Abbey of the Green Flame

11/08/2023

07/24/2022

On the Beguines - lay nuns and women religious retreaters.

Le Béguinage de Bruges est une communauté créée au XIIIème siècle. Il représente un art de vivre inventé par des femmes et conçu pour elles, afin de leur permettre de vivre sans tutelle patriarcale.

01/08/2022

09/20/2021

A woman lying on a bed, assisted by three women, giving birth to perhaps two children.

Roman relief from Ostia, Italy.

http://www.ostia-antica.org/museums/london-science-museum.htm

08/13/2021

The Maternity Tree of the Dja Dja Wurrung people near Talbot in Victoria, is one of numerous Birthing Trees in SE Australia. It is a giant River Red Gum, about 700 years old, and 15 metres around (that's 49 feet circumference). Because of its hollowed center, it is also called a Shelter tree. It has sacred and historical significance to the Dja Dja Wurrung people. And racist arsonists recently attacked this tree, burning the hollow area and downing one of its major branches (see comments). But experts say the venerable Tree will survive.

"Thousands of Aboriginal women are believed to have used the Maternity Tree. Dja Dja Wurrung woman Racquel Kerr said she was distressed when she heard about the incident. 'This is something that has provided cultural security, a legacy, to Dja Dja Wurrung people, for generations," she said. "It symbolises the regeneration of life, the continuation of Dja Dja Wurrung people."

"Local Aboriginal leaders say they are grateful they have not lost the tree and want to focus on preserving sacred sites like these.
"It's a remnant of my culture," Mr Carter said."There's so much that's been intruded upon, modified and removed from our landscape. This is such an important connection to the past."

Thanks to Chris Sitka. More Birthing Trees in comments. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-08/dja-dja-wurrung-birthing-tree-set-on-fire/100359690?utm_campaign=news-article-share-2-desktop-0&utm_content=facebook&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_source=abc_news_web&fbclid=IwAR1swhfh_C5uenr2VTEwJyo4wlh_-m0NUWjhslqrPh6HE0_yhGA35VVoEtI

08/08/2021

There is too much to like about all this.

Trees, grasses and wildlife are returning as Lord Randal Plunkett recreates a vanished landscape in County Meath

05/23/2021

“Today, a woman’s first menstruation often passes unmarked, although most other cultures have recognized the depth of this change in a women’s life. The sacredness of menstrual blood was recognized by most traditional societies; women during their moontime were believed to have great power. And nothing was so powerful as a woman’s first blood flow. What once was cause for celebration — that a new woman could now bring life to her people — is today something hidden, perhaps even shameful.

Finding a way to reclaim me**es from the negativity shrouding it is a difficult and challenging task. But as long as women shirk from reclaiming the power that participation in the great universal cycles once brought us, we will not be fully empowered as women within our families and our society.

~ Patricia Monaghan, The Goddess Companion, May 22

“She should realize that the change which has taken place in her is sacred, for now she will be as Mother Earth . . . She should know that each month when her blood arrives she bears influence.”

~ Lakota holy man Black Elk, on women’s initiation rites

Art: Kaviya Ilongo