Is it astrologically better to have your period at the New Moon? Or the Full Moon? Who makes these rules up anyway? So I have received a spate of emails about – basically – what is the “correct” calendar or moon cycle to be menstrually aligned with. That is, should women ideally, cosmically, menstruate with the New Moon, Full Moon, Dark Moon, whatever?
The short answer is that I don’t know, but there IS a rich body of work around the Moon, Menses and innate female rhythms being in sync with Luna. The ultimate authority on this subject is Barbara Walker’s incredible The Woman’s Encyclopedia Of Myths & Secrets.
Her sections on menstrual beliefs, calendars, and customs across different cultures and ancient religions are fascinating and a massive revelation. It was through her work that I became aware that there was an older calendar based on the lunar months of 28 days – aka a menstrual cycle – that had 13 months. Divide 365 (the days in a year) by 13, and you get 28. No need to make months have differing lengths.
Months Used To Be The Actual Moon Cycles
Unless, of course, you don’t like anything to do with female deities, the Moon, or women being relevant.
The old Moon Calendar got replaced by the Christians with a dodgy 12 month one to get away from the whole icky-to-them Goddess/Lunar/Magic/Female vibe. They demonized the number “13” to drive home their point. At one point, menstruating women were refused communion in churches.
When I first heard of them, I thought “menses huts” sounded like a great idea. I imagined them as a luxurious haven where menstruating women and girls could eat chocolate and relax. But they’re not a treat. They are a place to send females at a time of the month when they are considered ‘unclean.’
Anyway, I was told by a Scorpio midwife whom I respect that it was more “in tune with the lunar cycle” to have a surge of creativity/ovulation/arousal with the Full Moon mid-cycle. And to have the last days of your cycle – the bleed – in the Dark Moon.
So you emerge with the New Moon and start all over again. As the Dark Moon is a time of letting go, it seems optimal for menstruation. But to be clear, it is not astrologically “better” to have your period at the New Moon or any Moon in particular. What matters is that you’re in tune with the interplay between time, tides, mood, moons and your rhythm.
The Moon Calendar on here has New Moons, Dark Moons etc and you can import it into your iCal or similar.
Thoughts?
Just wanted to say I really enjoyed this comment thread and may consider getting some of the books mentioned.
for most of this year i’ve bled on/ just after the new moon, but in august it didn’t begin until the first quarter, and in september not until after the full moon. kind of expecting it to begin with the sun into scorpio this month.
i’ve wondered about this!! loooooving the comments.
Mine does that too! bleeding happens on Dark Moon during the winter and gradually changes to the Full Moon during the summertime. At first I thought it was just irregular until the several months that were super regular were for a few months at a time around these seasonal polarities.
ohhhhh cool! are you antipodean? i live in the northern hemisphere so currently am heading into winter.
I always get my mine right around the New Moon.
When I lived in the Gulf, where everything is governed by the movements of the moon (holidays, holy days, the start and end of Ramadan are all determined by physically sighting the moon in its required phase) I got into the habit of knowing exactly what stage the moon was at every single day. I was also eating amazingly well and swimming in the tropical sea every single day. My menstrual cycle synched to exactly the moon cycle and I bled exactly on dark moon and ovulated when the moon was full (I know, I can tell…this is what practicing natural contraception does for you!).
Now i am way out of whack and back in the Australian burbs…..
Google “Red Moon menstral cycle” for more info. But the basics:
White Moon – bleed during a new or waning moon. Fertile during a Full or waxing moon. Related to fertility and motherhood.
Red Moon – fertile during a new or waning moon but bleed during waxing or full moon. Associated with shamanism, high priestesses and healers
‘The Women’s Encyclopaedia of Myths and Secrets’ has been a resource and a real comfort to me for around 20 years – packed away until I move and am really looking forward to getting my copy out and feeding my soul
I am very peri menopausal – in fact it’s just the heat waves and joint aches left no bleeding in about 2 years. It’s a relief as it was about 30 years of at times intense physical pain and metal and emotional stress – 21 day cycles it was the roller coaster I couldn’t get of and belt me I tried everything – herbs, yoga, acupuncture, massage, positive thinking …..
Lucky me it all coincided with the ZZ – my marriage was a shaky illusion anyway and my work life was horrible so if nothing else it makes you unable to put up with low rent people and situations
Really am looking forward to my the next bit!
Cheers! 😀
Thanks lovely, it was heartening to read your words Ankh x
Right now I prefer to bleed with the New Moon and ovulate with the Full Moon, I feel more balanced and in tune that way, calmer. There have been times when I appreciated the reverse energy. Sometimes it goes out of whack with travel or if I’m with other women, new partner etc and I just ask my body to revert back to the New Moon cycle and it does. It literally shifts from one moon cycle to the one I ask it to in a cycle or two. I’ve read that you can shift it by using black out curtains and sleeping with a high watt bulb light on certain days. Asking works for me though.
Ancient Alien theorists belive that the Moon was placed just so by extraterrestrial beings to affect Earth & the (menstruating) creatures on it. Just putting that out there…haha I recently discovered that my Draconic chart gives me an Aquarius 8th house! 😀
Have been reading and watching a lot about this Ankh, there are photos of what appear to be derelict glass structures on the moon. I feel like a slave to the moon, always have. And I have never experienced it as a feminine energy, it doesn’t have that feeling to me.
Nice blog…very interesting. Thanks for sharing
The thing about refusing communion to menstruating women:
I’m curious how they’d even know if a woman was?? Was it a show and tell before the Sunday service? Geez…
I’d say “what a load of crap” and go anyway, just to prove a point
Mensa is the ‘society’ for high IQ too…coincidence? i think not.
“The word mensa means “table” in Latin; similarly, mens means “mind” and mensis means “month.””
What amazes me is there is so much mystery still surrounding women’s bodies in the 2010’s. Was just talking about this with someone very recently – we really don’t realize how patriarchally fuqed the world is until we delve into the area of women’s health and/or fertility issues…this is really scary to me that society as a whole is still so ignorant and backwards regarding the feminine.
I don’t think there is a “correct” time to bleed per se; every body is different and there are so many artificial interferences with a “natural” menstrual cycle anyway in current society that I just wouldn’t want a woman to feel bad if hers didn’t happen to sync with a particular lunar phase.
I do know – and I frequently put out PSA reminders to this effect beforehand – that eclipse months absolutely do tend to mess with menses; especially if/when we’re not on any form of hormonal contraception. But I think it’s important not to be alarmed by this, and to understand that occasional fluctuations are normal and not necessarily an indicator of something being “wrong” or a pregnancy. Relax, and let your body recalibrate itself as it sees fit.
i agree. ignorance, fear, shame, disgust, these terms should never be allowed near a woman’s body. not even in the same suburb. country, planet.
Point being these are used to usurp self ownership and knowledge ..
My daughter recently got her first menses and I told her to pay attention to the moon as a way to track her cycle. I shared this story with a colleague – a woman in her late 40s – who said she had no idea menstruation had any relationship to the moon at all. Its sad to me how much of our own nature has been masked from us by society.
This is exactly the kind of thing I mean, 12H Virgo! It just blows my mind how we, as a society, aren’t fully educating our daughters and giving them a complete “user’s manual”. Massive cognitive dissonance for me that one can be on the back end of their fertility years and still not know things about their own body. And in no way is that any kind of judgment upon her at all; it is merely indicative of just what a huge social issue this is. Like “Things you wish your mother told you”, only how *could* she when *she* didn’t know, either?
It has nothing to do with a lack of intelligence, either – we all suffer in this collective ignorance because our patriarchal society doesn’t seem to think this is an important area for us to be 100% educated in. Uh, women make up half of the population – hello?! And we don’t see fit to completely, thoroughly, and exhaustively help half the world to understand itself?
My goddess, it’s no wonder relationships are so fuqed. We’re raised to not even know about our own *biology*; how TF are we going to understand and relate to Another when we’re not even being given the tools to fully understand ourselves??? It’s beyond sad; it’s positively criminal.
Agreed. She (my colleague) told me the next day she researched the moon cycle. She looked excited like she had just learned some magic. It was one of those moments where I thought “thank goddess I know and I am a mother” cause no one ever told me either.
I’m going to have to check into my cycle re: eclipse cycles. Thank you for the info.
You are very welcome! If it helps at all, this year the eclipses were in March & September while in 2017 they will be in February & August.
agreed re mystery and the role of patriarchy – one of my pet hates is the derogatory term ‘douche bag’ – how dare this thing be invented because women are ‘dirty and smelly’ and then the term is used to describe dickhead men. does that make sense??
I think I understand what you mean quintile. In the same way that women are “allowed” to wear men’s clothes, or appear to be manly as a “look” (sharp business suit, ‘boyfriend’ jeans etc) but men wearing women’s clothes is not mainstream because who would want to look like a woman, being a woman (according to the patriarchy) is an embarrassing thing. Hence the word “pussy”, which is about the worst thing you can call a man. Doesn’t make sense. It really pained me when a little lad of my friend’s turned up to my wedding in a tutu, because that’s what he wanted to wear, and caused a sensation among the older relatives. Not bad for a 3 year old, bless his little heart. It’s so stupid.
Not just the older relatives actually, now that I think of it.
And also the worst ire (from a certain unenlightened proportion of the population) is reserved for butch lesbians, because they neither look “pretty” (i.e. in a traditional feminine way), or are of any use to a man (i.e. for sexual purposes). So what’s the point of them? Stretching thread now so I will shut up. 🙂
Douche bag = useless. That’s how the term became a common description for said men.
Twenty plus years of conscious/shamanic menstruation, here– as my bookshelf can attest.
Do look up The Wise Wound and Alchemy for Women- titles by Penelope Shuttle and Peter Redgrove which shall sufficiently blow your mind.
Re above link: I wanted to comment hat item1 so called old fashioned cloth pads are not only ‘old fashioned’. I used cloth pads for last 5 years of my menses, also a cups d wish I had known of these options in my younger days. I think I’m post meno now, have t had a period for over 400 days … but still have my home sewn, so pretty cloth pads n m drawer!
Why has it never occurred to me to make some of these? Thank you for the idea!
Lots of patterns and styles for flow strengths etc online. I made mine with cotton , and some with flanellette in the prettiest fabrics, all with bamboo inners
This will sound naive but how do you wash them??
Just saw this. Sorry for reply delay, Z. I kept a small bucket with lid in the bathroom 3/4 full with just cold water, or sometimes with a sprinkle of lux flakes. When changing pad, rinse well in basin first, then pop in the bucket till either it’s full, or you a doing a machine wash. I used to then empty bucket in laundry tub, rinse pads again – then throw in the wash cycle either with towels.. or the smalls. Hang on line to sun dry. Just like cloth nappies for the babies!
Thank you.
Yes, natural is just more … Natural 🙂
Oh I didn’t know that fact!
Nylon is quite awful stuff, just the thought of undies made from it … ewww , Yuk!
That’s how Howard Hughes made his money. Nylon ! Yep, and his company waged war on hemp to eliminate the competition. He funded the campaign to have hemp and Mary Jane banned. It became the evil weed and he made billions. Bangladesh, means the ‘land of hemp’ basically and the US govt. was instrumental in getting all the crops pulled out. It was the only stuff holding that river delta together !
Du Pont im pretty sure was built on Nylon
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/a-period-comes-to-an-end-100-years-of-menstruation-products/2016/04/25/1afe3898-057e-11e6-bdcb-0133da18418d_story.html
Great article – thanks for linking to it. I remember my mother telling me disposable pads were “invented” by WW1 nurses who adapted disposable bandages that were coming into use for military purposes. Also this article covers lots of douching products – one thing really riles me is the common contemporary use of ‘douche bag’ to describe an idiot, bastard etc. I find this so sexist and insulting that a product designed and marketing to mask ‘feminine dirt and odour’ becomes a derogatory term. No one needs to douche and to then use the term in this way seems so sexist!!
Totes agree on your douche bag thought, and that douching itself is simply unnecessary!
I loved “The Mists of Avalon” – not an authoritive resource on menstruation, obviously, but in the story the priestesses bled through the dark moon – if their bodies and spirits were attuned enough to the natural earth and lunar cycles. This always sounded awesome, but I’ve not yet been able to achieve such purity!
Used to get those moon calender posters every year, and mark my menstruation in highlighter. My shorter cycle means my period moves through the calender, always falling at a slightly different time. Always looked forward to the dark moon ones, seemed apt as a time of release.
Love this humorous piece by Gloria Steinem – If Men Could Menstruate:
https://ww3.haverford.edu/psychology/ddavis/p109g/steinem.menstruate.html
using a tracking app is one thing but nice to look up at la luna to see where it’s at. i go by either but seem to switch around sometimes like the magnetic poles lol. never heard about the fertility flips b/w full and new moon: will think about..not much time left for me so if he’s out there i’d sure like to know lol
i miss living away from the city, so far from nature and its sights and sounds.
i read a book all about mandalas and lunar cycles [both kinds] when i was 20. well many other books too, a long and dreamy neptune transit over moon then, but it was along similar lines.
I always bled with the full moon, then two months ago I got it 12 days early and now I bleed with the new. Pms with the dark moon is so emotional. This month, I got it a little early which was good because dark moon was difficult and with pms would have been worse.
Every month, I wish for at least one day we could take off to rest and drink tea and not have to deal with the general population.
Totally. Now that I’m in peri-menopause, & PMSing 24/7, I’ve noticed dark moons to be a new level of intense for me (eg more power surges/hot flashes, crying at commercials, road rage). Dark moons also tend to be the time that I remove all sprouting beard-like new hairs on my chin lol
All I can add is that one of the best days in my marriage was having a vasectomy.
No more pill, no more faulty ‘barrier’ systems, no more constant tracking etc.
It was a huge relief for both of us. I was ‘done’ at an all woman staffed fertility clinic , it was so easy, painless. Any of you who want a reference for scared partners just give me a hoy. There are methods that are much better than others. The funny part of our ‘journey’ to infertility was that after the operation you have to wait a week or so to do a sperm test to sort of confirm it’s done. We were going on a long holiday and on the day we left I raced to the clinic with my sample. I was running up the stairs and slipped, dropped my jar … yeah .. anyway I get to the counter and there is a young nurse there and I reach in to my carry bag and the plastic jar has split at the bottom and my ‘sample’ was leaking out. I was desparate, there was no time for another. So this nurse quickly puts on a rubber glove takes the jar, says that should be enough and races back into the lab. They called within an hour and over the background chuckling confirmed I had been successfully neutered.
faulty barrier method indeed lol.
Good on you David. I wish more men would consider it. Everything for the ladies either comes with side effects galore, is risky or a drag to use. I’m up my 7th method. I wish fertility would just come with an on/off button. Wouldn’t that be nice?
There are plenty of horror stories on the web to scare off guys sitting on the fence but 98% of them relate to a particular method. Men are also told it curbs the drive and effects erection, it’s all psycho bullshit. Had the opposite effect on me and greatly enhanced our relationship.
Thanks for this, my husband has offered, it is good to hear your account. What was your recovery time with the pain? Was there much discomfort? I think we will probably do this down the line but he has had many operations for cataracts and complications after and is waiting for another, so I don’t want both ends to hurt at the same time.
Ask for the ‘open ended method’. I was in and out in 3 hrs. No pain or discomfort but rest totally, no lifting etc for 3 days.
Don’t let them tie both ends ! All the problems come from that method.
It causes pressure build up and pain. Within a week the body adjusts to the change and then it’s like nothing happened. Voila, no more contraception etc needed.
https://www.bestvasectomy.com/vasectomy-why-us/open-ended-vasectomy-less-pain-after-vasectomy/
the world has always seen fit to fuq with women’sbodies rather than men’s when it comesto reproduction. despite the more complexplumbing and health fx.
awesome, soo getting this bk.
glad i started honouring my periods years ago ( after not having them for ten yrs, due to depo provera injection-evil ).
i will miss them when theyre gone.
its the one last wild part of us that we’re never quite sure exactly hen it will come.
and it links us to women from the beginning of time.
just started tracking my basal temp every morning to see when i ovulate so i can avoid pregnancy.
highly recommend lara owens bk ‘her blood is gold’.
also ‘dragontime’ by luisa francia
As I raise the Crimson Banner I come across this, lol.
Been meaning to churn out a small thesis on:
“Synchronicity and meaningful parallels within the context of Astrology blogs:
While we seek pattern as a way of understanding our reality many blog readers cite the experience of finding powerful external experiences ‘in real life’ aligning with posts in blogs by astrology bloggers, providing for strong meaningful parallels between bloggers and their readers because Magic is real and Astrology gives credence to the concept of the cyclic nature of reality.”
Miscarried once on a purifying Full Moon in Virgo.
I could practically hear wolves howling.
oh Sphinx how awful for you, I got a shiver there.
No, it was a good thing, though a horrid experience.
Strangely the name I had nominated I learned later meant, ’empty, vain’.
Yes. It was a dagger
through my very soul.
Great. Now I’m teary-eyed.
I definitely felt Empty. Beyond empty.
Carrying a portal in our bodies is a big deal. Sorry for your loss Ankh
🙁
I know the dagger and the emptiness too. I muscarried 3 times. There iwith you, dea sister.
Such a mystical, wise perspective, Sphinx. Chronic. Chironic. xx
The circumstances were so chronically chironic, I was quite changed in my perspective after that. Sobering last kick from life just post my Saturn Return & on Pluto my NN.
Have you thrown in the towel?
That would be an ova-reaction no?
Nonsense, you deserve a standing ovulation, you are teste-ment to male astrology buffs getting in on this topic.
oh my dear don’t be too cocky – most men go through expanded waist lines, performance issues, balding, muscle loss etc etc 🙂
said with *gentle empathetic smiles*
Just stating the bleedin obvious 😉
That song is awful
Lining up with the moon can be intense. I got my flow Saturday morning and this weekend was tough, soul searching.
I’ve always bled on a full moon, it always happens in the middle of the night. I started noticing all of this when I lived in a place that was off-grid, no electricity or phone or wifi. After 8 years I moved in with a friend of mine in a regular place and my cycle went out the window for about a year. All over the place.
I have also noticed that one month I will be a complete emotional nutter but without any pain, and then the next month loads of pain but no cray. I think this is because the ovaries take turns? I’ll take the pain anytime.
The calendar in the kitchen is funny, whole days are blocked out with “Make no plans for me on this day”, dark moons and full. The only time I am a reasonable person is mid-cycle.
Periods still regular but I think I have experienced a drop in fertility the last couple of years, changes to skin and hair. I am doing some reading around menopause now just to be prepared. I can’t rely on my cycle staying regular otherwise I might end up with twins at age 45 or something. Yeesh. Pluto is in 5th and we be there for 7 years yet. The only contraception I can think of that would work for me is sterilisation, perhaps they will take me seriously now I am nearly 43.
My grandmother still carried the odd notion that women shouldn’t bathe during menses, she died in 1979, but then she was the first of her family to live in a town, previous to that you can trace my line to Salisbury Plain, Stonehenge territory, very rural with loads of megaliths about, I imagine things were different there. I wish she hadn’t died so I could have asked her about all of it, as I studied archaeology later. I love all this moon legend stuff. I have always wanted to sit in a hut for a week reading magazines and waiting it out.
I hear now that “freebleeding” is a “thing”, i.e. where you don’t use tampons or anything. I was reading a forum the other day (not one I post on but that I read for muggle entertainment value) where they were talking about it, and not in a good way. There was quite a lot of disgust about it, self-disgust too. I’ve always done it. I really am not into the idea of sticking a foreign body up there or sitting on a wet pile of plastic all day. Luckily I am not one that bleeds like a stuck pig and I am fortunate this way, I just have a super duper wash kit that I take with me everywhere during the week, including several pairs of pants and a flask of hot water. Just like a toddler. I stay cleaner that way I believe.
I “freebleed”. My cycle is very light, I bleed 3 days beginning with the full moon like clockwork(only moving to new moon after pregnancy/distress to lady parts). I usually just know when I am going to pass blood and go to the bathroom. I’ve become sensitive enough to my cycle to notice. However, I would use a silicon cup if my cycle weren’t light.
my daughter uses these new ‘thinx’ underwear during periods…no pads, no tampons. they don’t leak …no smell etc. She loves them
I love thinx as well but only for light days. For heavy days they just feel like sitting in wet underwear that doesn’t breathe. It will stink by the end of the day though because on hot or muggy days you will sweat a lot down there.
“Just like a toddler” lol It’s funny cuz it’s TRUE! Lilith in Scorpio I don’t miss that hassle.
I can’t wait until it’s all over. I am growing an impressive beard myself and still have the indignity of periods, and still occasionally get enormous zits like a teenager. It’s like I’m straddling three generatiions, it ain’t fair I tell ya!
This is uncanny – I stumbled on that exact article a few days ago delving into whether it’s common to menstruate at the dark/new moon.
Perfect timing, I’m actually PMS-ing right now. I tend to usually menstruate during dark moons or when the moon is in Scorpio, consistently.
Plus or minus 3 days of the full moon or new moon, but never between moons for a healthy cycle if you are not on hormones. We humans are one of the few animals that do not go into heat all at the same time so it makes sense that some women will be one or the other. There is no one perfect cycle.
As i have gotten older and can see the gnarled fingers of menopause cluching at me, my cycles are less fertile and more between moons. The ones that occur smack gob on the new or full moon, i usually notice abundant clear egg white stuff during expected ovulation.
That is interesting indeed.
I have a theory that staring at the moon is good for you. I try and stare at the moon each night and I’m sure it has some sort of benefit to my cycle.
I’m not sure I’m ready to believe that shamanic article about all women bleeding on the Dark moon…..and I like Lili’s theory about bleeding on the moon phase we were born under–however—I’ve also heard that can also be a time for an extra ovulation (your natal lunar angle–learned that from this site).
I also don’t know about (someone’s) theory about just asking your body to bleed during a particular moon phase, LOL…reminds me of a theory that you can just “talk’ to your ovaries in order to not get pregnant. ha ha.
I am just gonna start staring at the moon more, and perhaps letting moonlight into my room at night and see what happens. I live in a low-light area.
I wonder what happens to women in iceland and such countries where they have the ‘midnight sun’? Would that not screw with our cycle?
But yeah, this is synchronistic…I’ve had moon & menses on my mind yesterday.
Hells YES to moon-bathing! As a Scorp Moon I whole heartedly approve. I heard about as a joke on the Addams Family, but turns out it is a real thing. Ayurvedic peeps prescribe it for people with Pitta dominant doshas.
I have noticed the peoples who live in the extremes of the earth are not as fertile/fecund as peoples near the equator. Just saying.
But i do know that women can affect each others cycles too. I am super alpha and my period will cause other women in the workplace to change their cycle to mine except my biz partner. Hers won’t change to mine as she is quite alpha herself and mine won’t change to hers. We are on opposite moons. New women that come into the work place, unless they are on hormones or menopausal kind of grow crazy from the pull.
YES this is why I do moon lodge/red tent work!
I sometimes bleed with the new moon yet always also bleed with full moon eclipses aka BLOOD moons–no joke.
Have also heard that when we bleed with the full moon it is like a sign that we are meant to release and or transmit/give something big–
I firmly believe there is no better or worse timing–and tracking and knowing your body is beneficial!
I honestly don’t recall where I heard this but when I was a youngling I remember learning that women who were meant to have children would ovulate on the new moon and menstruate on the full moon. Those destined for other paths would be the opposite. I was always happy to be an ‘opposite’ then… now i’m just happy if my period comes roughly when it’s supposed to.
I love the endless variations of lore on this subject and am looking forward to seeing what’s posted in the comments today as I am sure many of those variations will be shared.
Interesting… In my 20s I bled on the full moon. I lived off grid, very rural, so no nighttime lights except maybe one in the house. I was fertile! Had 3, including twins, at 25. Would not trade them for anything.
interesting, before perimenopause i bled with the full. now i bleed with the new. this is a fascinating discussion. thanks so much for this.
Interesting. There is also a part in the Bible that says not to have sex till after period+ going to church. This usually brings you up to most fertile time. All very interesting.
Sounds wild…worth investigating. Does it also cover menopause? There’s so little out there.
Yes absolutely – it is an amazing book. Germaine Greer also did a full on history of menopause I believe. Also Christine Northrup
Leslie Kenton wrote a whole book about womens’ ageing, folklore and power – menopause – Passage to Power – maybe someone selse read this here too – It is actually a pretty good read.
She was a beauty editor for Harpers & Queen – we read her book on a raw food diet – which was very popular.
She also had an unfortunate love affair with her own father…she published not so long ago.
Thank you. Wow! what a life! I look forward to getting both of these books.
I would be interested in the peri-menopause phase too. Have just been launched into it and have been doing a lot of research on the matter in terms of trying to find some natural alternatives on the progesterone front. Have two to three week long bleeds with an array of side issues such as flooding (in extreme) and mood swings. I would love to hear anyone’s thoughts and experience on the matter. I am 47 and it’s all been a bit of a roller coaster. It’s ironic that I used to complain about how my period was each month––now I actually miss it, in fact I grieve it. Anyone else feel the same?
i’m right there with you. seems i always start at the new now, how long i go tho is anyone’s best guess, and yes there is a weird sense of grief tied to it.
but not every new, maybe every third or fourth …
I actually bleed where the moon sign is (even with the long bleeds). My marker is when the moon goes into Aries. Interesting.
Ooh, that IS interesting.
Did you try regular acupuncture?
It does assist.
I found it to.
Thank you for reminding me. I have been getting some and yes, some difference has been noted. I am trying Raspberry Leaf tree with Pomegranate. I had a D&C done a few months ago, with a clear biopsy but the western medicos keep waving a Mireena at me. I have read good and bad reports on it but am not totally sold on going down the implant road just yet. I am persisting with nautropathy and other alternatives for the time being.
lol *tea
Mirena killed my libido. May not happen to you but beware. Yarrow is remarkably effective at stopping bleeding. Be careful of od-ing though. It leaves you dizzy all day!
This is not an endorsement nor an ad but I had a Mirena inserted to stop heavy (flooding) bleeding that would last for weeks during perimenopause and a time of high stress caused by life events and work. It meant I could function like a normal human being. I had no idea how much peace of mind it would give me, which freed me up to deal with all the stresses and make many changes in my life.
I would not touch anything that is remotely suspect or man made – but that’s me.
Personally I’ve kept away from medicines so far – I’m heading toward 50, and I’m planning to keep it that way.
I think diet, rest, good sleep, natural alternatives,..
Gem. I’ve had a mireena in for the past 8 years (on 2nd one now) so I can function as a slightly normal female. No probs at all def no loss of libido – i did have the right man to match for those years so that helped. I was very opposed at first thought about it for a year but its been great. No menopause symptoms at all. When I see hear what my friends have been through I’m thankfull
Also I had 32 years of very heavy monthlies so happy to switch them off.
My periods were hideous from the start & made me feel like a prisoner my entire menstruating life. Shortly after I had my son I had a uterine ablation to shut everything down & while I didn’t want to have another child, I was surprised to feel grief after that procedure. (But then my uterus rose from the ashes with a vengeance 6 mos later & I only felt Joy when I got a total hysterectomy + one ovary removed; now I’m on the Menopause Express.) So yeah: grief is oftentimes part of the process, & it’s important to honor what it means to you. x
Oh the joys of being a Hades Moon…! The propensity for hellish periods, high-risk pregnancies, miscarriage, terminations, and perhaps even a childbirth that may kill you. Sympathies – I don’t know any Moon/Pluto that’s ever said being a woman was easy!
Hey thanks, LV xx So true. Childbirth tried to take me: Hades said O hell naw we aren’t ready for that one yet 😉
Oh the bleeding at the first birth … I’m sure I had PTSD for months
Oh wow, LV- this is so true.
Hades Moon here- in Scorpio and sextile Pluto.
Started bleeding at 9(!), hated it from the beginning- felt like a prisoner, as Ankh said.
Heavy periods all my life… intense hormonal fluctuations…
then a fibroid that grew into a monster. When I finally got it removed, along with the rest of my uterus… it was 8 pounds! Even the doctors were amazed.
I have to say, I am so grateful to be off that merry-go-round.
Wow! I feel you because I started at eleven and it wasn’t something one is quite ready for. Not that I ever saw it with disgust but at that age one wishes it had been postponed until later. You want to play and be carefree!
Oh, this peri-menopause talk is all so timely for me. I think for a moment that my period has ratcheted itself into a cycle I can handle, then I have month-long bleeds. I take a food group out and I feel overall better, but then what I thought was a short period comes back as a longer one. I have been in something of denial about the menopause, but I am no longer. I’m going to embrace this. It’s the constant anxiety that is the biggest bother. I am up on my self-care, therapy (monthly reiki and somatic experiencing), exercise, my food is a weird beast (many allergies/sensitivities), enough sleep (thank you sleep mask). I have felt alone though. So I’m grateful to share this space with other soon-to-be crones.
On a related note, I had a foot reflexology treatment recently, and when I asked the practitioner to share what she thought was important…I feel like she did not choose her words well and she told me it seemed like my 2nd chakra was “hollow.” I understand what she was communicating, and of course, my 2nd chakra is hollow in a sense–I will have no more children, I have no lover, but I have a creative life that is amazing and challenging. But “hollow” is a not the word I would use for it. Resting, preparing, the unknown….a new stage before it’s set. I don’t know—maybe one of the geniuses here has a way of describing this pre-new-phase 2nd chakra way of being.
Oh, great synchronistic magic, someone posted a link to alchemy-works.com (somewhere on this site) and look what I found about “the void” in a description of the oil for crones/saturn….
“Binah exemplifies the image of the void not as an empty place but instead a location of great power. It can pull things into itself, knead and twist them, and produce something completely different. The Hebrew name itself comes from the root bn, which means “between” and points to the Binah skill of distinguishing between things. It’s also incorporated in the word for meditation, hitbonenut – and of course, meditation is one of the primary ways to understand the Tree of Life. This connects Binah up nicely, I think, to its ruling planet, Saturn, which is very much concerned with borders and so with delimiting between things.”
http://www.alchemy-works.com/magick_oils_binah.html
Yes! The best thing I can tell you is ride the waves (the red ones that is!), it does eventually slow. Though I have a feeling we’d have more insight from this book.
I have copied and pasted all the suggested titles. Now to find time.
Yes, Dr. Northrup! She’s great. I have her “Wisdom of Menopause” book, handed down to me from my mother 🙂 Very helpful & sisterly.
(Also, she uses Motherpeace Tarot- just like me! 😀 )
Thank you for sharing your story. I find the grief aspect to be a very large part of it. I find it interesting that I am losing my own mother to dementia right now and that the heavy bleeding began when she was first diagnosed. I reflect on this a lot as to my mind they are inextricably mixed. I am working on a piece of writing at the moment which speaks to the relationship of our mothers to our own fertility and menses. I find it a very healthy practice to be engaging in right now. Lots of tears but where else should they go?
Wow: poignant plus. Would love to read your piece, Geminian! Love & continued strength xx
Thank you so much. It’s a poem, quite long as it turns out, and I am playing with the form as a narrative. I’m tying in my place of birth, which is by a river that has lots of feminine/mythological ties with the Aboriginal culture there. When I am done I will forward on x
sounds beautiful Gem
Sounds beautiful. Do please share
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
As long as I menstruate on a regular cycle, I am in good health. And not pregnant. So yay for that.
I don’t know anyone else but I’ve snatched back 666, too. No time for fearing the Feminine.
I read once that without the evils of modern lighting which skew our cycles- that we (ideally) would menstruate during the Moon phase we were born under.
That is interesting!
The moon phase bit–knew about the lights bit–