Blessingway Ceremonies
Ritual for Women, Honouring Sacred Pregnancy, Birth and Motherhood
Image credits: Olga's Blessingway for the Return to the Self Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training
Pregnancy: Blessingway Ceremonies and Rituals
Pregnancy is a special time for a woman to be revered and honoured by her loved ones and community. Every pregnant woman is on a unique sacred journey. It is a time for her to know her strength, her inner wisdom and her vulnerability, to sit with the wisdom of the community, to be supported and cherished, loved and nurtured.
Image credits: Alexia Campbell & Mama Laurie
Reclaiming the feminine through ritual
Ritual Celebration makes an incredible difference in a woman’s life and the life of the community. Supporting womanhood through a strong sense of sisterhood and communally recognizing the significance of powerful events is incredibly powerful. If a woman’s life stages are honoured and held, rights of passage become thresholds to power. This starts with recognition of young woman’s menarche (first moon), honouring pregnancy and the postnatal period (such as closing the bones ceremonies) and then ceremony to mark the transition to menopause in the wisdom years.
I am the tree of life
root, branch and flower.
Energy flows from the center of the earth
the power of all creation.
I share the birth of every growing thing
and my opening
and each passionate urge
is a shout of joy.
(Birth Passion- Sheila Kitzinger)
The origins of the Blessingway ceremony
Blessingway Ceremonies are a Native American Navajo (Dineฬ and Enemyway) rituals at key life stages to promote harmony and balance in the individual and community. For pregnancy, a woman’s rite of passage into motherhood is celebrated and honoured with song and ritual. Such ritual was tribal life, deeply ingrained, passed down from culture to culture, generation to generation and woman to woman. The ceremony honours the cosmos herself, the elements, nature and spirit. It offered an opportunity to explore the challenges and joys that awaited. Such traditions have parallels all over the world.
‘Blessings’ painted by Veronica Petrie
Her modern counterpart is the baby shower, which emphasizes the baby’s gender (gender reveal parties), gifts and games. Fun, but commercialized and not especially woman centered or nourishing. A ritualised ceremony is in recognition of the sacred nature of new life and unconditional love and is now moving fast into the ‘conscious community’ of yoginis and women’s circles and beyond.
“The transition from Maiden to Mother is immense, it is a Rite of Passage. It is one of the greatest thresholds you will ever cross. Be brave my sisters, if you are being called to the great calling of becoming a Mother. It is truly a gift that will herald you into your fullness and you will blossom more than you could ever imagine. Yes, it is not easy, but you have all that it takes.”
Suzanne Zephyr Blake, Wild Mother Queen, Mother of Kaileb
Ideas for the Blessingway Ceremony
Before the ceremony day
- Plan to gather the women (for 2-4+ hours) who form a meaningful part of the pregnant woman’s life, planning a private and safe space. Include the midwife or doula supporting the woman if possible. (they are the ‘sisters’)
- Ask sisters to assist by bringing your choice of:
A written note for a Blessing Box, An object for a centerpiece, A special bead for a bracelet or necklace, A beautiful flower for a floral crown, A gift for to include in a care package, A plate of healthy, nourishing food to share
On the ceremony day
- Create a calming space with an altar of abundance, flower decorations, pillows, candles, sage, palo santo etc
- Use a bowl of rose water for sisters to wash feet with on arrival, washing away any burdens being carried or fears that they may have of pregnancy/birth so sisters can be completely in the spirit of giving and supporting unconditionally.
Shopping list and preparations
- Flowers, Fruits, Grains, Statues etc. for decorations
- Candles and cleansing herbs (sage) or appropriate scents
- Objects for an altar space, gifts of nature (shells, feathers), fruits and grains and symbols of abundance
Blessingway Ritual Overview and Ideas
- Introduction/opening
Welcome the woman, seat her in her throne of comfortable pillows, offer drinks, make her comfortable
Sit in circle, open the circle, call the directions & ancestors
- Air – East 2) South/Fire 3) West/Water 4) North/Earth 5) Above and Below
The women each introduce themselves (in their matrilineal line) and how they came to be in the mother to be’s life and describing the mother with love
“I am Jo, daughter of Christine, Granddaughter of Hilda, Great-granddaughter of Lilian, mother of Caesar and Ananda….”
Ritual ideas – chosen according the individual woman
- A thread of a chosen colour (red?) is wrapped around each sister’s wrist in turn forming a circle. The threads are then cut and tied by a partner (symbolize the umbilical cord of the baby connected to the mother). The bracelets will remain on until the baby safely arrives
- Each sister ties a thread onto the honoured woman’s wrist whilst their own words of support and intention are internally called
- Stringing a necklace of beads each brought by different sisters for the mother to wear in labor in the same way
bead necklace for a Blessingway made of beads offered by each woman: source unknown
- A large ‘birthing’ candle is lit for the pregnant woman and each sister lights their own small candle while affirming a word of strength to her sister. These candles are taken home and lit again when the mother has sent out the message that she is in labour.
- a candle is lit and then passed around the circle. Each sister offers a word they wish for the mother like ‘strength or ‘endurance’ and when the candle reaches the Mother, she blows it out and it can be re-lit by her when she begins her labour
Candles for each woman: source unknown
- Letters to the baby that tell him or her all about their Mum
- Facing fear by writing fears on papers that are ritually burn
- Reading and sharing of empowering poems and sacred words by sister
Pampering and adorning the mother to be
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The mother is seated in her own throne
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Suzanne Zephyr Blake @suzannezephyr, Wild Mother Queen, Mother of Kaileb, Blessingway Ceremony held in Dubai, led by Willow of @womanspaceme
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Each sister worships her in the form of divine unconditional love. She can:
- style her hair, adorn her with floral crowns
- paint a henna belly tattoo
- offer shoulder massage, hand massage, foot massage etc with flowers
- Offer scripture, music and text from any religious or spiritual tradition as suits the mother
- Offer blessings and gifts (birthing prayer flags, jewelry, candles for labour, post birth herbs, a nursing box with things to support her whilst she feeds her baby)
- Offer beautiful delicious nutritious snacks for her to eat
Closing the circle
Dedications and calling the directions.
Sharing from each woman
Woman chooses a tarot card from a pack
Sharing of nutritious food
- Olga's Blessingway ceremony recorded for the Return to the Self Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training
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Books About Blessingways
Yana Cortlund Barb Lucke and Donna Miller Watelet,
Sheri Maser
This video
The video shared features experienced doula and ceremonialist Alex Alonso (contact her at [email protected]) for more details and bookings for ceremonies in Portugal).
Join our Prenatal Yoga Teacher training here, 40 hours of quality prerecorded material honouring pregnancy, birth and motherhood. Our training is 85hr Yoga Alliance Accredited and our lowest price is 400usd. Find out more here:
https://book.returntotheself.co.uk/
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