Christine Marie Mason

Christine pulls back the curtains on women’s sexual and reproductive experiences across the lifecycle. The old archetypes of maiden (ready to bear children but still virginal), matron (mother) and crone (no longer able to bear children) that define women’s stages as solely related to their bearing capacity. These are no longer valid. As women live longer and claim their pleasure and purpose for them- selves, we are healing individual and collective trauma, having richer experiences of life in a body from birth to death, normalizing conversation between men and women, improving communication between generations and ultimately preparing the way for a balanced male-female leadership in all parts of society. Naming and understanding the fullness of each of these life cycles accelerates this path.

In every great justice movement throughout history, there are people who knew what needed to be done, decades before a concept went mainstream. These early advocates (for women’s rights, children’s rights and more) faced numerous threats and opposition. How did they do it? How did they stay brave and purposeful and impactful? Christine distills 700 pages of research and 1st person interviews on these questions, identifying common threads and takeaways, a sort of blueprint for helpful inner qualities and practical skills for those who want to make a more equitable world for everyone.

This talk starts with play—we run through five or six selections from the more than 100 interventions in the 9 gifts—we move, we make sound, we connect, we breathe, we look together at the wonder of the world. Christine takes us through the things that work to change our state of mind, and give us some data and neuroscience on why they work. Our birthright as natural beings is equanimity and ease and delight, even in the midst of difficulty, and we can reclaim it.