Hello, dear sister in Christ!

My name is Gina Lopez Solórzano, founder of New Earth Mothering Festival. I am a wife, homeschooling-homesteading mother of three littles, freebirth mentor, womb circle facilitator, nature therapy guide, and women’s rites of passage ceremonialist. Now I can add festival producer on top of that! I am also a Catholic convert from no religious upbringing. I was baptized and confirmed as a college student at a notoriously liberal university. #amazinggrace!

Before marriage and family life, I loved going to music festivals, and once I became a mother, I discovered family-friendly retreat-style festivals. I took my children and had a blast. I felt nourished and energized by the experience. There were musical performances, nourishing meals, outdoor activities, and workshops. I remember one workshop in particular. It was about connecting more deeply with your sexuality. (Yes, I brought my kids with me, but they were under 2 and we sat just outside the room.) I took away a few kernels of truth to apply to my relationship with my husband. But other than that, the workshop provided information and tips that were not in alignment with my Catholic faith. If fact, the workshop was based in the New Age, and the whole festival was new-agey, for that matter. I had fun, but I wondered how cool it would be if I could have as much fun in a Catholic context.

As far as I know, there are no Catholic events like this. I’ve been to women’s conferences and retreats before, but we are aiming to expand the Catholic women’s conference and retreat experience. From windowless church basements or hotel conference rooms, bagels and pastries, and sitting for hours in uncomfortable chairs listening to speakers to: beautiful nature-based settings, nourishing meals, and dynamic workshop and presentation spaces. Not only that, a free-spirited vibe. Camping, glamping, music around the campfire, drum circles, crafting, foraging, kids roaming free (under guided supervision) while you get to nourish yourself, women’s circles where we can be vulnerable and free, and sacred ceremonies to honor feminine rites of passage.

Yes, there are lovely women’s festivals that offer these experiences. But they all have a new-age vibe to them, whether as a whole or within a workshop or presentation. I’ve heard from other free-spirited women of faith friends of mine that they have seen questionable things at the women’s festivals they’ve been to. One anecdote that stands out to me is when a festival-goer was having some kind of mental or spiritual outburst and other festival-goers surrounded her offering witchy incantations. While the women were trying to help, little did they know, they were not helping the afflicted women or their own souls. Another thing I’ve heard about these women’s festivals is how abortion is celebrated or men pretending to be women are allowed into these women-only spaces. Not at New Earth Mothering Festival!

New Earth Mothering Festival was founded to provide Catholic women and other women of good will a women’s festival experience without the influence of New Age spirituality and witchcraft that other women’s festivals embrace. We embrace our Catholic Faith and reclaim for Mother Church what the New Age has distorted or doesn’t fully express, including the term “New Earth”!

While I’ve never dabbled in the New Age, I am familiar with New Age concepts, being that my interests in freebirth, essential oils, holistic health, feminine embodiment, food sovereignty, etc. overlap in New Age circles. And so, I’ve heard the phrase “new earth” in these contexts. And I said to myself, “Wait, isn’t that a biblical term?”

And that’s when I remembered my yearning for a faith-based women’s festival. That desire and this term were unified by the Holy Spirit in my heart. And thus, New Earth Mothering Festival was born.

If this resonates with you, you are my peoples! I want to meet you and sing and dance under the stars with you! Commune with Christ with you! Let’s do this thing! New Earth Mothering Festival is calling, so let’s go!

In Christ,