditional birth attendant in her 3rd birth, and the healing that brought her.  She talks about expanding and surrendering through her pregnancies and births and how she experienced healing in her maternal lineage after her own twilight birth through remaining true to trusting in her body. We also talk about healing through peaceful birth, integrating our births, and more. Enjoy

In this solo episode, I reminisce and offer advice about the postpartum time: what mothers and babies really need, why it is SO important to prepare for, and what the reality often looks like compared to what we think it'll be like. As I write this, there's so many other things I want to share about, but this is a start! I talk about:

- Romanticizing vs. reality

- Altered rhythms of the postpartum/newborn time

- The postpartum time as integration, reflection, bonding + rite of passage completion

- Creating your postpartum sanctuary - things to consider about support, food + breastfeeding

- Reflections on the sacredness of the postpartum time

------------------------------

Ways to Support My Work:

Corie shares the stories of the births of her three children, her choice to freebirth after the birth of her first child, and her journey of healing herself and her family through transitioning from a vegan to a more ancestral way of eating. You'll love her stories of simple, sacred birth and how her mother-intuition led the way.

Corie is a mother of three who awakened her portal of intuition through the pregnancies and births of her children. Beginning with the illness and eventual passing of her mother during her teenage years, she recognized the gaps in the medical industrial system when it comes to healthcare. This experience led her to birth her first baby at home with a midwife and doula.  Strength and independence led her to freebirth her last two children solely in the presence of her supportive husband. Toward the end of her first pregnancy, she adopted a vegan lifestyle, and after several years and a second baby, she found herself concerned for her own health and the health of her children.  After leaving the diet dogma behind for traditional nutrient dense foods, she has found natural ways to support her and her family’s health and healing.

Rachel, originally from the UK, shares the story of her first son's birth in her home in Nicaragua. She talks about birthing her first child with an 82-year-old local elder midwife, and then how things cascaded after birth. This is an important listen to know what can happen when we don't have people around us that trust us, and trust birth. We also talk about the influences of cultural beliefs surrounding birth and postpartum and how we can weave together the wisdom of the past with our knowledge of physiological + sacred birth.

After a traumatic first birth within the system on all levels, Amber chose something different for herself and her family for her second son. This is such a sweet story of reclamation of power, and family healing.

------------------------------

Ways to Support My Work:

I talk about unintentional (miscarriage) and intentional (abortion) pregnancy releases - my experiences and suggestions for finding womb + spirit healing after. This is an expansive topic, and just a stream of consciousness-type episode on some aspects of processing and integrating these experiences.

------------------------------

Ways to Support My Work:

Jess shares with us her stories of choosing herself and her babies through sovereign pregnancy, birth, and loss...and calling in her 2nd child. She luckily saw the what the system had to offer her before she conceived her first child, and chose peace + power instead. You will love her humor, wisdom, humility, and energy. You can follow Jess and her journey of raising babies and homesteading projects on Instagram @jess_keffer

I answer two listener questions within this episode, from two mothers with different experiences and focuses. 

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

In this episode, Reighn shares the stories of her births and how they have led her to the woman she is today, how she has found power and freedom through her experiences, and we'll hear how it has led her to the work she does today of whole woman holistic health through detoxing the body and nourishing with foods.

Reighn is a former apartment dwelling, medicalized birthing, vegan-turned-animal-based, wild woman homesteader. The birth of her first son propelled her into a sense of power and freedom she never believed women could hold, allowing her to let go of old patterns and create the woman she knew she always was. After healing her own health issues and those of her first son, Reighn now works with women to detox and simplify health in their bodies, minds and homes, and heal using their intuitive nature. 

In this solo episode, I talk about my feelings on the role of a mother-led, autonomous, instinctual pregnancy. Topics include:

• An instinctual pregnancy as initiation into mother-power
• How modern birth culture infantilizes mothers, de-sacralizes the experience, and decenters their intuitive knowing
• When there's birth trauma
• External vs. developing internal knowing
• What happens when a woman knows pregnancy birth and motherhood in this way?

------------------------------

Ways to Support My Work: