Artemis, Goddess of Fertility & Childbirth

So another interesting sign/symbol. I had someone on my show yesterday who communicates with angels, and while I did not get any deep messages directly through her, she did mention that angels communicate through number sequences. When I got into my car, the time was 2:22 and I kinda laughed and rolled my eyes like, “ok angels, I hear you!”  Later in the day, I unexpectedly stopped into Spiral Circle Bookstore (sometimes when I am in need of good karma I go in there and buy something) and upon checkout Beverely exclaimed the angels had a message for me since I had 22 in my total. Hmmm. So I pull an angel card which basically said Artemis was watching over me and my family and not to worry. I just looked up Artemis and lo and behold…

The daughter of Leto and Zeus, and the twin of Apollo. Artemis is the goddess of the wilderness, the hunt and wild animals, and fertility (she became a goddess of fertility and childbirth mainly in cities). She was often depicted with the crescent of the moon above her forehead and was sometimes identified with Selene (goddess of the moon). Artemis was one of the Olympians and a virgin goddess. Her main vocation was to roam mountain forests and uncultivated land with her nymphs in attendance hunting for lions, panthers, hinds and stags. Contradictory to the later, she helped in protecting and seeing to their well-being, also their safety and reproduction. She was armed with a bow and arrows which were made by Hephaestus and the Cyclopes.

In one legend, Artemis was born one day before her brother Apollo. Her mother gave birth to her on the island of Ortygia, then, almost immediately after her birth, she helped her mother to cross the straits over to Delos, where she then delivered Apollo. This was the beginning of her role as guardian of young children and patron of women in childbirth. Being a goddess of contradictions, she was the protectress of women in labor, but it was said that the arrows of Artemis brought them sudden death while giving birth. As was her brother, Apollo, Artemis was a divinity of healing, but also brought and spread diseases such as leprosy, rabies and even gout.

via Artemis.

A concidence? An angelic message direct from the heavens? A bit of tom-foolery? Oh yes, the world is a funny funny place!

On Birth Control

I just read an article about the NuvaRing in Mother Jones and was disturbed, but not shocked at the fact that such untested technology is causing harm (even death) to the ladies out there. A lot of information about contraceptives makes them look harmless & when recommended by your trusted OB/GYN, most women don’t question the effects these contraceptives will have on them.

Not to get too personal here, but I gave up the Pill, hmmm, like 7 or 8 years ago now after years of having different pills wreak havoc with my hormones. Each pill I tried had some unfortunate side affect like losing interest in sex altogether or turning me into an emotional basketcase 24-7. It wasn’t until I stopped using the pill accidentally for a spell (I ran out and couldn’t afford to go to the doctor for new ones) that I realized it wasn’t me, it was the side effects of the pill. My boyfriend at the time strongly agreed pill-free-me was much preferred, as his quality of life and mine improved dramatically.

Since then, I’ve learned enough about chemical companies (ie: prescription drug manufacturers) to be leary of taking anything they are dishing out, as their main motive seems to be profit, not wellness. I avoid synthetic clothing, so I certainly want to avoid synthetic “medicine” – especially when I’ve learned to trust my body to make it’s own medicine and discovered the healing powers of herbs and food.

By coming into rythym through proper nutrition and a healthier lifestyle, my out-of-whack cycles regulated themselves and I learned to look for signs of fertility the natural way and used an old fashioned diaphragm (and pull out method) & non-spermicidal condoms (anything that ends in -cide does not belong near my or my partners root chakra) for years with quiet a bit of success. Of course, given my pregger state, I’m not exactly a poster child for birth control (above methods only work if used, after all) but using better judgment in general probably would not have put me in the single mother category either. Right.

While every choice we make is a personal one, I find that all too often women don’t have an opportunity to make an informed choice, since our society is so pill happy. I’d like to see women take more personal responsibility for their bodies instead of outsourcing it to a mystery pill or device like the deadly NuvaRing. We unknowingly give up our personalities and open ourselves to risk when we take what the doctor gives us without fulling understanding the affects, the most important, in my view, being out of touch with ourselves. If we are so disconnected from our own cycle, how are we suppose to know how to connect to other people, nature and the divine?

For more info on fertility, check out Garden of Fertility