Circles of Blessing
The
Budding Ceremony process is primarily intended for girls Year 7
& 8 girls (11-13 years) who have commenced bleeding. If your
daughter does not fit this criteria, you are welcome to discuss
your special circumstances with Ishara and Miriam.
* Each girl needs to be accompanied by her mother or another Very Important Woman! This is because the ceremony is not only a rite of passage for girls, but also for the women who care for them...
You and your daughter will be part of a small group of 5 - 10 mother
and daughter pairs.
You will spend the day in a beautiful bushland setting at Noonyarra
on Falls Rd, Hovea.
(Download a venue information sheet).
The facilitated program begins promptly at 10am, and arrivals are welcome from 9:40am.
You and your daughter are asked to bring some food to share for a light celebratory lunch.
After an opening cirle and some introductory activities to give everyone a chance to settle in and get to know each other, we will be dividing into two groups - girls and mothers.
The Young Women's Circle will be facilitated by Miriam Brooker. Miriam
is passionate about young people. She her interest in developmental
psychology led her to train as a school psychologist, while her more
recent Research Masters in Social Psychology focused on factors affecting
the development of positive adult-youth relationships in a small community
context. She is also a priestess and co-facilitator of the Daughters
of Ishtar women's mystery circle.
Miriam will be creating a safe, nurturing environment in which the
girls will be encouraged to explore what it means to them to be 'becoming
a woman'. Topics for discussion may include: menstruation, changing
body image, personal boundaries, adolescent feelings, and the importance
of self-care, as well as grounding and centering exercises. The girls
will have the opportunity to participate in journalling and a fun
craft activity, before making themselves beautiful for their budding
ceremony in the afternoon.
The Mothers' Circle will be facilitated by Ishara de Garis.
Ishara is a registered marriage celebrant and a self-dedicated priestess.
She is deeply committed to the work of creating sacred and transformational
spaces for women, especially around the women's mysteries of conception,
pregnancy, birth and motherhood. This work is a direct outcome of
her own early fascination with the question of 'what it means to become
a woman' and a constantly evolving relationship with the Divine Feminine
as the Great Goddess.
In the Mother's Circle, Ishara will be inviting mothers to reflect
upon and share some of their own experiences of the passage to womanhood,
and what 'being a woman' means to them. You will also be given the
opportunity to complete a small craft project as we talk.
How are you feeling about the challenge of mothering a teenage girl?
Do you sometimes catch yourself responding to your daughter in ways that are very similar to your own mother's response to your budding femininity - for good or ill?
What do 'becoming a woman' and 'being a woman' mean to you?
What messages would you like your daughter to receive about the process of becoming a woman?
As part of this process you will have the opportunity to:
We will all come together again for the final part of the day to enact a 'budding ceremony' for the girls. As a mother role in the ceremony will be an important one. Obviously we don't want to spoil the surprise for the girls, so we aren't publishing the details here. You are most welcome to call and ask us though, if you have any questions. On registration you will receive a password to access the Secret Instructions for Mothers!
