Becoming a Wild Daughter of the Great Mother
It was under the new moon in April many moons ago that I truly saw my menstrual blood for the first time. Even though I was about to turn 42, I’d never given my menstruation much attention – navigating it each month like most of us have for generations – as an inconvenience, a taboo and part of “the curse”. But when I consciously connected with my moon blood for the first time – held it, painted with it, and returned it back to the earth – it felt like my womb, my body and the earth were coming alive and welcoming me home. I knew that this was what the patriarchy never wanted us women to experience: the wild power of our wombs, the sacred majesty of our blood, and our primal connection to Mother Earth. As I painted with my sacred substance under that Aries moon hidden between the sun and earth, I knew I was an obedient daughter of the patriarchy no more. I was now a wild daughter of the Great Mother.
This newfound relationship with my menstrual blood felt so inherently right, yet all around, society was telling me the opposite. Isn’t it strange that the blood of life is taboo, while the blood of death is constantly splashed across our TV and movie screens? What does it tell you about our civilization that the blood of war, violence and trauma are glorified, while the blood that sustains us all at the very start of our lives in the womb is so shamed? This profound statement from Lara Owen’s book “Her Blood Is Gold” tells us that this was not always the way.
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 seen as a cosmic event, like the cycles of the moon and the waxing and waning of the tides. – Lara Owen, Her Blood is Gold
Before the patriarchy, over 5000 years ago, we lived in a matrifocal, life-affirming time of peace, which writer, mystic and Jungian Analyst Anne Baring calls “The Lunar Era”. This April (2024), as the spiral path of the cosmic bodies continue along their perpetual journey, that same new Aries moon will be hidden no more. On April 8th, it will traverse right in front of the sun, creating a total solar eclipse that I will be able to witness from where I live in Austin, Texas.
May this cosmic event herald the return of lunar consciousness to the planet. May this alignment of moon and sun enact the sacred marriage of the Divine Feminine and Divine Masculine to birth a New Earth. May this new era for humanity, born from our holy wombs, be one of peace where all life is honoured and held as sacred. Is éa ~ It is so.
This article was written for the April section in the Irish Moon Mná Diary-Journal 2024
Find out what happened next, in my blogpost: A Menstrual Art Exhibit
And for more menstrual inspiration and support:
Visit my Menstrual Cycle webpage for information and resources to support you on your menstrual journey, including free downloadable menstrual cycle charts and menstrual art templates.
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.
Tied together with red thread,
Forever tethered, in blood we are bonded.
