We can find cycles everywhere – the journey through each day and night, the passage of the moon every month, the orbit of the earth around the sun each year and the stages of our lives on earth.
[Image of the passage of the moon via http://likesuccess.com/img4397856%5D
Women are blessed with their own personal cycles, the menstrual which culminates with a period of menstruation or moontime.
In her ground-breaking work “Her Blood Is Gold“, Laura Owen suggests that in ancient cultures, for example in some of the Native American Indian tribes, there was reverence for the mystery and magic of menstruation. Women honoured this time as a period of natural purification, rest and renewal.
However, sadly, much of the knowledge of these ancient traditions have been lost or may even have been twisted into ‘invented traditions‘, as a result of the devastating impact of colonialism in the USA and Australia and the African Diaspora.
Fast forward to the present day and the current prevalent attitude to menstruation in society is overwhelmingly negative and shameful. These are just a handful of English slang terms for menstruation.
Menstruation is seen as a curse, as dirty, inconvenient and shameful. There is an overwhelming focus on the misery of Pre Menstrual Syndrome, during which time women are ridiculed and belittled as being “bitchy” and “crazy”. It’s even now being used as a tool to question a woman’s competence in the workplace.
[IMAGE: from Julius Willis via https://juliuswillis.com/2016/07/30/why-thin-skinned-donald-trump-felt-hurt-when-nothing-nice-was-said-about-him-at-the-dnc-convention-or-why-he-deserves-what-was-said-of-him/]
Unsurprisingly, in this context, many women seek to delay, suppress or even eliminate their cycles with drugs, handing control of their bodies, happiness and brains to pharmaceutical companies.
But.
What if women who are experiencing painful menstrual symptoms are actually receiving a message to slow down, honour their cycle and start paying more attention to what’s going on in the bodies?
What if, as Laura Owen wrote, moontime is an opportunity for women to connect with their power and intuition?
Shifting from crashing through life without care for the messages my body was trying to deliver, to living in harmony with the changes in rhythm of my body over the month has been a hugely positive shift for me. Making these changes didn’t actually require much effort and actually felt much easier than fighting my cycle.
I recognise my worth and honour my cycle. I don’t give anyone permission to make me feel ashamed of my body and my bodily functions.
I rest, take care of myself and schedule longer time to sleep more. It was actually a revelation to give myself permission to skip the gym in order to conserve energy. Meditations and dreams are definitely more powerful at this time.
I’m aware that my body is purifying and renewing so this is a good time to “let go” of anything else that no longer serves me, for example old patterns, habits and thoughts.
[Image & Quote by Roxana Jones via https://healthruwords.com/inspirational-pictures/hunters-moon/%5D
Sources:
Owen, Laura. Her Blood Is Gold: Celebrating the Power of Menstruation. San Francisco: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993.
http://www.taraka.pl/moon_time_is_blessing
subtle power 