Welcome to Week Two of the month-long Carnival of Creative Mothers to celebrate the launch of The Rainbow Way: Cultivating Creativity in the Midst of Motherhood by Lucy H. Pearce. 

Today’s topic is Creative Heroines. Be sure to read to the end for a full list of the other carnival participants.

Join the Carnival and be in with a chance to win a free e-copy of The Rainbow Way!

• December 4th: Creative Inheritance.
• December 11th: The Creative Process.

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As a creative mother and woman what has been lacking in my life for years is a mentor: a Wise Woman.

I have so many dear friends, a mother, heroines on the pages of books and blogs, or professional coaches offering their services and e- courses.

But I do not want a high-priced online guru for sale.

I want a Wise Woman with wide hips and a big heart, and fire that we can sit by with steaming cups of herb tea. A woman who will teach me about the deeper mysteries I do not know as we look at the moon or walk a country lane. A woman to pass me the well-thumbed books from her groaning shelves that I have yet to discover. Who challenges and guides me and knows how both to bring me out of and deeper into myself.

So many of the women whose wisdom I rely on are walking the same path as me, but their kids are younger; or they do not yet have children to stir into the creative mix; or they had children and a creative career… but perhaps wouldn’t be mothering heroines to me; or they waited until their children were grown before they did the whole creative entrepreneur thing. There is no one who I know who can stand before me and say ” I KNOW!”

You know when you are in labour and your husband tells you you’re doing great? Or your midwife who has never given birth. That always made me want to lash out and say: “You don’t KNOW, you have no idea.”

I want a Wise Woman who KNOWS. A midwife of the soul. Not qualified with educational credentials or honorary degrees… but one who KNOWS deep in her bones, through lived experiences… But this is not what is valued in our world…

I remember in my early twenties longing for a Wise Woman mentor to help guide me from my list of dreams, to this vision of a life that I knew was destined to be mine when I was older – someone who could help me journey from A to B. But she never showed up.

When I became a mother I loved it… and then I floundered. I went under. I needed her deeply when my sense of self was unravelling. But she never showed up. Though I have been extremely blessed to meet my soul sisters along the way, who were and are travelling along with me, sharing their wisdom and insight. When I am lost or scared they guide and support me, and I do the same for them. We fill in each others gaps.

But I have a vision of a Woman complete who has walked this bit of the path already.

In my women’s group I longed for the wise woman to hold our space and teach us deeper. But instead we make it up as we go along. Holding each other.

When my creative dreams ignited, and I was stepping into being a creative entrepreneur, I longed for a Wise Woman to guide me. But only found paid teachers online. They were great… but they could not hold me… I was just one of many, many virtual students.

I have immense trust in the ways of infinite intelligence, the Universe. And the lesson always has been the same it seems: find your own Wise Woman within. Become your own Wise Woman. Embrace those who come across your path as you have gifts for each other.

And so I have… and in doing so have become a Wise Woman for many other women. Which is an immense honour. But also a responsibility when I feel I am still only forming myself…. And often I feel so very small and like an imposter… “who am I to be anyone’s wise woman?” I wonder. And I want to run and hide, not take my mantle. “I am too young, too busy, I don’t yet know enough!” I stutter…

The internet has been truly wonderful in connecting me with so many wise, strong, creative, beautiful, intelligent, thoughtful women who are shaping and molding my mind and soul… But still I long for that flesh and blood Wise Woman who I can drink tea with. Who KNOWS. Who is not muddling through. A real-to-goodness Wise Woman who has walked this path before me and knows the way. Who can hold and comfort me in her strong embrace when the fear and exhaustion get too much. When I don’t know how to do another moment. When I doubt myself and hate myself.

She sounds like the ideal mother. The sage. The crone. I would say perhaps she doesn’t exist. Or perhaps not all in one package. That is the wonder of the world, that gifts are spread between many containers of consciousness. Perhaps the Wise Woman is simply an archetype… I don’t know. But it doesn’t stop me yearning for her.

Have you found your Wise Woman?

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ORDER YOUR SIGNED COPY of  The Rainbow Way!   and grab your free extras  (first 200 orders only!): – exclusive access to a private Facebook group for creative mothers – a vibrant greetings card and book-mark of one of the author’s paintings. Kindle and paperback editions from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, Book Depository, Barnes and Noble or order it from your local bookshop!

• Carnival host and author of The Rainbow Way, Lucy at Dreaming Aloud celebrates her creative fairy godmothers, and gives thanks for the creative blessings that each has gifted her.
• And on her other site, The Happy Womb, Lucy expresses her sadness at a lack of real-life female mentors and Wise Women in her life so far.
• Becky at Soul Sunshine shares the creativity heroines– her Saviors– who reactivated her creative heart after a near-20-year-hiatus.
• Lucy Pierce from Soulskin Musings explores the ways in which three artists have inspired her to follow the inner wild of her own creative narrative and it’s interface with the forces of nature and of Spirit.
• Kae at The Wilde Womb shares how she invokes her inner child when summoning creative juices. 
• Zoie at TouchstoneZ reflects on the women who have inspired her most. 
• Alex at The Art of Birth shares her Journey of a Creative Mama which is all about liberating the Feminine through Art.
• Laura at Authentic Parenting is grateful to those women who have inspired her.
• Who most inspires Georgie at Visual Toast? She’ll tell you here!
• Please come to the dinner party, invites Nicki at Just Like Play, where we will celebrate Judy Chicago, art, womanhood, and the creative kitchen table.
• Becky at Raising Loveliness shares her creative heroines.
• Dawn Collins at The Barefoot Home honors three artistic mothers in the post:her strong willed Nona, her free spirited mother and the best solo artist ever… Mother Earth.
• Angela at Peach Coglo looks to her grandma and granny as her creative heroines when the creative going gets tough.
• Jennifer at Let Your Soul Shine wears odd socks proudly!
• Kelly at Knittingandthings shares how she turned her grief into helping others  
• Biromums remember their biggest creative heroines.
• Darcel at The Mahogany Way shares who inspires her.
• Aimée at Creativeflutters discusses which artists influence her in her creative journey. Find out how she nourishes herself as a creative mother, and finds the time to help other moms on their journeys.
• Creativity is something that’s always meant the most to Jasmine at Brown Eyed Girl and she can’t wait to take the journey in identifying herself and supporting other moms with it as well.
• KatyStuff has a mother who allowed her to make mud pies while she knit or embroidered near by.
• Ali Baker is a creative mama to twin girls who reignited her creative energy and sense of who she used to be by just doing it and creating whatever needs to be created in an imperfect way. 
• Liz at Reckless Knitting remembers her biggest inspirations.
• Milochka  at Art Play Day shares her creative heroines.