death Midwifery, birth work, art and tarot
hands-on
For those located on Wabanaki Territory, sometimes called Penobscot or Waldo County, Maine. Looking for guidance, education and holistic support from a Death Midwife. Travel available for those choosing MAID (Medical Aid In Dying).
virtual
For those looking for support, guidance and education online. As well as those looking to the creation of Art or the Tarot to help explore their relationship with Grief, Life & Death.
Gallery & musings
Reflections on our relationship with Birth, Death, and Rebirth Cycles, Dream Spaces, Art, and Tarot.
charting the hedges
remapping our relationship with death & Dying
Through holistic care, spiritual Support & Education
For those stepping into the boundary of the last of their days, a Death Midwife can assist in charting unfamiliar terrain. Making the transition more natural, gentle, and confirming. For centuries death was done at home, in community. Death Midwifery assists in filling the gaps of care, advocacy, education, support and guidance left by how taxed our current systems are. Services can span from post-prognosis support and in-home holistic care through to home funeral and burial education and guidance for families, biological and chosen. To see how a Death Midwife could help you fulfill your wishes, all you need to do is talk to one.
Warmest of welcomes, I’m glad we found each other. I’m Kathryn (she/her/hers), and I’m called to sit the hedges.
I am a Death Midwife, Non-Clinical Birth Worker, Artist, and Tarot Practitioner. I reside on unceded Wabanaki Territory, sometimes called Lowell, Maine. I live off-grid, with the land, at a crossroads, in protected tree growth. Death, life and rebirth, are present daily, as are the generations before me.
I spent the first two decades of my adult life as a mother, feeding and nourishing as a Chef, as well as serving and guiding as a Non-Clinical Birth Worker.
Our abundance of warmth, desire to be present for, and holistic support offered to a birthing person, is countered with a lack of the same supports for a dying person as a collective. I felt an immense calling to Death Midwifery, to honor our dying and ancestors, and the transition to grandmother made the calling much stronger. My awareness of how our attitudes towards life, and death are inherited by future generations became clearer. This led to a Death Midwifery Apprenticeship under Narinder Bazen, through Nine Keys Death Midwifery.
An Artist since youth, my mindset was that creating was a private and personal practice. The creatress in me was nurtured and nourished through the apprenticeship. Followed by a shift in perspective, that this need to create exists to be shared. My work is not for me.
In many cultures, before “Art” was called such, and commodified, it was made for rituals and healing. To benefit the community, and to be shared. This is a practice I bring into my Death Midwifery and grief work, as creation is a remarkable vehicle for expression.
My approach to Tarot is intuitive, focusing on the Archetypes in the human psyche. Special attention is paid to the Hermetic, religious and astrological symbolism within the deck. My experience with Tarot started with my first deck at 14 (which I still own). Much later in life I learned under Tree Carr to expand upon my reading abilities, understanding and the symbolism within the deck.
I hold a special place in my practice and heart for those choosing MAID (Medical Aid In Dying) as a means of death with dignity. For MAID, my travel area is greatly increased. I expanded beyond the comprehensive teaching included in my apprenticeship to be verified as an attendant by the American Clinicians Academy on Medical Aid in Dying. If you (or a dear one) are outside my area, but are choosing MAID, please feel free to schedule a consultation for hands on Death Midwifery. I will work with you whenever possible, and attempt to refer you to another Death Worker if necessary.