Blessingway ceremonies ~ what is a blessing way
A blessingway is all about nurturing and connecting heart to heart with the mother to be. Filling her cup so it overflows with love and confidence as she awaits the impending birth of her baby.
A woman who is nourished, nurtured and given lots of love has more love to give in return, to her baby, her loved ones, and the world as a whole. There’s nothing like a circle of loving women to get that delicious hormone, oxytocin, (the hormone of labor, but also love and bonding) flowing!
Blessingway ceremonies are a beautiful and unique way to honour a mother-to-be, spending time with her, sharing stories, debriefing fears and to instil confidence and strength.
Historically, a Blessingway was traditionally a Navajo (Native American) Ritual created to spiritually support and empower the new mother for her journey of birthing and motherhood.
Let me share more with you about a blessingway.
How is a blessingway different from a baby shower?
A baby shower is usually focused on the baby with fun games, presents for the babies, cakes and drinks.
In contrast a blessingway focuses honouring on the mother and holding space for her. It is about connecting her with her village, the women around her that will support her and encourage her on this special journey that is matrescence that will unfold.
What to expect from one of the blessingway I facilitate?
I love to open the circle like I do in all my ceremonies with the name of the grandma, mum of the expectant woman, honouring her red thread. We either light a candle or smell essential oils to get everyone to breathe it in and rub it on their hands. The smell is divine.
Usually I ask for all the women in the circle to bless the mama to be with a chant and their hands in blessing position. I usually use my harmonium and the mama is at the centre of the circle.
Then I start with a guided meditation. I love to guide a visualisation to meet the mama with her baby in their first sight, use my drum for a drumming journey and other practices.
Some classical things I facilitate during the Blessingway:
Cord Ceremony: connecting together by binding everyone’s wrisis together with a piece of wool or yarn. Everyone who is involved will keep this string around their wrist until they are told the birth is happening. After this they will cut the cord, which will symbolise unity. This is also a time where women can share what they have written for the Queen Mama.
Bead Ceremony: the bead ceremony is a nice way for everyone to be involved in supporting the mumma to be. The beads can be made into a necklace or bracelet for the mother to wear while in labour. So she can feel connected to everyone.
The feedback from the women who attended one of my blessingway
From the blessed mama to be:
“It was beautiful and filled with emotions. I felt fabulous afterwards. I went from stressed with work and not very attentive to my pregnancy, to calm and mindful about my last weeks of pregnancy. If you're thinking about having one, do it. This is a unique experience you will remember, and it will fill your heart with beautiful emotions.” from Maud Nocodie @snowmaud on IG
“For the blessingway, I felt so supported. Incredibly held and loved. The blessingway helped with my confidence surrounding my upcoming birth. I resonate with Laetitia’s energy on a deep level. Her energy and the way Laetitia’s holds space. It’s truly incredible. She’s a very special person with unique gifts. Her intuition and guidance mean so much to me.“ from Lee-Anne
“The connection between all of us was incredible. It was a pure moment of authenticity, vulnerability and women empowerment.” prefer to remain anonymous.
From participants:
“It was a great way to open my heart and to express all the love and appreciation to this beautiful woman, mama to be. It was also a great way for her to open up, be vulnerable in a safe space and to share with us what support she needs.” from Amelie
“It was very authentic, beautiful, deep and emotional at times but also fun. It was powerful to share more about my friendship and love for the mum we were doing the blessingway for - saying all those things I would never say otherwise, creating the right context, atmosphere, safe place for those things to naturally happen and be said.” from Flore
“Such a wonderful energy. I was so energised and inspired after” from Margaret
My experience with my own blessingway
When I was pregnant with Lou (over 3 years ago) I really wanted a different ceremony from the baby shower I had for Zoe (over 5 years ago). I was way more embracing my spiritual side and ready to embark my friends on the journey. Before I was joining spiritual retreats, circle and training and sharing my journey with my closest friend in Australia and former co-founder of my previous company, Neoma (more about it in our mastrescence article), Emmanuelle.
But for Lou I was ready to step fully into it. So I asked Emmanuelle to find someone to facilitate my blessingway and it was the most beautiful ceremony. It was with a small intimate, Inner Circle of friends, I was not yet ready to share this part of myself with everyone (such a journey since then).
To this day I still have the poem that each of my friends wrote for me to share their blessings, their handmade presents and I cherish all of these memories deeply into my heart.
This truly was one of the most magical days of my life, and I will treasure the memory of it forever.
As a ceremonialist, I love to hold sacred space for new moon, full moon, cacao ceremonies and wheel of the year ceremonies and I decided last year to step into facilitating the blessingway for others. I’m one of those people who need time to brew what I experienced and learnt before guiding others and sharing my gifts.
Without having a page for it on my website, this month of May, I already had 2 bookings. The universe is always having my back and bringing me aligned clients.
Final thoughts
Have you had or experienced a blessingway?
If so, what was your favourite part? I would love to know! Tell me below in the comments or head over to IG and share with me.
I would love it if you also want to share it with your soul sisters. The ones who you think would like to create with sacred experience as well!
And DM me on IG @essential.shift if you’d like to organise one for yourself or a friend.
