death Midwifery, birth work, art and tarot
hands-on
For those located on the Wabanaki Territory known as Penobscot or Waldo County, Maine looking for guidance, education and non-medical holistic support from a Death Midwife. Travel available for those choosing MAID (Medical Aid In Dying).
virtual
For those outside of the local area looking for support, guidance and education online. This includes MAID and VSED support. Offerings here are for those looking to the creation of Art, or the Tarot, to help explore their relationship with Grief, Life & Death as well.
Gallery
Reflections on our relationship with Birth, Death, and Rebirth Cycles, Dream Spaces, Art, and Tarot.
Illustration - Paint - Photography
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, non- medical holistic care through to home funeral and burial education 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.
*Death Midwives are generally not medically trained, licensed funeral directors, or professional legal support. My services are not a replacement for, nor do I offer any of the above services.
I’m glad we found each other, I’m Kathryn.
I am a Death Midwife, Artist, and Tarot Practitioner. I reside on unceded Wabanaki Territory, in Lowell, Maine, off-grid 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 nourishing as a Chef, as well as serving and guiding as a Non-Clinical Birth Worker.
Collectively our abundance of warmth, desire to be present, and holistic support offered to birthing and newly born people, is countered with a lack of the same attentions for the dying and their caregivers. My awareness of how our attitudes towards life, and death are inherited by future generations and desire to honor our dying led to an apprenticeship under Narinder Bazen, through Nine Keys Death Midwifery.
Before our current systems capitalized on death, and our dying, it was done in living rooms, on parlor tables, and our backyards. It was done in community. The knowledge of how to care for the dying, and the dead, was handed down. The loss of community knowledge and phobia surrounding death, grew as the commodification of it grew. This is not coincidence. My desire is to help communities reclaim this knowledge and support them in exercising their rights to care for their own. Death care can be meaningful and affordable.
An Artist since youth, my mindset was that creating was a private and personal practice. 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 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.