Names

I recently received a letter from AHPRA (Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency) telling me that I needed to stop using the term “Shamanic Midwife” to describe what I do, because under Australian Law, “midwife” is a protected title.

Each graduate of the School received a letter, each one with threats of prosecution should we not comply with their requests to cease and desist.

It has been a big process of letting go.

I received my letter in the middle of selling my Newcastle home, which in itself was a massive letting go process.  Letting go of a home, the ocean, our friends.  Letting go of the dream that we thought it would be and having to accept the reality that it was too much, too city, too stressful. This letter was now telling me I had to let go of something else i held dear.  

The name Shamanic Midwife brought with it a deep resonance.  We were midwifing women in the Shamanic realms, that is the unseen, the unknown, the inner worlds untravelled.  It was a way of pulling us together.  Shamanic midwives, facilitating transformations.  It bound us together as names can.  With the swipe of a bureaucratic pen, we were un-named.  

I have no doubt that the intention was to divide and conquer.  It is a strategy that has worked well for thousands of years. I have no doubt that its just a modern day witch hunt, searching out those on the fringes, the ones who dare, and stamping them out in order to keep the status quo.  But instead of torches and pitchforks they use regulations and fines to silence us.  Or so they try.

So we lovingly released Midwife.  She who is with woman.  She who facilitates transformation.  She who has been taken from us, from all of us, wether we use her name or not.  She has been taken from women and been “protected”.  From what exactly?  from women using her for their own support? their own power? 

We let her go, we drummed her name into the cosmos under a sunset sky.  Women around the globe, drumming to release the Midwife and allow for what came next.  For our work will never change.  We are still there, drumming, supporting, processing, loving, journeying with women, holding space for them to drum, process, love and journey for themselves.

The rebirth came.  The (r)evolution to the School of Shamanic Womancraft.  A Craftswoman, a woman who weaves her magick for herself, and all her relations.  A Witch, a Shemanka, a Wayshower, a Priestess. We can claim all of these names, and know that the work remains the same.  And remember that they can keep trying to silence us, but we will never be silenced.

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