Why the menstrual cycle?

Our menstrual cycle is a normal, healthy and healthful aspect of being a woman. It is a powerful process which shows us how to live authentically and uniquely as our selves. Our menstrual cycle – though culturally derided – is a great source of energy, regeneration and renewal.

Getting to know your cycle is getting to know yourself! During your reproductive years you are your menstrual cycle, and you see this though your moods, your energy levels and your mucus.

Our rites of passage – birth, menarche, giving birth (to children, art, careers, projects and ourselves), and menopause – are also natural, healthy and powerful initiatory processeswhich deepen our relationship to ourselves, our communities and the Earth.

Connecting with your menstrual cycle and your rites of passage is part of the re-wilding of the feminine that is so needed now.

Shape of the day

Circle as Shaman

Each Moonsong workshop begins with the creation of a safe container to hold us all during the day, our sacred circle.  In the magic and safety of circle we pass the talking bowl, to talk, to listen, to share and to reflect.

In this space we open the floor to whatever wants to be expressed and we also explore feminine wisdom, what it is and how and why so much of it has been lost.

Mapping the Cycles

The map, the way home, is within us. We draw the wheel, delineating the correspondence between the major influential cycles of the earth seasons, the lunar phases, the stages of the menstrual cycle and our own life seasons.

The transitions between the seasons of our lives, the rites of passage of birth, menarche, motherhood, menopause, retirement and death are reframed as initiatory processes offering us deep opportunity for personal and collective growth and understanding.

 Cyclical Consciousness

We explore each of these aspects of the wheel, charting the changing energies, actions, feelings, and ways that are associated with each aspect – always mindful that this is the just the map, your own body is the territory.

What emerges is the basic cyclical map of birth, growth, full bloom, harvest, decay, death and rebirth – a cycle we can live by, flow with and become present to in our own lives.

Bringing consciousness to these ever present patterns engages us in the creative process of life,  and positions us as active participants in the web of life.

 Know Thyself

Seeing our own patterns, and stories is helped by paired share discussions, personal mapping and inner guidance through a drum journey.

Emphasis is also given to our menstrual cycle – understanding the fundamentals of fertility, of the monthly changes in our bodies, and the ways we can anchor ourselves in the spiritual practices of menstruation and menopause.