The Ancient Mother Spiral

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A living map for those moving through a threshold — when the old way of being no longer holds and something new is asking to emerge.

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There are moments in life when the maps that once guided us stop making sense.

An identity changes.
A relationship ends or transforms.
Motherhood alters everything.
A career no longer fits.
The body begins speaking in ways we cannot ignore.
Something within us awakens, while something else needs to be released.

These experiences can feel disorienting.

But what if they are not signs that something has gone wrong?

What if they are part of a deeper process of transformation?

This is the territory of the Ancient Mother Spiral©.

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A Different Way of Understanding Change

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The Ancient Mother Spiral is a framework I have developed to understand transformation as spiralic rather than linear.

We are often taught to think of healing as a straight line:

problem → treatment → solution → healed.

But human transformation rarely works this way.

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We return.

We revisit.

We descend.

We discover something we could not see before.

We let go.

We emerge differently.

A familiar pattern may return, but we are no longer quite the same person meeting it.

The Spiral honours this movement.

It offers a way of understanding the seasons of profound change without reducing them to failure, relapse or something that needs to be fixed.

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The Ancient Mother

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The “Ancient Mother” is not a religious figure or something you need to believe in.

She is an archetypal image.

She represents the deep intelligence of the generative, cyclical and life-giving dimensions of existence — the part of us that knows how to gestate, descend, compost, birth and renew.

She reminds us that not everything needs to be rushed into visibility.

Some things need darkness.

Some things need silence.

Some things need time.

Like the earth receiving a seed, transformation often begins long before we can see what is taking shape.

The Ancient Mother offers an alternative to the relentless demand to perform, achieve and constantly become more.

She invites us into another rhythm:

descent → gestation → emergence → integration.

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The Eight Movements of the Spiral

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The Ancient Mother Spiral moves through eight interconnected Rites of Passage- eternally unfolding in one another for the span of our lives.

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They are not steps to complete.

You may move between them, return to them or experience several at once.

01 — Awakening

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Something begins to stir.

You may sense that the life you have been living no longer quite fits.

A question emerges.

A longing becomes impossible to ignore.

Something in you begins calling for change.

Capacity: Calling - and begin to form what i call "Somatic Placenta@

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02 — Gestation

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Something new is forming, but it may not yet have language.

This can be a time of uncertainty, waiting and listening.

The temptation is often to rush towards an answer.

Instead, we learn to allow something to develop in its own time.

Capacity we develop here: Listening. True Listening 

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03 — Descent

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We enter the deeper layers.

Old patterns, grief, fear, rage, trauma and previously hidden material may emerge.

This can feel like moving backwards.

But descent can also bring us closer to what has been asking to be witnessed.

Capacity: Descent; finding comfort in discomfort ( its VERY possible!)

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04 — Crowning

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Something begins to emerge.

A new understanding.

A new voice.

A new relationship with yourself.

A new way of inhabiting your life.

The old identity may no longer fit, while the new one is still becoming.

Capacity: Embodiment; & Somatics ; integrate insights ,soul imagery, dream symbols into the Body..

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05 — Surrender

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We begin to release the need to control exactly how transformation should unfold.

Some identities, stories and ways of protecting ourselves may no longer be necessary.

Surrender is not giving up. It is Courage performed. It is ferocious faith to our inner intelligence. 

It is learning to stop fighting what is already changing.

Capacity: Reweaving - and developing a  Reciprocity with Life.

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06- Expansion( Re)-Birth - Will

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What has been integrated begins to move beyond the self.

There is a widening ;a sense of becoming more available to life, relationship, creativity and possibility.

Expansion is not about becoming bigger or achieving more. It is about allowing the wisdom gathered through the journey to flow outward into the way you live, love, create and contribute.

Capacity: Expression & Expansion , Orient to Life from the Subtle -Living Body Integration.

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07 — Holy Union

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The parts begin to come into relationship.

Rather than returning to who you were before, you begin to inhabit a greater sense of wholeness.

The psychological, embodied, relational and spiritual dimensions of your life can begin to speak to one another.

This is not a final destination.

The Spiral continues.

Capacity: Integration

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From Separation to Belonging

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At the heart of the Ancient Mother Spiral is a movement I describe as:

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From Separation → Towards Belonging

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Separation can take many forms.

Feeling separate from your body.

Separate from your emotions.

Separate from your intuition.

Separate from other people.

Separate from nature.

Separate from your own sense of meaning.

Sometimes we learn to survive by disconnecting from parts of ourselves.

The Spiral offers another possibility.

Rather than forcing these parts back together, we create the conditions for relationship.

We listen.

We witness.

We reconnect.

We reweave.

And gradually, a deeper sense of belonging may emerge.

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The Spiral Is Not Another Therapy Technique

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The Ancient Mother Spiral is not a treatment protocol and it is not something you need to believe in before working with me.

It is the framework I use to orient myself to the deeper movements that can occur during therapeutic work and profound life transitions.

Your journey will never be forced into the stages.

Your experience comes first. My job is to get out of the way.

Sometimes we may consciously draw upon the Spiral.

At other times, it may simply sit quietly underneath the work as a way of understanding what is unfolding.

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The Spiral and the Body

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Transformation isn't only something that happens in the mind.

The body often knows before the conscious mind does.

A tightening.

A softening.

A sense of expansion.

A heaviness.

A sudden wave of grief.

A feeling of coming home.

This is why embodiment is central to my work.

We don't only ask:

“What do you think?”

We also become curious about:

“What are you noticing?”

“What is happening in your body?”

“What happens when you stay with that experience?”

The body becomes part of the conversation.

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The Spiral and the Wider World

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The Ancient Mother Spiral also grew from my own questioning of the cultural stories we inherit.

So much of contemporary life rewards linearity:

produce → achieve → progress → succeed.

But human beings are cyclical.

Nature is cyclical.

Birth, death, grief, creativity, motherhood, relationships and identity all contain cycles of emergence and dissolution.

The Spiral invites us to remember these rhythms.

Not as an escape from ordinary life, but as a different way of inhabiting it.

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How I Use the Spiral in My Work

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The Spiral may become a way of:

• understanding what is happening during a major life transition

• making sense of experiences that feel confusing or disorienting

• recognising when an old identity is beginning to change

• working compassionately with recurring patterns

• creating practices for embodiment and integration

• exploring grief, rage, belonging and transformation

• honouring the need for both descent and emergence

It gives us a map without turning your journey into a prescription.

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You Don't Have to Be a “Spiritual Person”

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You don't need to identify as spiritual, mystical or religious to find this framework meaningful.

The Spiral can simply be understood as a way of thinking about human transformation.

If spiritual experience is important to you, there is room for that.

If it isn't, the work remains grounded in your lived experience, psychology, embodiment and relationship.

There is no belief system you need to adopt.

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The Invitation is very simple: 

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Perhaps you are standing at a threshold.

Perhaps something is ending.

Perhaps something is beginning.

Perhaps you simply know that the old map no longer works.

You don't need to know where the Spiral is taking you.

You only need enough curiosity to take the next step.

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If you would like to explore this work with me

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The Ancient Mother Spiral is woven into my wider therapeutic practice rather than offered as something you need to choose separately.

Explore Individual Psychotherapy →

Or, if you are curious about the deeper questions of consciousness and identity that can sometimes emerge through this work:

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