BLESSING THE CHILD (and the mother)

We have so few rites of passage in our culture. As Pagans, we have the freedom to weed through other traditions and pick and choose those activities that we find the most attractive to us. Blessing a child is an invitation to the newly returned soul to be welcomed into the family, tribe, and species. On a deep level, this enables the baby to clarify the culture into which she/he has been reborn.

It is a lovely time for family to get together and gossip, and for a new mother to have others take the baby off her hands for a little while. The mother should have nothing to do with either preparing or cleaning up after the ritual. She needs nurturing now more than the baby. She should get presents, things she doesn’t have time to shop for herself. I recommend:

• novels to read and videos to watch while walking the floor at night (do not get her Rosemary’s Baby)!
• herbal bath salts

• eye pillow
• one hour increments of baby sitting
• one casserole dish a week for a month
• a vacuumed living room
• a speed dial setting to Le Leche League
• a doughnut cushion
• twenty minutes of uninterrupted bitching time (the only appropriate response being “There, there, poor dear”)
• a freshly changed bed
• a shampoo
• an hour alone in the bathroom