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The Red Tent Project

THE RED TENT PROJECT

'We have been lost to each other for so long. My name means nothing to you. My memory is dust.

This is not your fault, or mine. The chain connecting mother to daughter was broken and the word passed to the keeping of men, who had no way of knowing...

..And now you come to me...you come hungry for the story that was lost. You crave words to fill the great silence that swallowed me, and my mothers, and my grandmothers before them.

I wish I could tell you more of my grandmothers. It is terrible how much has been forgotten, which is why, I suppose, remembering seems a holy thing.

I am so grateful that you have come. I will pour out everything inside me so that you may leave this table satisfied and fortified. Blessings on your eyes. Blessings on your children. Blessings on the ground beneath you. My heart is a ladle of sweet water, brimming over.'

( Prologue, 'The Red Tent', Anita Diamant)                                        

THE DREAM...

There is a dream which once was a reality and part of a culture and tradition for women of all ages. A Red Tent which served and housed us through our milestones and rites of passage. A Sanctuary for us to re-charge our batteries in and to sometimes just withdraw from the world. A cave, filled with warmth and glowing with the embers of our foremothers.

Inspired by this Ancestral memory, the wonderful book by Anita Diamant and an awareness that there is a lack of space or 'a room of one's own' for us women who work so hard to balance our lives between family, work, commitments, house, friends...we offer you the Red Tent. Somewhere to honour yourself as a woman, be in your cave, reflect. A space in which to lick our wounds, craft our dreams and stretch out in the safey of our sisters. Come inside and know you are home.

This space is being created with thoughts and words, good wishes and promises even as I write, through sheer inspiration and perhaps a memory of what once was. When I first put words to this dream, the response was incredible. We know what we need. Now we need to weave it into form.

We need only £5000 to create this...help become part of something which will be passed on through generations, from us to our daughters, as we become Grandmothers...

THE INTENTION...a (sometimes) mobile Sanctuary

  • To provide a sanctuary for women of all ages.
  • To provide a Birthing Space whenever possible, with a tub, in Somerset, or elsewhere, at request.
  • To provide a Creative hub, a place where we can gather our dreams and ground them and learn new skills together.
  • To provide a place to just be, a space where we can lay down the many hats we need to wear and just restore and nurture ourselves.
  • A place to shed skins, regenerate, bleed, finish bleeding, to celebrate our internal seasons and to honour their passing. A Temple for Celebrating these rites of passage.
  • A space in which to offer workshops on Birth Preparation, Menopause, Breastfeeding, Bellydancing, coming into womanhood and Motherhood and much more.
  • A space to come and learn about Herbal lore, where we can begin to reconnect with those indigenous herbs here to help us through our journies as women.
  • A Sanctuary for Birth workers, to avoid burn out and to de-brief. 

THE MANIFESTATION...

We are going to build an 18 - 20' Yurt with a red interior and fill it with beautiful cushions, rugs, pieces of art, a wood burining stove and materials for being creative. For the Yurt itsef we need to raise £5,000. For the interior, about another £1,500. 

We have women waiting to begin sewing the material, making the structure and gathering things for the interior. There have been offers so far from women who are willing to sing the space open, run Breastfeeding workshops, Bellydancing for pregnancy classes, Birth Preparation sessions, Herbal preparations for women, Menopause gatherings and even a lovely offer from an Events organiser to come over from Switzerland and help us to arrange our opening party!

We will manifest this by this time next year (May 2012) and take it to the Sunrise festival for it's first offering back to the Community. Please help us to ground this dream in reality.

The Paypal donation button below will take you to a Paypal secure donations section, where you can put in whatever you can. Should you want to donate time, energy, skills or beautiful things to decorate your space with, please use the contact us form at the top of each page on this site.

You can find more onformation at our site;  http://theredtentproject.weebly.com/ 

Please consider sponsoring our Red Tent Running team, doing the London to Brighton Challenge at http://runningfortheredtent.wordpress.com/about-2/  

 

With thanks and belief in the power of creating all that we need,

 

Kate Woods