Dark Moon MA Birthing
The Dark Moon of September 1, 2016 marks the beginning of a new Gestare practice deepening into the MA pose experiences of the prior thirteen full moon phases.
This first pose 'MA 1 Birthing' enters our consciousness in the two week period between completing the first MA pose series with Dea Regeneratrix on the full moon cycle of August 2016 and beginning our Dark Moon Walking with MA practice on the first Dark Moon of this cycle.
Barbara's Dark Moon MA Pose and Walk Sept. 2, 2016
Squatting in the frog pose/birthing pose prior to my walk. My eyes open and looking straight ahead. I can't get thoughts of relationship conflicts out of my head. I am in conflict. The world is in conflict. The words that come to me in the pose are starting over and let them go.
I take these words with me into the grass labyrinth, which is a four block walk from my home at the Good Sheppard church. As I slowly walk the grass path I think how it is impossible to start over. I reach the center of the labyrinth and squat again in the frog pose staring into the green hedges and trees in my line of vision. Here I let them go. The intimate mothering relationships that I have nurtured and held are now birthed. They are independent beings, individuated and living in the world which is so very different from the world I have known. The world is in so much more conflict, in pain and hurting. It is not the world I want for the generations to come after me. I know I have not done enough. It is not possible to do it all. And we all have to find our own way. I acknowledge the pain, the hurt, the struggle for survival. Welcome it. Welcome the survival skills that are needed.
On my walk out of the labyrinth I stop and stand while the sun warms my body. I touch the bark of the tulip tree that stands next to the labyrinth. The sun restores me and I become aware of the roots of the tulip tree that wind beneath me, supporting me on this path. We are all held in the womb of the divine mother that this labyrinth form represents.
Medwyn’s Dark Moon MA Pose and Walk Sept. 2, 2016
7 minute pose 10 minute walk
I take the birthing pose in my wicker chair, it is evening, dark is falling on the land, sounds of the fall night float through my window. Birthing is tiring, deep breaths, big yawning, legs spread apart, arms supported, hands on thighs, yawning. Shoulders drop, slowing down, dropping into the birthing, opening space to receive the birthing. All the work is in opening the space. So many MAs are opening space, opening hearts, opening minds to receive with grace what is to be birthed, to receive with gratitude each birthing as evidence of renewal. Holding body memory of Dea Regeneratrix pose her work through dying to make space, create a birthing place into which renewal and new life is birthed.
Walking with MA birthing into the night of crickets chirping their song filling the soft cool evening air.
Dark Moon MA crickets.mp3
Dark sky clouds overhead cover the stars. Night sounds voices, traffic, dog bark and still the crickets sing their night song - as if saying to me - we are here, can you hear us, our bodies invisible to your eyes, our voices our presence bringing alive the dark with our song, our chorus many voices layering across the dark ground, echoing into the earth. I stand feeling the heaviness in my belly, sending my breath deep into the earth, receiving her grounding presence into my tired body. Earth’s nightly resting, when the birthing is done, then comes the resting.
Nane's pose - n.d.
Rebirthing myself as i lie down to hold and relax into this pose - remembering how I used to hold this pose naturally as a form of rest and release during my doctoral research. It's a wide open feeling when relaxed into, spaciousness of being and being safe actually. One needs safety to hold this pose - safe space and place and sense of self - just as birthing women need the same, yet mothers are not always held in safe space was they give birth. How society interrupts upon women's body and soulintegrity.
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