Pregnancy - A Ritual of Creation - from Ronnie Falcão's Midwife Archives

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Pregnancy - A Ritual of Creation

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These are easy to read and understand and are beautifully presented.

This is a ritual for a woman who is pregnant or who wants to ask for conception/fetility. The woman has chosen the rite of passage of motherhood and the circle validates the great changes coming to her life as a result of her decision. The ritual can also be adapted for other forms of creation - the beginning of writing a book, the recording of a music tape, the start of a business or career. To do this, the baby symbols are changed for those meaningful to the woman and occasion.

For a pregnancy, decorate the altar with baby toys, bottles, diapers and baby clothes. If there are gifts for the mother, place them on or around the altar, and put a bowl of colored eggs on the altar as well. Use pastel candles and flowers, and a baby rattle to purify. As another way to decorate, try a birth/rebirth theme with baby photos of the women of the circle, photos of foremothers/ancestors, and candles in red, white and black (birth, life and reincarnation). Use a feather to cast the circle, and a bowl of eggs that are red and white.

Put a malachite pendant or shaped gemstone on the altar as a gift for the mother; it hastens labor is not to worn until labor begins. Or use aquamarine or emerald to prevent miscarriage, carnelian or orange/red coral to stimulate conception, or agate to help morning sickness. (In a creativity ritual other than pregnancy, choose other appropriate gemstones. Chrysocolla is general creative stimulant.)

Materials

Pastel flowers and candles on the altar. (Or in rebirth theme, use red and white flowers; red, white and black candles.)

Incense - Purify by shaking a baby rattle around the women's auras. (In rebirth theme, use sage or myrtlewood incense for immortality.)

Baby toys, diapers, bottles, baby things on the altar. (Or use photos of the women as babies, photos of foremothers.)

Bowl of multicolored hard-boiled eggs (or red and white ones).

Pendant of gemstone for mother - Malachite or other choice.

Gifts for mother and baby, if any, are on and around the altar.

Invocation/Poem - Use the following or choose others.

Comfortable chair in center of circle for the mother-to-be.

After-ritual foods or potluck dinner contributions.

Matches to light candles and incense, charcoal block for loose incense, ritual wand (or use a feather to cast the circle).

Outline

Light candles.

Purify - With baby rattle or incense.

Cast circle/incoke mother and child Goddesses. Use ritual wand or feather to cast the circle.

Earth - Oddudua, Mother of the Goddesses (Africa)

Air - Lilith, who makes children laugh in their sleep (Hebrew)

Fire - Parvati, Mother Goddess (India)

Water - Isis, Mother Goddess (Egypt, Africa and Greece)

Spirit - Demeter, Earth Mother, mother of us all (Greece)

Invocation - The mother-to-be sits in the chair at the center of the circle. High priestess says:"

We are here to honor (name) who will be a mother. As she makes the passage through pregnancy and labor, she becomes the Mother Goddess and her life will change forever. No more the Maiden, and mature as a lover, she takes on the care of another life with her own. We are here today to invoke the Goddess in wishing (name) a safe birth, a strong, child, and happiness in motherhood."

Creation Poem by Monica Sjoo

The most holy one created the world like an embryo, as an embryo grows from the navel, so she began to create the world by the navel, and from there it spread, grew, multiplied in all directions..... she was both seed and flower, both primordial and final. The first vibrations of the egg of the world which unfold to the edges of the universe are both expanding and contracting, emerging from the source and pulsing outward to disappear into a spherical vortex. This still center (the heart) is the axis of creation - the universal continuum perpetually unfolds, pulses outward, contracts - perpetually spinning through its own center.

Meditation - The high priestess leads the women in a meditation on pregnancy and birth. Watch the egg divide, become the fetus, and grow inside the womb. The fetus develops and becomes a child. She is born, grows into yourself, grows up. The cycle starts again with a child in the womb of the mother-to-be. Ask the child for a message, send her blessings and love. Wish her well in her beginnings and come back to now.

Body of Ritual - The high priestess takes the malachite gemstone from the altar, passing it clockwise around the circle. Each women who holds it puts three blessings on it:

For easy childbirth
For the mother (I wish you - happiness, joy, lots of breastmilk, etc.)
For the baby (I wish her - happiness, health, curiosity, good grades in school, the ERA, etc.)

The malachite is given to the mother, but not to be worn or held until she is in labor. Other stones - emerald, aquamarine, agate - may be worn throughout pregnancy.

Go around the circle again, each woman shares her own stories of birth or stories from their mothers. Make them positive ones. Share remedies for morning sickness, easy delivery, tips on newborn care, etc.

If the mother-to-be agrees, the women together put their hands in healing and blessings on the pregnant women's abdomen. Do Reiki, touch healing, polarity healing (gentle touch only) for several minutes, offering blessings and well-being to the mother and child.

Pass around the dyed hard-boiled eggs. Each woman takes one as a symbol of fertility, birth, creation, and reincarnation.

Raise energy - Use the sound of the baby rattle, chants or songs to raise the cone of power. The women visualize a safe and easy delivery, a healthy baby and smiling mother. Direct the energy to these things manifesting.

Ground. Send excess energy to the earth for healing and new growth.

Open circle/Hugs.

Open gifts to the mother-to-be.

Have potluck dinner, after-ritual celebration or food sharing.

A song suggestion for this ritual is "Goddess Has Risen" to the tune of Cat Stevens' "Morning has Broken". Lyrics are by Shekinah Mountainwater and Lunea Weatherstone:

Goddess has risen,
Now is her season,
She gives us reason,
to be and to give.
Praise for the Maidens,
Praise for the Mothers,
Praise for the Lovers,
loving to live.

Sweet comes the Maiden,
dancing through flowers
rejoicing in powers
so free and so bold.
Praise for the sweetness
of her light laughter,
returning after
Winter's dark cold.

Mother's love showers
over the green Earth,
She brings us a rebirth
of fruit and of grain.
Praise Her abundance,
Praise Her creations,
All lands and all nations
Shall feast once again.

In Summer the Lovers,
lips red with berries,
come singing so merry,
come laughing so gay.
Give thanks to the Maiden,
and thanks to the Mother,
for blessing each lover
with passion's sweet play.

Goddess has risen,
Now is Her season.
She gives us reason
to be and to give.
Praise for the Maidens,
Praise for the Mothers,
Praise for the Lovers,
loving to live.

Pregnancy - A Ritual of Creation

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