MA Pose- 3 The 'dea gravida' pose
Standing pose with hands on pregnant belly pointing to womb and vulva.
Standing Lady from Ain Ghazal, Jordan (6400-5200 BC).
Barbara MA Pose - Oct 26, 7 minutes
I stand alone despite desiring a companion to stand beside me
I stand alone with hands framing my belly with a triangle
I stand firm but in still motion
I stand as an opening, a revealing, a shedding
Derive sustenance from the uterus
The exquisite uterus in its non-fertile stance
Note: The above art is my response to the
Tannis Hugill - MA Pose, Oct. 28, 2015
I see a huge full, white moon in my belly and feel my belly swell, filling with warmth and subtle vibration. A gentle pulsing begins. This vibration fills my whole body into my skull- great energy. I see jagged black branches across the moon's face. These yield green leaves and pink flowers. My whole body sprouts leaves and branches - they cover my body. My legs and feet are solid - rooted as I sway. My breath becomes astonishingly free - soft open free...I am quiet - deeply settled, weighted. Almost sleepy - cocooned in power.
Nane Pose - Oct 28, 2015 – full moon close to Samhain, 10 minutes
Hands over my uterus, cradling the “hearth,” my blood flows early. I am in a hostel in Paris, in the sitting area with couches. I have a small area to myself, with many other people around here this evening. There is a quiet hum of voices. I have been writing here for the past two days.
Though standing in public, the pose grounds me. No one pays me any attention as I stand with my hands on my lower belly, looking out the window into the large public garden areas below. I have been enjoying this vibrant, green view. I close my eyes and go within. I feel a shift, how this place is wired inside with wifi, people on their tablets and phones, and the lighting. I can feel the electrical charges of all the media devices around me. It’s a layer to navigate. My hands hold my womb, pointing the way earthwards, standing on and with the earth. Holding womb is inner-connecting, and quiets my mind, as I give of and to my-self. It’s a relief to go this way, to find another-source, a mother-source. I calm, and settle, peace-full.
Later, on another day at home again on the West coast at last, I stand in this pose. I sway and move my hips, releasing tension and the extra energies of my travels. I feel tingling in this release, more of my own energy returns. I didn’t know I was carrying so much. Hands cradle my womb, holding, gratitude for the gift within, the other women in this practice, and the ancestor-mothers who brought us here.
Medwyn Pose November 11, 2015 - new moon
dea gravida artist unknown
from my collection of goddess images
Finding a solitary space beside a beached log I direct my gaze to the brilliant aliveness of the day and the birds on Royston beach. Standing with my hands on my abdomen breathing deeply into the space where once my uterus held the fetus of my one child, I am immediately engaged by the evidence of the cycles of life and death all around me. In the distance life in loudly calling gulls, crows, eagles and shorebirds all employed in the endless search for sustenance that they may live to once again lay strong healthy eggs. Beneath my feet death in the dying weeds of the sea, the debris of autumn leaves swept down the Trent River to the shoreline, empty shells of crab, oyster, clam, and in unusually large numbers, lifeless discs of jellyfish stranded by the high tide.
These last few days have been dark and heavy in me. Why today did I come to this place, why today did I decide to hold the pose? Did the new moon call me here? It was forty years ago my womb waters broke and I delivered life. Here on this beach under the new moon holding my sacred body's warm belly another birthing is imminent as I feel myself embraced by the power of this watery womb of ocean before me. I walk away from my pose place my heart lighter. I remember the other women sharing the MA Pose practice, feel their presence with me and know again the deep resonance of these shared practices, and the loving field within which we are all held in the co-creative process of our artmaking.
ingred's pose 27 oct & 4 nov
wednesday a week ago i drilled holes into my entry hall to re-install the sconce light glass artwork created by sarah knoebber many years ago. It was on her wall at melton court when i first met her in 1997. it was on my wall in the house on william street and crashed onto the floor in the middle of one night. with the carpentry craft of doug french, sarah reconfigured the piece & when we finally got it up and lighted in my new apartment in the west end, i saw how its form resembles dea gravida. though perhaps dea lux.
over the three days of the full moon in october, i seemed unable to get down to doing the pose. finally on the third night i stood my ground with hands cupped on belly. immediately i felt the tug of connection and once my feet were rooted i had the feeling i could have stood there for hours.
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