Dear Artemis,

My beautiful girl. I wanted to record my experience of your Welcoming Ceremony so that you can read about it when you are grown.

 

 We decided to hold your special day on the day you turned 9 months old; the 19th of June 2012; two days before the summer solstice.It felt significant that you had spent 9 months in utero and 9 months in the "womb of spirit", protected lovingly in our arms, worn on our bodies, cradled in my bed.

A wonderful woman called Jenny Mackewn (whoose name I hope you know well by the time you read this) gifted us her glorious garden and tumbled of the train from London, where she had been working all day, to lead the ceremony. You had fallen asleep on my back as we shared food with our friends and the children ran about and climbed trees and I was worried you might miss your ceremony, but you woke up in perfect time and relished all the attention being on you. 

We called in the directions.We burnt frankincense. We assingned "Alloparents" to support the intense work of attachment parenting and be there for you throughout your life in whichever ways they feel to. Your brother read his story about a baby who grows up and learns to roll, sit, stand, walk and dance in her big brother's arms.

The words we used to bless you were:

We gather today to bless a child,
As she emerges from her 'womb of spirit' to be welcomed into her community.
We gather today to name this child.
To call a thing by name is to give it power,
And so today we shall receive this child.
We will welcome her into our hearts and lives
and bless her with a name of her own.
(anoint Arte)
You are known to the gods and to us as Artemis Bee Norriss.
Sister to Zephyr,

Daughter to Roma and Jamie,

Granddaughter t o Tania, Michael, Christine and Tony,

Great Granddaughter to Molly, Elmore, Margaret, Ivan, Joan, George, Pru and George.

This is your name, and it is powerful.
We trust you will bear your name with honour, and may the Divine bless you on this and every day.
Everyone is so glad you are here. You belong with us. 

We then knelt side by side and arched to form a birth tunnel. Your daddy brought you through it and I welcomed you, whilst our friend Robin, played a heart beat on his drum. Each of us took it in turn to crawl through the brith canal and be welcomed by Raminder, who was saying "Welcome. We're so glad you are here. You are so precious to us". I found the experience of crawling through the tunnel very fetal and somehow primal. It was so moving to see each "baby" move through and be welcomed. 

 Candy, a wonderful singing mistress, taught us to sing you a song in harmonies. Some of the words were:

We wish you Joy

We wish you Health

We wish you Love

We wish you Peace