Ritual Of the Feminine

 RITUAL of the FEMININE

A dear friend I know posted a photo of herself on Facebook with a red dot on her forehead.
 The red dot was of her moon blood. 

 
She had been to a sacred circle of women the night before where in ritualistic ways they honored the female Luna cycle of bleeding each month and other aspects of the feminine.
With in the first day she received comments and a note from a particular male friend whom threatened to de-friend her for posting such a picture and making it public that she did such a thing.
"Go ahead and de-friend me" was her reply.

Yesterday I was in a school meeting with parents teachers and the school facilitators.
We were discussing solutions centered around empowering the children. I raised the subject on supporting the girls as a group with learning how to honor their body and celebrate their moon times when they arrive.
The reaction from the parents of the girls was to me concerning.
They arranged from shock, disbelief and extreme dis-comfort. 

And these were the parents with the girls.

This is how I see it.
Half the population on this planet bleed.
We bleed, we breed and the population of the world actually continues largely due to this incredible phenomena of menstruation. With out  a womb, a baby can not be conceived nor grow. With out menstruation the female body does not prepare itself for the growing of a a baby and with out that, we dwindle and die as a race. 

This of course does not take into consideration the fact of modern science producing artificle ways of re creating this process, but all in all, the former is basically how it works.

We have a society that already has it s head in the sand regarding the infiltration and wide spread of sexual abuse. As a common rule we still do not want to to talk about that too much either. It is uncomfortable. Of course it is. What is more uncomfortable is having to admit that continuing to go ahead as we are is not contributing to the solution.

 

A long side with many subjects that involve talking about the female body, being female and the danger we often feel we are in by just being in this world, the subject of our monthly bleeding cycles is one that many are uncomfortable to discuss or even hear about. And many of these people are women them selves. Mothers and Grandmothers that pass on the shame from generation to generation because that is all they know.

The propaganda of advertising lets us know how shameful our menzies are. Each time of the month we must must take pills so we can return to work instead of listening to the pain our bodies are using to bring attention to what is going on inside emotionally and/or physically.
Each month we must spray sweet smelling chemicals to hide our natural odor and use endless products to keep the shame away and throw it all in the bin. When we do bleed, many women keep it a secret and have been taught it is an inconvenience rather than a celebration.
We are taught to see it as something that stops us doing everything we want and not taught to use it as a time to reflect and honor our need to rest and be inward.

Sadly for a long time in many cultures girls and women are taught that our moon time is bothersome, a nuisance and even dirty.
This time is cloaked in shame with no rights of passage, no guidance and generally hidden away.
We are brought up to believe that menstruation is a biological disadvantage, making us emotional, unreasonable and unreliable workers.
The thought of even touching our own blood is inconceivable for many.  This shame then leads into our sexuality resulting in shame of our bodies at large and handing over our pleasure to the masculine as we go through our lives not knowing or connecting with our inner power and sacredness as women.

 

Our bleeding is a beautiful thing.
 It is our entry into womanhood.
 It is a thing to celebrate.
The arrival of our blood each month symbolizes the letting go from the womb the preparation of nurturing a baby. Instead, our blood can nurture mother earth and even ourselves.
“When the women of the world return their blood to the earth. Mother earth will know peace is on its way.” 
Your blood has powerful magical and spiritual properties. It will enrich and bless the land it is given back to.

Homeopathic remedies can be made with your own blood.
Placing your menstrual blood in the garden will add vitality to the soil and I have personally seen a garden of mine thrive once I placed my own blood into the soil every month.

Rituals centered around our monthly bleeding allow us to recognize and honor who we are as women. To honor the  monthly cycle our bodies move through for the purpose of creating life. Our blood represents our inner power as women.


Although there are many changes to our perception of how we raise our children and speak to our sons and daughters regarding the beautiful changes in our bodies, many of us are re writing the script form scratch.  

The step forward is to first imagine a culture that honors women's bleeding time as sacred. Then the next step is to initiate that.

Ignite this idea by stepping into your own sacred rituals and inviting your sisters to do the same. Invite mothers and daughters and share the beauty and sacred power of being a woman.  There use to be a time when a women's sexuality was not separate from spirituality. We have that in us so lets be together in bringing this back into our lives as we live abundantly and thrive.

Understand that a woman s bleeding time is of deep introspection, shedding outward responsibilities and time to retreat into your own world.
It is a time to reconnect with yourself and reflect.

"Blood mysteries teach that menstrual blood and birthing blood are holy blood, power blood, healing blood.

 The blood mysteries teach us to remember that life and healing come from and return to woman, to the wise woman, to the woman who bleeds and bleeds. 

And does not die.

 For more information of moon rituals you could take part in and create of yourself go to The Red Web Foundation , www.theredweb.org
Other references include
www.tribedemama.com
Daughter Of the Sun Blog spot.