Wedding in the Argadells

Late last year I was contacted by Jessica and Ben to help with some ideas for their wedding ceremony. Jessica and Ben were to be married in South Australia, with their own celebrant, however they asked me to help with some creative input to their wedding.

Together, and with their celebrant 'Bluey', we worked through some drafts until we came up with a ceremony that included all the elements that were important to them: 

honouring of their loving and committed relationship to one another

honouring their own ancestors and the traditional custodians of the land they were to be married on, 

honouring their own established and loving family (including their three children), 

honouring the earth and the elements and the gifts they offer us in our relationships.

I am very happy to help you with ideas that symbolise the intentions you have for your relationship. I am very happy to help you create the ceremony that is perfect for you, however if you are getting married please remember that only an Authorised Celebrant can conduct a wedding ceremony, with two adult witnesses.

Thank you Jessica and Ben, for the opportunity to share in the celebration of all that is special to you, and thank you for sharing your photographs. Thanks also to Bluey, for sharing the ceremony with me!

The magnificent scenery is the Argadells, in South Australia. 

Self-Indulgent Beltaine Fun!

Sacred Essence Women's Circle is this coming Monday night, 8th November and we'll be having a bit of girly fun this night .... I"m talking pampering with home made organic face masks, massage, chocolate coated strawberries - and of course a story and meditation also. This time, if the night is clear I am planning a moonlight meditation walk! It is going to be lots of fun girls and bookings are essential so let me know if you are coming!!

Sacred Essence Women's Circle

Monday 8th November

7pm

$20 or $45 for three sessions

Silkwood School Moonlight  Prep Room

39 Shepherd Hill Lane, Mt Nathan

Bookings: please contact me at

jennifer@ceremonieswithspirit.com

Forever in Felt

Over last weekend I helped a beautiful expecting Mama celebrate the coming birth of her third child with a blessingway ceremony. She had a baby shower planned with family and friends, with the fun party games, but she wanted something deeper as well, to acknowledge her journey of motherhood. So she asked me to facilitate her Mama Blessing.

I arrived a little early to set up my bits and pieces and I watched the women arrive and together just flow in and out of the room, each with a job to do putting out food and hanging decorations. It was clear that I was watching a group of women who were very close. These sweet handmade decorations were the theme for the afternoon, and it seemed like everyone had brought something to contribute.

 After the ceremony, where each woman shared stories of the Mama, and spoke her blessings and wishes for her birthing journey, we began to create a group present for her. I had pre-made a circular felted mat with a tree on it. The branches were bare because it was our intention to decorate the mat together for her baby to play on.

It was so much fun! Everyone looked a little hesitant when I brought out the felting needles, but oh my goodness! When they saw how easy it was to create beautiful pictures with a felting needle and fleece I had to practically leap out of the way! While I soaked and massaged Mama's feet all her friends were happily needle felting together and talking and sorting through bright colours - creating this beautiful gift for their friend - Aw ... it is so sweet!

It will be a very special heirloom for her family - forever in felt.

Blessing the Boobies

On Friday I attended an impromptu Blessingway for a friend who is at the end of her breastfeeding journey. She has birthed three sons, one in each major stage of development: one at highschool, one in primary school, and a cute little fellow who is now in the process of self-weaning after three beautiful years of breastfeeding. It has been an experience that she has enjoyed as much as her children and not surprisingly the end of this journey of breastfeeding has brought a sense of loss at the thought of not being able to share those special moments with her 'baby' any more. It is a feeling I understand well - both my eldest self-weaned after two years of breastfeeding and it happened so easily for them that for a while I felt quite redundant in the relationship! Sure, I was all very excited that it was not a traumatic process for them, I was proud to see them exerting their new-found independence - but what about me?! I had really enjoyed the journey too.  Breastfeeding was a time to snuggle and cuddle, to stroke and whisper to my babies, to drink in their beauty and offer them good nourishment. I wasn't quite sure what I was left with when the breastfeeding moments were no longer occuring - and it became clear to me that my little ones were no longer infants. That realisation really hit my heart with sadness.

When this period comes to end we need to reshape our relationship with our little ones, but first it IS important to spend the time acknowledging how special that period has been, for it ends too quickly! Friday's blessingway was a simple gathering of friends, bringing food and kind words to celebrate the cycle of womanhood. We read hand-written blessings and delightful poems, including a hilarious one written in the style of Dr Suess, which starts like this:

Would you nurse her in the park?

Would you nurse him in the dark?

Would you nurse him with a Boppy?

And when your boobs are feeling floppy?

I laughed so much!

Another friend spoke of the new relationship she has with her children now they are older, and the close friends they have become, the fun they have together. It was a beautiful morning of sharing.

It was a sacred morning to bless our friend, her boobies, and the wonderful work they have done together, but I think that whether you have breastfed or not, the time when you realise your baby has taken their last bottle, or when your last baby has moved out of infancy is as relevant a time to celebrate the end of an era in motherhood with a blessingway.

Actually, we don't really need a reason :)

Organising your event paper-free

I have just received a cute invitation to a Mama Blessing (that I am facilitating) via Smilebox. It is an emailed invitation complete with photos and music and it is so sweet! You can create your own, and as everyone has email these days it is the perfect way to cut down time and money in designing, making or buying invitations and of course it also saves on paper use too.

At Smilebox you can also create your scrapbooks, slideshows and photo albums too.

Another great site for a paper-free event is Paperless Wedding - where you can make your own invitations to email out, but also can create a whole website devoted to the information surrounding your wedding: venue, date, gift registry, map, accommodation suggestions and of course your photographs - and this is an excellent way to immediately share your photographs with those people who could not make it to your special event.

What a great idea!

Sacred Essence - October

Sacred Essence skipped a month - I have been slightly distracted by my beautiful 2-month old baby, and Melissa is slightly distracted by the imminent birth of hers! We will, however be back on track in October, ready for more inspiring and nurturing womyn time. Our next session will be on the 1st Monday of the Month, rather than the 2nd. The theme that will be swirling around us for the October Sacred Essence is Intention!

Intention is a theme that I have been exploring over at my Lavendilly blog for a little while now and the more I look into it, the more it expands for me. I am finding that by increasing my awareness of intention throughout the day that wonderful things happen. Intention is a powerful source of magic, and of course it all comes from a place of love.

I began by exploring the intentions behind the words we use, and musing on ways to find the right words to express exactly what we want to share when we speak or write. It isn't easy to do because the right words only come when you are so deeply in tune with your inner core - they flow out to reflect your inner truth. When we do not speak from our inner truth we cannot express ourselves adequately!

And then I began to explore the idea that intention can actually have an effect upon the matter around us - which led me into reading about the curious behaviour of DNA!

And of course there is the powerful and integral role that intention plays in meditation, ceremony and ritual.

These ideas we will be exploring through story (my all-time favourite fairy tale!), breath-work and silk-painting!

Sacred Essence Women's Circle

7 - 9:30pm
$20

Monday 4th October

Moonlight Prep Room, Silkwood School

39 Shepherd Hill Lane, Mt Nathan

RSVP jennifer@ceremonieswithspirit.com

Dear Ancestor

Dear Ancestor

Author Unknown

Your tombstone stands among the rest; neglected and alone.

The name and date are chisled out on polished, marbled stone.

It reaches out to all who care; it is too late to mourn.

You did not know that I exist, you died and I was born.

Yet each of us are cells of you in flesh, in blood, in bone.

Our blood contracts and beats a pulse entirely not our own.

Dear Ancestor, the place you filled one hundred years ago,

Spreads out among the ones you left who would have loved you so.

I wonder as you lived and loved, I wonder if you knew

That someday I would find this spot, and come to visit you.