MoonWise: Bonding Events for Mothers & Daughters

Mothers and Daughters (ages 10-14) - Beginning October 2016

Moonwise events focus on deepening the connection between girls ages 10-14 and their mothers. These seasonal celebrations nurture community connection as we engage in ceremony, song and story and get to know ourselves and one another through focused activities and artwork that bring meaning to our experience.

• Are you a parent or guardian of a young girl?
• Would you like to engage with her in ways that are thoughtful and more deeply connective?

This event is designed to provide space, opportunity and creativity to inspire, share and deepen your connection.

Moonwise will hold two fall events as follows:

Harvest Celebration: A Bountiful Harvest of Creativity, Intention and Friendship

Sunday, October 9  1:30 - 4:30 pm

The Harvest Celebration will be an afternoon devoted to nurturing the mother-daughter bond as we create our own dream pillows and engage in thoughtful sharing about our dreams. As well, we'll honor the season as we join with new friends to construct a community mandala from a harvest of seeds and natural items and celebrate the beauty and abundance of community. 

It promises to be a rich, colorful and dream-filled afternoon.

Ancestor Supper

Sunday, November 6  1:30 - 4:30 pm

An Afternoon of Connecting with our Ancestors and Feeding the Village Fire
EarthSong, Candler, NC

As the wheel of the year comes around to a time of shedding and turning inward, the veil thins and gives us a special opportunity to connect with our ancestors. This ceremony serves to to feed our ancestors in a good way through stories, sacred fire, water, cedar, tobacco, and ritually prepared ancestral foods. We ask that everyone bring a dish to feast one or more their ancestors. This is a dish to feed the ancestors, and so no one will taste it at all before the ritual.  When we come together, each person will have an opportunity to share a story/ies about their family or ancestral lands.  As we enjoy this feast, we will carry each other's ancestors on our backs that they may eat through us. Any food not eaten will be burned in the fire. 

Preparations: 
Much of the ceremony happens before we even gather. Ancestor Supper, or Gibigajik, is an opportunity to reach out to your living relatives and elders and ask them what they remember of their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, even great-grandparents. You gather the stories, as they relate to food, to who these people were, and how they walked in the world. What music did they listen to? What did they like to wear? What stories did they tell? What songs did they sing? What were their quirks?

After listening to the stories you will choose which ancestor/s you would like to feast by cooking their favorite food/s, and/or bringing one of their favorite songs/stories etc. 

The way Uncle Paul has handed the teachings is that we wait 2 yrs. after someone has passed over to feast them. 

All the food is ritual food, and all of the story gathering and cooking is a part of the ceremony. If you don't know how to cook something, you may ask that ancestor to come through and cook the food through you. 

This ceremony has taught me about ancestors I had never even heard of, and it has healed huge familial wounds just through inviting in the stories. May it be fruitful for you and your lineages, and we look forward to our community's ancestors meeting one another and weaving and the beauty and depth this will bring us. 

Please Bring:

• A dish for your ancestors. Please do not taste this food as you are making it, but let your ancestors guide your cooking! The first bite will be for them.
• Stories about your ancestors or where your family comes from. You will have an opportunity to share the stories behind your dish and then be welcomed to serve it.
• A serving utensil.
• A bowl, plate, spoon, mug, etc for yourself.
• Blankets, pillows, sleeping bags, and warm clothes: one of our fires will be outside, and we will have a second fire indoors.
• Poems, art, and songs from your family or ancestral lands to share with us.
• Photographs or other treasures to place on the ancestor altar.
• Musical instruments.
• Sacred herbs: tobacco, sage, sweet grass, cedar, mugwort, etc...
• Firewood to contribute to our sacred fire.

Investment for the Program (includes both gatherings)
The cost of these two events is $150 for each mother/daughter pair (an additional $75 for each added daughter). 

*** Registration closes at midnight on October 1st ***

Moonwise is facilitated by Anne Heck and Lena Ruark-Eastes of Earth Path Education.