Wisdom

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“You exist in time, but you belong to eternity. You are a penetration of eternity into the world of time. You are deathless, living in a body of death. Your consciousness knows no death, no birth, it is only your body that is born and dies, but you are not aware of your consciousness. You are not conscious of your consciousness, and that is the whole art of meditation; becoming conscious of consciousness itself.” ~ Osho

Flower Full Moon

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It's May, and that means that the Flower Moon will appear this week. This is a time of fertility and new growth, and May is a fiery month indeed -- full of lust and passion! In addition to the obvious sexual connections, this is a good time to focus on new beginnings in your career and finances. For magical workings, try a fire divination under the full moon, or do rituals related to jobs and prosperity. Take the seeds you planted in April, and watch them bloom this month, under the Flower Full Moon.

Wisdom

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"There is no one in the universe more dear to us than ourselves. The mind may travel in a thousand directions, but it will find no one else more beloved. The moment you see how important it is to love yourself, you will stop making others suffer." Thich Nhat Hanh

Song of the Goddess

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This song is ideal for processions, campfire nights, and big groups of happy women.

LET IT IN, LET IT GO


Let it in, let it go, round and round we flow


Weaving the web of women


Let it in, let it go, round and round we flow


Weaving the web of life

© 1998, Marie Summerwood

Taoist Wisdom

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Taoists say that the male is like fire and the woman is like water. The man’s fire (penis or lingam) boils the woman’s water (her womb or yoni). If the man is not trained in the art of lovemaking, her water will extinguish his fire. Thus, the soft and yielding (yin) can conquer the hard (yang), just as the proverbial flowing river conquers the hardest of rocks.

Taoists do not merely teach exercises to enhance the pleasure of partnership. They also encourage self-mastery and self-awareness for improved health and vitality. They clearly teach the importance of drawing in the sexual energy and experience, rather than focusing on sexual organs and external stimuli. Any focus on the sexual organs is used only to introduce the practitioner to more advanced concepts. Taoist master Mantak Chia says that the goal of Taoist sexual practices is like that of making chicken broth: If you boil a chicken in water and extract the vital essence into the water, which is more valuable, the chicken or the broth? Clearly, the Taoists believe the valuable energy generated during lovemaking is more vital to one’s well-being than the stimulation to the organs.

In the Taoist tradition, sexual energy is nurtured and valued for its role in the overall well-being of the body, mind, and spirit. It is the water of life, or life-giving essence, for all that exists in the material world. Taoists see sexual energy as the fuel behind the body’s chi (energy, vital essence or life-force). Stimulation of the sexual organs and sex glands enhances this life-force and thereby encourages the secretion of hormones from the other major endocrine glands (adrenal, thymus, thyroid, pituitary, and pineal). Therefore, Taoist sexual exercises assist in the production of potent hormones and stimulate the healthy function of the endocrine glands, the master controls of the body.

Taoists are emphatic about the value of semen retention, or in-jaculation. The ancient Taoist masters referred to a ten-day process that procured the invaluable results of ejaculation retention. In one ancient text they wrote:

“If a man has intercourse once without spilling his seed, his vital essence is strengthened. If he does this twice, his vision and hearing are made clearer. If three times, his physical illnesses will begin to disappear. The fourth time he will begin to feel inner peace. The fifth time his blood will circulate powerfully. The sixth time his genitals will gain new prowess. By the seventh his thighs and buttock (muscles and meridians) will become firm. The eighth time his entire body will radiate good health. The ninth time his life-span will be increased.”
–Canon of Taoist Wisdom

wellness

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Your Mind, Body & Spirit

• Remember that your body believes what you tell it and it will act accordingly.  Talk to your body (seriously!) and tell it want you want to occur and/or thank it for getting your attention.  Be positive when talking to your body and be grateful for the messages it sends you. 
• Daily Self-talk – Flood your mind with positive thoughts, peace, joy, happiness and comfort.
• Do your best to keep balance and harmony with all things.
• End the day with positive messages to yourself.  If you have children, this is an excellent time to talk to them and give them positive messages to sleep with.  Tell them that tomorrow will be a happy day, tell them how grateful you are, tell them the things you love about them, tell them that they are happy, healthy, strong, loving and whole.  Say the same things to yourself too!
• When you can, get outside and enjoy the fresh air.  If there is sun shining, make sure you enjoy it and soak up the vitamin D.  Be out in nature as much as possible.  Your body will thank you.
• Get some form of exercise, our bodies are not meant to be sedentary. 
• Make sure to get plenty of rest.  If you do get sick, honor your body by resting and sleeping as much as you need to.

Wisdom

"So many people are shut up all tight inside themselves like boxes, yet they would open up, unfolding quit wonderfully, if only you were interested in them." - Sylvia Plath

Mother Earth Day

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Our Lady of Everything Mother Earth, Goddess, Gaia, Pachamama, Nature, Grandmother, Hera, Isis, Demeter, Parvati, Shakti, Gayatri, and Mary are a few names which try to describe life force energy. 

"You can feel Love for Mother Earth and care deeply about her restoration to health and beauty, so envision Her in golden Light that touches All her life forms - the energy in those sensations and visualizations flows where it is most needed... " ✣ Suzy Ward

The Law of Ultimate Unity is also the scientific basis for a peaceful world. Only when we realize that all people are of One blood, One heart, One mind - can peace come to humanity. Happy Mother Earth  Day!

Full Moon Ritual

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Draw your hands to your heart. Massage this area. Imagine that you have become a Full Moon goddess, capable of balancing the earth and harmonizing its opposing forces. In particular you are tuned to the energies of Aries and Libra, the complementary energies of "me" and "we." Aries wonders, "Who am I?" Libra wonders, "Who are you—and how can we work together?" Aries is adventurous, individualistic, and trailblazing. Through Aries we feel our existence as an independent being, capable of taking action, without needing approval or support. Libra is harmonizing, beautifying, and partnership-oriented. Its primary purpose is sharing—ideas, experiences, space—with others. Aries and Libra are opposing signs, but together they make for a balanced world. Our Libran ability to relate to others is diminished without a secure sense of our own identity. Our Aries efforts are unsuccessful when we alienate others and are uncooperative. Full Moons bring an opportunity to balance and harmonize its opposing signs. Too much Aries and we’re combative, self-absorbed, impatient. Too much Libra and we’re indecisive, uncommitted, people-pleasing.

For the center of this ritual, imagine that the forces of Aries and Libra come to life in their archetypal form—as the Warrior and the Goddess. As you breathe in the weakness of each of these archetypes, you will breathe out the healing strength of the other.In this way, you will reconcile and balance these energies within yourself around the globe. Your sacred work has that power. Believe in it! Find a comfortable rhythm working with the images and your breath. Repeat the statements until you feel a transformation.

• Breathing in...
  The warrior, angry, lonely and in fear.

• Breathing out...
  The tender goddess, soothing the warrior
  with her healing touch.

More information at MoonCircle.

The labyrinth

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A labyrinth is an ancient symbol that relates to wholeness. It combines the imagery of the circle and the spiral into a meandering but purposeful path. The Labyrinth represents a journey to our own center and back again out into the world in the search of our divine feminine and sacred self. The Labyrinth Society talks about Labyrinths as Sacred Geometry and how the act of walking back and forth aids one in achieving resonance. "Sacred geometry is the act of studying the divine act of creation and then using that knowledge to create in the same way. By studying nature, we find that the basic building blocks of creation are geometric." This symbol resonates more for me than any circle journey.

The labyrinth has been able to offer comfort, healing, spiritual growth, and inner and outer peace to those that walk the twisting path. Many believe that whether one practices a specific religion or is just spiritual, the labyrinth can offer spiritual and inner growth that can add to the healing of the world. Phil Cousineau agrees, “As she covers the ground outwardly, so she advances fresh interpretations of herself inwardly.”

Remembering the Moon Lodge

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 by Jasmin Starrchild at Moon Woman Rising

Women of Moon Time were seen as holy vessels, sensitive to the subtleties around them, intuitive and in their power. Our purity was highly revered and protected. It was well known that such a woman was ripe and fertile. Her moon blood was a sign of her ability to create life.

Recently I was reminded just how badly some women have it each month as I approached a stoplight at the same moment as two women. One was severely relying on the other for balance and support. She could hardly walk and the whole situation had the appearance of a medical emergency. Making sure everything was alright, I found out that the woman in need of assistance was actually completely overwhelmed by her period and had to find her way home from work so that she could relax and deal with her pain.

This was an obvious reminder that we are already working hard enough when our bodies are menstruating. Not long ago women used to honour their monthly flow as a sacred time for ceremony. We lived in smaller communities and it was easier to be together and support each other during this period of time. It was normal, before artificial light, for women to be synchronized with the ebb and flow of the Moon's cycles. Most often we would all get our period during the Dark Moon.

Rights of passage or festive celebrations were common traditions marking a young girl's first blood. This was a wonderful way for families to bond and made it easy for the necessary teachings to be passed down. Mothers taught daughters peaceful and easy ways to embrace Moon Time. As a result this was a time in life that girls looked forward to as they entered womanhood and had that common bond.

The Moonlodge was formed to create a safe and sacred space for women of all ages to gather and release in a healthy way. The entire period was spent inside the lodge. As women reached their full power it was essential for them to be well protected, guided and nurtured, so Grandmothers and those who were still nursing would prepare meals and care for the occupants from outside of the lodge, creating healthy boundaries within the community. The Moonlodge became a safe haven for women and offered men time to themselves as their partners went through her process.

Women of Moon Time were seen as holy vessels, sensitive to the subtleties around them, intuitive and in their power. Our purity was highly revered and protected. It was well known that such a woman was ripe and fertile. Her moon blood was a sign of her ability to create life. Any man was proud to know a woman who sought time in the Moonlodge caring for herself and learning the good ways of woman ‘s medicine.

Inside the lodge long skirts were worn. The skirt is a symbol of the Medicine Wheel that surrounds us as we stand humbly in the centre. The skirt was also worn for ease and grace so that she could flow directly into the Earth by piling moss (or cedar or hay depending on the location) comfortably beneath her. These women were never judged and were welcome to go through their process however they chose.

The wise women would offer extra energy to those in need by leading songs, or telling truths. She who understood herself well could nurture others or offer peace and silence by simply witnessing another. This was also a powerful time for women to journey with the drum and rattles, bringing back visions for herself and her community. It was a time of prayer (and still can be). We would commonly use this time to craft and complete projects we had begun. All the while the main focus was always on releasing our natural flow in order to make way for what was to come. We were always grateful for the ability to let go and knew well the healing that was available to us if we focused with intention.

I believe we still can be grateful. Women, we can once again empower ourselves by reclaiming our Moon Time in a way that feels good. Wouldn't you rather curl up and read a book instead of plugging up your body with a bleach soaked tampon and dragging yourself to "work"? If we are the ones who chose to go to work, then we can also choose how we work. All of the men I have spoken with totally support us leaving for a few days each month to go through our process. In fact most men wish there was more they could do for us during our cycle, but it is up to us to take care of ourselves. We need to stop pretending that we don't all go through this each month, and remember what it is to bleed in a good way.

A large portion of what some term "P.M.S." (Pre Menstrual Syndrome) is actually circumstantial. Ask yourself if you were in the exact place you wanted to be during your period, would things seem as "bad"?

Here are some suggestions for anyone who may be looking for ways to connect with their cycle...

** I recommend stepping outside the moment you begin to flow. It is best to do so with bare feet right onto the Earth. Find your way of letting the Goddess know that it is your special time to release and recharge. Also during this week spend as much time as you can in nature or in soothing natural settings.

** Say thank you! It is a valuable practice to be grateful for our Moon Time and our ability to create life.

** Make arrangements with the women you work with so that all schedules are flexible. This way it is possible to have someone else work for you when you begin your period. Search for ways to make things easier during this time.

** Set up a sacred space or altar. Here you can place special items that represent your womanhood and those things that symbolize what you want to focus on each month. This is my favourite way of honouring my cycle.

** Try using natural pads or the moon cup. (I highly recommend these methods...no more tampons sisters, let yourself flow!) Keep in mind the importance of our connection to the Earth. Remember our ancestors who sat for days feeding the health of what once was a luscious garden and offer your blood back to the Earth.

** Change your bed sheets to red ones. Lay out red towels, and set red candles on your altar. Put on your lovely or comfy red undies or wear red clothing and jewelry. Let it be obvious that you are in your power. Make each month a special opportunity for you to focus on yourself. Let this be a time you look forward to.

** Some women may enjoy gathering together with other women who are in the same flow. Take time to honour yourself and care for each other.

** Get out that journal. What better time is there to write out your feelings?

** Remember that when you are bleeding it is important to work less. Your body is trying hard to focus on another type of work altogether. Slow down. Recognize that it is ok to ebb and flow like the moon. Let someone make you dinner, read a book instead of going to your aerobics class, and say no if someone asks you to do something that you don't want to do. This is your time. Claim it and make it what you can.

So ladies, we all bleed! Now let's get over the taboo and find a way to come together. After all this is the one thing we all have in common. See you in the MOON LODGE … I'll bring the chocolate.

Birth as a Heroine's Journey

by Giuditta Tornetta at Joy of Birthing

All myths are different yet they all contain some common denominators. In analyzing birth as the heroine’s journey I have touched upon all of Campbell’s suggested structural points to deepen the understanding of this sacred and magical moment in a woman’s life. Some women experience all of them while others skip through some of them.  In the end the journey, whether is through the world without or the one within, is a rite of passage, from womanhood to motherhood, from spirit to incarnation. If one is conscious of her actions, desires, and power the other, the baby, comes into this world strengthened in the knowledge of of his/her own potentiality.

Departure

The young maiden dwells in her ordinary world until she is called to set out on the heroine’s journey. The journey from maiden to mother through the birthing experience begins in the ordinary world:  regardless of social, economic or religious status, all women can give birth. The call to adventure is the point in a woman’s life when she is first given notice that once a baby comes into her life everything is going to change.  When a young girl starts her menstrual cycle, she is eligible for the journey. She can choose to enter the journey or not, but she needs to be conscious of her choices, for her life is forever changed. Often when the call is given, the future heroine refuses to heed it. This may be from a sense of duty or obligation, or due to career plans, fear, insecurity, a sense of inadequacy, or not feeling ready.  In other words, a range of reasons may work to keep her in her current circumstances. At times, the heroine enters her journey by choice; she is ready for a change and she is willing to fulfill her destiny in society as the pro-creator of a new life.

Once the heroine has committed to the quest, consciously or unconsciously, her guide and magical helper appear, or become known. This mentor comes in the form of a midwife, friend, doula or more often  a book. The mother-to-be’s soul resonates with a certain birthing experience. She senses that giving birth is a natural thing, something women have done for thousands of years, millions of times, relying only on their innate knowing.

Entering the first threshold, she encounters the industrialized birthing experience, fraught with doctors, tests, ultrasounds and medical opinions. At this point, the woman crosses into the field of adventure, leaving the everyday world and venturing into a realm where the rules and limits are unfamiliar to her.

The belly of the whale represents the final separation from the hero’s known world and self, into the realm of the unknown. No longer can the heroine live an unconscious life: she now needs to ready herself to become a mother to another human being,  teaching by way of example. This is the point where the woman is in between, or transitioning between worlds and selves. The world around her tells her there is one way of doing things,  surrender to the machine,  suspend her innate trust of her bodily temple, and give up her right to experience her desired outcome.  These impositions lead to abdicating all decision to a third party, regarding birth as a malady that needs fixing and management, supervised by an all-knowing doctor who will administer drugs or even surgically remove the baby to facilitate an easier birth.

But the mentor’s voice resonates in the conscious woman’s inner ear, she is the heroine of this adventure, she is the one who needs to make the choices which will bring her to her desired outcome. The inner struggle begins here. The separation has been made, or is being made or being fully recognized, between the established world and the unconscious self and the potential for a new world/self. The baby in her belly begs for communication and participation during pregnancy and for participation in the decision making.  When the woman enters this stage empowered and conscious, she shows her willingness to undergo a metamorphosis, retiring the old self for a new version of self.

Initiation

The road of trials is a series of tests, tasks, or ordeals that the heroine must undergo to begin her transformation. If she strongly feels she wants a natural experience she may finds family members who discourage her, friends isolate her, doctors scare her and in some states, government rules stymie her (home birth being illegal in a few states in the US.) At one point during her journey she may doubt herself – maybe her instinctual desire to do things naturally is not the right one, maybe she should listen to others to the experts, surely she is new at this, surely they know more, better etc…..Her gut feeling is squashed to conform to the rules of the outside world.

In this phase she also encounters allies or seeks them out:  a friend who has had a natural home birthing experience, a doula and or midwife who encourage her to find her own truth. This is a key moment for her partner to stand by her and support her. The support of the partner enriches and strengthens the heroine more than any other ally.  All heroines have partners, who may be helpful or throw the chosen path into doubt.

The meeting with the goddess represents the point in this life adventure when the woman experiences a love that has the power and significance of the all-powerful, all-encompassing, unconditional love that a fortunate infant may experience with his or her mother. It is also known as the “hieros gamos”, or sacred marriage, the union of opposites, and may take place entirely within the woman. In other words, the woman begins to see herself in a non-dualistic way.  She becomes one with the unborn child. This is a very important step in the process and is often represented by a woman beginning to talk with and listen to her baby. Campbell symbolizes this step as a meeting with a goddess, unconditional love and /or self unification;  here the heroine chooses to listen to her own inner guide.

Temptation. At one level, this step is about those temptations that may lead the heroine to abandon or stray from her quest: fear of pain, fear of not being good enough or strong enough. Fear of being different or of being isolated. For Campbell, this is a metaphor for the physical or material temptations of life. Oblivion versus consciousness, comfort versus struggle, drugs versus a natural birth.

Atonement. In this step the woman must confront and be initiated by whatever holds the ultimate power in his or her life. In many myths and stories this is the father, or a father figure who has life and death power. This might come in the middle of the pregnancy when a woman decides she needs to change care provider or needs to confront her doctor and stand her ground. But most likely this will be the birth process itself. Choices have been made. Whether she enters the hospital, where her final battle begins with the machine (very much a patriarchal aspect of the journey) or whether she has decided to have a home birth, she still has to face the final ‘battle’ of managing her contractions till the baby is ready to be born. This is the central point of the journey. All the previous steps have been moving toward this place; all that follow will move out from it. For the transformation to take place, who she has been must be “killed” so that the new self can come into being. Even home-birthing moms need to slay the dragons of self-doubt, fear and pain.  The birth is hereby no longer an ordeal but a miracle: the body knows it must hug the baby out no matter what.

To apotheosize is to worship.  This is a god-like state; the woman is in heaven and beyond all strife. In the context of the birthing myth, one may consider this step as a period of surrender or rest, the baby is in the mother’s arm the love flows freely without thought, outside the real world in the realm of eternal, unconditional, ecstatic love. At times this moment in a hospital setting is negated to the mother.  Baby is separated and mom is left alone stripped from the fruit of her quest.  If the separation is too long both mother and child lose the precious and mystical union.

The ultimate boon is the achievement of the goal of the quest. The baby is born; s/he is in its mother’s arms. This is what the woman set out on the journey to obtain. All the previous steps served to prepare and purify the woman for this step.  In many myths, the boon is something transcendent like the elixir of life itself, or a plant that supplies immortality, or the Holy Grail.  Once again this is a critical moment in the journey; mom and babe need not be separated and processed.  They need each other more than ever to slowly embrace and comprehend this new reality.  Their body is yet to understand the physical separation and the process needs to be gentle and slow.

Return

In many myths for a moment the hero might consider staying in the realm of adventure and refuses to go back to his/her normal world. Why, when all has been achieved, the ambrosia has been drunk, and we have conversed with the gods, why come back to normal life with all its cares and woes? In the birthing myth, the refusal could be interpreted as the fear of caring for the child guided by the heroine’s own instincts. The postpartum blues lurching in the background, the baby is now without; not only is it a reality, there is a sense of loss from the complete symbiotic state of mother and child as well as the beginning of the new hero’s journey of separation.

Sometimes the heroine must escape with the boon. It can be just as demanding and dangerous to return from the journey as it was to go on it. The magic flight could literally be the new fight that mom has to endure in the hospital, to have her baby in her arms following the birth or to room in with her newborn and to shield the baby from all interventions that are routinely suggested in that environment, e.g., elective vaccination, circumcision, elective medicine, formula, pacifiers.

Just as the heroine may need guides and assistants to set out on the quest, often times she must have powerful guides and rescuers to bring her back to everyday life, especially if the woman has been wounded or weakened by the experience.

The trick in returning is to retain the wisdom gained on the quest, to integrate that wisdom, and then to figure out how to share the acquired wisdom with the rest of the world. This phase is often extremely difficult. A woman who has given birth according to her desire will never forget the feat; the sense of self-confidence gained in the process will linger long in the depths of her being. The other, the woman who was unable to have the birthing experience she desired, will keep the teaching in mind and will also grow from the experience. Once victorious, the woman has a moral duty to share her story with others.

In myth, the step called Master of the Two Worlds is usually represented by a transcendental hero. For our heroine, it may mean she is now more competent in both the inner and outer worlds. She may spread the good news, and she can now help her daughter on a future journey.  Ironically all women love to share their experience of birth with others, no matter what when they see a pregnant belly they feel a compulsive need to advise, share and many, pontificate.  Our heroine has become an expert and she want to share with the world her story.  But only her empowered journey can change not only her immediate surroundings but the world. She has become a master of the two worlds. Mastery leads to freedom from the fear of death, which in turn is the freedom to live. This is sometimes referred to as living in the moment, neither anticipating the future nor regretting the past.

The birth is now no longer an ordeal but a miracle: baby in arms, she takes the road back to the ordinary world with the treasure that has the potential of benefitting all from what he has learned from his matrix.

A Journey Within a Journey

The birth is also the baby’s journey from simple ethereal soul, to soul incarnate; the child growing inside a mother’s womb is going through a journey of its own. The water of the womb represents unconsciousness. The soul is dipped in the water, temporarily forgetting its origins. Exploring new territories and mastering its five senses, emotions, and mental abilities, the baby in the womb is instructed by its mentor, the mother, about the adventure ahead.

But the baby hero has come with its own cosmic agenda and the adventure s/he gets is the one she is ready for, maybe even one that the baby has decided to undertake before coming into this world. Thus, it is not only the mother who chooses the birth, it is also the child.  The decision can be shared in a conscious pregnancy.

Ultimately the goal of the hero is to reach some sort of nirvana, thus he/she undertakes the journey.

The hero and heroine of the birthing miracle can only achieve their goals if they are strong in their center. And we can only be aware of our center and harness it if we are conscious and in charge of our life in the present time.  The hero and heroine journey can only be fulfilled consciously. Athletes, dancers, martial artists, and spiritual leaders know about the power of harnessing the body’s center.  It is through having a strong center, a strong core, that you can achieve the seemingly impossible.

When you hold your center and act from that place, you will achieve your goal. In the end, even the various mentors who are showing you the way to your center will not be able to get there with you.  You are the only one who can find your own way.

What we seek in natural childbirth is the experience of being alive, of feeling the rapture of giving birth to another human being, of slaying the dragon of pain, of vanquishing the fear of death, to emerge victorious.

Birth is a heroine’s journey, regardless of the armor the heroine chooses. The difference is clear between those who co-create their experiences and those who abdicate to the dictates of industrialized medicine.

April's Full Pink Moon

Enjoy this beautiful video about the upcoming April Full Moon known as a Pink Moon and how it gets its namesake from the Farmers' Almanac.

Sacred Moon Cycle- Week Four

Week Four (day 22-28):Distillation and Clarity Phase.
Winter energy. 

Lessons from this cycle are available to be seen and felt.
Either glad of the where you're at with your life or fed up (again).
Feeling ready to let go and surrender or feeling frustrated and annoyed.
Less interested in everyone else, less available emotionally to others.
Inwardly focused. 

"Don't ask me to do anything, leave me alone"
"I get it now, I'm letting go of this and not taking into my next cycle."

And of course this all goes for the corresponding moon phases and the seasons as well.
Understanding the way of cycles brings with it an awareness of the flow of energy, the wisdom in that flow and the opportunity to be in synchrony with that flow.

I believe, honouring her fertility cycle is a woman's responsibility.
It is in fact one way she can participate, in helping to correct the imbalances that have been created through not honouring the feminine. An issue that we must address so that we can live harmoniously on our planet. Through honouring your menstrual cycle, you help heal the "wounded feminine" the symptoms of which ravage the Earth and most of her people. By honouring her cycle a woman honours the feminine, the dark, the juicy, the mysterious, the feminine power of creativity, sexuality and our Mother Earth.

Week Four 

Be ready for your approaching bloodtime, adjust your plans around it.
Cook in preparation for your retreat time.
Make a pot of hearty soup that you can easily feed yourself and everyone else from during your bleeding time. 

Slow down.
Start to imagine how you want your next cycle to go.

"The whole menstrual cycle is an alchemical process in itself, during which every woman who bleeds goes through a transformation inside herself. To menstruate means to live through a cyclical transmutation in which the past is shed and the new in embraced. Experiencing this transformation through conscious ritual awakens us to our connection with the cycles taking place all around us and to our relationship with all life." Lara Owen - "Her Blood is Gold"