MENSTRUALITY
At menarche a woman meets her power,
during her menstruating years she practices her power,
at menopause she becomes her power.
- Native American Saying
WHAT IS MENSTRUALITY?Menstruality is a term coined by Jane Catherine Severn, a psychotherapist from New Zealand, that responds to the need to find a word that describe the female life journey from menarche (the first menstruation), through the menstruating years and the menopause to the mature years.
When I first encountered it, thanks to the writing of the wonderful Alexandra Pope, it felt to me like a gift. There was finally a word that could embrace and name the embodied experience of the cycles of a woman’s life process, acknowledging and honouring what is usually covered by taboos, shame, negative ideas or feelings and disconnection. Being in a world settled on a linear understanding of time, that is goal and performance centred, can be an overwhelming and challenging experience that denies one of the most precious truths that resides in the heart of being born in a woman’s body: our cyclical nature. This cyclical nature is held in our menstrual cycle, which ebb and flow pace our path to access our real power, a power coming from within, through our connection to the ineffable mystery of the Feminine. |
|
Bringing awareness to our unique inner map and experience of the cycle is an amazing, empowering practice that nurtures our unique journey as women and offer us the possibility to embrace and feel embraced in our multi-layered constitution : biological, emotional, mental and spiritual. After years researching my own cycle and women cycles in general, the menstruality journey has opened an ineffable space in my life, a space in which it has become possible not only to dive deeply into the cooperation and understanding of the inner rhythm of my life as a woman, but also to feel held by a shared field of awareness in which the way of the Feminine can be experienced and shared in Her infinite manifestations. I see menstruality as a wonderful infinite fabric emerging out of the golden threads that each woman holds and weaves every time she tunes into her process and shares her experience. Each golden thread transforms the forgotten story that has been hidden and denied into a new unique sound that resonates the infinite love of the Great Mother and restores on the planet the vibration of the Feminine. |
ABOUT MENARCHEThe first menstruation is a real moment of initiation for every woman, an opening door onto the sacred femininity that inhabit her.
At menarche the young maiden girl is very open and highly sensitive in all the dimensions of her deeper being, and very receptive to the world that surround her. The lack of awareness (or even shame) that our culture carries around this such fundamental moment of a woman life has such an impressive impact on her self perception and individuation and it can mark strongly her relation with her menstruation and her deep femininity. |
|
MENARCHE CEREMONYTo celebrate menarche is to welcome the integrity and the creative force of the young maiden girl that resides within us and that often haven't been seen, listened, understood and encouraged at the moment of their first menstruation.
To reclaim today this ritual of passage it means to offer a renewed ground to root our femininity, to set a new start in our life as women and to offer to ourselves the possibility to live fully into womanhood. |
I'm infinitely thankful to Alexandra Pope, Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer and all of the wonderful sisters of the circle of the UK Women Quest Apprenticeship for the journey we have shared.
MY JOURNEY THROUGH MENSTRUALITY
Pushed by my challenging menstrual cycles i started to research around it in my early twenties, feeling alone and often completely misunderstood about my decision to deal with the pain without painkillers, listening to what this pain arising from my depth was trying to tell me.
I went to look for help in the medical and holistic therapy world but i never felt really understood or deeply listened when i was trying to speak about the amazing and sometimes overwhelming experience of menstruating (either if it was painful or not) and of being in the ebb and flow of the energy in the whole month.
Mirada Gray's book, Red Moon, and the beautiful Yin Tao circle of Renu Li helped me to find initially some direction in what I was feeling like an ineffable experience where amazing pain, joy, deep realizations and incredible awareness were intertwined.
I was charting my cycle for years, but it was always really difficult to find someone I could really share with about what i was noticing.
One day, I run into a book, The Wild genie, written by Alexandra Pope. After few pages, tears started to run on my cheek : it was the first time I was reading words that was making real sense to what my experience of the cycle and the pain were. I suddenly felt held by a powerful presence in which my experience, and other women experience, were not only making sense but also writing a collective story that was finally heard and acknowledged.
I wanted to know more about that woman and her work and this is how i ended up participating in the Red school Women Quest Apprenticeship, an amazing year experience of diving into the menstruality consciousness lead by Alexandra Pope and Sjanje Hugo-Wurlitzer within the frame of a powerful circle of sisters.
For more information about Red school please visit their website.
I went to look for help in the medical and holistic therapy world but i never felt really understood or deeply listened when i was trying to speak about the amazing and sometimes overwhelming experience of menstruating (either if it was painful or not) and of being in the ebb and flow of the energy in the whole month.
Mirada Gray's book, Red Moon, and the beautiful Yin Tao circle of Renu Li helped me to find initially some direction in what I was feeling like an ineffable experience where amazing pain, joy, deep realizations and incredible awareness were intertwined.
I was charting my cycle for years, but it was always really difficult to find someone I could really share with about what i was noticing.
One day, I run into a book, The Wild genie, written by Alexandra Pope. After few pages, tears started to run on my cheek : it was the first time I was reading words that was making real sense to what my experience of the cycle and the pain were. I suddenly felt held by a powerful presence in which my experience, and other women experience, were not only making sense but also writing a collective story that was finally heard and acknowledged.
I wanted to know more about that woman and her work and this is how i ended up participating in the Red school Women Quest Apprenticeship, an amazing year experience of diving into the menstruality consciousness lead by Alexandra Pope and Sjanje Hugo-Wurlitzer within the frame of a powerful circle of sisters.
For more information about Red school please visit their website.