We’re talking about Magical Menstruation in the Language of the Feminine Community in February, but how do we mine for the magical experiences hidden in menstruation when it often feels anything but magic!!
Well, first let’s talk about magic. What is magic? And what makes experiences feel magical? We usually have positive associations with magic, feelings and images of wonderment, beauty, light, playfulness, a sense of the mythical and mystical, of enchanting ‘otherworldliness’. Some people have a ‘magical’ aura about them. I remember a boyfriend from the past, telling me, “You’re magical, you know that?”. And something in me did and still does know it. It’s an unexplainable quality that I feel in others too.
Magic is often associated with transformation. And this is where magic and menstruation meet. In the deep, tender and often challenging space of transformation. This is the process that we can listen for and become closer to just before and during menstruation time. This is where we can meet ourselves at the level of heart and soul, the places where tender, painful, beautiful memories and experiences dwell.
Pre-menstruum can be anything from over a week to a day or two before bleeding, these are the days where we get to face the parts of ourselves and our emotions that are not as accessible during the other phases of the cycle. It’s when both buried feelings and feelings that may be just below the surface during the other phases of the month usually emerge. Sometimes in subtle ways and sometimes with a full-on force!
The magic is in allowing each phase it’s time. The clearing and cleansing of the first few days can feel messy and confusing, emotionally, physically and psychically. This is a time for allowing the flow, the full force of emotions to be released in all their glory and messiness. It’s ok.
Tip > This first phase is so much about resting, however, the deepest insights can also arise so take short notes in your journal to remember the images, sensations, memories and experiences that are coming up for you at this time.
The amount of cleansing necessary depends on what’s happened during the month. We also ‘pick up’ a lot psychically in the energetic ‘field’ of life, of people and of the information we ‘feed’ ourselves with. A few days before menstruation is a particularly permeable phase where we are entering into a different space of consciousness. Which means boundaries can be generally lacking because they are literally ‘dissolving’ as we go inward, we can also feel ‘one’ with life and the greater universe.
If women are already highly sensitive, then this phase can be particularly potent, as it is for me!
An overstimulation of information and energies prior to bleeding can result in a strong ‘purging’ during the first day, which includes a purging of the psychic ‘messiness’ of information that has been picked up in your field. This get cleared in whichever way the body needs to clear it. After the clearing and cleansing, you can get to the deeper layers. Old ‘stuff’, and new emotions and experiences accumulated during the most recent month of living.
And this is usually where the deep stuff sits awaiting magical transformation. This is the stuff that needs and wants to be seen and felt and will stay there until we ‘be’ with it or until it emerges in some other, not so healthy way.
Much of these experiences in the first days of bleeding can be pushed down, ignored, washed over or numbed by not paying attention to it. Until it really screams for our attention through pain, cramps, or other menstrual related issues.
Give yourself the time now. You may think it’s ‘wasting’ time, to stop and retreat, withdraw from momentum and daily life, however, I would say it’s actually the opposite. To ‘waste’ time is to continue in busyness, to continue in vain, to continue when your heart/body/soul is saying no, to continue not listening to some deeper intuition, soul calling or feeling.
So the more time you can give yourself, even if it’s a little at first, the deeper you can mine for the magic, for the gold and diamonds of menstruation, which can help you to release the past, feel renewed clarity and direction and vitality for living your life the way that you actually want to live it!
The real magic is in the cycle you have – if you do have one – which is women’s greatest gift and tool for transformation.
This can happen in exciting and joyful ways! Along with the deep challenges that are bound to come.
So leave a comment with your thoughts below…what is the magic in menstruation for you? (And if you feel like it’s anything but magical, what magic do you feel you could ‘mine’ after reading this?).
I made a video in my garden on this topic and posted it in our Language of the Feminine Community – so you can hop on over there to join in the conversation.
with love and a little bit of magic,
Photo credits > headshot image: Valeska von Muhldorfer, © 2015-2018
Share the magic with your friends!