Carolyn Hillyer

A collection of songs and multi-voice chants that mark the rites of passage, initiations and celebrations of womanhood, through first blood, spiralling motherhood, precarious midlife, eldership and into our shamanic bones.

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£10.00£13.00

Songs and Initiations of Womanhood

Rites of passage, initiations and celebrations serve to distil and value changes in our lives, giving our journeys different meanings as we travel through our experiences of womanhood. We mark the passing of time through transformations in our bodies, the flow and ebb of bleeding, the shifting shapes of face and womb. The sacred house of women exists inside the spirit of our gatherings; the remembered voices of our ancient mothers sing of our common bonds as women and our universal prayers. These songs reach to the core of the transitions that define us as women as they travel through first blood, spiralling motherhood, precarious midlife, being elders and deep into our shamanic bones.

Heron Fly You Home has become one of Carolyn’s most well-known and widely shared songs. It is sung around the world and has been translated into many languages, including Czech, Dutch, German, Arabic, Hebrew, Hungarian, Japanese, Maori, Norwegian, Russian, Siberian Nenets, Spanish, Slovakian and Swedish. It is sung at many farewells, funerals and remembering ceremonies. It is sung to wish well to the gathered company as they travel onward and home. We have recorded this song twice; in this original version, and with a new arrangement and recording on the album Weaving the Land.

The full version of the Old Silverhead image is available as a large print. Click here to view the image.

SONGS: Girlseed, Come into Our Dream, Bloodflower, Blessed be the Blood, Fruitmother, In My Sisters’ Country, Spinmother, Braiding Power, Midwoman, Meet the Mirror, Earthcrone, Stonecrone, Old Silverhead, Eight Beads Chant, Heron Fly You Home.

Album length: 76 minutes. Released in 1995.

* This title was produced before we started adding full lyric booklets to the albums. If you would like a copy of the song words emailed with your order please contact us.