Imagine looking forward to your menstrual period. Picture your partner, friends or co-workers filling in for you so that you can have time to relax during your period. Envision those same people eager to hear about the new insights you received during your ‘Moontime.’ In your heart, feel the experiences of your menstrual time being so revered and honored that your good feelings last all month.
Sounds far fetched? Yet, in essence, these are ways of life practiced by tribal societies. When anthropologist Margaret Mead asked Samoan women in Polynesia about premenstrual symptoms, they thought the question so bazaar, it was a joke.[1] In India the Hindu word rutu means “menses,” and is the root of the word ritual.[2] “We just need to understand that the monthly menstrual period is the quintessential ritual experience,” writes Vicki Noble in Shakti Woman; it is “analogous to the time of the Dark-Moon – the impossibly magical time when the moon disappears from the sky . . .”[3]
Ancient cultures told time by the seasons of the sun and the phases of the moon. Menses in the human female patterns itself after the twenty-eight day cycle of the moon. Like the moon waxing full, the endometrium or lining of the uterus builds up in preparation for fertilization then, again like the moon fades out or wanes. In her groundbreaking book Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom, Christiane Northrup, M.D. writes, “The menstrual cycle is the most basic, earthy cycle we have. Our blood is our connection to the archetypal feminine. The macro-cosmic cycles of nature, such as the ebb and flow of the tides and the changes of the seasons, are reflected on a smaller scale in the menstrual cycle of the individual female body.”[4] And Native American visionary, Black Elk, said “ . . .the power of woman grows with the moon and comes and goes with it.”[5] “Moontime” is a natural term for “period,” “menstruation,” “the curse” and “the rag.”
While indigenous women regard their Moontime as a blessing, modern women consider their period a burden. In Western civilizations, 30% to 80% of the female population suffers from Premenstrual Syndrome. PMS symptoms range from headaches and irritability to acts of violence. I talked with a man whose wife had burned their house down and shot and killed their 5 year old son. She suffered from severe PMS. I recall times while having my period of wanting to kill my then husband. Years later, never having connected menstruation to the moon, my boyfriend took me by the hand as I was yelling at him, walked me outside, pointed to the full moon and gently said, “Shinan, you always get this way around the full moon.” From then till now—thirty years—I’ve marked the calendar and honored my Moontime, taking time for stillness, meditation and a nap.
Vicki Noble urges her readers to reclaim their menstrual time. “The menstrual period keeps the heartbeat for a female shaman . . .”[6] There are numerous moon and lunar calendars to help you record your Moontime. By keeping track of your actual bleeding days as well as days of heightened emotions, you can work with and honor your inner biology and sensitivity. Keep a list of ‘soul work’ you’d like to explore, such as understanding your dreams, exploring your archetypes or even planning a day to spend in bed, reading a book on finding your soul’s purpose.
The cause of PMS is undetermined and labeled ‘a hormonal imbalance.’ Yet, this very imbalance or one-sidedness was believed by tribal traditions to open a woman’s intuitive self to vision, wisdom and insight. During a woman's "moon" or menstrual period hormonal changes bring about a time of heightened vulnerability and a dream-like awareness. A tribal woman was encouraged to drift into dreamland, to bring back stories, songs, and insights that would benefit herself, her family and her world. Tribal cultures live in harmony with Nature, aware that everything goes through ebb and flow. Fluctuations in the rhythm of life and changes in the seasons are gifts from the Great Spirit. Just as the Thunder Beings, and Rain Makers transform the air and atmosphere making all things new again, so to a woman's bleeding time allows for transformation, purification, newness and change. Through menstruation, pregnancy and/or birth indigenous people believe that women are instruments of transformation[7] because our basic biology embodies a sacred ritual of change. Native traditions view the biological changes of the menstrual cycle or Moontime as a powerful and positive pathway to inner growth and wisdom.[8]
Unfortunately, in our fast-paced, cyber-space world, we’ve lost touch with nature’s cycles as well as our own creative and emotional cycles. We’ve forgotten how to tune into and use our menstrual energy to empower our lives and our world. We’re too busy doing to become aware of being. In too many places, Human Doings have replaced Human Beings.
"Doing" comes from the goal oriented, analytical, and masculine or left-hemisphere of the brain. "Being" comes from the creative, feeling, and feminine or right-hemisphere of the brain. Many women today pressure themselves to do more and more. “My To Do lists have To Do lists,” I sometimes complain. Stressed out, I’ve forgotten to simply "be." Moontime gives a woman a 
monthly reminder to take some time out and nurture her soul.
What does this mean in practical terms? For Bianca, a California mom it means honoring her feelings, allowing herself time for an afternoon nap . . .her "Moontime dreamtime." The results: a new business idea that produced a lucrative sale. For Linda, a teacher in Alaska, honoring her Moontime means taking a 'well day' each month, staying home, reading, meditating and daydreaming. The results: an innovative classroom curriculum that has her nominated for teacher of the year. For Mei Lin, an executive secretary and student of Native American traditions, Moontime means taking time out for ritual. “I close my office door, put paper clips in a coffee cup and rattle, chant and dance.” For Monika, Moontime means that her husband cooks dinner, gives the kids their bath and cleans up the mess, while she takes a moonlight walk, reads or soaks in the tub. Results? "Mom's a lot easier to be around and she's not so grumpy." For me, Shinan, honoring my Moontime means allowing myself to dip deeply into my intuitive feminine self, to connect with the sacred place in my heart and then, share that place with others.
Many women are redefining PMS. PMS means Put Men Second, take time for me. PMS, means Please My Self, honor my energy shifts. PMS can be an attitudinal shift from burden to blessing, our menstrual period changes from "woman's curse" to "woman's cure." As we honor our sacred and powerful Moontime energies, women will rebirth feminine wisdom, so needed in our world today.
Shinan N. Barclay, M.A., is the co-author of Moontime for Kory, a puberty adventure and rite-of-passage story in which a girl and a dolphin come of age, [with Mary Dillon-Williamson]. A creativity coach, speaker and storyteller, Shinan’s memoir stories appear in numerous anthologies including: Chicken Soup for Woman’s Soul II, Heavenly Helpings, Scent of Cedar, and Open My Eyes, Open My Soul. Her work has been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese and Czechoslovakian, as well as reprinted in Sacred Texts of the World’s Great Religions. Editor of Rainmaker’s Prayers, and co-author of The Sedona Vortex Experience, her forthcoming memoir Sedona Calls has received rave reviews. A ceramic artist, gardener and jitterbug fan, she lives in a tiny cottage in a huge rainforest, which borders the 750,000 acre South Slough Estuary of Coos Bay. Shinan says, “I savor the silence.” 
[1] Mead, Margaret, Coming of Age in Samoa .William Morrow, New York1961
[2] Gadon, Elinor, The Once and Future Goddess: A Symbol for Our Time .Harper, San Francisco, 1989.
[3] Noble, Vicki, Shakti Woman: Feeling Our Fire, Healing Our World, The New Female Shamanism.
Harper, SanFrancisco, 1991.
[4] Christiane Northrup, M.D. Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom.
[5] Neihardt, John G., Black Elk Speaks. U. Nebraska Press, 1972. p161.
[6] Noble, Vicki, Shakti Woman: Feeling Our Fire, Healing Our World, The New Female Shamanism. Harper, San Francisco, 1991.
[7] Allen, Paula Gunn. The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions. Beacon Press, Boston 1896. Pg28.
[8] Brooke Medicine Eagle. Buffalo Woman Comes Singing. Ballantine, New York, 1991.
No comments:
Post a Comment