Spirit Dolls for the HomeBirth Medicine Tree

Last week I sent two beautiful mamma dolls to be with the Birthkeeper Medicine Tribes gathering this weekend at the Homebirth Australia Conference. I was so happy to weave dolls for the midwives, doulas, healers and educators who together are bringing back the Ancestral Medicine of holding sacred space to birth without fear in our own homes and communities again. 

I felt grateful to have the opportunity to provide dolls for this birthing tribe and it was a small way that I could thank the many midwives and doulas who have visited me in the forest for Ancestral Medicine sessions. It was in fact, the plight of a midwife being treated unfairly in regards to a homebirth that inspired me to become more public with Ancestral Medicine work 3 years ago. A homebirth may not be for everyone but the fact that there are groups who want this ancient and natural practice eradicated and heavily controlled by outside authorities, spurred me on to step out of the shadows and approach the midwifery community. And so Swan Blessing actually began as a service to clear past life trauma of being persecuted as a witch, healer, herbalist, teacher of plant medicines for midwives and doulas so that they would not feel fear in their sacred work of holding space for birth. And now I see people from all works of life - artisans, teachers, mothers and fathers - all coming to reclaim their memory of Ancestral Medicine again. I call it simply Grandmother Medicine because up until just 2 generations ago, these knowings and wisdoms of Birth and Death and everything in between was passed in the family and taught with great love and trust. 

It has been my honour to come to know so many birthkeepers over the last 3 years particularly my sisters at the School of Shamanic Midwifery. These women and men who are brave, honest and funny and so very very wise. How lucky we are that these guardians are back to hold space for our birthing again. 

Paying homage to the sacred birth process I am showing here, for the first time, some of the ways the dolls begin their lives. Here are photos of the dolls birthing themselves with gumnut hearts filled with mountain ash resin in full flow. The wee baby in the papoose was made from an oak acorn. They have a mandala of herbs and plant medicine in their tummies including: Motherwort (known as Lion's Tail), Myrrh, Moss, Wattle and Mapacho Tobacco for protection. 

Love to all who gather this weekend at the Homebirth Australia Conference, blessings on the connection back to your Ancestral Medicine trees and the new fruit waiting to blossom. Thank you for all you do for us and our children and their children to come. 

Womb medicine - Gumnuts filled with Mountain Ash resin

Oak Acorn and pure Merino Wool

Plant Medicine Mandala to go inside the dolls

HawkWoman Medicine Doll Snakeskin over her pregnant belly and Hawk Feather wand

Guided Medicine Doll for New Mamma and Baby

Swan Past Life Story - Unbinding Plant Wisdom

Today I share again with you the moving Swan Past Life story of Nicole Ahava who remembered a time of working closely with plants as medicine. I will always be grateful to Nicole for awakening my own ancestral memory of doll making. It is a path that once re-awakened, is hard to ignore!

We both knew that there was a memory Nicole carried of still needing to hide and work in secret. This is something that many of us feel and it can be very hard to reconcile with only the rational mind. I hope Nicole's story helps all of those feeling this fear to come out of the darkness and share your wise gifts too.

I am walking barefoot through a familiar forest. I come upon the well. I look into the deep pool and see her. She is a tribal woman, with long dark hair and dark eyes. She takes my hand and we cross the threshold, I am there. It is dark, the land is barren.She dances around a fire. I see so much pain inside her. This is a dance of mourning. Her face is full of sorrow as she stomps and writhers around the fire.

She shows me her journey. I see her wondering naked on the bare earth. She is a very small child. There has been a great upheaval and her family has left her behind. She is found by a wise old woman who takes her in, raising her and teaching her wisdom. They walk the earth together. This is where she learns her medicine. Later she is a grown woman she takes me to her village. We are in front of her mud hut with her six children. They are so beautiful. They have very little but there is so much love. She shows me her work with plants making medicine.

There has been great famine, all the people in her village have been driven away from their lands. They now live on barren land, fighting starvation and illness. Her husband has gone to a far away land to work. The women from the village cover their heads as they go to her for medicine and scurry away quickly with her brew hidden in their robes back to their huts. She is living in fear and isolation. She shows me how they come, soldiers, tearing her children out of her arms. They are taking them away, she pleads with them desperately, she vows never to use her medicine again, but they take them all away.

Finally I see her lying on the bare earth, she is old and lonely, overwhelmed with grief. She lets her body go and is instantly free.

I am back in the forest at the water’s edge we are facing each other. I honour her. I understand why she made that vow. She smiles at me. She knows why we are here. It is time to let it go. We hold each other with deep love and she transforms into light she is surrounded and embraced by her family, her children, her husband, the wise old lady and her mother they are all free.

I am standing before the daughter of the well bound heavily. Together we cut the bindings and instantly I feel myself expand, I am free. She takes me into her sacred well, all the daughters are there. I am floating in the sacred well. The daughters are washing away all that burdens my soul. I am cleansed, pure, light and free.

The first time I got an email from Sacred Familiar about the Swan Journey Sessions I knew it was something that I just had to do. I put it aside for a while but the swan medicine continued to call me. It is a very sacred and profound blessing. In this life I was born a healer. As a child I would give healing to sick animals, I would lay in my bed at night and send healing to people. Years later when I began to explore my own healing I became a Reiki master and it all came back to me, but I would find that every time I shared my medicine the energy would get stuck with me or my children would get sick. I could not share my medicine because I was afraid that it would harm my children.

The swan journey really is very gentle as she continues to unfold and expand in my life. There have been many changes I have been able to share freely without fear, I feel as though a channel has been cleared from which I am free to connect and receive more clearly and my medicine is changing, becoming more potent. I extend my deepest gratitude for this journey and to Julia. Thank you.

Nicole 2013

Rainbow Love - new plant spirit dolls

St John’s Wort Spirit Doll

These are some of the plant spirit dolls that I’ve been creating here in the forest in the month of February - lots of pink and red hair/hare I see!

I am particularly enjoying creating the dolls made personally for their keepers. I loved making the Oak and Moss doll you see below. The beauty of creating spirit dolls is that I don’t always choose the way they look, they come through with their own personality and talismans required for their new keepers. Some are elaborate and some are beautifully simple like Pelican Womb Healer. She carries Pelican smudging fan created and gifted to us by Nature's Art Melbourne.

Sun Flowers and King Parrots

Sun Flowers King Parrot Medicine Doll for Roee's Mother

This heatwave is really taking it's toll in the forest and we've been placing lots of bowls of water out for the animals. On the weekend I burrowed in and fell into the no-thinking space of dollmaking - perfect for forgetting the heat. This is a doll  who called herself Sun Flowers. She was birthed on Saturday for a man who requested a doll for his mother in Israel. When I felt her spirit, I kept seeing a garden of bright flowers and there are many different types of flowers and plant medicine inside her tummy. I gave her Wattle antlers and King Parrot feathers and when I took her photo outside caught 2 sweet King Parrots having have a smooch behind her.

the spring, the doll and the gang gang cockatoo

 

Every 3 weeks we travel to the purest spring we have ever known, the well spring at the top of Mount Donna Buang in Warburton, Vic.  We went yesterday to draw water for our ceremony on Friday night and for new essence creation. Often when I visit I will leave a spirit doll to thank the spring but to also thank the other visitors to this sacred place - the water freaks/ enthusiasts! Every time we visit we meet another water lover and this time it was a man in his 60s who was riding a motorbike across Australia. As soon as he tasted the spring he began to fill every container he had with him for his travels. He told me he'd never tasted anything as good.

The doll I gave to the Spring and her friends was Healing Spirit, a medicine doll that I'd finished on the weekend after attending the Wurundjeri Welcome to Country ceremony. The doll was with me as I'd passed through the welcome smoke and I was fascinated to hear in the ceremony that along with the gift of Fire to welcome visitors to their lands, the Wurundjeri also gave visitors water. I have no doubt this spring has been known and held sacred to the Wurundjeri for a long long time. 

I placed the doll under a small fern just behind the spring and prepared to leave when a family of Gang Gang Cockatoos began to call and one ancient grandfather landed and sat in the small fern above the spirit doll. I had never seen this type of Cockatoo at the spring before and he sang and spoke to us before flying down to the spring itself and drinking from it.  When I gift dolls at the spring I leave a little note to let people know that this doll is a gift for visiting this sacred place. And here is the beautiful family that found her! The family of local artist Lucy Pierce and her babies. I was thrilled. Lucy is a dear sister and her sculpture was a beautiful element of our ceremony held last year for the women and babies of the Magdalene Laundries at Abbotsford Convent. It felt very right that this doll would come to live with Lucy and her family.  

In these changing times there is so much being released but there are so many gifts to be received. I think we are all finally learning to appreciate simplicity again and receiving pleasure from small treasures made with care. And we can all play a magical part in this weaving with the universe. What small treasure can you gift to someone this week? I love to hear these stories of how a mysterious gift can be just what is needed to really lift someone's  spirit.  The morning after finding the doll, Lucy contacted me - there were Gang Gangs singing in her backyard.

Oceans of love to you all for your New Moon blessings. If you are joining us on Friday night please bring along a special cup or glass to share in the watery goodness of this ancient spring - water is life! 


Let it Go, Let it Flow - journey and meditation circle to farewell the year of the Water Snake.  

Gang Gang Grandfather blessing Healing Spirit with his song

Lucy and her family after finding the doll by the spring

Doll Lineages and the Wild Bee

Flower Faerie custom plant medicine doll for Asha's Grandmother 'you are never too old for a doll, you are never too old to play'

I am always thrilled to make a new doll. It's something that I just never tire of because the doll is, right until the end, a mystery to me. Sometimes I am shown colour to begin and other times I am shown a tiny part of a design. When I was asked to create a doll lineage on the weekend I was very touched. I have now created dolls for the daughter, mother and grandmother. The doll you see above is for Grandmother. She was meant to start her birth on Sunday but she was so excited that she came through on Friday night. All I knew when beginning was that she has a 'dress of flowers'. I had expected to make a serious 'Elder' doll but instead this delightful Flower Faerie came to be Spirit Sister to the Matriarch of the family. She told me that everyone has an inner child that loves to play, it doesn't matter how old you are.  

The doll below was another custom order from a man for his mother in Israel. I love to see these wee wise women travel far and wide across the Earth. They are living in many countries that I am yet to visit myself! My friend Gwen suggested that we could have a page of photographs of the Spirit Sisters in their new lands - that would be fun. 

I am now about to start creating a doll for Ruby a four year old girl about to turn five who has told me very clearly that she'd like her doll to hold 'cat energy and a crystal' !! Can't tell you how much I'm already looking forward to meeting this wise being.

I am taking a new round of orders for the next tribe of custom-made Spirit Sisters, order information can be found here.

I was also gifted organic Bee Pollen for the dolls this weekend and it seems to me that the Bees are bringing a new radiance. The dolls seem to glow. It is so important that we create gardens that are safe havens and invitations to the Wild Bees.

Custom medicine doll for Mother in Israel her name is 'Bee Light' and she assists with indecision

Golden Beauty of Marigold plant medicine

Over the last 3 nights I have been working with the beautiful solar radiance of Marigold (Calendula) plants. These particular Marigolds were grown in Egypt and the dolls that I placed the flowers inside of seemed to carry a similar message - to walk beside you as a light in the dark night. As it is believed that the magical Marigold brings prophetic dreams, I made the intention of creating doll that were to be placed beside their keeper’s pillow or bedside table at night. 

Marigold - Latin Name: Calendula officinalis, Catha officinalis

Also known as: Holigold, Mary Bud, Solis Sponsa, Occulus Christi

Calendulae means 'throughout the months' but the old Saxon name 'ymbglidegold' means 'it turns with the sun'. There is also a long association with the Virgin Mary.

Healing Qualities: reducing inflammation, wound healing, improves blood flow, calming affect on ulcers and cramps, eases menstrual cramps and menopausal symptoms. 

Magical Qualities: prophesy, prophetic dreams, psychic energy, seeing magical beings, love, clairvoyance, legal affairs and renewing personal energy. 

'Golde is bitter in savour

Fayr and yelow is his flouwr

The golde flour is good to sene

It makyth the syth (sight) brythe and clene

Wyscely to lokyn on his flowris

Drawyth out the heed wikked hirores (humors).'

From Macer's Herbal (trans. John Lelamoure, 1373)

The Gingko Witch has found her Sister

The winner of the Gingko Witch medicine doll is Sarah of Embodiments Dance! Congratulations Sarah - I think She is very happy to be coming to live with a dancing Medicine WOman. Thank you for everyone who took part and all of the new subscribers.  How did you go with your Threshold Tarot readings? I hope you received lots of clarity and assistance for the new Dream.

She is walking out of the fires...Mishele's Swan Story

She is walking out of the fires. Her staff which connects her to the land below her and the skies above, reminds her of her Medicine. She wears a conch shell to remind her she is Woman. She carries her basket to collect medicine wherever she goes. She is Medicine Woman. She looks out at the world through the quartz crystal heart she swallowed... Seeing all with Love and Clarity. She holds the ancient sacred herb Desert Sage in her belly, connecting her to All that Was, All that Is and All that Will Be. She is taking Me out of hiding my Medicine. She is whispering into my heart, singing to my feet, calling my memories to awaken. Giving me strength to remember She is I and I am She. We walk into the world sharing our Medicine again. We walk into the world sharing our Medicine again. Dear Julia, After spending the weekend with you and all the sisters in the circle, I feel I Am AWAKE! How can one merely say Thank You for the gift you have given! For the Swan Blessing, the unbinding of Vows that have held me back in this life, introducing me to the Daughters Of The Well. The words Thank You cannot display the deep gratitude I feel, for Teaching me the Medicine of making my own Medicine Doll. For holding the space with so much Love, Compassion, Joy, Wisdom, and your Beautiful Voice to guide us to where we needed to go. For gathering together a circle of Medicine Women, making connections, sharing stories, releasing past life pain, and bringing us back to the present with our Medicine that we may have been hiding due to ancient fears. Julia, my way to honour You and all that you have awakened in me, is to Walk, Dance, Love, Forgive, Laugh, Be the Medicine Woman I Am and Walk that path in Truth and Beauty, sharing with All, as you have shared with All 

What an amazing weekend I had! On the misty Mt Tambourine a circle of women gathered together, and under the gentle Guidance of Julia from Sacred Familiar we journeyed deep into ourselves and our past. Through her Swan Blessings, we released and healed Vows and Bindings we made in a past life, that was stopping us from our full potential in this life. We released our Grandmothers, Mothers, Daughters. We reunited with each other again. We shared our stories in the safe circle that Julia created in a magic place called Grail Haven, sharing in the Blessed Water from the sacred well. I encourage you to look into Grail Haven, it truly is a healing experience. Julia taught us the lost art of making Spirit/Medicine Dolls! Wow!! Having already been gifted one, I knew the power of their medicine, and to make my own was and is a life changing experience! I have learnt so much of myself during this process, and will continue to do so with all the others I will create! Yes! I am addicted! I met Such beautiful women, making connections that are ancient and now present ♥ We drummed and sang (thank you Vicki for teaching us the songs, I sang all the way home on the train) We had fun at the markets, meeting the friendly locals and spreading joy with our open hearts and Dolly's (who came with us sharing their magic to the young and the old, men and women) So many magical experiences, I think I could write a whole book about this one weekend ;-) Oh and I was taken back to when I was a child born from a Gypsy mother and towns man father. I ended up living on my own, in the forest, rejected for who I was, yet still consulted by the villagers for medicine and healing (in secret of course) I bring back with me my essence of the Wild Gypsy Woman, this time, I walk proudly into the world, with my Medicine, I will speak the truth and beauty to all ~ For All ♥ Thank You so much dear Julia and to all the women in the circle Bless You ♥

Mishele, Femmina Unbound on Mt Tamborine, 2013

Spirit Doll Workshop - the Wise WOman and Her Medicine Doll

This year I am creating dolls for all my loved ones for christmas. If you would like to learn this beautiful and healing art practice, I am holding a workshop in the green of Sherbrooke Forest on Saturday 19th October.