I'll be presenting a dance session at the Wild Roots Herbal Gathering in a few weeks. I'd love to see you there!
The second annual Wild Roots Herbal Gathering ~ July 2 - 4 ~ Produced for women, by women. A retreat weekend with outdoor classes about herbal plant medicines and their practical applications, the wisdom of plants, healing our bodies with natural remedies, and reconnecting with the earth in sustainable ways. Held at de Uelenspieghel in Uffelte. Workshops will be offered in English and Dutch. All levels of plant lovers are welcome. More information about registration, weekend schedule, teachers and details on the event page. Link to the event page:
Birth Stories
This month of Mother’s Day, we will have a conversation in the Red Tent about our Birth Stories. Each of us has traveled this portal to arrive here. Many of us have birthed offspring; some of us have yet to; and we all experience the exhilaration and angst of birthing through our innate well of creative resource in myriad ways throughout our lifetime. We each possess within us the divine instinct and impetus to conceive and cultivate, tend, nest, nourish and nurture. Our experience of this process is wrought with great hope and joy, and often equal amounts pain and loss; even devastation.
There are stories, lore, artifact and extensive bodies of work that have explored the history and anthropology of women’s roles in modern and ancient societies. Many apparently quite sophisticated ancient civilizations crafted images and statues of women and goddesses giving birth, nurturing children, and shamelessly and sensuously displaying scenes of pleasure, confidence, and love. Many academics and historians have suggested that this is evidence that women in ancient civilizations held high status, and were honored and revered as the embodiment and source of life for the community. Women, Priestesses, and Goddesses were also depicted in ancient art as protectors, and the embodiment of Mother Nature, an association that suggests profound respect, relationship with, and care for the source of all of life.
Birthing and all that goes with it is not a small or cavalier topic that we can “cover” in a few hours together. We would need many months to fully and properly appreciate and honor each woman’s experience of birthing, and perhaps many years and deep anthropological, sociological and psychological inquiry to begin to understand how and why culture and practices around birthing have changed so dramatically.
It is possible and in fact likely that some of us have suffered traumas in our birthing experiences. In the modern age of hospitals, social and economic inequities, clinical procedures, pharmaceuticals, and technological oversight of the birthing process, women look to doctors and other professionals to guide them through the process. A compelling question that lingers for me is how birthing and all that goes with it was transferred from the realm and authority of midwives and wise women, to the auspices of clinicians and, for a long time, male-dominated, professions of science and medicine.
In the spirit of inquiry, great care, and reverence for women’s holistic experiences, past and present, we will bring attention to our felt experiences, as well as our dreams, challenges, unspeakable joys, and even regrets. The significance and breadth of the birthing experience for women, children, families and societies cannot be underestimated. In this most tender, vulnerable and potently transformative – universal - portal for women and children, we will begin to investigate together how the process of giving birth imprints our psyches, our physiology and neurology, and our social and societal fabric.
We will hold each woman with tenderness and care, offer space and sincere attention to hear what wants to be shared and acknowledged, and share opportunities for healing where that may be necessary or desired.
Wherever you are in your journey as a woman, please join us for this most essential inquiry.
Logistics:
Date: Tuesday, May 11, 2021
Time: 7 - 10 p.m. CET
Location: Zoom/TBA
Cost: Free/donations only
RSVP/Register: Email Jennifer
What to Bring: A photo, trinket, poem, or other small item that represents the portal of birth for you
References and further reading:
The Heart of the Goddess; Art, Myth and Meditations of the World’s Sacred Feminine, By Hallie Iglehart Austen
The Chalice and the Blade; Our History, Our Future, By Riane Eisler
The Business of Being Born Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DgLf8hHMgo
The Goddess in Art TV series: The Triple Goddess: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqy4H8ABFiE
Conversations in the Red Tent: The Art of Seasonal Harvesting for Wisdom and Renewal
Harvesting lessons for wisdom cultivation, giving myself to darkness that fertilizes dreams, and sowing seeds of renewal is what the fall season implores for me.
This annual phenomenon of late life glory role models what it means to gracefully let go, how to allow and bear witness to the natural process of decay and death, and how nature deeply appreciates the wisdom and well-earned beauty of life that has aged. As the nights have become darker and farmers have been delivering ripe fruits and nourishing roots, the tenets of the ‘Honorable Harvest’ that I learned from Robin Wall Kimmerer’s writings during this past year (see below) are deeply inhabiting my dreams, and my yearnings for a renewed way of life. I am gently releasing parts of my emotional landscape that have served me, taught me - in some cases tore through me - to embark on more wholesome ways of relating to the earth, an organic sense of “home” and belonging, and ever more intelligent and authentic ways of relating to other humans as well as the other inhabitants of the planet.
According to Robin Wall Kimmerer, a renowned professor of environmental and forest biology and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, as written in her book Braiding Sweetgrass, if the guidelines for an Honorable harvest were to be “made official” (generally they are not in traditionally oral cultures, but they are well understood and faithfully practiced), they might look something like this:
“Know the ways of the ones who take care of you so that you may take care of them.
Introduce yourself. Be accountable as the one who comes asking for life.
Ask permission before taking. Never take the last.
Take only what you need.
Take only that which is given.
Never take more than half. Leave some for others.
Harvest in a way that minimizes harm.
Use it respectfully. Never waste what you have taken.
Share.
Give thanks for what you have been given.
Give a gift, in reciprocity for what you have taken.
Sustain the ones who sustain you and the earth will last forever.”
Upon deep introspection, for me, living according to principles of the Honorable Harvest would begin with manners of self care, community and living with purpose that vigorously question and challenge the norms and currencies of civilized societies. In short, in a digital, chemicalized and commercially driven society, it is my experience that what feels like the honorable choice is usually not convenient, quick, or widely celebrated. Holistic choices are – perhaps necessarily - cumbersome, expensive, and made where no one is looking.
Trees majestically demonstrate the graceful art of letting go of what’s old, allowing its once lush flora to tumble on the cool, crisp breeze back to the earth; creating a thick, nourishing carpet for the forest floor and compost that will nourish and protect many roots and life forms in the immediate environment.
Our human processes of letting go according to seasons and cycles can and do turn up in fits of grief or other strong emotional discharge; the menstrual cycle; seasonal allergies or illnesses; or intuitively knowing that a change is imminent or necessary. The natural urge to let go can show up as personal, relational, community, or ecologic turmoil. The process of change and releasing what is old and stale can disrupt our equilibrium and therefore feel profoundly uncomfortable, so it is exactly at these moments when the deep nourishment of well-prepared, organic seasonal foods, meditation, gentle movement practices, and deep rest will be supportive and very likely transformative.
“I think we are called to go beyond cultures of gratitude, to once again become cultures of reciprocity.” - RWK
I would like to invite our community into a conversation about what the notion of ‘The Honorable Harvest’ means for us city dwellers, and how we can be proactive stewards for earth and a wholesome humanity. How would the principles of The Honorable Harvest urge us to change our way of relating with food? Earth? Loved ones? Strangers? Community? Commerce? Our self care?
“It is an animate earth that we hear calling to us to feed the martens and kiss the rice. Wild leeks and wild ideas are in jeopardy. We have to transplant them both and nurture their return to the lands of their birth. We have to carry them across the wall, restoring the Honorable Harvest, bringing back the medicine.” - RWK
The winds of change are upon us. Let us breathe slowly and deeply and make the choices necessary to cultivate health, wisdom, and resilience.
Join our Red Tent Community for a forest walk and conversation this week:
Date: Wednesday, October 14, 2020
Time: 1 p.m. - 3 p.m.
Place: Eindhoven, contact host for location
Plan for rain or shine!
Water is life
“Fluid movement holds the power to dissolve the familiar and dilute social conditioning. No dismantling required: we simply allow fluid waves to spread through tissue and soften our old thought forms and outmoded patterns of behavior. By utilizing embryological and biomorphic motifs, the power inherent in water can be received as a pulse of renewal.”
- Liz Koch, Stalking Wild Psoas
The freshest, most vital and clear waters flow with ease and freedom.
Stagnant waters quickly turn cloudy and putrid.
“Stuckness” is painful. It prevents communication, allows sludge to accumulate, and inhibits healing. It dampens joy and confidence. Putrid accumulation, cloudiness, dullness, and dis-ease will result.
Our dance is like the impetus of a bubbling spring; the “Qi,” or life force energy, that ebulliently motivates the sinuous fluidity of crystal clear waters gracefully, purposefully, through the forest, over and between stones, twigs, and plant life, without hesitation. The entire forest benefits from its aliveness.
The rhythm of our breath, our presence, and meditative movement are amazing tools for getting profoundly honest with ourselves, and for shifting from “stuckness” into a realm where renewal is inevitable. A divine practice of gently coaxing, motivating, and invigorating vital fluids to penetrate our tissues, infusing our entire being with “aliveness;” keeping warm and bright the glow from within that feeds beauty and nourishment back to the world…
Water is life.
Dance is the motive force of our bubbling spring.
The best medicine is innate medicine – it is alive within us.
Join me for a sacred dance practice Friday evenings at 7 p.m.
Registration: Email redtent@heartwombandsoul.com
Location: Dansstudio Laetana, Hoogstraat 105A Unit 7 5615 PB Eindhoven
View details and share on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/427389718222627/
Cost: 15 Euro per session
Payment: Cash or bank transfer
Make payments here: NL50 ABNA 0467 4196 71
Account name: BD MOILES CJ
*Email me to inquire about scholarships, sliding-scale pricing and barters for goods or services - no one will be turned away for concerns about payment.