Death Midwifery

A beautiful introduction to one of our roles in this phase, as Death Midwives. We are fine tuning our services and will be presenting more information on what this important piece of our Rites of Passage tapestry of service pertains to. For now, this article is an excellent introduction to this concept.

Here is the permalink to our post linking to the amazing piece in the facebook Shamanic Hedge Witch group post: https://www.facebook.com/groups/soultribesanctuary/permalink/267688761201877/

And here is the post for discussion here:

"The Crone, bone mother, death hag, represents the third and final aspect of the Goddess. The Crone has become, or been made the most feared aspect of the Goddess. This is mainly because of the Crone’s function, which is death. In primitive and ancient societies this function was called the mother’s curse, and became known as the Crone’s curse. This curse of destruction is the Destroyer aspect of the Goddess.

The fear of this aspect arises within people of modern societies because the aspect of the Destroyer has been misrepresented or guised as sinister. When we can sit comfortably with death, knowing that the act of dying and decay are part of the inevitable cycle that we all belong to, then rather than resist, we can release, let go and move quickly through the gateway that offers rebirth and renewal.

When we finally arrive at the point of surrender we find ourselves in a place of quiet solitude, in the emptiness of the void, where we are able to hand over the issue to the wisdom of the crone, the bone mother, the death hag. In this place of withdrawal, we are stripped to the bone, laying ourselves open and bare, willing to enter the dark stillness of the tomb, the underworld, where we have relinquished all control. Here we come face to face with our shadows, our pain, and death itself.

But it is a symbolic death – death to the old, death to the past, death to the pain. For within the quiet stillness of the tomb, the bone mother prepares us with her infinite wisdom for the stripping back and the reshaping of the new, making it possible to see the hidden potentials that lay within the shadow of our darkest self. For in this place of darkness we have forgotten the deep healing, the eternal wisdoms the sacred intelligence and personal intuition that is accessed from the depths of our psyches when we consciously give permission for healing to take place.

For the tomb then becomes the womb and from this place of stillness and death, the tiny seeds of new life are sown. The bone mother / crone who so frighteningly beckons you with her crooked finger to this place of death, holds the potential for conception to occur and counsels you that destruction and endings are required to initiate new beginnings. And so from this portal of death, new life springs forth and you emerge from the tomb through the birthing canal, once again restored and reborn." Shamanic Hedge Witch (facebook group), author not specified.