March is a contemplative month for me. It always brings me back to the year of my daughter’s birth. I spent the whole month of March that year in exhausted exaltation. I was becoming a mother, and while I was excited beyond all belief at finally getting to hold my baby girl in my arms, I was also clinging to the feeling of being heavily pregnant, and wanting to stay in this glowing stage of development for a little while longer.
As I consider my own experiences of delivery and birthing a child, it brings to mind other Mothers who have had this shared journey.
Mary – Theotokos – God-Bearer – Blessed Mother
I am more than I am. I am the bee and the breeze, the stream and the blossom on the wild rose. I am the round, full earth. I bow before a mystery. How can this be? I am more than clay containing God’s breath. I am the body of the earth, all life comes from me. I am the multiplicity of being. I am the morning star. I am Hannah cradling her son. I am she who comes forth from the sea. I am she who is becoming. I am every woman. I bow down; I touch my head to the earth; I am filled with awe. I am the Mother.
~Circle of Mysteries – Christin Lore Weber
What must have been going through Mary’s head when the Archangel Gabriel visited her and told her she was to become a mother of a divine soul? I imagine there was some measure of fear there. Mary was a virgin, and very young, and to be visited by a messenger of God was probably terrifying enough in and of itself.
From my own experience, I can relate to the fear of the unknown. I can understand and empathize with the joy that most likely arose after that. I like to think that once the initial apprehension of being a young couple, and not yet intimate with one another, Mary and Joseph would have looked forward to the arrival of the child with all the usual tenderness and excitement of a family looking forward to their new addition.
Even now, my daughter being almost 8, I sometimes sit and rest my hands on my stomach where I carried her and think back on the feelings and sensations of having her tiny life stored safely within my womb. When I prepare to birth a new creative project, I have a similar sensation of feeling a little kick inside me. Birthing projects and new creations fill me with fear, apprehension, joy, and a sense of unending love and excitement for each new thing that I bring into the world.
Below is a practice that I’m sharing from my personal book of magick that has helped me to sustain those feelings of New Birth!
Ritual Practice for Birthing
- Place your hands on your belly and breathe deeply into the center of your being.
- Imagine your belly, full and rounded, and filled with the light of the Divine.
- Allow that light to fill your body and soul and suffuse you in the warm knowledge that you are preparing to birth something amazing and magickal into the world.
- Feel the expansive fullness of this creation inside you, ready to be born! Feel it move and grow and become its own entity.
- Carry this warmth with you as you begin to deliver your new creation into the world!
From here, take that pregnant energy and give it life! Create a witch jar or a mo’bag to direct your intentions, do a formal ritual or a working to heighten that sense of expectancy, and let it pour upward and outward!
My personal favorite is candle magick! I love to take creative energy and direct it while I’m dressing and designing a candle for working. Then I burn the candle when I need an extra boost on the project it’s intended for.