SHAMANIC WOMANCRAFT
with Jane Hardwicke Collings
Episode 3, Women’s Rituals Series
Shamanic Womancraft with Jane Hardwicke Collings
As this 4-part series is all about connecting with the feminine earth energies, darkness and how we can re-examining and reclaiming our sacred relationship with it we’re now going to welcome yet another guest whose work has changed many women’s lives to not only accept the differences of being a woman but celebrating it and discovering its magic.
This episode we speak to Jane Hardwicke Collings, who has been fighting on the front line of women’s liberation in Australia for many decades.
What started as midwifery has evolved into liberation through feminine knowledge, blood mysteries, birth empowerment, rites of passage, and the sacred cycles of pregnancy, birth and menopause.
Jane founded and runs the School of Shamanic Womancraft, an international womens mysteries school. Furthermore, she’s also the author of 7 books, relating to her work of reclaiming the feminine power.
In her own words, she is working for the goddess.
About Jane
Jane Hardwicke Collings was a homebirth midwife for 30 years, which was basically the beginning of her as we know her now. What she does can be described as a women’s mysteries teacher and founder of the School of Shamanic Womancraft which is a continuation of the lineage of one of her teachers Jeannine Parvati Baker, who passed in 2005. Jeannine was an American midwife, herbalist and astrologer aka in Jane’s own words “an all around awesome boss witch”! Jane visited Jeannine at her death bed and promised that she would continue her work. In many ways that’s what the School of Shamanic Womancraft is all about.
As such, Jane and women who have attended her school, can call themselves Shamanic Craftswomen; and she also likes to see and call herself a witch. Basically, a wise woman who is connected to the cycles of the seasons, the earth and the moon. Jane has also written numerous books on the topic, she faciliates workshops, trainings and is a menstruation educator.
She teaches the shamanic dimensions, meaning the interconnectedness with regard to birth, menopause, the spiritual practice of menstruation and its associated rites of passage. She teaches women how to heal and reclaim these areas of their lives.
Fighting for women’s rights and mother earth:
Jane is also is active in fighting for women’s rights. There are quite a few campaigns that she engages in actively, for example an initiative called “Rename and Reclaim”, which is a process of letting women know that there are eight parts of reproductive organs that are named after the men who discovered them. This campaign is about renaming and reclaiming those body parts as an empowering process.
Another campaign is calling together the grandma’s and getting them to fight the good fight! Then there’s also a calling in of the goddess Athena to return the divine feminine by focusing on birth trauma, to give the system feedback but also to help midwives, doulas and especially mothers to give them support in birth trauma, which is very common yet only starting now to be a more talked about topic.
Jane works a lot on the ground in supporting those areas which really need attention, with the help of a network of other women fighting alongside her for the same causes.
This is one of the reasons why Jane calls herself an “agent for the goddess”. This was marked by a sacred ritual when she was 42 years old (21 years ago), where she consciously decided to dedicate her life’s work to this. What she means by goddess in this context, is Mother Earth.
“I choose to live the magical life and I love to understand what it is that I am doing from a mythical perspective. It’s empowering and encouraging.”
Where did ‘Reclaim and Rename” come from?
Picture a map of the world back in the times when the patriarchy was doing its initial colonisation on a mass scale, from Europe and England out into the rest of the world. As we know, they were claiming other peoples lands and naming them for themselves when they had no right to. So it goes back to colonisation really, of the bad treatment of other cultures, leading to eradication and murder in some cases of indigenous people.
As you picture this on the level of our planet earth, the exact same scenario applies to our female body’s. Men have claimed and named parts that weren’t theirs to claim and name. Jane first learned about this in her nursing training to becoming a midwife.
One where it really stands out for example is the Pouch of Douglas, which is located in a space at the back of our womb and the front of our bowl . As you surely can guess, it’s named after a guy named Douglas'; and frankly that’s just outrageous if you think about it for a moment! Jane progresses to say '“Douglas, get out of my pouch!” - which I seriously couldn’t agree on more…
The way Jane described this to me, in a way that it really made sense, is that every name is like a spell. So when we speak out the man’s name who claimed that body part, it’s a colonisation in our own bodies. It’s body sovereignty really that this fight is about; One of the ways that it’s been eroded.
The campaign behind this initiative is looking at changing that and consists of a jury of women who are collating and suggesting new names for these body parts. Highlighting this to women alone, regardless whether this campaign will succeed in permanently changing these anatomical names or not, highlights the patriarchal effects on us. That in itself is a hugely important piece of work and grand mission of waking us up and empowering us (women).
“Most women aren’t connected to their bodies, as we’ve been encouraged to see it as being unpredictable, inconvenient and shameful. The last thing you want to do in a patriarchal world is to inhabit your body!”
How can we tune into our natural cycle?
Working with your cycle is just waking up to what’s going on really, as opposed to anything new. It affects everything in the body and in one’s life, if you’re experiencing a natural cycle (which would exclude the pill or any other hormonal contraceptive).
The number one question we need to ask ourselves is why aren’t we connected to our menstrual cycle? Part of this process, in Jane’s opinion, is in understanding where this all came from and then proceeding in what to do about it.
It starts with the menstruation, which so many women report as being a very unpleasant, scary and shameful experience. Whatever girls entering womanhood will experience around their period teaches her as to how she should behave, to be accepted by society. Which for most women was or is an initiation into menstrual shame, happening sadly all around the world and in almost every culture.
According to Sharon Maloney, a PhD Women’s Health Practitioner in Australia, “menstrual shame is one of the main organising principles of the patriarchy to maintain the oppression of women.” What’s so devastating about it is that it teaches you how to behave as a woman, not just once but for the rest of your life.
To quote Alexandra Pope (author of Wild Power and founder of Red School) “the menstrual cycle is the barometer of your wellbeing”.
The menstrual cycle is a stress-sensitive system and to connect with that wisdom is to connect with our health. This very intelligent system can help us to adjust in order to be more in balance and harmony. A lot of education around the menstrual cycle talks about the inner seasons, because women are just like the earth. As she goes through the seasons, so do we (women).
By explaining and splitting the menstrual cycle into the four seasons of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter it is very easy to understand. Bleeding, for example, carries the same energy of winter, death and rebirth; the time when we would feel to be on our own and disconnected from any pressures of the world. This is when we are usually also very in tune with the earth and our intuition, which is where the saying comes from when you don’t know the answer to something “to bleed on it” and letting the answer arise from within you or your connection with the earth.
So, how we behave during our bleed determines the rest of the cycle. I found this to be such a wonderful advice from Jane as it felt like I was given the permission to be more introverted that time of the month. I get to rest and recharge for my energy levels. to be prepared for the other phases of the cycle; and to be fully present within those.
Reconnecting to our menstrual cycle is dismantling the internalised patriarchy and the stigma around it. What we need to do is banish menstrual shame together by co-creating a positive menstrual cycle culture and eradicating period poverty.
“The menstrual cycle is an exquisite feedback system.”
Where do we start/what can we do?
It can feel so overwhelming, and maybe in just reading this post you find yourself confronted with such a big piece of work! For this reason, Jane is sharing some incredibly useful tips with us on how we can get started:
If you’re a mother or in a mother role teach the girl in puberty about to menstruate about the cycle and how to work with it (rather than leaving it to the schools to deal with this).
Mother’s need to do inner work to heal their menarche first as to avoid generational trauma (around body / menstrual shame) to be passed down.
Avoiding secrecy around the topic will teach children from a young age to normalise menstruation.
Welcoming the menstruation as a positive experience; a rite of passage. Talking about it as a magic superpower will shift how we view it.
Banishing menstrual shame on an individual level as well as a collective level, to co-create a positive menstrual cycle culture.
If you don’t already, begin to chart your menstrual cycle. This can be done by keeping track in a diary to map out how you move through these internal seasons (what food your craving, how your energy levels are, etc.)
We need to live an earth honouring and sustainable lifestyle, one of the ways we can do this is by using re-useable menstrual products such as cups and undies.
Giving the blood to the earth is a very magical process of connection with the earth. A phenomena we can harness and will create a very special relationship with that land.
Resources
School of Shamanic Womencraft:
Website
Instagram
Ecourses:
Snake Medicine
Autumn Woman Harvest Queen
Earth Woman - is coming soon
Jane is the author of seven books including the manifesto Herstory and her newest book Bloodrites available now.
To catch-up with the full interview with Jane and curated tracklist themed around fertility and abundance, click here
[00:00:00] Songs for Shamanic Womancraft
[00:07:10] Tam introduces episode 3
[00:08:40] Tam reads '“Goddess” poem by Tracee Stanley from her book Radiant Rest
[00:15:10] Tam speaks to Jane Hardwicke Collings
[01:41:25] Songs for Shamanic Womancraft
[01:52:17] Introduction to the Gayatri Mantra by Tam
[01:54:13] Gayatri Mantra as chanted by Deva Premal
[02:03:40] Episode wrap-up
[02:03:40] Songs for Shamanic Womancraft
Follow Jane:
For more information on Jane’s work, her books, workshops, trainings and programmes head to her website. You can also follow Jane on Instagram.
Track list:
Bloom by Deya Dova
Naturaleza by Mose & Danit
Sacredness - The Blood Song by Shylah Ray Sunshine
The Water Blessing Song by Mose & Nalini Blossom
In The Real World by Alex Serra
I’ve Found You Again by Stylus & Dionne Bennett
Roots to Petals by Astrid Engberg
Tzen Tze Re Rei - Si Remix by Loli Cosmica & SI
Arcoiris by Poranguî
Last Chance by Thornato & The Spy From Cairo
Batismo by Populous & RIVA
Earth Breath by BLOOM
