Re-Emergence

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 “It is said that women in labour leave their bodies... they travel to the stars to collect the souls of their babies, and return to this world together “

- Anonymous 

"Women are the innate keepers of life and death, celebrating and supporting one another during each phase of life. The young women, even pre-pubescent, must not be excluded from these gatherings as means of witnessing the cycles of nature. If knowledgeable of such passages they will move past the fear they have been conditioned to accept and will  deeply resonate and connect with the power of  the Great Mother."

- Cara Gwizd

 “Our Wâspison, ᐋᐧᐢᐱᓱᐣ
A sacred Symbol of kawôtinikew, ᑲᐆᐧᑎᓂᑫᐤ
A sacred Ceremony of nâkateyimisiw, ᓈᑲᑌᔨᒥᓯᐤ
A sacred Inspiration of pimâtisiwin, ᐱᒫᑎᓯᐃᐧᐣ
A sacred Dream of our nikihci-âniskotâpân, ᓂᑭᐦᒋ ᐋᓂᐢᑯᑖᐹᐣ
A sacred Honouring of isistâwin, ᐃᓯᐢᑖᐃᐧᐣ
A sacred Reclamation

Our Mossbag
A sacred Symbol of Reclaiming
A sacred Ceremony of Nurturing
A sacred Inspiration of Life
A sacred Dream of our Ancestors
A sacred honouring of Tradition
A sacred Reclamation
- Emma Cardinal-Bast 

"Adopt the pace of nature, Her secret is patience."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were, but without it, we go nowhere."

-Carl Sagan

 “A mother’s arms are made of tenderness, and children sleep soundly in them.”

—Victor Hugo 

"Tonzantzin Coatlicue is the Divine Mother, the mother of all men's gods. Coatlicue is Nahuatl for the "the one with the skirt of serpents' (from coatl, 'serpent' and cuetl, 'skirt'). She is depicted as a woman wearing a skirt of writhing snakes and a necklace of human hearts. she is also know as the goddess of fertility, the ruler of life and death, and the mohter of Huitzilopochtli, god of the sun and war. Tonzantzin comes from the Nahuatl to neustrantzin,  our, and antzin nan, 'mother': Our Venerated Mother. "

- Sergio Magaña Ocelocoyotl,  The Toltec Secret, pg. 179

"Pictured here is my fore-mother. Surrounding her are the vines of Atropa Belladonna, representing the inter-connectedness of the matrilineal lines of the women healers that came before her, mirroring the veins that map my very body which are the reservoirs of the wisdom, knowledge and trauma of my ancestors. 

As the Matriarch of our family, my grandmother unknowingly blesses my fourth born with her very presence. Her face is riddled with the lines of wisdom that speak of her time upon this earth; enduring a life outside of matriarchal balance while having had her innate ability to heal those around her severed. Yet now, as both crone and elder, the wisdom of my ancestors is within full bloom. The moon illuminates this peaceful embrace which transmits the love of previous generations while grounding this new life to the regenerative powers of the earth, to which she is slowly returning to." 

-Cara Gwizd 

Your children are not your children.

They are sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. 

They come through you but not from you.

And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For thir souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

― Kahlil Gibran

"Our women have been chosen by the creator to be the portal between the spiritual realm and this physical realm. The only force on earth powerful enough to navigate unborn spirits onto this planet."

-Anonymous

"Mine is the power of the Goddess, Mine is the blood that grants life. I am calling on the new soul to enter, I am giving the new soul life divine."

- Z. Budapest

Summoning the Fates, pg.45 

"The Art of Motherhood is to teach the Art of Living to children." 

-Elaine Heffner

 “The elation of the Great Mother (Mother Earth) is displayed within her facial expression; the remnants of her primal scream, that which reverberates in unison with the hum of all life.
Clinging to her Breast is humankind, whom she will nurture and nourish without question. The entirety of our fragile existence is tethered to her, maintained by an intricate and delicate balance. While we possess the ability to destroy her, the hope is that our lust of progress will be abandoned so as to fully embrace her presence, the presence of what Vandana shiva describes as “Prakriti: The Living Force That Supports All Life”

- Cara Gwizd  

 “ If birth was understood as the intimate, spiritual, spontaneous biological event that it is, rather than the medical emergency that our culture has determined it to be, we would live in a radically different world.”

- Yolande Norris-Clark  

"Our Ancestors knew that healing comes in cycles and circles. One generation carries the pain so that the next can live and heal. One Cannot live without the other, each is the other's hope, meaning and strength."

-Gemma B. Benton

"Within the Flower lies the secret world of the Sacred Feminine: a world of truth, beauty, love and mystery. As a mother you are called to go deep within your own inner world, and like the flower, to develop and bask in your own magnificence."

-Buffy Bernhardt

""I have called on the goddess and found her within myself."

-Marion Zimmer Bradley

“A woman lies on her side in ecstasy after having completed the final passage of her initiation into motherhood; Birth. This woman, now bearing the honour of calling herself a Mother cradles the child she has been entrusted with, bonding within what has been tenderly referred to in the art of Midwifery as “The Golden Hour”. It is during this uninterrupted first hour that the intrinsic bond based on complete trust and surrender that began with the onset of each sensation of labour is now finalized. Having birthed unhindered and sheltered from the heavy weight of exterior, medical management and influences, she readily accesses that which will nourish and nurture her within the days that follow: The ancestral Wisdom of her fore-mothers or what Whapio Diane Bartlett endearingly refers to as “The Divine Download”. This download occurs as a mother transitions from the deep Delta brainwaves of labour back into the rational and logical thinking that life demands. As she adjusts to the sounds and smells that surround her, she is aware that however lonely and demanding of a journey labour may have been that she has in fact emerged whole and complete. Knowledge of how to care for this new life and soul now lies embedded within every single cell of her being. This knowledge also reassures her that within times of need that women, now elders who once were mothers themselves, will be placed upon her path to guide and nurture both mother and child alike. These Elders or Grandmothers will always remind this woman that all that is required to care for herself and her child stems from the wisdom of the Goddess within. “

-Cara Gwizd

 This is really why I made my daughters learn to garden- so they would always have a mother to love them “
-Robin Wall Kimmerer

"The mosaic of motherhood begins with that which we lay down in the name of our children. The moment their DNA intermingles with ours, the shell of the daughter is slowly discarded from us women newly transforming us into mothers. The debris which remains as a result of this process is that which form the first blooms. One bloom at a time, the sacrifices and love for the next generation become gardens stemming from our bodies; the place in which our children flourish and thrive. This is the beauty through which each mother nurtures and nourishes every child without question. As nurslings tethered to us, it is our breast which sustains and connects our babes to this vital life force until strong enough to begin growing into their wholeness as daughters. Daughters who instantaneously begin preparing for the day in which they will become mothers themselves.

Yet, as the flowers and blossoms within our own gardens slowly begin to fade, we understand the signal of the shift that has taken place. In place of our bodies, it is the regenerative powers that once flowed through us that are now tending to the soil of our daughters who are in need of the nourishment and nurturing of grandmothers; the caretakers of the fertile landscape of mothers and their young. Then slowly, it is as grandmothers that we see the grand mosaic of motherhood: the vast array of gardens and their blossoms or quite simply, the many mothers and daughters of our sacred lineage. And as the life force further fades from the fingers we have used for generations to impart love upon this world, we begin to fully realize the presence of the great mother, embedded within ourselves and this process of mothering that now lovingly calls us home - Cara Gwizd "