Praise for Sacred Motherhood
Anni Daulter and Niki Dewart offer moms a collection of blessings. These pages are a weaving of word medicine, inspirati... on, and celebration. Mothers, buckle your seat belts. Read, sing, scribble, sketch, dance, dare to begin this journey. It goes one way, toward your own inner knowing.
Robin Lim, midwife, founder of Yayasan Bumi Sehat (Healthy Mother Earth Foundation), and CNN 2011 Hero of the Year
What a gorgeous, life-changing invitation this book is for anyone on the journey of growing into and through motherhood. It also uniquely embodies deep feminine wisdomwhich we all shareand invites us to drink deeply at that source. A true gift!
Rahima Baldwin Dancy, midwife and author of You Are Your Childs First Teacher
Sacred Motherhood is a heroines journey, illuminating the wisdom of the divine feminine. Beginning with The Call, women are invited to follow a sensory-rich rhythm through the seasons, accompanied by essential alliesTrust, Intuition, Sisterhood, and moreand offered gentle opportunities for healing along the way. Anni and Niki have created an exquisite guide and gift, adorned with sacred body beauty, grounded in messy truth, and languaged with love. This book is a boon and a celebration.
Janet Lucy, author of Moon Mother, Moon Daughter
Of course we are grateful for our children, but so often we are overrun with the chaos of the day-to-day that we dont have the bandwidth to pause and reflect on this beautiful journey. Sacred Motherhood not only reminds us, but also gives us tools to elevate our thinking and bring us into a nurturing space for both our children and ourselves. This book has a permanent place on my bedside table!
Kim Graham-Nye, mother and cofounder of gDiapers
OTHER BOOKS BY ANNI DAULTER
Sacred Pregnancy
Organically Raised
Ice Pop Joy
The Organic Family Cookbook
Naturally Fun Parties for Kids
Bountiful Baby Purees
Coming Soon: Sacred Medicine Cupboard and Sacred Relationship
OTHER BOOKS BY NIKI DEWART
The Mothers Wisdom Deck
Sacred Motherhood
Sacred Motherhood
An Inspirational Guide and Journal for Mindfully Mothering Children of All Ages
ANNI DAULTER AND NIKI DEWART
North Atlantic Books
Berkeley, California
Copyright 2016 by Anni Daulter and Niki Dewart. All rights reserved. No portion of this book, except for brief review, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the written permission of the publisher. For information contact North Atlantic Books.
Published by
North Atlantic Books
Berkeley, California
Cover photo by Jade Beall
Cover by Claudia Smelser
Sacred Motherhood: An Inspirational Guide and Journal for Mindfully Mothering Children of All Ages is sponsored and published by the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences (dba North Atlantic Books), an educational nonprofit based in Berkeley, California, that collaborates with partners to develop cross-cultural perspectives, nurture holistic views of art, science, the humanities, and healing, and seed personal and global transformation by publishing work on the relationship of body, spirit, and nature.
North Atlantic Books publications are available through most bookstores. For further information, visit our website at www.northatlanticbooks.com or call 800-733-3000.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Names: Daulter, Anni, author. | Dewart, Niki, 1973- author.
Title: Sacred motherhood : an inspirational guide and journal for mindfully mothering children of all ages / Anni Daulter & Niki Dewart.
Description: Berkeley, California : North Atlantic Books, [2015]
Identifiers: LCCN 2015051031 | ISBN 9781623170042 (paperback) | ISBN 9781623170059 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: MotherhoodReligious aspects. | Mothers. | Spiritual life. | Mother goddesses. | BISAC: FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS / Parenting / Motherhood. | SELF-HELP / Personal Growth / Happiness. | BODY, MIND & SPIRIT / Healing / General.
Classification: LCC BL625.68 .D38 2015 | DDC 204/.41dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015051031
To all women everywhere who long for beauty, passion, inspiration, and sisterhood amidst the miracles and madness of the mothering years.
To our childrenAfton, Bodhi, Haven, Lotus, River, Story, and Zowho have called us to the sacred path of motherhood.
To my husband, Tim, for lovingly supporting me through my journey as a mother, our journey as parents, and our journey as beloved partners.
ANNI
To my soulmate, Steve, who has held a deep heart-space for me to birth this book and our sacred family.
NIKI
C ONTENTS
Faced with another pile of laundry or muddy tracks across the living room rug, it is easy to lose track of your deeper purpose. Sacred Motherhood was written for mothers who seek to fulfill their souls calling while simultaneously raising future generationsit offers women on the path of motherhood a guide back to themselves. In the throes of your everyday life, this book speaks to the eternal, sacred seed within you. It serves as a bridge between the profound soul-work that mothering entails and the tedious practicalities that incessantly tug at every mothers sleeve.
Before you became a mother, how did you describe your spiritual practice? Perhaps it was neatly defined as the time spent on your meditation cushion, moving through asanas, or communing with nature. Did you mourn the loss of this sacred time-out-of-time when mothering amped up to demand your full attention? Or perhaps you can still find ways to sneak off for a few moments of divine rapture before being called back to motherhoodthe path of ultimate devotion.
Spiritual growth while on the ground and running is a telltale mark of motherhood. This book was written to help you embrace the reality that this is your spiritual lifeevery moment of every day, whether you are at the grocery store, changing diapers, arguing with your partner, snuggling with your baby, or dyeing your teenagers hair pink. This is the practicethe Sacred Motherhood practice. Bow to it. Pray for it. Greet the moments when you fall down as awakening opportunities, every bit as holy and powerful as the moments you can drop in and bliss out.
Spanning both the sacred and the mundane, Sacred Motherhood is written as a guide and journal, enticing you to pause momentarily to reflect and write, and then return to your mothering tasks armed with a heightened perspective, renewed vision, and creative ideas for enriching family life. For the e-book version, you are encouraged to follow along in your journal. For fifty-two weeksa year of sacred motherhoodyou are presented with thoughtful prompts and helpful reminders about the topic of the week as it relates to you, your soul, and your child.
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