Tami Lynn Kent - Wild Feminine: Finding Power, Spirit & Joy in the Female Body

PRAISE FOR

Wild Feminine

Never before have I seen an author put into words concepts that encompass the deepest spiritual meaning and eternal symbolism of what it means to be a woman. Kents book is a must-read for any student or teacher of the mysteries of the female body and the energies that define us.

Rosita Arvigo, DN, traditional healer and founder
of the Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Massage,
author of Sastun, Spiritual Bathing, and Rainforest Remedies

By suggesting a return to the root, Tami Lynn Kent offers direction for a path largely forgotten. Within the pages of Wild Feminine lies great hope for women, natural birth, and all things precious to the female body.

Ina May Gaskin, midwife and author of
Spiritual Midwifery and Ina Mays Guide to Childbirth

As a former midwife and the current organizer of international conferences for women, I am thrilled to recommend this unique book by Tami Lynn Kent. There is not a woman in the world who would not benefit from reading it. Whether you are seeking healing from emotional or sexual wounding or you just want to learn how to more fully enjoy and inhabit the most feminine aspect of yourself, this book will be a friend for life.

Elizabeth Lesser, cofounder of Omega Institute,
author of The Seekers Guide and Broken Open

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Copyright 2011 by Tami Lynn Kent

Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to quote the following: Excerpt from Bone: Dying into Life by Marion Woodman, copyright 2000 by Marion Woodman. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Excerpt from Appetites: Why Women Want by Caroline Knapp. Copyright 2004 by Caroline Knapp. Reprinted by permission of Counterpoint.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever without the prior written permission of Atria Paperback/Beyond Words Publishing, Inc., except where permitted by law.

The information contained in this book is intended to be educational and not for diagnosis, prescription, or treatment of any health disorder whatsoever. This information should not replace consultation with a competent healthcare professional. The content of this book is intended to be used as an adjunct to a rational and responsible healthcare program prescribed by a professional healthcare practitioner. The author and publisher are in no way liable for any misuse of the material.

Managing editor: Lindsay S. Brown
Editor: Jenefer Angell
Copyeditor: Ali McCart
Proofreader: Gretchen Stelter
Design: Devon Smith
Composition: William H. Brunson Typography Services
Cover Art 2008 Susan Gross, www.susangross.com
Author Photo: Shayne Berry, www.shayneberry.com

First Atria Paperback/Beyond Words trade paperback edition February 2011

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kent, Tami Lynn.

Wild feminine : finding power, spirit & joy in the female body / Tami Lynn Kent.

p. cm.

1. Mind and body. 2. Femininity. I. Title.

BF161.K47 2011

155.333dc22

2010035265

ISBN: 978-1-58270-284-1
ISBN: 978-1-4516-1021-5 (ebook)

The corporate mission of Beyond Words Publishing, Inc.: Inspire to Integrity

Dear Reader,

I invite you to journey deep into the heart of your female body, to your root place, and to the root of all womanhood. Discover this landscape of the wild feminine. Find the connection between creative energy flow and the core of your body to reclaim the radiance that is rightfully yours.

The stories in this book reflect my work with women to offer guidance and awareness for the potential within our pelvic bowl and our feminine energy. Each story is a composite created to honor the true essence of healing Ive witnessed while also protecting the privacy of those women who have graced my work. You do not need a practitioner to make profound shifts in your body and life; it is my intention that this book, distilled from the collective wisdom of the female body, will assist you.

This book is not meant to take the place of medical advice or your own intuition.

May you and your body be blessed.

The Great Work that is beginning is the realization of the feminine as the bridge between God and humankind.

Marion Woodman
Bone: Dying into Life

The female body may represent one of feminisms least-touched frontiers, perhaps one of its final frontiers.

Caroline Knapp
Appetites: Why Women Want

L ife in the twenty-first century presents new and unprecedented challenges for women. Major social changes, including those won by feminism, have given modern women an entre into public life that would have been unthinkable for our female precursors, remembering that American women only received the right to vote in 1920. This inclusion as card-carrying citizens in a masculine world, although a welcome and just development, has created specific issues that our foremothers, whose world was overwhelmingly feminine, did not have to face.

For example, how do we, working in an office, factory, or other institution, accommodate the changes in our bodies and minds that accompany our monthly cycles? How can we ensure that our working conditions will not harm the babies we gestate? Is it possible to work apart from our infants and maintain our breastfeeding relationship? Do we continue paid employment while our children are young, and if so, how can we make the best provision for our children and their real needs for our loving care? How do we keep our public face as we make the transition through menopause, a passage that so often demands that we withdraw to complete our inner work?

These examples highlight the conflicts many women face as we balance our presence in the masculine world with our feminine needs and concerns. One responseperhaps the most rewarded in our cultureis to deny our female bodies: to adopt a pseudo-masculine approach that minimizes our bodies innate feminine functions. Society sanctions this attitude and provides the means for menstrual concealment and suppression, birth interventions that override the bodys natural process, separation of mothers and babies, formula feeding, and the treatment of menopause with hormonal substances, among others.