Lynley Erin - Seasons & Circles

13/03/2026

The myth of Inanna has been calling to me for a couple of years now, her story settling more and more in my being, and I have been holding the bones of the story gently… there has been some resistance to sink allll the way in, because of the depth of her.

I was asked by a dear friend to take her on a journey with Inanna, and with that, I knew now was the time for this deeper dive… then today being Friday the 13th… the day of the Goddess… well I just knew I had to do it now. I needed to talk about it today to set this underworld journey into motion. And I already have 6 women ready to go before I even write this! So this feels like a definite nod that this is the right time for many.

Myth is a map of understanding, our own psyche working with the images that come forward for a deeper understanding of self and other.

The story of Inanna’s Descent is an inner map of the journey of descent and rising. It is a core initiation blueprint of our heroine’s journeys. It was one of the earliest recorded myths in ancient Sumer around 4000 years ago, and it offers us a universal process for our unique life paths ~ through shock, grief, separation, loss, struggle....

We go on this mythic journey with Inanna as she descends into the underworld, shedding the symbols of status, identity, and protection at each of the seven gates… dies… and returns. We listen for where it echoes within our own thresholds of change, grief, power, and rebirth.

Through storytelling and an exploration of characters and symbols we move through the layers of what it means to metaphorically die to who we were, to meet the parts of ourselves we have pushed into the shadow, and to emerge with all of who we are, with the depth of wisdom that can arise when women gather to listen deeply to themselves and each other.

If you feel called to journey with us let me know, as I am already almost full, I may open another container once this one is complete 🙏

20/02/2026

I just wanted to share some of the work I am offering for pregnant Mama's ~ as I am growing my little biz Mama-Cocoon 🙏 xo Feel free to pass it on if you know anyone who may be interested 🥰

A Birth Tiger offers an image to the fears that sit in the back of your mind around birth, the ones you don’t want to look at.

In a Birth Tiger Safari, I guide you to connect with your Inner Huntress in preparation for the rite of passage that is birth, in all its unknowns and mysteries.

With courage you can track your own Birth Tiger, get to know it, and shift or widen perspective before your birthing day.

Fear is a primal instinct. It invites us to listen… to our intuition and to what needs attention.

It is normal to feel uncertainty and worry during pregnancy.
Part of you may deeply trust birth…another part of you may hold doubt.

Fear is often presented as something we must resist at all times, as though giving it any space will somehow manifest the very thing we do not want. So when fear arises, we try to avoid it. We do anything but feel it. We push it back.

What if fear is a liminal state and an invitation to step over a threshold?

We explore your ‘Birth Tiger’ in a curious & grounded way, through questions, conversation & guided journeying.

You will gain a deeper understanding of yourself and practice your ability to cope with whatever unfolds.

If you are ready to step into your Huntress, go deep with your fears around birth & look to the wisdom within you, this offering is for you.

One on One Private sessions are available, send me a message to connect and we can make a time...

or come along to my first Group Birth Tiger Journey in March!

See here: Birth Tiger Safari

I am Lynley, Mama of 2 boys, a Deep Soul Explorer devoted to birth, women, mothers & the sacred rites of passage that shape our lives.

As a Healing Birth Practitioner, Birth Story Medicine Specialist & Neuro Linguistics Master Practitioner working with a mythic lens, I midwife Mamas through their spiritual & emotional journeys, & also offer Circles, Group Explorations & Ceremony.

28/01/2026

🌾We arrive shortly at Lughnasadh, which is the the first of the harvest festivals on the Celtic Wheel of the Year🌾

It is different now, from times of old...and we can adjust the lens to our present lives, on this land, and the metaphoric meaning of our personal and wider harvests, whilst remembering the ancestral threads.

🌾We connect & Circle in the honouring of abundance, gratitude, and acknowledging what has been birthed (or not) as we turn towards our Autumn tinted late-Summer 🌾

We will make a Lughnasadh inspired craft, share food, along with song, myth, sharing, ceremony... & perhaps some dancing if the mood should take us there...

Join me and a lovely Circle of Women whilst we explore & play together ~

This Sunday in Pirongia xo (3 spaces left)
🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾

(Images of last years Lughnasadh Circle)

27/01/2026

You may have heard the Selkie story’s, those women & men who would shed their furs of their lives in the salty embrace of the sea, walk ashore and find adventure, love with humans, bear children of the land…

…and eventually hear the deep calling, the echo of home-in-the-bones...

I have a new essay out 🧡

I love to find metaphor in myth, story & everyday life that feels relevant for what we move through in life, and especially for my work with Birth Story Medicine.

My youngest son loves seals at the moment, and whenever those sleek ones with the deep black obsidian mirrors for eyes show up, I always feel that wonder step in, and think of the selkies & the ocean....

This writing is inspired by listening to the stories that mothers share with me about their births.

I'll pop the link below in case you'd like to have a read🥰

Lynley xo

19/01/2026

2026 CIRCLES, CELEBRATIONS & MYTHIC JOURNEYS (In-person & Online Offerings)

🌑IN-PERSON🌕

1 Feb – Lughnasadh 🌾Celebration & Circle🌾

22 Mar – New Moon & Equinox Circle 🌑🍂

19 April – New Moon Circle 🌑🍁

17 May – Grief Circle post Samhain 🌑🧙

14 June – New Moon pre-Solstice Circle 🌑🍄

12 July – New Moon Circle 🌑🌲

9 August – New Moon Circle 🌑🎋

13 September – New Moon pre-equinox Circle 🌑🌸

4 October – New Moon Circle 🌑🪻

1 November – Beltane Celebration & Circle ☀️🦌

6 Dec – New Moon Circle 🌑✨

(All New Moon themes created closer to the time)

The Handless Maiden Mythic Journey
🍐🍐🍐
(Waikato Venue TBA)
1 per month, 7 x half day explorations
Week 1: 29 Mar
Week 2: 26 April
Week 3: 24 May
Week 4: 28 June
Week 5: 26 July
Week 6: 23 Aug
Week 7: 20 Sept

✨ONLINE✨

The Handless Maiden Mythic Journey
🍐🍐🍐
7 Weekly Circles Online
Wednesdays 7:30 – 9:30pm
4, 11, 18 & 25 Mar
1, 8 & 15 April

Season of the Autumn Moons
🍂🌑🍂
6 Circles Online
Tuesdays 7:30 – 9.30pm NZT
17 & 31 Mar
14 & 28 April
5 & 19 May

Season of the Winter Moons
🌲🌑🍄
6 Circles Online
Tuesdays 7:30 – 9.30pm NZT
16 & 30 June
14 & 28 July
11 & 25 Aug

Season of the Springtime Moons
🪻🌑🌸
6 Circles Online
Tuesdays 7:30 – 9.30pm NZT
15 & 29 Sept
13 & 27 Oct
10 & 24 Nov

04/01/2026

Today, I’m birthing Mama~Cocoon…

The metaphor of the cocoon is what I would like mother’s to experience when they journey with me.
For me, a cocoon is many things.
There is paradox here.
It is a deep, warm, comfortable cloud of love and potentiality
AND it can be a very uncomfortable place of unravelling & of dissolution.
It is a place of unbecoming, becoming, and the great unknown.
It is both a vessel of transformation and the thing that is transformed.

The last year or so of listening and transforming stories has me deep in awe of women, of mothers
(and fathers, too)
midwives & doulas ~
the initiation of birth and all of the joy, pain & grief that can come along with it.

In 2024 I became a Healing Birth Practitioner through Carla Sargent, a leading voice in NZ birth trauma
(and a beloved catalyst in my own story many many moons ago);
and throughout 2025, I have been deep in apprenticeship with Pam England of Birth Story Medicine (life-changing!)

What led me to this path was my own birth experiences,
how they have shaped the woman I have become,
through my stories, meaning making
and the weaving & understanding more and more deeply
through the spiralling awareness that cycles through.

I have an evolving vision that I will continue to expand into;
but here I am, crossing the threshold
to begin the journey of what this will become,
and I know that what I think may the path I am on
may well evolve and change
as I am soaking in the real stories & lives of mothers & families.

(I will still be offering my Circles & Ceremony's here on this page ... I know I have been quiet but I have offerings in the pipeline!)

I'll pop my Mama~Cocoon page below and if you'd like to follow along please give my page a like & a follow, or share with others you think it may be for 💓

For now, as Mama~Cocoon, I am offering:

🤎Birth Story Medicine sessions ~

Our birth stories are living entities;
unwished for moments can be invitations into initiation…..find the medicine in The Return

🤎‘Birth Tiger Safari’s’ ~

Sessions to connect with your inner Huntress & Warrior
in preparation for the rite of passage
that is all the unknowns & mysteries of birth

🤎Mama Blessing Ceremony’s ~

An honouring of the mother-to-be.
When a baby is born, the mother is born also.
This is a sacred ceremony in recognition of the rite of passage that is pregnancy, birth & motherhood;
and being loved, held & supported in our village.

🤎Any emotional/spiritual support & preparation, processing grief, & ceremony for wherever you are on your motherhood/pregnancy/birth journey.

~My philosophy is
however your birth unfolds is your initiation 🤎

Regardless of whether you utilise my services or not, I hope there will be something here for you in what I will be sharing here.

Thank you for coming along on this journey with me 🐦🔥

Lynley xo

Art by SoulBird Art by Roberta Orpwood

04/10/2025

The Handless Maiden is a story that takes us on an archetypal journey of the key elements of a woman’s life; whether it's from deep wounding experiences, our 'inbuilt' rites of passage as women, or simply yearning for more.

This is a journey of our souls & psyches…the story provides us with a psychic map to create our own meaning from, to flesh out the bones.

Initiation. Descent. Return...

We are going on a 7 week online journey if you would like to join us! See all the details in the event: https://www.facebook.com/events/971108968532932/

02/10/2025

Me & 5 amazing women have just concluded our deep exploration of the story 'The Handless Maiden'. We journeyed over 7 weeks unfolding the tale & the symbols and characters in the story that represent our psyche, into real world understanding.

What do these symbols and this journey mean in our real lives, what is it to walk through the underground forest? What is it to be fed a juicy pear by the tree of life itself... hearing each woman share her experiences offered so many more facets of knowing, remembering & understanding.

The women that show up and share their beautiful souls is such medicine for me, for each of us...all the facets of structure fleshed out by the offerings of real life story, it's pretty wonderful 🥰
I loved it so much and it was received so well I am offering it one more time this year (online) - if you'd like to hear more about it, see the comments xo 🤎

Pics of a recent ceremony in the forest 🍃

Lynley xo

22/09/2025

Blessed Equinox 🖤🤍 What is present for you this Equinox? What are the shadows you have been courting? What are the skins you’ve been shedding? What is being left in this portal as we enter the rebirth?

Blessings to you and yours, whether you are coming into lighter days and rebirth here in the southern lands, or your descent in the north ✨🌸🌑🍂

We had a beautiful Circle on Sunday, pics of our altar 💓

Lynley xo

14/09/2025

🌑🌸🌱The Spring Equinox greets us as we move into the first dark moon of the season and the solar eclipse ~ there are much tender new rootlings & blooms as mama earth exhales, the last remnants of death upon her awakening verdant breath…crone remembrance settles in our bones as the maiden bubbles up in our blood, playfulness and joy crooking a finger to our blossoming hearts…🌱🌸🌑

Join me and a lovely Circle of Women in Pirongia at our Spring Equinox Circle ~ whilst we explore the wisdom of the season with loving connection, catalyst conversations, myth, looking within, ceremony, songs and path~weaving.

13/09/2025

Echo 💓

🌹

04/08/2025

Initiation. Descent. Return.

The Handless Maiden is a tale that that takes us on an archetypal journey of the key elements of a woman’s life; from deep wounding experiences to simply yearning for more.

The hands represent our creative, sovereign & intuitive lives. To have them severed symbolises a deep wound of psyche & soul.

I am offering a 7 week Deep Journey & Exploration of 'The Handless Maiden'...

Each week we travel through a stage of the Handless Maidens journey, weaving reflections for us to explore and create our own meaning making; using the versions of the storytelling & decoding’s of Clarissa Pinkola Estés in Women Who Run with the Wolves, Robert A. Johnson in The Fisher King & the Handless Maiden, and Kelly Brogans The Reclaimed Woman.

Weaving the 3 together blends insights of soul initiation, healing the wounded feminine feeling-function, and embodied feminine reclamation ~ all through the spiraling descent & return of the myth mirroring what is there for us in our own lives.

This is a journey of our souls & psyches…

“The time with Wild Woman is hard at first. To repair injured instinct, banish naiveté, and over time to learn the deepest aspects of psyche and soul, to hold on to what we have learned, to not turn away, to speak out for what we stand for…all this takes a boundless and mystical endurance. When we come up out of the underworld after one of our undertakings there, we may appear unchanged outwardly, but inwardly we have reclaimed a vast and womanly wildness. On the surface we are still friendly, but beneath the skin, we are most definitely no longer tame.” ~ Clarissa Pinkola Estés.

This story provides us with a psychic map to create our own meaning from, to flesh out the bones.

For more information see the event in the comments section 💓