This work is focused toward couples wishing to conceive a child. However it may also be fruitful for those who find themselves with child unexpectedly, as well as for anyone wishing to embark on a creative endeavour of any kind, whether in partnership with others, or alone. What it is about is clearing the blocks that prevent us from opening to receive joyfully and generously - opening ourselves fully, deeply, to another being.
* Catherine's home page *9:00 Advertised starting time9:30 "Introducing my child"
Dialogue with the child-self
Healing the genetic line
11:00 Morning tea
11:30 Evolutionary remembering
1:00 Lunch
2:00 Dances of Universal Peace
3:30 Afternoon tea
4:00 Attuning with a partner
5:30 Preparation for ritual
6:00 Light meal
7:00 Ritual
8:30 End
"Introducing my child"
Bring along a photo of yourself as a child, and/or an object which represents your childhood self.
Formal introductions
Invite everyone to spend a moment contemplating the image/object. What age is the child? (It is not important to be precise, whatever age springs to mind is the appropriate one)
Consider what you know of the childs life circumstances:
- where was she born?
- who are her parents?
- where is she living?
If this child were in the room now, how would
you introduce to the people who are here..
eg. I am Catherine, and I'd like you to meet this little girl. Her family call her Cathy Ann. She's about 9 months old. Her mother is a primary school teacher who recently immigrated to Australia after meeting and marrying Cathy's father. He is a local boy, who got a scholarship to go to Oxford to do a PhD. He returned to Perth to take up a job as lecturer in the History Department at the Uni of WA, bringing Cathy's mother with him. She is English, and the rest of her family still live there. Cathy is an Australian, like her father. She's the first of her generation on both sides of the family. Her mother left work shortly before Cathy was born, and if I am not mistaken, she's now pregnant with her second child.
Going around the circle, each person introduces
themselves and their child.
Then pairing up, preferably with someone you don't
know well.
You will have a couple of minutes each to exchange
stories from your childhood, about :
.. a secret place.. favourite clothes
.. a special friend (child, adult, pet, teddy bear, invisible friend)
Talking to the child.
Our child-self is born with magical qualities: playfulness, imagination, loving trustfulness, an amazing capacity to learn and adapt, and some times a deep wisdom which takes us by surprise. These are all qualities which we will need to draw on, in the journey on which we are about to embark. The life circumstances of us human beings being what they are, we have all had some experiences, for some more extreme than others, which have shaken that innate trust, and caused us to mistrust or hide these qualities in ourselves. Thus when we choose to embark on the journey of parenthood, this can bring to the surface fears from our child-self. The purpose of the following exercises is too make contact with our child-self, to begin (or perhaps continue) a dialogue with our child-self, consciously. Its a lot like breaking the news of a new arrival to an older sibling. Our child-self needs to feel secure that we will not be replacing them or abandonning them. Our child-self may be frightened that we will become just like our own mothers or fathers in ways which we don't admire or enjoy.
Here create visualisation to dialogue with child-self. Partners, one to be witness.
See the child in front of you. Share with aloud with your partner what is happening.
Looking into his eyes, check out how he is feeling today. Again, share with your partner.
Ask the child if she would like you to hold her, if she would, visualise picking her up and holding her. Share what you are experiencing with your partner.
Now tell your child-self about your desire to conceive. Reassure her that you are willing to take responsibility for looking after the new baby, and for getting whatever help you need to do so. Affirm that your childself is unique and precious, and that you will not be abandonning him or replacing him in anyway. Share your childself's reactions with your partner.
Ask the child if she is willing to look at a story book with you, a book about a family that had a new baby. It is important to be sensitive to your child's responses. If the child is uncomfortable about continuing, I want you to listen to the child, and put the book away for today. Continue to hold the child if that is appropriate otherwise visualise the child enveloped in pink healing light.
So now lets find the book. It is a children's book with a green cover, with the words "My family" written on it in large yellow letters. With the childs permission, open the book, to display an image of a man and a woman holding hands, talk to the child about the picture. Share with your partner.
Turning the page, a pregnant mother-figure,
then a father-figure carrying a baby,
then a little boy and a little girl looking at a baby asleep in a cradle.
Now turn the last page and close the book. Stay with the child.
When you are ready, allow the child to become one with you. And thank your support person.
Trade places and repeat.
Clearing the maternal line
Trance induction...
find yourself sitting with your child-self.
Give your child a gift: It is a special magical fairy wand. Ask for your child's help with the process of healing past trauma from the maternal line...
Image of running a film through the projector backwards - and without sound, but you can halt it at will to stop on a specific image for a few moments. Seeing yourself as a child with your mother. The child gets smaller and smaller until the mother is pregnant. The mother then gets younger and younger until she is a babe in arms... etc Back for several generations, slowly speeding up. You can stop the film whenever you feel to, to look at the image - and reach into the frozen scene to touch whatever needs healing with the magical fairy wand.
Now allowing the film to speed up, until it is
going so fast it becomes a blur, and the image fades to become a rock pool
in an ocean reef, with all sorts of fishes , etc, perfectly still and transparent,
until the tide begins to come in, sending ripples through the pool, bringing
food to the creatures that live in the pool, and then recedes, allowing
the pool to become still and clear again, and again, and again.
Evolutionary remembering
from John Seed's "Council of All Beings",
or Jean Huston The Search for the Beloved
Dances of Universal Peace
For example - Bismillah El Hamdu L'illah, Let
my heart reflect Thy Light... , You're my Mother.., and others.
Attuning to our partner
Working with your partner, if you came together, or if you are on your own, choosing a partner for this exercise.
Begin by standing facing your partner,
mirroring, with one leading, and then the other, until the movement is flowing.
Sitting comfortably with your partner, holding hands, breathing and look into each others eyes. Hold the eye contact, blinking as little as possible. Hold this for a while.
.
Allow yourself to become aware of just how deeply you are connected to this person. Through the generations the essence of the being that is you and the essence of the being that is your partner have come together as teacher and disciple, child and mother, sisters, brothers, murderer and victim, lover and beloved. Together you have given each other the gifts of life and of death. As you look into your partners eyes, allow yourself to know and acknowledge the nature of the bond between you.
Image of/for heart opening - a golden flower, opening to allow a ray of golden light to travel into the open heart of your partner. Continue to hold eye contact.
Together you have seen civilisations come and go. You are the stardust which has seen the origins of the universe. Looking into your partners eyes, allow yourself to recognise the spark of the divine creative fire which brought the universe into being.
Goddess to God.
You may wish to lie down together, continuing to keep eye contact with your partner.
We gather in silence in the semi-darkness.
This is the moment we have been building towards all day.
Candles are lit, calling on the elemental forces to guide and protect us. The space is filled with inscence.
In single file we enter the circle, stopping at the perimeter to have our feet ritually cleansed with water, and cleansing water sprinkled over our heads: "May the waters of creation purify and revivify your deepest being".
Someone makes an offering to the Ancestors, asking that they bless us with their presence and guidance. Food and flowers in small bowls are laid on the floor in front of the central altar.
The two large candles on the altar are lit, invoking our Divine Mother and Father, asking for their presence in our midst. We turn to each other, greeting and honouring the Divine Mother and Father in one another.
On the altar between the two candles is a basket into which the fruit we each brought with us this morning has been gathered. One at a time we step forward, taking a piece of fruit from the basket. Holding this fruit in our hands we spend a few minutes in silent contemplation of our deepest desires and the invitation we are preparing to offer. We acknowledge too, that we are children of Mother Earth, and pray that what we are about to do be in accordance with Her highest good.
Then taking our partner's hand, we begin to speak our invitation to the being who we are inviting to incarnate into form through us. One by one we offer ourselves, affirming our intentions, voicing our commitment to open ourselves to the expression of our deepest being, to nurture and honour the deepest being of the child who may choose us, speaking our commitment to seek whatever support and sustenance we require to do whatever needs to be done to conceive and parent that child, should it be appropriate for us to do so at this time.
When everyone has spoken, we each offer our fruit to our partner, holding it whilst they bite into it and chew on it, savouring its texture and flavour.
Then taking both of our partners hands in our own, we close our eyes, and are guided on a journey deep into our own hearts, carried along in the bloodstream, until we reach a single cell somewhere in the body, slipping by osmosis into the protoplasm within, swimming deeper and deeper in, through the neuclear membrane, until we find the chromosomes. Becoming still smaller, until we find our way inside the DNA, finding ourselves at the centre of the spiralling double helix of life. Watching as it slowly grows bigger and bigger, until it is so large that our imaginations can no longer contain it. Experiencing a shock of recognition as we realise that we are at the heart of a vast spiralling galaxy of stars. Opening our hearts to allow a ray of blue-golden light to travel out like a beacon or a lighthouse into the vast swirling cosmos, calling to us a future child. And then taking hold of the closest end of the ray of light, and unrolling it like a trail of golden string behind us, we begin journeying back, through the the vast realms of space and time, until we reach our own solar system, passing the outer planets, travelling inwards toward the sun. Until at last we behold our beloved blue-green planet Earth, slowly growing larger and larger on our horizon, until we re-enter her atmosphere and land softly on her surface. Feeling her living essence rise to greet us. And so we find somewhere to fasten the end of the string, to a rock or a tree in our own garden, or a park near where we live .. and open our eyes once more.
When all have returned, we are once again invited to honour the Divine Mother and Father in our partner and in each other. We are all hugging each other with love and joy in our hearts.
We join hands in our circle and sing and dance.
When we are ready to end, the Great Mother and her Divine Partner are once again honoured and thanked for their blessing. The twin candles are extinguished.
The ancestors are thanked and farewelled.
We leave the circle in single file, stopping as we cross the perimeter to dip our fingers into the sacred water and bestow our own blessings on the one who sits there. The elements are thanked, and the remaining candles extinguished.
The lights came on and the ceremony is over. We share a cup of herbal tea, then make our farewells and travel homewards to our own beds...