I always talk about the doulas role in creating Birth Ambiance, so people feel safe, private and relaxed to open to the deepest parts of themselves.
We must also create this at our workshops and retreats too. I love when we host doula retreats in places that have been built by birth keepers with the sacred energy and messages of birth all around. Whether you are birthing a baby, or a dream or a new career as a doula – the energy around you – where you choose to learn can make a difference in how safe you feel to go deep into the space that birth calls us to enter. Elysia in Austria and Robin Lim’s Peace Kitchen for our Eat Pray Doula Retreats in Bali are two of my favorite places abroad, and of course my own special space in NJ. These spaces invite us all to connect to the generations of women before us, all those who are giving birth around the world, to face our challenges, to open to heal, to grow, to stretch and to bring more love and light into all the dark spaces and dance and sing our songs with pleasure and love.
Angelika invites us to connect with the Goddess within, surrounded and reminded of all the symbols of opening to the sacred feminine throughout her-story.
Angelika’s red womb tent always is filled with beautiful images of the birth Goddesses and each year she has a new creative project to take us deeper into understanding the sacred feminine. This year her project was even beyond, deeper, inside the power that is too often overlooked or hidden with shame – into the power of the PUSSY! I was so inspired by her crocheted Pussy I decided I had to read Mama Gena’s book by the same name. I had downloaded the book and the audio before I left and had not made time to begin, clearly Angelika and the universe was telling me the TIME IS NOW!
I love to walk each morning and so my morning ritual is to wake with the sun, do some morning yoga sun salutations and then set off to walk to a cafe and on the way listening to Mama Gena in her own voice share about Pussy! I highly recommend her book and so much so as I am developing an in-person and online class for doulas and educators to prepare their students for a safe, satisfying and pleasurable birth experience. Pussy will be a prerequisite to read, journal and discuss as we must connect with, examine our beliefs, and heal our own connections to our sacred feminine power to teach and pass it on to others.
I gaze out the window and the hills are alive with the sound of music, it reminds me to be present. The train provides such a rich opportunity to revel in the beauty all around me, above me, inside me and my gratitude blessings for this amazing opportunity to connect with doulas, the sacred feminine, honor the sacred masculine and revel in my new Pussy-Yes Yes Yes! My parting gift from Angelika is my own crocheted Pussy – with a secret – you will have to wait to see our next blog and video to see what she gave me and why I am so thrilled and excited.
By now I will have arrived in Switzerland – to join Michele and the doulas and parents of Zurich, Switzerland. Michele has invited me to share 2 days with a mix of doulas, parents and midwives – together we will explore the magic of birth, the body, mind, spirit and sexuality of pregnancy, birth and beyond as well as the pleasure that is available to us in birth and life. Trusting and opening to life as we we trust and open to birth takes us on many adventures and only when we trust that even in the tunnel we will come to the light can the magic unfold. The snow capped mountains glisten as the sun peaks thru the clouds and the next tunnel appears. What will lie ahead- for you and for me?
If you have read this far – please let me know- comment below and let me know how and where you are? What magic is happening in your life? Would like to join me in reading Pussy: A Reclamation by Regina Thomashauer “Mama Gena” and discussing?