Midwifing Death: Returning to the Arms of the Ancient Mother

by Leslene della Madre

Book Overview

A brilliant combination of scholarship, art, spirituality, and experience, this book powerfully brings readers back to ancient ways of honoring divinity both in one's life and death. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1891386425
• ISBN13: 9781891386428
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Plain View Press, LLC
• Length: 268 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Meant To Be

I haven't even gotten half-way through this book, but it has helped me tremendously already in dealing with my mom's pending death. It has helped me to accept and come to terms with it and even made me happy for Mom and her return to the Ancient Mother. And it was so serendipitous how I got the book: after giving my new client her treatment, I told her about my Mom, who was just put on hospice that morning as she has entered the very final stages of early-onset Alzheimer's disease. My client said that she just received a book that morning and that it would be more appropriate for me right now. She had recently met the author and heard her speak and so ordered the book. Reading this book at this time was meant to be. I highly recommend it!

Finding our Mother waiting for us . .

"Leslene della-Madre takes us where we seldom go -- looking into the face of death. And, behold, we find our Mother waiting for us. Leslene points out that if we are to reclaim the spirituality of the Mother we must recognize the Dark Mother as our first mother, a fact substantiated by world scientists. Our African foremothers lived in a time when peace reigned and the sacredness of all life was honored, a memory that still resides deep in our DNA. This was time when both birth and death were honored and where the acceptance of death and a return to the womb of the Mother was understood as a part of life. Leslene's spiritual wisdom drawn from our peaceful ancient past and her heartfelt compassion greet us on every page, as she shares deeply personal stories of those women and men she has mothered to the other side. She models how to truly be with ourselves and our loved ones during their profound journey. And, the stirring images found throughout the book of artist Monica Sjoo, co-author of The Great Cosmic Mother; Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth and a founding mother of women's spirituality in Europe and here, are "portals to and from other worlds." Leslene also calls a spade a spade, and boldly awakens us to our 5,000 year history of domination under patriarchal rule, and the "demonic male ego", which has demeaned and suffocated the Mother and all life at every opportunity. Her words illuminate a path of hope through the violence and greed and war of today. They gladden my heart!" Janie Rezner, MA

A timely and important book

This book is a powerful treatise on reclaiming and honoring the sacredness of the deathing process. It's an important resource about how Divine Feminine and Goddess-centered/matristic cultures approached death as a natural outcome of living, the mirror image of birthing--and how such reverence has been lost in our contemporary American culture. Leslene della Madre implores us to consider a healing alternative. By attending to the dying, midwifing their transition from this world to the next, the circle is completed and the transformation is eased, for the dying person and those who witness and participate in this impactful event. By interweaving historical perspectives with personal deathing stories, della Madre creates a rich and textured testament. Her book challenges the patriarchal paradigm with regard to death and dying, offering empowering and affirming ways for people to begin to embrace death as an integral part of the birth, life, and regeneration cycle.