Speaker 0
When you need guidance from someone you can truly trust, someone who aligns with your values of sovereignty and natural living, look no further than doctor Jennifer Theis. Doctor Jen's expertise in homeopathy and naturopathic family care is unmatched. She is my personal go to when I need an opinion on how to best support my family and myself when we are healing. And something I'm always telling everyone about, doctor Jen runs a very specific food intolerance test. Having this information has quite literally changed my life once I decided to take it seriously. Knowing what our specific foods were to avoid has radically improved the health of myself and my children. So if you're looking to uplevel your health, head over to doctor jennifer tice dot com and you can find her on Instagram at doctor jennifer tice.
Speaker 1
Into the wild, I'm going. Into the wild, I am. It's been a wild freedom challenge since I left my roots back home. Into the wild I'm good. Into the wild I hid. It's been a wild freedom child since I left my roots back home.
Speaker 2
Welcome to the Free Birth Society podcast. This is a radical space for women who are ready to celebrate their autonomous choices in birth, motherhood, and beyond. Together, we'll learn about wild birth through personal narrative, we'll explore the politics of birth, and we'll analyze everything that relates to our lives as women from a feminist perspective. Here's your host, Emilee Saldaya. It's been
Speaker 1
a wild freedom change since I left my roots back home.
Speaker 0
Matriarch Rising Festival, our annual summer solstice women's gathering, is here on my gorgeous land in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and it is the place to connect with me and the free birthing women and sovereign midwives of this epic birth liberation movement. I teach classes and host an intimate meet and greet the very first night of the festival, and you will even catch me DJing. Yes. I am matriarch one. You'll get to meet all of our Freebird Society luminaries, our wise women teachers, who you know from your favorite FBS courses. You'll meet the very women I interview on this podcast. This is the place for wild women and moms to meet up, connect, and forge friendships that can last a lifetime. It's truly the climax of everything we do, and MRF is so close to my heart. We're scaling back MRF twenty five to be the most intimate yet, capping it at only a hundred and fifty tickets because this year, I wanna go deep. I just love the experience of getting to know each and every one of you by the end of the festival. For a long time, I held the vision of creating a women's gathering where true sisterhood could be woven, and matriarch rising is the manifestation of my dreams. I'm so glad I get to share it with all of you, and I want you there this year. Come learn directly from me and surround yourself with powerful women from all ages, all walks of life, and from all over the world. Make sure you sign up for our mailing list so that you can be the first to know when we roll out all of our insider insights of this summer's festival. I'll see you soon. Every now and then, a product comes along that our entire family can't get enough of, and lately, it's masa chips. Delicious chips made the way food was meant to be. Just three simple ingredients, organic corn, salt, and beef tallow. No seed oils, no fillers, no ultra processed garbage, just real whole food that nourishes rather than depletes. What we put into our bodies matters. It affects our energy, our mood, our resilience, and yet the food industry today is completely disconnected from what's real and nourishing. Just like birth, food is one of the most powerful ways to claim sovereignty over our bodies. And it's no surprise that a sovereign birthing family is who makes these chips. When you snack, snack on something real. Go to masa chips dot com slash discount slash free birth society and use code free birth society for twenty percent off your first order.
Speaker 3
Welcome, Danielle.
Speaker 4
Hi. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 3
Yeah. I'm excited to have this conversation. We are getting into body hair today. This is, a topic I've wanted to tackle here with this audience for a long time, and you seem like the absolute perfect woman to do it with. So, yeah, today is not a free birth story, but, I still want you to tune in and listen because if you are still shaving your precious hair from your body, religiously, routinely, this might challenge you and open your eyes. So my intention today is to, yeah, share our personal stories. And and Danielle admitted that she's fairly obsessed with this topic, so she's got lot lots of wisdom to share about it to get you thinking. And, who knows? Maybe you will put down the razor after this episode if you're not already. And I'm sure a lot of you already have have, untangled yourself from the hair removal industry and all that it that it comes with. And so this might feel validating and fun for you to listen to as well. Okay. So why do you allow your body to have the hair it tries so hard to grow?
Speaker 4
So I started allowing my hair to do its thing in my mid twenties and, I'm a bodyworker and in the last four years, I've been practicing some manual therapy for the nervous system. And I think talking about hair and its biological purpose is so important just to, like, put the context above our conversation. So, well, actually start with gestation. One of the first cellular splits that occurs when you are growing in your mother's womb is, it comes from primitive cells called the ectoderm. And the ectoderm is where our skin and the central nervous system come from. So, it's one of the first cellular splits and for the first few weeks, those cells are just kind of souped together. And then at about week three or four, they begin to differentiate, into dermis tissue and neural tissue. So the neural tissue is the brain and the spine, and the dermal tissue begins to migrate out. And that's the boundary towards which everything else develops. And neurologists, accept this now that, like, the skin, the brain, the spinal cord, like, it's all the nervous system. If you wanna look at it, like, the skin is the most superficial, layer of the brain or the brain is the most deep layer of the skin, That is what we're talking about. And, hair, every single hair has what's called a hair ending organ that registers the slightest movement in your experience and environment. So, this is like big information, like these are antennae that are gathering information about our experience, and our environment. So, essentially, like, when you shave, you are numbing out to a degree. And that's a big part of why I choose not to modify my body is because I wanna feel life. I want it to happen to me. And, yeah. I started shaving when I was, like, twelve and, when I moved to Austin in my early twenties, that's kind of like when I decided to look at that in a different way, and a big part of what spurred that different thought process is, like, the culture that I was in, was just, like, hippie, crunchy kind of culture.
Speaker 3
So what was your gateway? Did you were you seeing women with hairy armpits and having thoughts about that? Like, how did it happen?
Speaker 4
Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly it. Like, I'm I grew up in a rural town in Texas where there were, like, kind of the regular standards of beauty. And when I moved to Austin, you know, I started seeing women with just, yeah, hair. Hair hairy armpits, hairy legs, you know, hairy arms. I know I never shaved my arms, but I know, like, a lot of people do modify, like, every every part
Speaker 3
of hair.
Speaker 4
As
Speaker 3
much as possible.
Speaker 4
Yeah.
Speaker 3
Be nude like a baby. That's the message. Be Yeah. Look as close to a three year old girl as humanly possible.
Speaker 4
Yeah. And, like, what's under that?
Speaker 3
You
Speaker 4
know? Lots of bad stuff. Yeah. Mhmm. Mhmm.
Speaker 3
So you you saw some armpit hair. Did you already know this about the nervous system and all the beautiful sensory psychic No. No? Okay. No. So so you didn't know any of that yet, but you saw women allowing their hair, and it sparked a possibility for you? Like, what was the Yeah.
Speaker 4
I think it was pretty gradual. I think it was pretty gradual. And, like, at least my experience, like, it's not a pleasurable thing to have to consistently, like, shave everything. And, like, I don't know. It's just, like, time consuming and not fun, and it feels gross to me. Yeah. So it was just kind of like a no brainer once I got this permission by looking at all of these other women who still looked radiant and feminine. Yeah. I mean, it it is really it can be really uncomfortable. Again, coming at it from, like, a sensational aspect. You know, the reason that as you grow your hair out, it is irritating is because you're getting all of this sensory input that you've not you haven't had for many decades of your life. Interesting. Yeah. So, like, that prickly feeling. You know? Yeah. That's because you're you have fresh sensation. And if you get past that, that's, like, the hard part. But if you get past that, yeah, you, like, get used to the new sensory input. Yeah. So I think, like, probably for the first year, it was there was some, like, mental pushback of is do I feel beautiful this way? And that was an invitation to really look at, like, well, my feelings about body hair aren't really my own. Right. Right? Like, that was programmed in, and, and every culture has their own feelings about body hair. I mean, there are cultures in times past that celebrated it. And so I just really started to think about, like, why do I feel this way?
Speaker 3
Mhmm. And how many years ago was that that you allowed?
Speaker 4
Probably about ten years ago. Early twenties, I would say. Probably.
Speaker 3
And so now, what's it like for you ten years in?
Speaker 4
I will never go back. Yeah. I mean, it just is it's so funny to think about, like, how it how suppressing it is. And, you know, coming from that numbing out, like, it's essentially telling women, like, you can't expand into life. You're not meant to, you know, be more than what we want you to be.
Speaker 3
It is such a visual flag. It's a virtue signal to, the tamed woman. Mhmm. You know? It it shows the world I am tamed. Mhmm. It's a pretty it's a pretty, like, mind blowing message when you realize what it is. Yeah. I was whatever fourth grade is. What is that? Nine? I begged my mom to let me shave my legs. I was going to private Catholic school, and you had to wear, like, you know, everyone wore the same shorts, and other girls in my class were shaving their legs. And, you know, of course, I thought it was so cool. And I had a older sister. And so my mom said, okay. Fine. And she let my older sister shave my legs. And I remember it. I remember the bench in the shower, and I was like, I'm I'm becoming a woman. You know? Like, I felt so initiated. It was a true rite of passage into the wrong fucking direction. You know? Now I realize, but I didn't know then because I was like, groom me. Groom me. I'm nine. I'm so I'm so easily impressionable. So my sister shaves my legs, and and then soon thereafter, we're in the Keys. I'm from Florida. We're in the Keys, and there was a friend of our family who was a lesbian who didn't shave. And I'd known her for a long time, and she was there at the house. And I showed her. I remember this memory of going up to her and going, look. Like, I shaved. Look at my legs. And I will never forget. She looked at me, and she said, oh, congrats. You've officially become a slave.
Speaker 4
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 3
And I'll never forget it because I was like, what? You know? Like, I I it didn't make sense. And I was smart enough at nine, you know, and I knew she didn't shave, and I knew she was, like, more edgy and open minded or whatever. And, you know, I had some awareness of what she meant. Anyway, I thought that was kind of interesting. So then that was that. My life goes on, and I'm I'm, of course, shaving. And I don't even think about it until my daughter's, like, one years old. So many, you know, my whole, you know, many years pass, of course. And I I do remember in retrospect that I would see I mean, I I was living in LA. Like, of course, there were women. I went to Burning Man. Like, of course, there were women who allowed their hair. And I I always had this kind of not totally conscious thought of, like, that's badass. Something about it, like, I'm not gonna do it, but, wow. You know, it always marked confidence for me. It always marked embodiment for me, and there was something, you know, not totally cognitive. There was some awareness in me. I still othered them for sure, but I would see it and that there was I was, like, drawn to it and was like, there's something really badass about that. And yeah. So I remember that kind of marker in my in my younger, you know, twenties. And then and I had this very specific moment where I mean, this was only six years ago, so it wasn't even that long ago. I was in my bathroom, and my little one year old daughter, you know, was like toddling about. And I went to grab my razor because I was gonna shave my legs. And I never, like, hated doing it. It was just a part of my shower routine. It it was never really anything I thought much about. I didn't have any yeah. It really wasn't something that I thought much about. It was just a part of what you do, you know. And so yeah. So I'm in the shower and I grab my razor, to go to shave my legs, and I start shaving my leg. And I look over and my daughter is just standing there watching me. Of course, as she does. Right? And everything changed in that moment. I had such profound awareness of the imprinting and the initiation, you know, that I was teaching her by being a woman who shaves. Mhmm. And who, whether I'm aware of it or not, was trying to look like a young girl, like a young child. And so it it just happened in a moment. I mean, I was shaving. I looked at her. She's just watching me, not, like, horrified. She's just watching me because I'm her mom and I'm doing something weird. And everything came together in that exact moment, and I was shocked, and I just threw the razor in the trash. And so I'm I'm sharing that that much of that story because I want to say to women who are considering this, I wanna be really honest that it has taken me years to move through my stuff about it, and it's not all gone. Like you said, Danielle, I definitely have a good handle on like, I know what thoughts were given to me that might still be reoccurring, and they just don't have much power in them. But they still are present. And I discovered, as I allowed my my body hair to come in, I was so self conscious. So self conscious. And I would I remember going to this yoga class, you know, and, of course, you're, like, it's hot, you know, and and I was in a tank top or something. And I remember going, and it was the first time I had debuted my armpits, you know? And I was so in my head about it, so self conscious. And we're doing some pranayama thing with our arms up in in the air. And I'm just watching my thoughts, and I'm like, everyone's looking at me. Everyone's noticing. And what was true is no one gives a shit. No one's looking. No one was noticing. And and I laughed at myself because I I that's pretty toxic insecurity to make up to be so insecure and self centered, really, that you make up that everyone is, like, thinking about you, you know, which normally I'm not like that at all. But it brought out like a pretty toxic level of insecurity and self consciousness. And so, yeah, that first year was not easy. You know, it was very confronting. I felt a lot of self consciousness, and that still might spike every now and then. It like I said, it doesn't have the same you know, sometimes sometimes I'll go places. I travel a lot with my family, and and sometimes I'll be in environments where it'll occur to me. And I'll even say to my husband, like, I'm the only woman here with body hair. Mhmm. Wow. You know? Just wow. I'm I'm in a packed restaurant, you know, on the beach of a thousand people, and I'm the only woman with body hair, most likely. I mean, I guess I can't be a hundred percent positive, but but most likely.
Speaker 4
Yeah.
Speaker 3
And just wow. You know? And and I feel so clear on my choice. And, but, yeah, I wanted to name that. It definitely took me a while. I mean, it happened in stages. And and to be honest, even now, I wouldn't say when I see it all myself, I don't think it's beautiful. That's not my like, I love it because it's complicated and, like, I understand there's so much poison, you know, programming in my brain and dah, dah, dah, dah. But when I just see my body, my my leg hair or my armpit hair, I don't the first thing I think isn't, oh, how beautiful.
Speaker 4
Mhmm.
Speaker 3
But what's interesting is when I see other women's body hair, that is what I think. Mhmm. So there's still some othering that I do where I'm like, it's badass on everyone else. And this is, like, unconscious, you know? This isn't this isn't super conscious stuff that's happening. But, yeah, I just wanted to name all of that because I think I think with with lots of awakenings, you know, lots of consciousness raising, I think women can be deterred from it waiting for the confidence, waiting for the clarity, waiting for the the fearlessness. And it's not really like that. It's like you jump into the mud and you, like, wade through it, you know, and you feel it and you you're gonna have the journey you're gonna have, but it has taken me quite a long time. I definitely feel comfortable now. I wouldn't yeah. I'm not thinking about my armpits when I'm at the beach or whatever anymore, but it took a while.
Speaker 4
Yeah. I think it's really interesting, like, the reflection that on other women, it's badass or powerful
Speaker 3
Mhmm.
Speaker 4
And that claiming it for yourself is, like, such a challenge. And even in your story about your daughter, I think it's important to remember that this is multigenerational. Right. Of course. The first Gillette campaign was, like, nineteen fifteen. So we're talking about generations of women who have downloaded this program and think about your daughter seeing you. Like, we had that experience too with our mothers, I'm assuming. Of course. You know, my mom, definitely. It was like a classic. Yeah. So it's just really interesting claiming that the authentic woman, the biological woman for ourselves. Ourselves. It is really tricky
Speaker 3
and challenging. And willing to do willing to do the work to to learn how to stand in that, you know, because that's really what it is. It it's not without discomfort, and it's quite it has been quite confronting. I mean, I do a lot of, you know, radical stuff to help me understand that, you know, whether it's the way I birth or the way I mother or the way I communicate. I mean, it shows up in all sorts of ways, but it's it's not out of fearlessness and it's not out of, like, an obscene amount of self confidence. It's more out of a real curiosity to find out who the fuck I am. You know? Who the fuck am I?
Speaker 4
Yeah. And even you just saying, like, through mothering and through birthing, like, at the core of hairlessness, what the message is is, like, you're only valuable as a maiden.
Speaker 3
And if that young one
Speaker 4
at that. Yeah. A very, very like, a child. Stay childish. Yeah. So it totally devalues motherhood and croneship. If you're it's gonna make it at least more difficult for you to embody those things as you continue through your life.
Speaker 3
Yeah. So I've heard, you know, a lot of women have shared with me that they are interested in it, but, you know, their husband wouldn't like it. And, you know, just well, you just gotta take a beat there to really unpack why and what, you know, the the not just the deep misogyny in that, but also the inherent, like, pedophilia, you know. And and I'm not calling all of your husbands pedophiles, but on some level, the programming to be attracted to a hairless maiden is suggestive of an eleven year old. You know? Like, when do you get hair? Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen? It's pre that. Mhmm. You know? And and that alone is so disgusting and horrifying that even if I'm sure there's aspects of my husband. Of course, he's a normal guy in society that were groomed into that from porn and from everything else. But so what? That isn't a part I wanna entertain and that I wanna, like, meet him at. It's quite the opposite. You know? I mean, this is I have been very, very inspired by my children, you know, and I think I think that's a normal thing for for women, you know, for mothers to feel. And the enormous responsibility that is at my feet, you know, that I'm stoked about, but, damn, is it a big responsibility that she's watching me all the time. She's watching how I speak to my husband. She's watching how my face looks when I see my naked body in the mirror. I mean, it's it's it's so big, you know. It's so big and it's so powerful. And and instead of it freaking me out, you know, I've I've decided to really, like, open up to the work of it and the inspiration of it, and it has meant a serious reckoning with my own conditioning. Right?
Speaker 4
And your husband's. Like, it's a it's a paired working.
Speaker 3
Totally.
Speaker 4
Yeah.
Speaker 3
Yeah. It's funny because I never asked him because I don't care. Like Yeah. You know? Like, I'm in a healthy relationship, so I never asked him. Also, like, I didn't I I didn't wanna probably know the answer because if I had asked him and he had said anything other than, you do your thing, girl. Like, you're badass. I love you any which way. Like, if he probably would say that, but if he didn't, that would be a huge problem for me. And so I never even asked him. I just was like, oh, stop shaving. He's like, okay. You know? And and and and this I mean, this bleeds into so many other aspects of of motherhood and and of womanhood and of marriage because so many women are still in such a I mean, it is a really, god bless the right word, like, juvenile space with their husband where they are still they're using him for permission and approval and security in a really childish way, honestly. I mean, it sounds insensitive, but this is kinda this is kinda true. Women are not living the lives that they say they want to live. Mhmm. You know? Everyone's doing what they want, but they like to use their husbands as shields to blame for why they can't do what they say they want. You know?
Speaker 4
Yeah.
Speaker 3
It's so common.
Speaker 4
Yeah. I think the way that you did it is a great way. Like, if it comes up first off, it's your body. So if your beloved is not on board and he feels like voicing that to you, then you can, like, hold up a little mirror. Like, honey, you gotta look at this shadow right here because yeah. It is. It's infantilizing a grown woman's body and all the implications in that. Yeah.
Speaker 3
Yeah. It runs pretty deep, and it is worth thinking about. Well, I think the the lines are blurred for a lot of couples around it being her body. You know, it's their body.
Speaker 5
Mhmm.
Speaker 3
It's their body. Right? You obviously see it in the pregnancy world. We're pregnant. We are having a free birth. My husband wants me to birth in a tub. You know, we for our birth, you know, there's so much bizarre confusion around around her body, and it's because it is their body. Mhmm. You know? That is the setup in a lot of marriages. It's wild. And she's obviously into it because she's cocreating it, you know, whether she's conscious of it or not. You know, but it is their vagina. Like, I know lots of women over the years who what's how would I say it? Create the pubic hair experience that her has of her husband's choice. You know? Whatever that is. Even if it's just completely nude like an eight year old. They'll do it. You know? I mean, attending births in the system, I saw, obviously, a lot of vulvas. You know? And most of them were completely nude. Wow. Completely nude.
Speaker 1
Wow.
Speaker 3
Not one little single little hair.
Speaker 4
Wow.
Speaker 3
It's really terrifying because it is so clearly linked to pedophilia. Yeah. I mean, it's it's right there. Yeah. Oh, god. So another thing I hear but you kinda already touched on this in a way. Another reason I hear that women, they'll be like, oh, yeah. I like the idea, but it hurts when it grows out.
Speaker 1
Mhmm.
Speaker 3
Or it doesn't feel good or I get, like, bumps or, but it's what you just spoke to. It's it's coming into sensation. It's unnumbing, and that will go away.
Speaker 4
Yeah. I mean, even think about, like, your the family friend that said, like, congratulations. You're a slave. You know, like, that's a common practice is to shave, like, prisoners or slaves' hair and, like, the idea of of course, like, there's there's, like, a hygienic aspect to that, but then also, like, there's a power in that. And, yeah, like, I have a client who is a woman and has a buzz buzzed hair. And without any kind of context into what we're speaking on, she'd revealed to me that the reason she did that was because, like, the sensation of her life in many aspects was too much. So it's like again, it's numbing out, and it does take a lot of grace and patience, like, when everything starts to come online because all of those things that you've been numbing out to are gonna come up to the surface. Yeah. And just, like, even just talking about the legs, like, that's a huge, region of the body that you now have to get used to much different sensation than having a bare leg.
Speaker 3
Yeah. And a lot of this, I'm assuming, is happening kind of more in the unconscious psychic For sure. Energetic realm. So people listening being like, what the hell are you talking about? Yeah. You're not gonna necessarily consciously feel different walking in the woods, but there is a yeah. But you're speaking to a a much deeper awareness.
Speaker 1
Mhmm.
Speaker 3
Yeah. Yeah. I shaved my head once, and it I did it. I was in the circus. I had long pink and purple hair down to my belly button. I was, like, so hot. And, you know, I was a dancer and a fire dancer and was always on stage. And and then this one day, living in LA, this one day, I I had a bad hair day. And I just my my hair just, like, put me in a bad mood. And I was walking I was going around LA that day, and I was like, this is inappropriate. Like, that that whatever my hair is or isn't doing, that I'm so owned by how my hair should look, that I'm literally in a bad mood. Like, this is bizarre. And I'm only nineteen at this time, so that was, like, the extent of my my awareness. But I remember thinking it was pretty weird. So I was like, you know what? Let's confront my vanity. Let's see what happens with a shaved head. So the whole premise of it was to confront my vanity. That's what I wanted to do. That I wanted to see what that was like, but the irony of it was so I shave my head and go about my life, and I get more sexual attention from men than I ever had in my entire life and ever will again. I had men, like, stopping me, bowing to me. Like, the level of attention I got with a shaved head was I didn't expect it. I really didn't expect it because I was going through my own process of, oh, I look like I did chemo, and I look like a child, and I was going through I didn't think I looked particularly hot at all. Mhmm. But the the it didn't really help me confront my vanity, I guess, is my point because I got so much positive social feedback. Anyway, never again.
Speaker 4
How long how long did you keep it? Was it just, like, the once and then
Speaker 1
you Yeah.
Speaker 4
Had to grow out?
Speaker 3
Yeah. It was, like, maybe, yeah, like, six months or something and then the really awkward grow out period. That was the real humbling part. I was happy to move
Speaker 4
through the vanity moment.
Speaker 3
Yeah. That was it came later. It wasn't with a cute little buzz cut. It came later. And I remember this isn't that interesting, but I remember that whole shaved head. I did it in the winter, and I was shocked at how cold my head was all the time. All the time. I was like, damn. That's wild that that's there's so much heat my hair is keeping in for my head because I was cold all the time, always wearing beanies and stuff. Anyway, never again. Yeah. The the Sikhs don't cut their hair because they know it as an antenna.
Speaker 5
Mhmm.
Speaker 3
And I always thought that was pretty pretty cool, pretty interesting.
Speaker 4
I think there are a lot of cultures that do.
Speaker 3
Yeah. My daughter the other day was like she's seven now, and she was like, mom, I'm gonna shave, like, I don't know, maybe, like, a couple times because I just wanna know what the rest of the people are doing, but then I'll just have hair again. I don't know. That. You you gotta explore. Yeah. Give it a try.
Speaker 1
Yeah.
Speaker 3
Another thing on my mind, I also stopped wearing makeup. You know? Like, there's other I would never wear high heels again. You know? Things, it's a it's a domino of this other stuff of, like, what other what other stuff do I do? Because I was told by a pretty evil society how to be approved of. What else am I doing? And does it genuinely feel good? And how do I know? And that's where I think a lot of women still get hung up. They're like, I like how it feels to be shaved. I like how I look with a face of paint on. I like it. It's for me. Mhmm. Okay. But until you can look in the mirror with no makeup and no and and allowing your body hair and feel real, genuine love and acceptance, bullshit.
Speaker 4
Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah. It's sewn in that self hate, that self hatred. I think, like, all of those things you're talking about, like makeup, high heels, push up bras, Botox, etcetera, those are all superficial woman. Authentic biological woman is, like, barefoot. She's got a baby on her breast. She's wild. Like, she's the wild woman archetype. Like, that's the the essence of biologically how we're supposed to be.
Speaker 3
Right. Or at least she's learning how to be. Yeah. Right? Because it is a process, and there's there's always, like, a new edge to explore, I think. Whether if and if it's not physical stuff, if it's not makeup, then maybe it's, like, saying no. You know? Or something psychological. Like, there's something there's always something that yeah. But Sister Morningstar, talks about that concept a lot around the the tamed woman and the wild woman. And for most of us, we are born into captivity. We are born tame. We are groomed to be tamed, and then we carry, you know, the the torch or we carry the water for the tamed woman until we don't.
Speaker 4
Mhmm.
Speaker 3
You know? And it is that's why part of the reason why I like free birth so much. It just it's it's once you free birthed and really felt your infinite capacity and your power, it's harder to lie to yourself. Mhmm. Women still do it, but it is kind of inarguably harder. You just and when you become a mom, if you are anywhere in the consciousness of critical thinking outside the medical paradigm, you will be more connected to, well, let's call it wild mothering. You know, there's there's sister Maureen Star talks about this this idea of, like, you would not dream. No one would dare take a cub from a mother bear. Like, that that's that is that is a crazy thought. If you saw a bear with a with a little cub in the woods to walk over and take the cub, That's a crazy thought. Why? Because we all universally know she'd fucking kill you. She'd actually kill you. She would rip your face off and actually kill you if you tried to take her cub. The fact that we are anything less than that is unacceptable. Mhmm. It's unacceptable that we live in a society of women handing over their babies to the fucking prison of NICU, to the pediatricians to jab them up and, you know, fuck up their brains for life. It's unacceptable. And so things like this, not shaving, not wearing makeup, facing yourself, these these small you know, surrendering these small rituals help you get there. Mhmm. You know? It's not the whole puzzle, but they'll help you get there. And you have to begin the process of, like, the tentacles, like, off your you know, like, pulling them off of you if you're attracted to the wild woman archetype. And if you wanna be the she bear that no one dares fuck with, then be
Speaker 4
it. Yeah. Yeah. All of those, like, practices are actually constraining and confining. And Right. Just I would just note I would invite women to notice, like, what are you actually doing for yourself? And in what ways can you expand, just like you're saying, into the fierce woman, like, the Kali, like, you know, this powerful woman versus staying in maidenhood or trying with all of your might to stay in maidenhood. Yeah. It's just a disgusting distortion because it never works. Time marches on. And wouldn't you rather be an empowered mother, an empowered crone, versus trying to change the tides of time.
Speaker 3
And I love the word embodied, you know, because an embodied woman is resourced. She's internally resourced, and there is some level of cultivated love and acceptance within her, for sure, you know, unwaveringly so. And and that wasn't handed to any of us, you know, at all. Any embodied woman I know has has really worked hard to meet herself so that she can know what it's like to have true, true internally resourced self love and acceptance, which then leads to a sense of security, a sense of self approval, you know, a sense of confidence. And an embodied woman doesn't hand her baby over to people. An embodied woman doesn't, you know, wear foot binding torture devices on on their feet. An embodied woman doesn't take a razor to her armpits twice a week. She just she just doesn't. And so as absolutely judgmental as this sounds and is in a way, you know, anyone who's listening who hasn't turned this off yet, you know, like, that's my challenge to you. Like, move the needle. Move the needle. Somewhere in your life, try putting down something. Can you love your face without mascara? Can you learn to? It might take a year. It might not happen overnight because you've got to deprogram, but but see it for what it is and then do mirror meditations. You know? Do you ever do those?
Speaker 4
Mhmm. So powerful.
Speaker 3
Yeah. That really helped me a lot when I was younger. Mhmm. So for anyone who doesn't know what that is, who wants to do it, I mean, literally just stare at yourself in the mirror. Get a mirror, put it on the floor, look into your own eyes. You can kinda zone out to your third eye and kinda let your face you don't have to focus, you know, but but look into your own eyes. Do it, you know, and and sit there and say hello to your face, to this epic window of your soul, and say hi to her, and and let your eyes kind of just relax and meet yourself. Man, it is so it's so easy. It's free. You could do it right now and can be really life changing.
Speaker 4
Mhmm. Mushrooms. And notice notice if there's an aversion there because that means that it's, like, fertile ground for you. Yeah. I think it's just this invitation. Just like you said, it's not given to us, but in, like, a whole well society, it would be, like, grandmother, mother, child. Like, you would be getting this torch passed down to you of, like, it's okay to love yourself and nourish yourself and, try to bear that flame for your daughters and your granddaughters. We
Speaker 3
must. Yeah. No one else is gonna do it. Mm-mm. You know? We must. Oh my goodness. It's not that hard to change the tides. You know? It really it really isn't. And I can see it in our community, and and I have friends with children who are older, you know, than than my seven year old who are already bleeding. And, you know, we see them at MRF. They've got armpit hair and and they're talking about the archetypes of their cycle. It's just so epic because it is it is our orientation. Right? Like, we're always fundamentally oriented towards the divine, towards God, towards love, you know, towards universal truth. And so it's not a hard pivot. I mean, it can be psychologically, but it is our natural way, I guess, is what I'm saying, to to know our wildness and to and to allow that, to have some celebratory, you know, aspect to it. But we are where we are, and and it's not given to us, you know, other than perhaps innately. But it's just not that hard and surround yourself with, you know, come to MRF and see, you know, be a part of a of a world where it's normal. That's really that changes a lot for your brain chemistry to experience a whole week of it just being normal. You're not the only one.
Speaker 4
It can be a really big launching pad
Speaker 3
Yeah.
Speaker 4
Something like MRF to be in a culture of women who you know, I think your audience is it it would be easier for your audience and many women to contemplate expanding in this way. Mhmm.
Speaker 1
But
Speaker 4
it can be so helpful to be in a closed container of women who are striving to be that authentic woman, that empowered woman. Yeah. Such a beautiful experience.
Speaker 3
Alright. Well, hopefully, this has gotten your wheels turning. And, Danielle, thanks for sharing in the conversation today.
Speaker 4
It was a pleasure. Thank you.
Speaker 0
I hope you enjoyed the show today. You can support this podcast by donating to it through the link in the show notes below, and of course, leaving an awesome review on whatever platform you listen on. The more reviews, the more visibility the show gets, so let's spread the good word of Sovereign Birth. Don't forget, you can watch our podcast interviews on YouTube and see the women as they tell their birth and power stories, and you'll also find our viral free birth collection of epic raw birth videos on our YouTube. Make sure you're subscribed to our channel. We've always got a lot going on at Free Birth Society, and you can find out all about it at free birth society dot com, at free birth society on Instagram, and opt in to my newsletter below. We offer courses on free birth, authentic midwifery, the blood mysteries, as well as one on one coaching, in person retreats, and of course our annual women's gathering, the matriarch rising festival. Our exclusive private vetted membership, The Lighthouse, is definitely something to check out if you're looking for a community of wise sisters sisters to get guidance from and to meet in real life. Together, we rise sisters. We must speak our stories, fully claim our lives, and support one another. This is the living revolution, and I am so grateful to be in it with all of you. I'll leave you with our gorgeous Free Birth Society theme song, Wild Woman by Aruba Red.
Speaker 5
I honor you for the wisdom you held, the ancient traditions of plant medicine and womb magic. Magic. I feel the spirit of the ancestors as I place my hands upon my belly. This sacred portal will be honored. Eons upon light beams of survival, withstanding the eradication of our power by design. I will not allow the separation of our young to be forced upon me. My sisters will no longer birth in in captivity. The picket line redefined from burning our wild women to paralyzing us and drugging our babes. Strapped down in a clinical white bed, drying up the milk from our breasts, keep your needles. My family will never again be doomed to chase those dragons all your present. We reject your fear. We choose love. Everything with intention, death, ascension. I will fly and bring her back from the star.
