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Innerprizes AUTUMN NEWSLETTER 2003 © By Jeannine Parvati Baker Joseph, Utah ~ October 11, 2003 First me share that my Gemini son Quinn was recently asked by an editor to write a column on the theme of "Change". He is well qualified by nature but especially now, even more so, with last summer's turn of events. His dream has been to write professionally and so this is his first job as columnist. In the archived Newsletters you can sample his past contributions. If all teenagers could do what they love - and get wages, too! You will be noticing some gradual changes on our web site. New posts are appearing throughout the pages. Please note the Earth Birth Support Network (ESBN) page and read this prequel: Ambivalence when newly pregnant is natural, common, and soul-making. What I am instead dialoguing with the mothers here below is the persistent desire and deliberate action to terminate a pregnancy. Interested? You can read more correspondence on this topic on the Support Network page. New Offerings appear on the Optimal Family Health CATALOG pages frequently. The latest is James Kimmel's wonderful book, WHATEVER HAPPENED TO MOTHER? I was reunited with this treasure of a book through Kimmel's grandbaby. The mother, Yemaya, called me to get a copy of CONSCIOUS CONCEPTION a few of years ago. She bought the last copy as it was going out of print at the time. In New Hampshire at the end of summer, Yemaya and her partner approached me with a big belly of bliss. They were delighted that they had conceived after they both read CONSCIOUS CONCEPTION. As we got to know one another, it was discovered that the author was the pregnant father's father - in other words, grandfather of the baby yet to arrive Earthside. Yesterday I was called again by the very pregnant daughter-in-love of James Kimmel. She wanted to not only thank me for the review that brought tears to her lover's eyes and that you will read on the Catalog page of our web site, but to also order my last copy of Robin Lim's great book AFTER THE BABY'S BIRTH. (I have re-ordered more.) Though she has remarkable timing, Yemaya knows that if she phones me first, it's more likely that the order is filled the same day (via Pay Pal on the web site). Indeed this is an excellent time to have a Phone Consultation as I am home until late November when my youngest daughter and I embark on the Northern California Tour. I have already been getting Holiday Catalogs in the mail that remind me to invite you to book ASTROLOGICAL Services sooner than later, too. In the meantime, now that FALL has had its way with the lingering light and the sweltering shed of summer, it is getting cold enough to wear a sweater and shoes outdoors. We've had our share of spectacular thunderstorms and so this high desert sips and floods at the possibilities. Most days I am indoors enraptured with Astrology Readings, Phone Consultations, and HYGIEIA COLLEGE -- now in it's 23rd year - the Mystery School has come of age. Imagine - a courageous, young (in heart - of any age) woman enrolls in Hygieia's Mystery School -- when she is done, she changes the world. Beyond imagining, there are two examples of Hygieia Graduates that come to mind of this very thing - Aviva Jill Romm, author, herbalist, and midwife -- and Leenie Hobbie, author, herbalist, and astrologer. I am so proud of these gentle, yet potent change agents for evolution. Both of them are mothers with 8 children between them - 4 each. When they began Hygieia College many years ago, each showed a promising talent -- a promise that they have kept. I was honored to be their midwife as they journeyed to the Sources of Feminist Alchemy. The Earth also, I am sure, thanks them for making this world a better place through their teachings and families. HYGIEIA COLLEGE is one of the sweetest fruits of my labor. I am especially full of gratitude for all of the brilliant students the Home Study Course has brought into my life and the many wise, loyal, and dear friends who now work in a myriad of ways to Heal the Earth by Healing Birth. Women from all walks of life, color, beliefs, and multiparity: Doing what they must do in their own communities and internationally. There is a multitude of hands rocking the birth machine with Hygieia's soothing touch. Healing One Mother is Healing the Earth. (Or Two Mothers - Why Not More?) As of the Autumn Equinox, the TUITION for HYGIEIA COLLEGE has changed for The INNERVIEW, Lesson 1. It is now $350. The other Tuition Fee Schedules Pay-As-You-Go Tuition is US$299 each Lesson. Please note the SPECIAL OFFER to CANADIAN CORRESPONDENTS on the HYGIEIA COLLEGE Home Study page.  The TOUR to Northern California is changing, too. Please check our EVENT/TOUR page for invitations to various events in Marin, Sonoma, and Napa Counties as they are confirmed. The original motivation for Early December's TOUR is the Bi-Annual Congress of APPPAH (Association of Pre and Perinatal Psychology and Health) in San Francisco. From that original intention, it has grown to a few more events while I am in the area visiting my daughters, granddaughter and many friends -- I used to teach Prenatal Yoga and midwife in Sonoma County and now those babies are having babies. New EVENTS are in the stages of planning for 2004 - Austin, Texas in March, Illinois in April, California in June, Boulder, Colorado in July, late August in the U.K., Italy in early September, etc. Stay tuned to the EVENT/TOUR page for new listings as they appear throughout the season. The end of summer 2003 was completed with one more tour to the Northeast - to Peterborough, New Hampshire for the (Bi) Annual Women's Herbal Conference that Rosemary Gladstar conducts magnificently every year at Half Moon Lake. This is our reunion with best friends and students from all over the world and the opportunity to make new friends. Each day I had a workshop (Witches, Midwives & Herbalists, The Lap of the Goddess, and Hygieia: A Woman's Post-Modern Herbal) as well as shared with the 550+ women attending the event the news about Nan Koehler's sentence for practicing medicine without a license in Northern California.  A highpoint was being on Half Moon Lake with my youngest daughter, who has grown up with the wise women who attend these gatherings - from even before she was born she has been attending the Women's Herbal Conference (before conception and as a prenate). She has come with me every time as a babe in arms, through toddler hood, and beyond. If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a multitude of women's gatherings to raise a teenage girl. Amongst the many benefits of being with an instant town of women who love plants, is how my daughter widens her view - her mother isn't the only women who lets her hair turn white, or who moon bathes, or tells the flowers how gorgeous they are. However one needn't go to a huge conference to have the help of other women - in my neighborhood I have a friend Sara, who has a 16 year-old daughter.
She and I take turns sharing what we want our own daughters to hear by saying it for one another in their presence. Seems there is a delicate filter that lets in messages from others a bit easier than from the main primal players in ones life - mom, dad, wife, husband, sister, brother, etc. Navigation in these post modern times for teenagers can be rough, to say the least, as a lifetime of the real needs of babies and children being neglected now proves inadequate to handle the cascade of change. Paddling the canoe through the rapids of adolescence can be a serene lake ride at sunrise, with the help of our local and global friends. Believe me, after raising almost 6 teenagers, being able to go with the flow is preferable to acting out the repressed pain of humanity's history.
All of the events Rosemary creates are transformative. I received phone calls after from women who were grateful for their lives were enriched beyond expectation. Something I had said made all the difference in their world but moreover, the calls of gratitude were also for showing them how to be harmonious with a teenage girl. I thank all of my sisters who made this gathering extra wonderful for us -- Special thanks to Gita, Donna, Deb, Katie, Kendra, Susun, Nicki, Imani, Jennifer, Robin, and especially Rosemary -- who makes our reunions possible. Then to sit apart from that leaping, I've lived too long where I can be reached." RUMI Over the many years that I have been touring on the road, my family and I set up booths so that we can share in the published format the gist of our teachings. I have realized that it is all a front. The marketplace is the stage setting upon which the drama of education can unfold. Most of my attention is focused on responding to the folks who look at our wares and ask questions. Everything on our table is a way to introduce the ideas of the Possible Family. Better said, it is a way to connect heart to heart with my global family. At the booth I talked with Yemaya and Jim Kimmel's son about their upcoming birth. Now they are open to Lotus Birth, too. (See our CATALOG pages to read about this evolutionary postpartum ritual.) As artists/musicians, they may find another dimension to their future collaborations and their CD's be the vehicle to share the good news of conscious conception and homebirth. They generously gifted us with their CD "ASHANAN" and wooden family dolls made by the author James Kimmel himself before he died. Turned out that when he retired, Jim went to family festivals setting up booths with books and with his wooden dolls. He would meet people and share the living presence of his thesis, WHATEVER HAPPENED TO MOTHER? Jim also knew the irrepressible joy for all through heart to heart meetings with people who deeply care about family. I signed a fair share of books and with my daughter's help, kept up with the flow of customers. Often a woman would come back several times to my booth and finally ask her question. I am honored to be privy to these deep inquiries and am grateful to Hygieia for instructing me in Word Medicine. Being in the Northeast in the late summer is a glorious experience and this year once again, was spectacularly beautiful - the lake, the flora and fauna, and the beauties with portable roots, that women are.
Throughout most of October and November, I will be home and keen to respond to your queries, create astrological holiday gifts, phone consultations, and otherwise engage in Hygieia’s good work. Looking forward to journeying with you through the season’s change – May we all have the peace of a gliding canoe at sunrise on Half Moon Lake.
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