Gestare Art Collective

August 28, 2015 (Day 1, 7 minute pose)

Megan and I are together during our pose today. We ground, enter the pose, reflectively write and share our experiences. It is good to be doing this together and supporting each other when we can.

I sit in a throne-like chair on the front edge of its seat. When my hands and arms press down into the armrests I feel a surge of heat encompass my entire body. As I sit I become aware of my heart chakra opening. I feel constricted by my bra and wish I was not wearing one. It holds my breasts back from opening and dropping with the energy of the pose. My vulva releases its hold and opens. Similar to my initial grounding before beginning the pose I drop a fertile cord deep into the earth. Within my head gibberish utterances begin to unfold. Making no sense while I remain outwardly silent. I feel a desire to physically move my jaw and do this in silence. I am aware of the importance of giving back to the earth. This is an exchange of energy and not just a taking of energy and resources. As I write this reflection I notice that I am not depleted of energy, as my personal self may feel, but strong and able. The pose feels effortless, yet active and engaged.

August 29, 2015 (Day 2, 14 minute pose)

Supported by the earth.

Supported by the earth, feet fully feeling the connection of the ground beneath me. I am in the center of the shallow lake with my feet sunk in the cool muddy lakebed. It is not solid ground but I love the feeling of the mud on my feet, between my toes. Although not stable it is calming. I am partially in and partially out of the water in my labour. My breath becomes significant. My mouth takes the ovoid share of a fish mouth. I am aware of the parallel ovoid shape of my vulva. I am now prone in the water moving like a frog. The labour pose becomes more intense and I being to tire. My breath more deep and long. The pose ends and I release my hands from the arms of the chair. There is much tingling in my wrists and hands. I bring my hands to my face and mouth, sharing the releasing energy with my face and mouth, then my neck, chest, belly and vulva.

August 30, 2015 (Day 3, 21 minute pose)

I ground through sound into my belly and feet.

I immediately have difficulty getting comfortable in the pose. My body, my chest wants to collapse in on itself. A struggle with discomfort continues and takes up most of my attention. At one point my face contorts, my eyes clench, my forehead constricts and my lower face muscles thrust themselves downward as if in great pain. Occasional sound and moans surface from my throat and lips. In the last five minutes something shifts and my lower body begins to gently rock and I sense I am in water. The discomfort disappears. I am now in my proper element of water and the birth labour begins to take off. The rocking takes on different tempos while the sense that I am in water remains. When the pose ends I feel deeply relaxed and calm. Sitting back in the chair I doze off for a short while.

bursting out of skin/ripe magnolia seeds photo ingredrose

august 28, 2015 day 1, 7 minute pose)

i decided to do this pose lying down before sleeping. first i grounded by sitting up and sounding with my feet pressed into the floor. when i lay down and got into position, i was surprised how intense it felt inside, as if the whole inner cave of my body was under huge pressure. even though it was such a short time to hold the pose, twice i had to let go and stretch my legs. it felt as if i were going to implode. i hadn't consciously thought of the birth of my two children, almost 36 years ago and 33 years ago. the birth of my oldest child was difficult at many levels & i wonder if this was partly why i felt such discomfort. as if i wanted to leap out of my skin which was suffocating me. as i write, i'm reminded of my own birth too. i was the second to emerge 30 minutes after my brother. the stark transition between being tightly packed into the womb with two of us and then to find myself in 'loosened' space. at the time i wrote about it, this line seemed telling: 'unmoored in enlarged space'. perhaps again some unmooring is taking place!

august 29, 2015 day 2, 14 minute pose)

ma's chair—when tim and i graduated from calling our mother mummy, she wouldn't accept mum so ma it was—sitting on her chair i position my legs to be wide open, elbows supported by chair's arms, my arms & hands shifting until they form heart-shape round navel, fingers pointing to vulva. immediately body co-heres. light pressure on frontal lobes spreads evenly under top of skull then descends through neck, collar bone, wings, chest cavity, belly, pelvic girdle, down through legs & feet. i'm at home in ma's lap, fully embraced/ embracing.

ma's chair photo ingredrose

rinna rose photo ingredrose

august 30, 2015 day 3, 21 minute pose)

i place ma's chair as the night before, sit with feet firmly on floor and knees widespread, sound & breath bringing me into full moon inner scape. am restless & feel the need to turn around in chair, slotting my legs under the chair's arms so my head & chest against the chair back. i feel i'm hugging a person. i'm surprised how my mother is a presence here with me and am comfortable with this. i smell faint fragrance of roses, a flower ma loved but that took me a long time to appreciate as well as bearing the name.

August 28, 2015 7 minute pose

The pose position was very intense, taking me right back to birthing my own child. I grounded deep and immediately my body began to move and sounds came. My breath changed with the sounds during the pose moving from regular steady breathing, to groaning, heaving, panting all the while my body rocking back and forth. My belly was enlarged and there was pressure down onto my vulva, buttocks and the tops of my thighs. I could not stay still, I could not stay quiet. The experience moved me deep into strong emotion - sadness and emptiness came in.

June 26, 2015 - Gestare Retreat - MA Poses
Writing from my first experience of MA Pose-1

Birthing mother
open body giving
possibility of vulnerability
feeling powerful

sinking in
body softens
more and more
giving offering

I am reminded of the life-givers named so in sweat lodge ceremony
the big power present in being embodied as life giver
opening and giving at this time of my life
remembering my intention in birthing my son
forty years ago
that desire to bring forth life

Nané's pose

Aug 29, 2015, 12 minute pose

realization of my sense of burn-out still there - there has been happiness in opportunities and travel, but still tired of/in my work - endless-ness of gifting the self and energy can go beyond what can be given birth too - how to take care of all the babies, and the birth-giver herself? as I lie in the birthing MA pose, my arms above my head and my knees bent, with legs resting on the bed, the message is to absorb from the Earth - wrap oneself in soil and elements to nourish this level of exhaustion - it takes time, take time and relaxation, passion cannot overcome this, gentle care is needed - regenerate, give birth in gentle nourishment from the earth, can't "push" to much production, let the birth come, without pressure - re-birth self

June 27, 2015, 7 minute pose lying down - with open legs and arms above head, the two-headed goddess, as baby emerges from MA - Gestare retreat and practice day

let birth come, let juices flow

surrender to birth - ing, OPEN - ing

your self -- my - self

re - birth in this

moment be - coming over

& over - it's

be - coming to keep giving this

birth though I resist -- I breath to

find the flow -- flow - ing

with the force of great,

great flows of creation

coming forth -- the body

waits in this

stance of infinite

patience for what

is not

yet

known - not yet fully

born

but alive in the process of end - less

collective birth - ings

completely hers - she moves

me - I move her - I am this two-headed Goddess

her -self &

her

creation - who

be - comes an - other

self -- given to

her own birth - ings to

be - come

let birth come, let juices

flow

August 30, 2015 time unknown

I am in bed on my back in the position I gave birth in. The room is dark, my body sinks in the softness of the bed, and I am wrapped in the comfort of my blanket. I focus on my tail bone. I focus on spiritual healing. I lie here until I fall asleep.

Image:

The next day I look at a CT scan photograph of my tail bone. I decide to alter the image in Photoshop. After this birthing practice I see more than a damaged bone within the image. A loving flame covers the entirety of the root. A primal mother appears within the scene holding her two children above her head. The strength is within her, the strength is within the birth.

For all 3 poses of Megan's with images open PDF file

Primal Mother.pdf
Size : 6393.13 Kb
Type : pdf

Gestare Art Collective

MA Pose- 1

The birthing pose sitting

Barbara's pose

Ingred's pose

Medwyn's pose

Nané's pose

Cindy-Lou's pose

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