Menstrual Cycle
What if you experienced the cycles of the seasons – from Winter, to Spring, to Summer, to Autumn – every four weeks?
What if you embodied the rhythm of a full life span – from birth, to maturity, to old age, to death, to rebirth – each and every month?
This is what your menstrual cycle is. Your intimate monthly initiatory journey. Your inbuilt feminine spiritual path.
As a woman you are coded for power, and the journey to realizing the fullness and beauty of that power – your Wild Power – lies in the rhythm and change of your menstrual cycle.
Alexandra Pope & Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer, Wild Power
The keys to a life fully, powerfully and wisely lived are embedded within our body’s cyclic intelligence. This is the gift we are given as a soul born into a beautiful body that menstruates. Why? Because as women, we are the life-givers. The ones who can carry life within our bodies. The mothers of humanity. We are intimately encoded with the sacred rhythm of all life and the cosmos, within our womb, within our blood. Have you ever thought about the fact that most religious structures and practices were created by men, mostly for men? Perhaps these were practices that the male needed to develop, in the absence of their body being directly encoded with its own spiritual initiatory process.
For centuries within our culture, this Feminine Way of the menstrual cycle has been denied, demonized and rejected. We’ve been led to believe it’s a limitation or a weakness we must overcome in order to succeed … The extraordinary truth is that your menstrual cycle is in fact a highly potent, potentially liberating process. It’s your custom-made initiatory path to power.
Alexandra Pope & Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer, Wild Power
Sacred Menstruation
While menstruation is treated as taboo under all systems of oppression worldwide, most notably the patriarchal system that’s been in operation on the planet for about 5000 years, menstruation in original indigenous cultures was considered sacred and a highly potent time of intuition and spiritual connection for women. No wonder the ruling structures of the past few millennia have been so persistent in it’s demonization and suppression.
In the Native American teachings a menstruating woman has the potential to be more psychically and spiritually powerful than anyone, male or female, at any other time.
Her Blood is Gold
In Seren and Azra Bertrand’s book “Womb Awakening”, they state that women were the original shamans. “What we call shamanism is essential feminine consciousness, a truth reflected in an old indigenous proverb from the Chuckee tradition that says, ‘Woman is by nature a shaman’.” In Lara Owen’s book “Her Blood is Gold”, she suggests that before the controlling and negative programming of the patriarchal systems, our menstrual blood was considered magical, with our sacred substance being the very root of all ritual.
The word ritual comes from rtu, Sanskrit for menses. The earliest rituals were connected to the women’s monthly bleeding. The blood from the womb that nourished the unborn child was believed to have mana, magical power. Women’s periodic bleeding was a cosmic event, like the cycles of the moon and the waxing and waning of the tides. We have forgotten that women are the conduit to the sacred mystery of life and death.
Lara Owen, Her Blood is Gold
Our menstrual blood is the blood of life. The sacred substance that sustains us all at the very start of our lives in the womb. Yet how devastating it is that the blood of death (war, violence, and trauma) is constantly splashed across our TV and movie screens – so glorified in our world, while the blood of life is so shamed, tabooized, and must be hidden at all costs. Reclaiming the blood of life is the very reclamation of life itself, and the medicine for true and lasting peace in our world. For when we remember that the blood of our wombs is sacred, the blood of life will eclipse the blood of violence and there will be no more war.
Reclamation & Redvolution!
It’s time for us women to reclaim the gifts and powers of our menstrual cycle, and restore dignity, respect, and pride to our experience of bleeding. Here are some ways you can join the REDvolution …
The Red Temple Podcast
Being so passionate about the wild power of our menstrual cycle and the shamanic potency of menstruation, Clare of the Solstice and I felt called to create a podcast about it, and share this redvolutionary message with the world! Tune into The Red Temple Podcast, where we muse about the magic of our menstrual cycle, and traverse this embodied feminine spiritual path together in sacred sisterhood. Journey with us, as we unveil the Goddess Codes living within our wild wombs.
Menstrual Art Exhibits
Creating art with your menstrual blood is a profoundly powerful ritual that connects you intimately to your womb, your feminine power and the very source of life deep within yourself. The first time I reverently engaged with my menstrual blood – truly saw it, sat with it in sacred space and created art with my magic substance – it felt like I was coming back home to what it means to be a woman. The experience awoke in me the deep remembrance that I am not a daughter of the patriarchy but a daughter of the Great Mother. I was returned to her awaiting arms, and have been in service to Her ever since.
It’s time for us as a collective, to come out of the shadows, shed the robes of shame around our menstrual blood, and showcase its beauty, power, and wild majesty to the world! On Saturday, June 8th, 2024 Blood Sisters of The Red Temple presented our first Menstrual Art Exhibit in the heart of Austin, Texas, showcasing over 12 women’s menstrual blood and yoni-themed art. Our mission was to create a family-friendly event, honoring the beauty, power, and sacredness of our menstrual blood, while deconstructing the outdated taboo around our primal substance – the very blood of life itself. Read all about it in my blogpost: A Menstrual Art Exhibit, and listen to interviews with artists and exhibit visiorsin The Red Temple Podcast’s Episode 6: A Menstrual Art Exhibit.
This was not just an exhibit, but a movement! The start of the REDvolution! This event is hopefully the first of many events of this kind, integral to re-shaping our cultural narratives about menstruation. If you’re interested in working together on a Menstrual Art Exhibit, and/or hosting your own, I’d love to hear from you! I’m happy to provide any guidance or support that I can. Feel free to reach out on social media or email me directly! Join us in the Redvolution. In this re-birthing of the New Earth. It is time!
Shamanic Womb Cave
Inspired by attending our Menstrual Art Exhibit, Guy, founder of the Medicine for the People Spiritual Gathering, invited us to create a womb space at this Texas festival, featuring the healing power of menstrual art. So in September 2024, Blood Sisters of The Red Temple birthed our first “Shamanic Womb Cave”, offering a sacred space for all to return home to Source – the Womb – throughout this gathering. We all came from a womb. And we were all born from this blood of life. Welcome home!
Decorated with collaborative menstrual art pieces, this sacred womb space was a cozy haven of peace, meditation, introspection, healing, and awe. Staying open 24 hours a day throughout the festival, our Shamanic Womb Cave offered grounded, nurturing and potent medicine for the people. The menstrual art that lined the walls of the Shamanic Womb Cave was inspired by the Paleolithic and Neolithic cave art of our distant ancestors, originally created in red ochre and likely menstrual blood. The cave was considered a most holy and divine space by the ancients, representing the sacred womb of the Great Cosmic Mother – the One who births us all into existence.
Our Menstrual HeArt (Healing Art) Chandelier was co-created by women all over the world, with the intention of returning the medicine of the Mother to the people. Her love, her nurturance, and her life-giving power, are all held potently within the blood of life painted on each individual art piece. On this medium of paper hearts and circles, the menstrual blood shines with healing love and vibrant lifeforce. “Thank you so much for the Womb Cave. I just kept going back there throughout the festival because it was so powerful. Please tell all the artists how grateful I am for their sacred contribution and for their potent medicine. I’ve been coming to this festival for over 10 years and this is the best offering I’ve experienced. I really hope you keep doing it. We need it.” ~ Gentleman Festival Attendee
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Resources: Free PDF Downloadables!
Menstrual Chart (Circle): Start charting your menstrual cycle, and learn to navigate the ebbs and flows of your monthly cyclic nature with ease, wisdom and wild power! This is a template I created for myself, and love sharing with my community. This circle chart is a great way to get started tracking your cyclical nature. After a few months, when you’ve got enough completed charts to compare, you’ll begin to see a pattern emerging of your monthly cyclic nature. It’s a fascinating and revolutionary treasure throve of information to discover about yourself, and invaluable data you can start to plan your month around. If you’d like to journey deeper into understanding your cyclical nature and your inner seasons, I recommend Alexandra Pope and Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer’s book Wild Power.
Menstrual Chart (Grid): If you’d prefer a more comprehensive map of your own cyclic territory, you can use the grid chart instead. This chart tracks everything that the circle chart tracks, and in addition, includes all 3 main fertility indicators: cervical mucus, cervix position and basal body temperature. Combining these fertility indicators as well as your energy/mood observations, gives you a fuller picture of when you’re fertile (whether you wish to know this information for planning or avoiding pregnancy), and allows you predict when your period is likely to start based on pin-pointing your day of ovulation and knowing the average length of your luteal phase. For support in more detailed tracking of your menstrual cycle, I recommend Lisa Hendrickson-Jack’s book The Fifth Vital Sign.
Menstrual Art Templates: These Flower of Life templates are a great way to start painting with your own sacred substance. For this level of detail, I like to use Jerry Q‘s #4 flat detailed paintbrush. To take your ritual to the next level, you can print these templates on seed paper and return this powerful blessing of life back to the Earth.
Menstrual Cycle Library
Code Red: Know Your Flow, Unlock Your Monthly Superpowers, and Create a Bloody Amazing Life, Lisa Lister (Hay House UK, 2020)
Cycles of Belonging: Honoring Ourselves Through the Sacred Cycles of Life, Stella Tomlinson (Womancraft Publishing, 2022)
Her Blood is Gold: Awakening to the Wisdom of Menstruation, Lara Owen (Archive Publishing UK, 2008)
Moon Time: Harness the ever-changing energy of your menstrual cycle, Lucy H. Pearce (Womancraft Publishing, 2015)
The Fifth Vital Sign: Master Your Cycles & Optimize Your Fertility, Lisa Hendrickson-Jack (Fertility Friday Publishing Inc., 2019)
The Red Tent, Anita Diamant (Wyatt Books for St. Martin’s Press, 1997)
Wild Power: Discover the Magic of Your Menstrual Cycle and Awaken the Feminine Path to Power, Alexandra Pope and Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer (Hay House UK, 2017)
Womb Awakening: Initiatory Wisdom from the Creatrix of All Life, Azra Bertrand and Seren Bertrand (Bear & Company, 2017)
If you are in your wise woman menopausal years, I highly recommend the following book recently published by the women who wrote the revolutionary “Wild Power” book:
Wise Power: Discover the Liberating Power of Menopause to Awaken Authority, Purpose and Belonging, Alexandra Pope and Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer (Hay House UK, 2022)
Closing Prayer
“Divine Mother, thank you for the blessing of being a woman.
Please help me release all memories of the times this precious gift of the feminine has not been honored.
I now open into the knowing that I am a beautiful, wise, and deeply sacred woman.
I honor and appreciate myself.”
~ Seren Bertrand, Womb Awakening