A BLESSING FOR A MOTHER: A blessing for a mother so that she knows and deeply understands the sacred and challenging path she walks, and appreciates that the state and the rites of motherhood evolve just as her child will grow and change into their own true self.
To birth the child within, birth the child into the world through the cauldron of the womb, and feed the babe at the breast, and yet need to learn how to let go? That is the test and quest of motherhood, and you are its initiate. For within motherhood are great paradoxes and contradictions – to be mother is to be at once yourself and another. To be a mother is a yearning for the wellbeing of another, dearest in of all the world, yet imperfect and growing, and wild and unknowable. How is it that a mother can carry the yearning, the care, the delight, the love, the intimacy and purity of motherhood? The sheer hard work of it, the feeding and the cleaning of the young, and within all this is the desire to give birth again to the self who you are becoming through this great initiation. To be a mother is to be deeply your own true self, and yet selfless. To love another deeply, and open up yet another room, and another, and another, within your heart. To be a mother is to see the world’s children and babes as your own. It is to be primal, prehistoric, and ageless, beyond dogma and preaching, you are the creator of all, and once you were worshiped.
May you be blessed with your children’s wellbeing. May motherhood ignite in you the flame of healing for any wounds from your own childhood. May the earth mother you, and bless you as you walk through the challenges of the way of the mother. May your arms be strong, but not so tight as to not know when to soften and release the tender ones from that fierce protection. May your womb quicken with healthy babes, and may their delivery into the world be as deep and initiatory as this stepping between the worlds was always meant to be. May you know your value lies beyond that of your fruitfulness, and is within the characters you’ve helped shape, and the lessons you’ve taught. Forgive yourself for your imperfections, for mothering is a sacred task that we are all untaught at – we must find our way through feel, sheer instinct, and that mother’s love that all desire. And when it comes to the time when you will no longer bear the young, may the young come to you, and recognize all you have done, and in the warmth of their affection and gratitude, may you grow old with joy as your companion.
Blessed Be
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A BLESSING FROM YOUR ANCESTORS: A blessing to bring you the gifts and guardianship of your ancestral family.
Within your bloodline, and within your spiritual line, there are thousands of relatives who care for you, and whose cells now sing within your own body. You are their future dream, you carry forward the hopes of your distance and most recent family. They have seen so much, yes, in other times and faraway places, but they come to you now and bless you with all the wisdom of their experiences, making you the sum total of a thousand thousand wise ones. Call upon the wisdom of the blood, the old ones who stand behind you, supporting and holding you, clearly giving you the knowledge that experience taught them. Let only the ancestors who can free you, aid you, support you, and celebrate the best of themselves within you come forward, and may the ailments and regrets of those who have gone before teach you what not to do in this time. If family be thin on the ground, or if there is estrangement at present, let the arms of the old ones hold you, form a circle about you, and infuse you with everything you may need at this moment. You are loved across the distance of time. You are spoken to, with quiet kennings, soft knowings that will direct you forth. You will be soothed, by those who healed, and be guided, by the old ones who hold before you the flaming torch of their united spirits. You are all that has gone before, but they celebrate you for you are the future. Know your life is precious to more than the visible ones you know. You are most precious to all the old ones and to the ones you share blood with, they know of your value, and of the hopefulness of your futures. May you be blessed and may you have with you the essence of the Elder, the Teacher, the one who shows, the who shares with the young, the one who keeps the skills alive inside you, and all about you.
Blessed Be
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A BLESSING FOR SUPPORT: A blessing on you, so that those who are in accord within their hearts and within their noble selves come to your side in times of need, as ally, friend, and if need be, warrior.
A blessing upon you now, who need the support of others. May you send out the call, in spirit and in word, and to your side may there come those who know they stand with you. Within this atmosphere of empathy and accord, let there be honor on each side, and let old dissatisfactions fall away so that together now you can face whatever it is you must confront. For when we stand with others, with the tribe, with the souls of those with whom we have stood in the past, we allow ourselves to have support, and back-up, and the strength of the alliance, instead of the fragility of isolation.
May the right allies come to you, and be noble in their deeds, and ask nothing of you that you are not willing to give, because it is good and just. May those that come to your side be brave, full of integrity, able to feel fear, yet do what is right. And when you go through whatever darkness that is before you, may these allies walk with you, allowing you to lead, and asking only that you too act in integrity and with justice. May those who stand with you be most blessed – advisor, warrior, kindred, clan, and may you all conquer the enemies both within and without. If it be sickness or hard times, let healing come to you, if it be poverty, let them offer you the rest that will help you be whole, and if it be in battle, let their swords be sharp, their skills steadfast, their knowledge of the enemy keen and shining. May you be most blessed in this support, and may rewards come to all those who do what is right, in the hardest of times. Look about you – see – they are coming to ride by your side, and you will not go into the darkness along.
Blessed Be