I guess I have always related to that idea that heaven and earth have cycles as do people, and that life flows best when all those cycles can work in harmony. Having a regular time each month when full sexual intercourse is precluded does not mean that any kind of sexual activity cannot occur. There are plenty of other ways to share lovemaking. Due to a woman’s normally high libido around the time of ovulation, it is natural that she might feel like initiating sex at this time. Rather than suppressing the urge with an “all or nothing” approach, for a woman to still express her sexuality at fertile times without the risk of penetration, natural fertility management will only work if both partners are honestly committed to sharing the concept and the responsibility. A woman needs to feel confident that her partner will not pressure her to take chances, or end up feeling frustrated about using a form of contraception he may not understand, trust completely or see the necessity for. Conversely, a man needs to trust that his partner will not “trick” him into unwanted fatherhood.

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These are important relationship issues, and these basic matters of trust need to be dealt with alongside the journey of biological understanding and self discipline required. In other words, natural fertility is an opportunity and a challenge for a relationship to mature and deepen.
   Natural fertility awareness, in team with a tantric approach to sex (see Chapter 2 – “Tantra and The Sexes”, from page 52 onwards), allows for any or all the 3 purposes of love making to be enacted at any time of the month – procreation, pleasure and self transcendence. Perhaps the most beautiful outcome of the real knowledge a woman gains of her body by using natural fertility, is that when the time comes for her to have a child, the couple simply inverts the emphasis of their sexual activity from contraception to conception. She can then be confident she has an undisturbed reproductive system and that she will be able to intuitively initiate sex at the optimum time for a successful and conscious conception.

	~Conscious Conception ~ The Yogic Approach~

Realising Your Maternal Destiny
   For some women, their maternal destiny has been known since childhood. For others it becomes clear as they approach their childbear-ing years. And sadly, there are others for whom the truth of the matter remains hidden, even well into their years of mothering. Resolving such matters is not just a simple question of whether or not one should

become a mother per se, but involves issues of how many children you should have, when and with whom, and so on. It involves discovering your capacity, your aptitude, and your innate qualifications for motherhood. (No one is able to judge these by the way – except you). Dealing with this issue and all its ramifica-tions is actually an ongoing discovery. It is just as important to explore your calling to motherhood whilst your children are growing up, as it is during a pregnancy, or prior to your first conception.
   Whilst there are women who are totally fulfilled by what motherhood has brought them, at the other extreme it is not unkind nor untrue to say that there are mothers today who are sorry they ever were. And in between these two groups is the ocean of many, many more who are ambivalent about, or who fluctuate in their assessment of, that state called motherhood in which they (literally) find themselves. Why are there so many unfulfilled mothers? Wherein lies the cause of the dissatisfaction so many feel?
   I think that today, so many women are swept along with the prevailing social attitudes to womanhood and motherhood. Many have lost their inner bearings. Overtly and covertly, many are being