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LOGO & NAME HISTORY Matrix is defined as something within which something else develops or originates, in other words, the uterus. The logo of Matrix Midwifery Enterprises, Ltd., represents the Great Mother Goddess holding developing humanity in her arms. The arms of the Great Mother, the cycles of women, one blade of the labrys as a symbol of transformative power and protection (see below) and the circle of life are all symbolized by the waxing crescent moon. The baby is lavender pink, which is the approximate color of all babies in utero. The cord is floating free and away from the pelvis. The arms and hands are away from the face, allowing the head to flex unimpeded by little fists. The baby is in an occiput anterior position, which allows most women to give birth easily.
In addition, the labrys was carried by the legendary all-women Amazon warrior tribes whose stories are found in the myths of ancient Greece, Rome, Africa, Asia Minor and Crete. The word Amazon has been translated as “a match for men,” symbolism which speaks powerfully to the position which the midwifery model of care holds in relationship to the patriarchal medical model. Feminist philosopher and writer Mary Daly sees the labrys as a symbol of feminist truth seeking: . . . we often refer to the labrys as a feminist symbol. . . . an image that points beyond itself to deep Reality. When we activate its Metaphoric Potential, however, we whirl it, hurl our Selves with it. As Metaphor it carries us into new Realms, and it changes our perceptions, our be-ing. Used metaphorically, it is an instrument of change, of Metamorphosis. Flying with it, we shift from circular reasoning to Spiraling E-motional knowing and action. (Daly, 1984) . . . many women who have experienced, as a result of coming to feminist consciousness, a burning desire to study, have found that precisely because of this deep awareness, patriarchal “education” is almost too disgusting to endure.. . . Words/labels often stop thinking/imagining/conquesting. We must break their mindbinding power. Sometimes it is necessary to reject them entirely; in other instances we prune them into adequate instruments, so that they will point the way into the Background, rather than blocking it. For this purpose, Crones need to sharpen our minds/wits so that they become the Sacred Double Axes of Amazons. The A-mazing Female Mind is the Labrys that cuts through the double binds and doublebinding words that block our breakthrough to understanding radical feminist friendship and sisterhood. (Daly, 1978) It is in this spirit of breaking though patriarchal perceptions in
medicine and maternity care and thereby re-turning to our ability to
think things through for ourselves and re-member the Background wisdom
from our ancient midwifery heritage that these books are written.
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The publishing branch of Matrix Midwifery is called Labrys Press. The
labrys is the sacred double-headed axe which was the scepter of the
ancient Amazonian Goddesses who were worshiped under the various names
of Gaea, Rhea, Demeter and Artemis. Gaea was the Mother Earth, the
“Deep-breasted One.” Rhea, the Aegean Universal Mother or Great
Goddess of Crete, was an early form of the Moon-goddess Diana, a goddess
of the hunt and of childbirth. The name Demeter derives from the
Greek meter for mother, De is the delta, or triangle, a female-genital
sign known as the letter of the vulva. Demeter was known in Asia as the
doorway of the Mysterious Feminine. . . the root from which Heaven and
Earth Sprang. The triangle-door-yoni symbolized Demeter’s triune
attributes of Virgin, Mother and Crone or Creator, Preserver,
Destroyer. Artemis, the Mother of Creatures, was an Amazonian
Moon-goddess who was also worshiped under the Latin name Diana. (Walker,
1996)
