Moon cycles - Deep Healing for women

Anise says; I have found these amazing articles, thanks to an old friend who is now in my life again (though the interweb) and I feel I must share. I LOVE the moon, and I find when I am healthiest my cycle is also healthy and on time. I feel I connect deeply with the dark goddess.

In the realm of myth and symbols, these phases are superbly mirrored in the three phases of every woman’s life—childhood, before the sex hormones begin to flow, the childbearing years, which begin at the menarche, and the postmenopausal years of the Moon Goddess in her Crone guise. In ancient cultures, the moon was considered the source of fertility and birth. She ruled destiny and time, the secrets of the unseen world, transformation, death and regeneration. It was the moon’s power that quickened all of life. Sowing and harvesting were done in harmony with her ebbs and flows.

 It was the moon which grew bright then darkened and disappeared altogether each month that taught people that nothing in life is constant. The only thing on which you can rely is change. The moon became a symbol of the cycle of transformation that makes its home in a woman’s body, while woman came to rule all things that involved change.

“ sovereign mystery and creative power of the female as the source of life that developed into the earliest religious experiences. The Great Mother Goddess who gives birth to all creation out of the holy darkness of her womb became a metaphor for Nature herself, the cosmic giver and taker of life, ever able to renew Herself within the eternal cycle of life, death and rebirth.”

WOMAN’S MANY FACES

We learn from ancient sources that, like woman herself, the Moon Goddess has many faces. At the new moon, she is the Virgin Goddess, wrapped in enthusiasm for new beginnings as seeds sprout and first shoots appear. When her second phase begins, so does puberty. Buds turn into flowers and flowers to fruits as virgin becomes transformed into Divine Mother in charge of procreation and sexuality. She is the pregnant goddess, mistress of animals, bringer of life, the Madonna.



As the moon begins to wane, woman passes through her next initiation to a time of harvest and a time of death, during which all that is old becomes compost for her new life. It is the Dark Goddess who rules the darkness of the moon, death and rebirth. Ancient statues of the Dark Goddess carved in bone, marble, alabaster or clay are often white—for white is the color of death. Bones are turned white by the elements. The big breasts and hips you find on statues of the Divine Mother become replaced by stiff nudes. The Dark Goddess is often depicted without breasts, her hands either on her chest or extended along her sides. She is shown with an enlarged pubic triangle, for the Dark Goddess of the waning moon is not only goddess of death but of regeneration. She rules the time in a woman’s life when everything that has run its course, everything which has become outmoded or no longer has meaning in a woman’s life, must be destroyed to make way for a more authentic life.

Anise says; I feel a deep connection to the Dark Goddess. I am a friend of death, I love cemetaries, and physchic mediums who can connect with people who have crossed over. I am a very thin framed woman, with small breasts, Its like I have skipped from childhood to menopause. My cycle is often non-existent, or it seems so to me, Like I truly am going through menopause. Sometimes it will be 5 months before I bleed. And the past has shown me that I am unable to create babies- but perhaps it has just been about timing. I also had huge problems when I tried to control my cycles, when I was on birth control my body would have 2 periods in one month, and soemtimes it would last 14 days (so basically I bled ALL THE TIME) not fun. So, the doctor would up my birth control hormones, and after 2 months i`d be back to bleeding all the time. I kept upping it thinking id have to reach my threshold or something. But I constantly had yeast and bladder infections. I got sick all the time. And really just felt like something was wrong. I haven`t been on birth control for years or more. And I feel a lot better. Now its more about listening to my body than trying to control it. Anways back to Dark Goddess, I am going through a phase in my life that is all about regenertaion. Everything has become outdated and no longer serves me, I`m tearing down old belief systems and conditioning, and making my way to nature. I prefer to be in nature than anywhere else (unless bed- sometimes that wins even over a sunny day). And yeah, I just feel I connect deeply with the Dark Goddess, and that just fits to me! Its like I already knew it, I'm just reminding myself again.

THE GIFTS OF MENOPAUSE

Menopause is the initiation of the Dark Goddess. It is the passage during which a woman is asked to confront the possibility of her own death and probe the mysteries of decay, dismemberment, and regeneration. For only through the death of the old can the exciting new birth that awaits us take place. As menopause approaches, often a woman wants to spend more time in nature and to feel her spirit fed by the earth. The fear of menopause and the fear of the Crone, so widespread in our society, are nothing more than a reflection of our misguided fear of death itself. For, in today’s world, we have forgotten the great cyclic flow of birth, flowering, death and regeneration that is hidden within the circle of the moon—as it is within all life—and reflected in the circle of our own souls.

Little wonder, since our patriarchal culture denies cyclical time and views events as linear. In linear time, the end is not connected with the beginning. Birth and death are not viewed as two vital passages in a continuing cycle of life, but as opposites—the one to be celebrated the other to be resisted at all costs until the bitter end. It is no wonder our society wants to black out menopause and to reject the older female. In the fearful fragmented world we live in, this appears to be the only way that human beings can deny for a time their own mortality. This is why the Dark Goddess remains a focus of fear and loathing in stereotypical male-dominated linear thinking.

BANISH FEAR AND CELEBRATE

Any woman who does not break through the limitations of such thinking and move beyond it risks becoming so paralyzed by fear that she looks upon The Dark Goddess (and menopause itself) as an enemy to be resisted. In truth, she is the archetype-medium by which the internal split that took place thousands of years ago between woman and her feminine nature can be healed forever. She is death’s priestess. It is she that wipes out outmoded patterns of thinking and living. Then, acting the role of the midwife, she brings new forms of living to birth.

The Dark Goddess—often called the Crone— can seem a terrifying figure to the uninformed women approaching menopause. She has so long remained repressed within our psyches that, when at last her energy rises and she makes her presence known, it can sometimes feel like an earthquake, a volcano, or some eruption of Nature that occurs to us as when pressures held too long within the earth are released. Yet the Crone has always been present in our lives: She has appeared each month as the moon grows dark and menstrual blood—the source of all creation—flows. Now, as menopause approaches, the Dark Goddess comes at last to rest within a woman’s being. For instead of being released each month, the dark blood of creative power is retained within a woman’s body and made available for her use.

MONUMENTAL TRANSFORMATIONS

The presence of the Dark Goddess in a woman’s life is easy to spot. She arises whenever we experience dramatic changes—the death of a loved one, loss of a job, disfiguration. She is our teacher who guides us through the transformation that is being asked of us onto a new level of being. She is there in our deepest despair and at times when we connect most powerfully with our own creative fire. She is the hand-maiden that nurtures us through dark nights once we are willing to make the descent into our own psyche, and connect with whatever forms are sleeping there, so we can begin to live our own power. When these connections are made she is present too. She teaches us by her presence alone to become deeply and spontaneously sexual, assertive, straight, incorruptible, prophetic, intuitive and free. All of these qualities arise at menopause.



These are the most precious gifts of the Crone. They herald the beginning of what is potentially the most creative part of any woman’s life… This time in which her biological creativity is let go of to be replaced by creativity of the highest order in any woman’s life. It must be said—it is these powerful gifts of the Dark Goddess which are still the most terrifying threats to the linear patriarchal culture of control in which most of us still live.

The Sacred Feminine Blood Mysteries

"Female shamanism is based in the blood cycle." 
- Vicki Noble

The blood mysteries are the sacred rites of passage in women’s sexual life cycle. The biological and psycho-spiritual changes of menarche, menstruation, pregnancy, birth, and menopause bestow feminine wisdom, spiritual and physical health, and sexual empowerment through the body. Women healers have long honored the sacred feminine healing powers of the Blood Mysteries, as sacred and powerful life transformations.

The blood mysteries are the catalysts for evolutionary feminine transformation on multidimensional levels of being. Women experience physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual, social, and spiritual changes through these rites of passage. Women are more easily able to access the spirit world through dreams, intuition, and trance during the times of menstruation, birth, and sex. This altered state of consciousness can facilitate healing, wisdom, and transformation.

Sexuality and spirituality are deeply interconnected, and ecstatic consciousness is a portal to the personally touch the divine nature of the universe. Ecstasy is a natural state that can be reached through meditation, dance, bodywork, music, drumming, and ritual, as well as through sacred sexuality and the Blood Mysteries.



It is within these these three natural states of bio-energetic transformation that a women is more open to spiritual awakening. During these times, the endocrine system creates powerful changes the body, including changes in the pineal gland and activity. Through menstruation, fertility, birth, and sacred sexuality, women naturally access the ecstatic states for divine love and healing transformation.



When our cycles are interfered with through medical, pharmaceutical, and toxic practices, women lose the ability to access their Sacred Feminine spiritual expansion and lose physical vitality and health. There is a cultural attack upon women's mysteries beginning with the shame and manipulation of menarche and menstruation.

Our culture today systemically attacks every stage of a woman's sexual cycle. Through PMS, toxic menstrual products, and pain relieving medications as well as shame inducing corporate media and advertising young girls and women are brainwashed to resent and hide their moon-cycles. The natural cyclical wisdom of fertility is manipulated through birth control pills, implanted contraceptives, and female sterilization. The powerful experience of childbirth is controlled through pharmaceuticals, anesthesia, and interventions in childbirth. The wisdom of the wise woman is lost due to the epidemic of hysterectomies and hormone replacement therapy.

It is time to honor, celebrate, and experience the Sacred Feminine Mysteries of the Womb once again! To teach our children to honor their bodies, to hold sexuality as sacred, and not manipulate their reproductive systems. To keep our wombs intact, to track our natural fertility cycles, to celebrate our moon-blood as healing elixir of life, childbirth as a shamanic rite of passage, and the integrity of the female body and spirit.

Women’s cycles are a deep source of connection to nature. The menstrual cycle is guided by the moon; the lunar cycles influence the tides of the oceans and women’s wombs. We experience the cycles of nature physically every day, the cycle of the day and night, the moon cycle, the solar cycle of the seasons, and we experience natural cycles within our bodies, the lifecycle, dreamcycles, the menstrual cycle, and the birth cycle.

All of nature flows in cycles. Following the cycles of the sun and moon give us understanding of the ebb and flow of our inner cycles. Consciously connecting with the elements of earth, air, fire, and water create a practice of healthy balance and intimate trust in nature. Feeling the vibrational nature of all life from the celestial sky to the millions of cells in our bodies guides us to awareness of the infinite nature of life and the expanses of the soul.

Open your awareness to the beauty and perfection of the cycles of life mirrored in nature and our bodies. Celebrate the feminine rites of passage. May we remember our integral nature and strength to reclaim our inner codes of ecstatic consciousness, spiritual transformation, and sacred healing.

I am going to start tracking my menstral cycle. Wow. Even just writing menstral cycle I felt a bit of shame! And look, I dont even know how to spell it properly! It is so conditioned into me to feel shame and block out anything to do with it. I am willing to let go of that BS. (belief system) lol!

It is amazing to have menstrual cycles!

Flow with it!