For someone so conscious this was extremely out of character. For all other ailments you’d find me inquiring into my body – seeing a kinesiologist, changing my diet, doing EFT (emotional freedom technique). You name it, I’d try it. Anything to learn the lesson and free myself from pain. But when it came to my womb, it was as if some part of me was saying, ‘This is your lot, this is what you have to endure because you are a woman.’ And so for four days every month my body went into survival mode. I pushed it down and silenced the moans that my body longed to make. With every new year the pain got fiercer, my womb making more and more of an effort to get my attention. It took almost 20 years of increased monthly agony for me to allow myself finally to listen to what She was trying to tell me.
Period pain is our womb talking to us. The feminine trying to get our attention. It’s linked to our lineage, both family and soul, so many of us are carrying pain and fear from times past – ours and that of those who came before us (ancestral line). Unexpressed anger, rage and remembering of times where stuff happened to women and our bodies that just was not right. In my work I have found that many of the women who are here to do the work of the rising feminine suffer greatly with menstruation. It’s time that we heal the pain, shame, and suffering carried in the collective female consciousness.
My cycle has been such a rich teacher and self-development tool. The thought that I ignored it for so long saddens me. The fact that we don’t learn this stuff in school makes me angry. The fact that so many of us hold shame and disgust about something that is such a normal thing and a potent guide baffles me. The female cycle should be celebrated, not hushed and kept hidden. When we tap into the flow of our body’s cycles, we enter into a magnificent dance with all of life.
My CEO from my first job out of university was a serious powerhouse. One of the few women right up the top of the ladder in the industry and my first corporate female role model. One evening she found me keeled over by the pain of my period. I was horrified that she had caught me, until she confessed that she suffered in the same way. She said that acupuncture and Chinese medicine helped some, but even still she had to turn down some serious jobs because she knew she wouldn’t be on her game for five days each month.
We shared a moment of deep sisterhood that day and a joint pain of the cost of a patriarchal corporate system that didn’t honor the cyclic nature of our bodies.
In ancient times, when women had their period, they would retreat from the rest of the village into a Red Tent while they bled. It was thought that when women bled they were at their most potent and closest to the Goddess. Most women bled in sync so this was a time when women would rest, connect, rejuvenate, heal, let go, and bleed on behalf of the community. Stories would be shared and a sacred sisterhood formed. I believe that at root level, this is something that women of our era deeply yearn for without realizing. It is through the sharing of stories that wisdom is passed down and we connect with our fellow sisters as We, not She vs. Me.
The rise of female entrepreneurs running online businesses from home and corporations offering remote working is a great step in the direction of giving us the freedom to honor our bodies and prioritize our wellbeing. However as women who have worked in the corporate world, we need to be careful that we don’t just take the existing patriarchal corporate models and enforce them in our home-based businesses too. We need to create new models of working that honor the cyclic nature of our bodies.
I now don’t book client sessions, interviews, or meetings on the days that I am bleeding, in the knowledge that this is when my wisdom is most potent for more on this). On these days I bunker up ready to receive the blueprint for the month ahead: concise clarity on decisions I need to make, and ready to receive downloads in full.
So many women hold unexpressed emotions such as fear, pain, anger, and grief in their womb. Often it’s not even ours, rather something we have inherited, passed down to us through our ancestral lines from earlier times. When women had no choice but to contain our sexuality, power, wisdom, rage, and voice. When our bodies were not our own. When our Shakti was taken rather than honored.
Many women I know, who are doing the work of the feminine, have had their wombs talk to them through physical period pain, endometriosis, polycystic ovaries or other dis-ease. It’s as if they are carrying the pain and suffering of not only their lineage but of all women too.
The thing that spurred the healing of my female cycle was receiving the 13th rite of the Munay-Ki: The Rite of the Womb. This rite was passed down to shaman Marcela Lobos in 2014 from the women of a Peruvian tribe called the Munay-Ki – a lineage which has freed itself from suffering. These women want all of us to remember:
‘The womb is not a place to store fear and pain.
The womb is a place to create and give birth to life.’
Once a woman has received the rite she is encouraged to share it with other women. If you would like to find out more about receiving the Rite of the Womb, go to www.riteofthewomb.com or if you attend a Rise Sister Rise workshop or retreat, come up and ask to receive it.
RISE SISTER RISE
What is your relationship with your period?
What is your womb trying to tell you?
If you experience pain, whose pain is it that you are holding?
What is your womb trying to free you from?
THE FOUR STAGES OF WOMANHOOD AND UNLOCKING THE POWER OF YOUR PERIOD
‘I bleed every month and do not die. How am I not magic?’
NAYYIRAH WAHEED
The Maiden, the Mother, the Wild and Wise Woman, and the Crone signify the four main stages that women journey through over the duration of our lives.
These periods of transition are generally marked by four significant life-changing events: menstruation; sex or marriage (or partnership); childbirth; and menopause. In ancient times, they were also marked with ceremony and ritual that ushered in each new life stage. That is, women were initiated into each stage of womanhood. Today these transitions are rarely honored in a sacred way, and thus many of us fall short of transitioning fully into our womanhood. This period of history needs fierce women in their power, who have crossed the threshold from girlhood and been initiated into womanhood.
Our menstrual cycle is connected to the phases of the moon and, as the moon waxes and wanes, our bodies also transition through the four archetypes of womanhood each and every month. As the moon controls our cycles, the more attention we put on harmonizing our monthly cycles, the more in sync with the Universe we become, and the more in sync with all of Life we feel.
Journeying through each stage of womanhood each month can feel as if we are having the rug pulled out from underneath us. In a way we are. But if we begin to see this process as an invitation to reclaim all aspects of who we are as a woman each month, everything changes. Your period then becomes a monthly initiation in deepening your potency as a wise, creative, powerful woman. Before I began working on my cycle I felt like a crazy woman every month. One moment I would be happy and excited about the future, the next I’d be sensitive and wanting to hide from the world. One week I’d be caring and encouraging and the next I’d be wanting to burn everything down. Tuning in to the significant, subtle changes our cycle takes us in every month, and how each of these stages relates to the different archetypes of being a woman, the whole thing makes so much more sense (and you feel a lot less crazy).
Working with your cycle you will be able to awaken the untapped power that perhaps you didn’t know you had and be able to tune in to the fierce feminine wisdom that all women have access to.
Here are the four main female stages of womanhood and how they relate to our monthly cycles.
1. The Maiden (pre-ovulation)
The Maiden is young, enthusiastic, strong, independent, determined, excitable, hopeful, courageous, energized, boundless, and positive. Full of ideas and excited about the future, what she lacks in years, she makes up in enthusiasm and zest for life. The Maiden is the Virgin, the i
nnocent part of us that sees potential in everything. She is a woman one-in-herself. She sees the magic in everything.
Shadow Maiden: Naive, self-centered, impressionable, inexperienced, lacking confidence, too many ideas, spends lots of time in thought, good at starting things but lacks drive to finish them, full of hope and big ideas but easily discouraged as they are not fully grounded yet; a tendency to overcommit, she says yes because she gets overexcited or doesn’t want to miss out
Season: Spring (full of possibility)
Element: Air
Moon phase: Waxing/New moon
Rite of passage: Menarche (getting your period, becoming a woman)
Idols: Brighid, Athena, Priestess, Ostara, Persephone
Notes for Rising
This is the time for coming up with lots of ideas, playing and dreaming about what could be without restriction. Write your dreams, make your plans, the sky is the limit.
2. The Mother (ovulation)
The Mother is the fertile part of us, the part of us that births things into the world for real. She is compassionate, protective, nurturing, devotional, understanding, encouraging, and big-hearted. She is loving and nurturing, but also committed to doing whatever it takes to get the job done. She is able to take the energy and enthusiasm of the Maiden and turn it into focused action. Able to birth both life and creations into the world. Manifesting thought and concept into form.
Shadow Mother: Overprotective, smothering, forgetting to look after self, controlling, codependence, abandoning, exhaustion, doesn’t know when to stop, making others feel guilty for not needing her
Season: Summer (everything is fertile)
Element: Fire
Moon phase: Full moon
Rites of passage: Marriage (or partnership) and birth (both life and more metaphorically e.g. birthing a creation)
Idols: Isis, Gaia, Mother Mary, Hathor, Quan Yin, Amma, Demeter, Rhea
Notes for Rising
You’re likely to feel and look at your best here. This is the ideal time to commit to what is rising in you and go about making it happen for real. Launch the program, write the book, host the event.
3. The Wise, Wild Woman (premenstrual)
The Wise, Wild Woman is uninhibited and wise. She has journeyed through Maidenhood and Motherhood, knows who she is and isn’t afraid to show it. Also known as the Medicine Woman or the Healer, she is in touch with and recognized for her inner medicine and magic. She knows her worth, is guided by her intuition and calls upon it regularly.
There is a certain ruthlessness about her because she can see through what is important and what isn’t. You can’t pull the wool over her eyes, she knows her power and she demands your respect. If you push her or do not respect her she will react and it might not be pretty. She’s fierce. She’s not afraid of what people think. She’s not afraid to do what it takes to get what she wants.
Shadow Wild Woman: Crazy, ruthless, angry, jealous, vindictive, impatient, blunt, end justifies the means
Season: Fall/autumn (things are falling away)
Element: Water
Moon phase: Waning moon
Rites of passage: Significant loss or mourning, such as death, loss of job, separation, an emotional ending, children leaving home; Saturn returns, being initiated by a mentor or teacher
Idols: Artemis, The Wolf, Kali, Tara, Saraswati, witch, healer, medicine woman
Notes for Rising
This is the best place to let things go, to refine, perfect, and refocus. Dance, sing, or do whatever you can to express and transmute your feelings into passion. It’s a great time to de-clutter your life, negotiate fiercely, protect your boundaries, and create powerful and authentic work.
4. The Crone (menstruation)
In ancient societies the Crone was highly revered, however today she is often not given the reverence she deserves. She is the wisdom keeper, the one who has the ultimate perspective and has nothing left to prove. She is able to see with absolute clarity and advise in a selfless way, as she has no ulterior motives. She has a certain patience about her, having been through it all herself, and no longer cares what people think.
The Crone is the part of us that is most potent in her wisdom. Is able to see through all inauthenticity and patterns from afar. While the Maiden has an innocent purity about her, the Crone has a certain purity as well. She is closest to Source and in surrender to Life.
Shadow Crone: Brutal, hermit, crazy, unforgiving, judgmental, bitter, jaded, lonely, self-pitying, defeated
Period cycle: Menstruation
Season: Winter
Element: Earth
Moon phase: Dark/New moon
Rite of passage: Menopause
Idols: Vali Myers, Maya Angelou, Woman of the Mist, Baba Yaga, Fairy Godmother, Morrigan, Cerridwen, Hecate
Notes for Rising
This is the best part of your cycle during which to rest. Don’t believe you need to be physically active to be productive. It’s an amazing time to make a decision, get clarity on a future project or be with the energy of what is rising in you. Prior to working with my cycle, I dreaded the premenstrual (Wise, Wild Woman – fall/autumn) and menstruation (Crone – winter) parts of my cycle. I was much more comfortable in the pre-ovulation (Maiden – spring) and ovulation (Mother – summer).
However, after working with my cycle, I discovered that it was actually in fall/autumn (premenstrual) and winter (menstruation) that my hidden power lay. When I began honoring my body and listening to her pain during these times rather than numb or push on through, I was able to unlock a potent power within me that I now channel into my work. Even better, I was able to heal ancient patriarchal wounds around the shame of being a woman and reduce my period pain tenfold. I cannot believe I am saying this, but I now look forward to having my period.
If you have any problems or pains with your menstrual cycle, I so recommend that you continue this work in more depth. In doing so you will discover a deeper relationship to yourself, a compassion for your body, connection with the Earth, and to all women. I recommend the work of Lisa Lister and Alexandra Pope if you feel called to work with your female cycle.
RISE SISTER RISE
What is your relationship with your monthly cycle?
Do you currently track it? Are you in tune with
it? Do you feel as though the rug is being pulled
from underneath you on a regular basis?
Which part of your monthly cycle do you enjoy the
most – pre-ovulation (spring), ovulation (summer),
premenstrual (fall/autumn), menstruation (winter)?
Which part of your monthly cycle do you struggle with
the most – pre-ovulation (spring), ovulation (summer),
premenstrual (autumn), menstruation (winter)?
What is your body yearning for at these
times that you are not giving it?
What is the untapped power that this stage of
your cycle might hold for you if you listened to
your body and gave it what it needed?
BEING HUMAN IS HARD
No one is immune to life’s pleasures and pains. Earth is a planet of polarity and sometimes being human is HARD! The pleasures stretch our heart and the pains do exactly the same thing. We are here to grow through the pleasures and the pains. We cannot use spirituality to avoid the pains or to hold on to the pleasures forever. Oh cyclic nature of life, you get us every time.
The more time you have spent in spirit form, the more difficult you may find being in a human body. Many of us have incarnated on other planets where third-dimensional laws just don’t exist. This is one reason why we may feel so heavy, uncomfortable and trapped in our physical bodies, using food and other substances to check out or keep ourselves grounded.
So many of our souls are not anchored in our bodies. When we have our spiritual awakening, many get lost in the higher chakras, flying off into the cosmos remembering that we are spirit. However, we must not forget
that we chose to be here right now, to have this human experience, and so our purpose is to ground those spiritual energies in human form.
There are so many delights that this planet has to offer. Sex, falling in love, chocolate, the sheer beauty of roses, the pleasure of gravity as you jump off a rock into crystal-clear salt water, lying on hot sand and being held by Mother Earth, the magnificent design and taste of strawberries, raspberries and passion fruit (oh God passion fruit – if that was man-made we would be in utter awe).
The delights are endless and absolutely awe-worthy when you take a moment to truly taste, smell, hear, and see the beautiful wonder of planet Earth. It is easy to get lost in the pain and suffering that happens here, however, we must do our best not to busy ourselves too much that we miss the bountiful pleasures that She is serving us every moment of every day. Seek them and your spirit will be delighted to be grounded.
Sometimes when we experience great sadness or tragedy, it may cause a soul to want to leave the body. The best way to call it back is to lose yourself in the sheer delights of being human. To let nature coax you back into your body. To feel the sand beneath your toes. The sun on your skin. The taste of cacao melting on your tongue.
Bring yourself back into the pleasures of
being human by slowing down and noticing
the beauty that is surrounding you now.
RISE SISTER RISE
Buy yourself a passion fruit. Set aside a couple of minutes
Rise Sister Rise Page 9
