Category Archives: Events

Birthing Ourselves into Being

What does it mean to belong?

To belong to a place? To a community?

But even more importantly…What does it mean to belong to yourself? To be yourself so fully that you colour the world around you with your presence and passion?

This is what I have been learning – and living – for the past few years. It is enriching beyond belief. But it can also feel lonely. Because very often the places that we live geographically, do not hold soul communities for us.

We can find ourselves living alongside people who share very different values. And yet our human souls long to belong. To know and be known. Deeply.

We yearn to touch…and express our soul truths. To live them out. But somehow it can all get lost in the midst of our busy lives. And so we put it off. Until later. Until we have the time. Or find the right group.

But what if that time was now? What if that opportunity was right here, waiting for you simply to say yes?

What if it there was a community who were traveling alongside you, sharing the journey, offering resources…which you could access from the comfort and safety of your own home.

If…

:: You have longed for a women’s circle, but didn’t have the time to go to one, or any like-minded folks to start one with.

:: You have been in the midst of transformation for so long and are finally ready to take the leap.

:: You have an abundance of creative energy & need assistance in channeling your power.

:: You want support & structure around placing yourself at the center of your own life.

:: You are searching for a spiritual home base that celebrates the Sacred Feminine in a real, grounded way.

:: You long to feel connected and take your place in a sacred circle where your gifts are honored & appreciated.

Then this is for you.

Birthing Ourselves into Being.

An Interactive, Online Women’s Circle – Connecting Your Personal Transformation with the Evolution of the New Matriarchy

A 13 month exploration. A community. A crucible for growth, exploration and transformation. Established by women of the deepest integrity and vision. With guest teachers including Dr Jean Shinoda Bolen, Susun Weed, myself and a dozen other healers, artists, teachers, women’s circle leaders…(See the full line up here.)

This isn’t just more inspiration, affirmation, or lecture on how changing your thoughts will change your life. We are not going to tell you to do another cleanse, get organized, fake it until you make it, or think good thoughts. We’ve already been there & know that’s only half of the story. We are moving out further from the edge. Birthing Ourselves into Being is about claiming your Birthright to sit in the center of your own life, to collaborate with creation & to experience everyday miracles. The teachings and theory presented here have come directly from the authentic experiences of women who have done just that.

BOiB is organized & designed specifically for your modern, busy, saturated life. BOiB will weave throughout your days a simple, steady call back to your own wisdom, holding space for the woman you are becoming. We are here to sing this song together.

BOiB has been built by women, for women, in harmony with the natural ways women create. There is an honoring & respect for women’s process & emotions. This translates to holding sacred space for darkness as well as light, for emptiness as well as abundance, for mystery as well as certainty, for the knowing and for the not knowing.

Each month brings theme-specific exercises, ceremonies, and powerful teachings to take you step by step through the process of bringing your vision into reality. Our journey will follow this path:

Welcome :: Homecoming
January :: Reweaving the Story of Your Own Birth
February :: Sexuality and the Creative Force of Change
March :: Fertility
April :: Conception: Courting the Miracle of Change
May :: First Trimester: Initiation, Identity, and Self-Esteem
June :: Second Trimester: Flowing with the Present
July :: Third Trimester: At the Edge of Transformation
August :: Birth
September :: Postpartum: Movement into Mothering
October :: Aging
November :: Death
December :: Birthing the World into Being

I will be there too. Learning and in community alongside each of you who choose to join. I am so looking forward to it.

You can sign up here to join us.

I really hope you do.

Here’s to us all – growing within ourselves, within community, in 2015. May it be a year of magical transformation, shifts and creativity.

Lucy H. Pearce, The Happy Womb

Confident Carry – Overcoming Shame Around Menstrual Products

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Today’s guest post is from Period Wise, and touches on a really important issue: shame and menstrual products which was sparked by a recent event in a school in the US.

A teenage girl who was suspended for concealed carry of menstrual supplies [in a school system which requires that everything be brought into school in a clear plastic bag to facilitate security checks] sheds light on a problem that sadly still plagues us – a lack of confidence among those who menstruate and a lack of understanding among those who do not.

Apparently the Principal’s position is that teenage girls should feel confident enough to place their feminine hygiene needs in a clear bag for all the world to see and carry it with them to class throughout the days they are menstruating, or expect to become menstrual.

Social taboos and menstrual myths abound and affect all.

Rules are established – and followed – without real consideration to the needs of half (and perhaps over half) of the population of a school…group…gathering…attendees of functions….

And, perhaps that’s what these girls should do until this rule is struck down. Perhaps the girls should band together and bring feminine hygiene products in a clear confident carry bag every day whether they are menstruating or not.

I wish all girls and women were so confident in themselves and with menstruation that they were comfortable doing just that. It would go a long way in ending the embarrassment that so often (and unnecessarily) accompanies things period wise.

And, it would also put an end to the idiotic assumption that menstruation requires a doctor’s permission slip because it’s a medical issue.

A medical issue? Um…the last time I checked the definition of “medical” it said the word related to the treatment of illness and/or injury.

Menstruation is NEITHER.

So what does confident carry look like?

You tell me.

When you confidently carry menstrual products, what do you carry and how?

If you’ve never confidently carried menstrual products openly in public, what do you think it would look like? And, how would you confident carry?

Who me? Confident carry?

YES! You!

Confident Carry day TODAY is an opportunity for all to embrace menstruation as normal and natural – NOT something to hide or be ashamed of. It’s an opportunity to raise awareness to the plight of girls and women all over the world who are shamed into secrecy about all things period wise.

Who would benefit from seeing you confidently and openly carrying feminine hygiene products? Your daughter? Granddaughter? Your mother? A niece? Your BFF? A student? A girl new to menstruation? A woman with years of experience? Your partner?

Who could you / would you impact by participating in Confident Carry Day?

At the very least, Confident Carry Day (if you choose to participate) will impact YOU.)

Before you say, “This is not for me because I…” let me say this: male or female, not currently menstruating / never have / or never will again – all are role models for the girl or the boy in your life.

Yes. Confident Carry is not just about girls and women. It’s about men and boys, too.

#ConfidentCarry on #May9 is for all.

Guestpost from Suzan from Period Wise: Empowering girls and women to embrace a too long taboo topic – menstruation.

Currently my work as a menstrual activist and educator includes many roles: mentor, friend, writer, speaker, teacher, and perpetual student. I also serve as the Director of Connectivity for You ARE Loved (a non-profit that raises awareness about TSS) and as the Manager of North American Operations for Lunette (makers of an amazing reusable menstrual cup).

email: suzan (at) periodwise.com
twitter: @periodwise
facebook: periodwise
pinterest: periodwise

Cunt Love

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Today’s guest post from Colette aka Lady Cunt Love is powerful stuff…

To really love your cunt is to take back what belongs to you.

It is to reconcile with the patriarchal bullshit we have had to put up with for the last thousand years and gain back all the wisdom that we had in a time when our cunts were revered with love and awe. It is to accept that the fear that men felt of our power and capacity for sexual pleasure and to also see that somewhere along the line, we have internalised that fear.

To reclaim the word ‘cunt’ and say with a smile on your lips is so fucking liberating. It is to strip yourself of the chastity belts and straight jackets once and for all.

It’s time for us to move on to a new place.

A place where we are no longer silent or shamed. A place where we see the beauty in ourselves and others.

It is time for us to stop comparing and competing with each other as women but to join together in a circle of sisters. It’s so much easier and liberating this way. It is the only way.

I learned all of this through talking to people on the streets. I decided one day that I had enough of the secrecy and silence. So I created an alter ego for myself named Lady Cunt Love. I wore a silk cunt headpiece on my head and a velvet, glittery cunt around my waist. I had a clipboard and a lots of handrawn cunts and colouring pencils. I had my two friends with me – Queen Clit and The Cuntess. We approached people on the street and in pubs and cafes and clubs. We learned so much about how people view the world, cunts, cocks, sex, porn, gender and language.

I then began to share my story in the form of a poetry collection called ‘The Healing Journey of my Cunt’. We created Cuntcraft, a craft where we sit in circle and use velvet, satin, silk, glitter to create our own beautifully crafted cunts. I facilitate these circles and perform and exhibit from my studio in Brighton, The Cuntquarters and all over the UK and Ireland.

I have witnessed so many beautiful moments where a sweet kind of magic takes over and women find the courage to share their stories with me. Sad stories are told about painful periods, rape, traumatic abortions, miscarriage, abuse and shame (lots of shame). Liberating stories are told too – about sexual pleasure, joyous births and pregnancies, premenstrual insights and happy bleeds. Once the stories are expressed, they are out in the world and can take on a new meaning. They are released and we can come to a place of love, forgiveness and acceptance.

I have now decided it is time to take this even further and am inviting women to join me on a four week online Cunt Loving Quest beginning on the 1st April. This is to give women the opportunity to explore their relationships with the cunts in the safety and comfort of their own homes.

You can see a video of me describing the course here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGEyvx6dYrY and join the quest on my website here. http://cherishthecunt.com/2014/03/06/introducing-the-28-day-cunt-loving-quest

The Cunt Loving Quest

Lost in Living – Film on Creative Mothers… free to view this Women’s Day

Creativity is so much more than just a “job”. It is a calling, an urge, a fight for freedom, a path to sanity. And it can be a very lonely, dispiriting business as a mother when you are driven by this compulsion, and those around you don’t understand it. Or think you should be doing something that pays better. Or is more reliable. Or that you should just give yourself fully to your children.

This is the life of the artist-mother. Pulled in two directions by two equal passions. Floundering to form her own identity.

This is what my best-selling book, The Rainbow Way: cultivating creativity in the midst of motherhood focuses on – every aspect of this conundrum, and how to solve it in your own life.

In the book I reference a very special film, which also focuses on this topic.

Lost in Living is a documentary film by Mary Trunk, filmed over 8 years, which follows the lives of four creative mothers: an author, visual artist, painter and film maker, as they navigate and reflect on the challenges of making art as they mother. It is a very powerful film.

If you haven’t had a chance to watch it yet… now’s your opportunity… and for FREE!

Lost In Living will be available to stream for free on-line for 24 hours on March 8, 2014 to coincide with International Women’s Day at this link
https://vimeo.com/67761940 (active for 24 hours from 8:00 am PST time.)

So watch it yourself… get a group of friends, your women’s group or red tent and watch it together… Let it reassure you… start conversations… inspire you…

As film maker Mary Trunk says: “Women’s stories need to be accessible and this will be a unique and exciting moment for everyone to take part in the conversation about balancing family, work and creative passion.”

Wild, Free, Beautiful You

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Do you need an injection of wild wisdom and soul in your life? Do you long for some deep ritual and creative inspiration?

Then I want to share with you a virtual gathering with many of my most favourite wise women: Susun Weed, ALisa Starkweather, Shiloh Sophia, Indigo Bacal, DeAnna Lam, Chameli Ardagh and many more which is starting on this month’s Full Moon
Register here.

This FREE global online 15 day event promises healing, inspired transformation and a sacred rebirth into the wild of your own soul.

Starting on the Full Moon of October 29th-November 16th, 2012.

These women have been my some of my biggest soul teachers this year. I am so excited to see them all together in one place. ALisa wrote a testamonial for my book, Moon Time, I have done two painting courses with Shiloh this year, and count Willow, Indigo, ALisa and Susun amongst my work supporters and sacred women’s network. Their work is nothing short of transformative. I love the look of the teleconference – it is no ordinary interview process, but instead a monologue event: part spoken word, part inspired performance.
Pure art and all truth, these Goddess Monologues will rattle your core and cause you to tremble with their raw honesty.

To register for Wild, Free, Beautiful You click here

TO THE POWER OF YOU: A transformational workshop for everywoman

TO THE POWER OF YOU

A transformational workshop for everywoman

Sunday 15th April, 10.30am-4.30pm
Dervish, 50, Cornmarket Street, Cork City

We as Women are on the edge of a choice:

Do we step into a part of ourselves that we may have never explored, but which we know is strong & powerful & ever present?

Do we continue to support a story which is not sustainable, to live lives which exhaust & undermine us?

What risks do we take to step into our full power? What do we have to lose?

This day-long workshop invites women of all ages & backgrounds to locate & connect with their own inner power. We will create a safe space for you to explore your power.

Through a variety of gentle, creative & reflective practices.

Working with masculine & feminine energies, you will emerge with a greater sense of your own strength to express your needs & claim what is yours.

€60 (€45 concession).

No previous experience necessary. Booking essential – limited places.
For further information, or to book your place please email trebreathnach@gmail.com or call 086 3583136.

Facilitators:
Tracy Evans is a creative facilitator, writer and performer. She runs arts-based workshops with a wide range of communities in Wales. She is currently working on a year-long project for women, which aims to explore themes of isolation and separation for mothers around Wales. She is a keen community activist and supporter of women’s voices.

Lucy Pearce is a facilitator of creativity and woman-craft. She has led women’s yoga, women’s circles, drama and creativity classes for over ten years. A freelance writer she has recently published her first book: ‘Moon Time: A Guide to Celebrating Your Menstrual Cycle’. For more on her woman-craft: http://www.thehappywomb.com

Celebrating V-Day

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Today is V- Day.

Valentines Day. Perhaps you have been the recipient of hearts and flowers? Have you ever thought about why hearts and flowers?

What might you have that is pink or red with petals? What else is heart shaped – uh-huh!

“The shape we call a heart – whose symmetry resembles the vulva far more than the asymmetry of the organ that shares its name – is probably a residual female genital symbol. It was reduced from power to romance by centuries of male dominance.” Gloria Steinem, foreword to The Vagina Monologues

Yup. Valentines Day is a commercialised celebration of the vagina! Look again, at every shop and mall, festoned with beautiful, blossoming, life giving yonis!

This is a reason why today has been annointed V-Day – to mark a global movement to end violence against women and girls.

Started by Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues. Women around the world perform these moving monologues, celebrating all aspects of being a vagina owner, and donate their proceeds to the V-Day movement.

Our women’s group did a private reading of the monologues about a year ago – it is one of our treasured highlights – it pushed many members to face fears about reading aloud, of saying the word “vagina” aloud, of facing traumatic memories…. we wept together at points… but most of all we laughed a lot.

Have you read, seen, or performed the Monologues? It is my ambition to perform them next year for the 15th anniversary. For more on V-day check out http://www.vday.org . The Monologues are available in my A-store, along with lots of other inspiring women’s books.

Full moon rising

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February 7th is this month’s full moon. And I am looking forward to consciously celebrating. Tomorrow I will be taking part in Miranda Gray’s Womb Blessing which I am looking forward to. And I will be heading outside and absorbing her glowing, positive, renewing, sustaining light.

Last month I was so deluged under bad nights’ sleep, editing Moon Time and miserable winter weather that I didn’t get out in the moonlight, the first time in many moons. And so perhaps for that reason alone, or all of them conbined, my cycle has realigned itself, mother moon having a gentle joke at my expense about my very limited human understanding, and the irony that I have just written an “authoritative” book on her unknowable mystery. So here I am, with my greater knowledge and awareness than ever before, with my beautiful moon dial mandala having just arrived (these will be available from the Happy Womb very soon), and for the first time since my cycles returned, not knowing where in my cycle I am!

Moon Dial Mandala – Created by Zoe Shekinah now available to buy here!

But that is a true reflection of my state of creativity right now. I did a lot of extra work on Moon Time, so now I am in the situation of awaiting a proof once more, holding off on promoting it till I have a release date. Wating, still waiting to hear back from publishers on the Creative Rainbow Mama book, and wanting to be getting cracking on it again, doing more research for it, more digesting and dreaming. And yet I know that I need to allow enough energy for the final birthing pushes of Moon Time before immersing myself in the deep challenge of shaping all the content that I have for Creative Rainbow Mamas. I am between birth and gestation. I am planning a women’s workshop with a dear friend for April, and organising promoting JUNO at the Irish Homebirth Conference, where I am hoping to interview Ina May Gaskin in person – wahoo!

This on top of two sick girlies, and going from nearly weaned to exclusively breastfeeding our two-year-old. I am so excited to have so many creative dreams coming to fruition these next few months. My painting course starts today. I am literally vibrating with excitement about all these strands of my life. But my body is not sure if it is coming or going. I am being creative, then being a full time mama, pulled back and forth like the tide between the twin moons of my creative babies and my flesh babies.

Where are you at dear reader, as the moon becomes her fullest? Do you find that your cycles respond so acutely to your life? Are you celebrating the full moon this month?

This post is from my personal blog Dreaming Aloud – do stop by there, and join the Facebook page to be kept up-to-date. I will link up with Dreaming Aloud each month to celebrate full moon.

Womb Blessing

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An invitation from Miranda Gray

To all wonderful women everywhere,

I would like invite you to – a free distant Womb Blessing Attunement.

on the next Full Moon on 7th February 2012

at four different times to suit world time zones.

06.00 GMT
12.00 GMT
18.00 GMT
24.00 GMT

2012 is a year where the divine feminine energies are starting to ground deeply within Mother Earth and in our energies and minds. As someone with 15 years experience in energy work, writing women’s books and facilitating workshops, it has come as no surprise to me to be drawn towards combining my energy work with my women’s work.

This Womb Blessing attunement is a simple gift – a gift to every woman of any age and experience who would like to receive it – of energy to bring healing to our femininity, to our womb and its cycle, to our creativity and fertility, to our sexuality and spirituality.

The attunement restores our natural purity and beauty, abundance and love, creativity and magic, and our wisdom and strength. It frees us from the past, from limiting expectations, and guilt and hurt, and releases the soul-felt joy and expression of women’s power and beauty. It is a beautiful blessing and restoration of light for women’s souls in a harsh and masculine world.

To book the attunement and receive pre and post attunement exercises please email miranda.gray@optimizedwoman.com the following:

Full name:
Email:
Country:
Requested attunement time (GMT):

Please share this with as many female friends and colleagues as you wish. It is my heartfelt hope that this energy goes out into the world to help support as many women as possible in the challenging times of 2012.

Love and light

Miranda

Miranda Gray is an author, artist, healer, teacher and workshop facilitator.

www.mirandagray.co.uk
www.optimizedwoman.com
www.redmoonthebook.com