Honoring Your Blood Cycle

For thousands of years, women were revered for their supernatural and life-giving powers due to a woman’s ability to bleed every month without dying and to create new life in her belly. A woman’s womb hold the mysteries of life and death itself.

In these ancient societies, each phase of a woman’s menstrual cycle is honored and celebrated most especially her bleeding time. Menstruating women were given the privilege to take refuge in menstrual huts (or red tent) along with other menstruating women in the community. These menstrual huts were specifically created to give women a safe space to perform rituals of personal renewal and gain access to spiritual wisdom that is otherwise not available to them outside of their moon time.

With the rise of patriarchy, these teachings and practices have been lost and forgotten. Women were shamed for their period and brainwashed to thinking that their menstrual blood is impure. Menstruation was perceived as an obstacle to productivity especially in a fast-paced culture that gives no or little value to rest and recreation. These ideologies have resulted in too many women experiencing a disconnect from their own bodies and being cut off from their magic. They got disconnected from the flow of life.

MENSTRUATION & INNER WINTER

Menstruation was originally a sacred time of renewal for women. It begins on the first day a woman bleeds and can last anywhere from 3-7 days. The menstrual phase is the beginning and the end of the menstrual cycle and is often associated with the dark moon phase–the 3 days before the new moon.

The invitation of this phase is to slow down, go inward, and nurture oneself. It is a time when a woman’s intuitive and psychic gifts are at its peak and she is able to access altered and expanded states of awareness with greater ease. This is the time for saying ‘no’ to the world and saying ‘yes’ to herself. When a woman retreats from the world and take time to connect deeply to herself, she is able to receive guidance and inspiration for what she needs to attend to in the month ahead.

In our modern culture, menstruation is often painted and associated with dark feelings such as anxiety, depression, anger, and irritability. However, these are just the body’s natural response in retaliation to its need for rest and repair not honored.

During menstruation, a woman experiences an emotional and mental death that happens through physical release. This is the time for performing ceremonies about letting go, cleansing, and purification. These rituals are truly powerful and transformational work that were practiced for over 5000 years and have been forgotten in our modern times.

SACRED CEREMONY SUGGESTION: Find an intimate space in nature and make an offering to the earth using either your own menstrual blood or red wine (any red liquid can be used as a substitute). You can also release your offering into the soil of a potted plant if you don’t have access to the outdoors. As you pour your liquid offering to the earth, hold the intention of releasing any beliefs or emotions that are no longer supporting your highest good so Mother Earth can transform and transmute these energies. As you release the old, begin to welcome a new dream or vision for yourself and for the planet and plant this symbolic seed deep into your womb space.

FOLLICULAR PHASE & INNER SPRING

Right after menstruation until before ovulation is the second phase in the menstrual cycle called pre-ovulation or follicular phase. While during menstruation a woman experiences her ‘Inner Winter’, the next phase is her ‘Inner Spring”.

This is the season of rebirth and the opportunity for a woman to re-choose her life and see the world with fresh eyes as indicated by the rise of the hormone estrogen. The energy builds up in her body like the waxing phase of the moon. Her capacity to care for the welfare of others returns. She feels motivated and this is a good time to nurture creative ideas that are wanting to be born.

With the momentum and anticipation quickly building up, it is easy for a woman to be tempted to splurge all of this new energy at once. The invitation and the challenge of this phase is to learn how to conserve and spend her energy wisely in order to pace herself. By learning to conserve her energies during the follicular phase, she has enough energy reserves that she can utilize during ovulation.

SACRED CEREMONY SUGGESTION: This phase is all about watering the symbolic seed of your vision as it gently grows inside your belly. Make time for daily meditations when you can place both of your hands over your womb while imagining and dreaming your world into being. In this meditative state, slowly give your vision some form and details as you say affirmations or decree to energize your intention. Allow yourself to receive guidance and inspiration on how to prepare for your next right action. Do this until you arrive at the ovulation phase when you will have the opportunity to birth this energy into tangible form.

OVULATION & INNER SUMMER

The third phase and the peak of the menstrual cycle is the ovulation phase where a woman is wholly connected to her radiance. This is her ‘Inner Summer’ as she is experiencing heightened sensuality, confidence, magnetism, and bursting with fertility. This phase lasts for about 10 days.

During the ovulation phase, she is a total powerhouse as there’s nothing she cannot accomplish during this time. This is the season for her to really go for what she wants and finally give birth to a creative idea that she has been gestating since the start of her moon cycle (or conceive a baby). Just remember to enjoy and have fun while being productive. Why not? The motto of this particular phase is YOU CAN HAVE IT ALL!

The ovulation phase corresponds to the full moon in the lunar cycle. This is a very auspicious time for a woman to perform ceremonies on manifestation and drawing in what she desires towards herself just like how the full moon influences the ocean tides.

SACRED CEREMONY SUGGESTION: It’s time to fully affirm and ‘give birth’ to your vision. What does your vision look like in tangible form? You may want to create a physical representation of what you’ve been dreaming into being since your period and throughout the follicular phase.  You may choose to draw it, paint it, bake it, sew it, or even create a 3D art form. By creating a physical representation, you are symbolically giving birth to your intention, vision, or dream. Place this object in your altar as you energize your intention and act as if it has already manifested.

LUTEAL PHASE & INNER AUTUMN

Just before menstruation commences is a woman’s ‘Inner Autumn’, also referred to as the luteal phase. This marks the sacred transition from her most fertile phase of the cycle to her ‘Inner Winter Season’. The luteal phase is perhaps the most misunderstood and mismanaged phase in the entire menstrual cycle and yet this phase comes bearing some very important gifts when its power is properly understood.

During the luteal phase, a woman may feel her energies are slowly being pulled inwards as her desire to care for others lessens like the waning moon in the night sky. She may experience an impulse to tidy up her physical surroundings and organize her life as she prepares for a brand new cycle that begins at menstruation. This is also a good time to start setting stronger boundaries so she can focus more on her personal renewal.

She may feel extra sensitive at this time and her instincts sharper than ever. Her intuition is specially heightened during the luteal phase allowing her to pierce through the veils of deceit and illusions and see the truth of the matter. This is due to the rise of the hormone progesterone during the luteal phase. Progesterone has a healing and regenerating effect on the brain cells and tissues and an increase in progesterone helps women think clearer and more critically during this phase of her cycle. If she has been struggling with a decision, this is the time to seek clarity and discernment as she becomes a natural at seeing both sides of a situation during her pre-menstrual phase.

Like the goddess Persephone of myth, she makes her descent into her personal underworld where she has the opportunity to confront her inner demons and tend to those parts of herself that are unloved and unhealed. It is important that she stays present throughout this rather emotionally confusing time of her cycle so that she can give voice to these suppressed parts of herself for better understanding and total liberation.

SACRED CEREMONY SUGGESTION: After giving form to your vision, it’s time to celebrate what you have created. Create sacred space and offer your creation to the creative forces in deep gratitude and appreciation. This can be done by ceremonially offering the representation of your vision or intention to fire, burying it into the earth, or tossing it in a body of water. This is an act of divine surrender as you entrust your prayers and intent to the magic of the universe. If your intention hasn’t manifested yet, this is the time to release your attachments to the outcome and surrender your fears, worries, and frustrations to the Conscious Universe as well.

~From Harnessing the Gifts of the Menstrual Cycle for Healing, Renewal and Manifestation