Menstruation is Power
by Alexandra Pope
The stress sensitive barometer in women, the menstrual cycle is an exquisite
system for sensing both physical and psychological well-being. Menstruation
is an initiatory time, when women can potentially open to a highly charged
altered state, giving them access to a singular kind of power.
The power of self awareness, deep feeling, knowingness, intuition. A
power that matures over time with each cycle.
Cycles are the very basis of life, the means by which nature and humans
regenerate. To go against them is a recipe for disaster. To listen to them
adds a richness and connection to life. Women who medicate their menstrual
cycle through the use of the Pill are in danger not only of harming their
physical health, but also of cauterizing the depths of their inner natures.
Something will never feel complete. In short, they can end up living a half
life.
The tendencies in the ovulatory phase of the cycle are more outer focused,
linear, left brain, feeling fairly clear (no messy emotion) and productive,
with plenty of energy for others. As we move into the menstrual phase of
the cycle women tend to become more inner focused. The transition to this
inner state is often signaled by feelings of irritability, anger, overwhelm,
greater dreaminess and vagueness. The people around us often feel more like
an irritant.
Opposites are amplified. For example you may experience feeling driven
one moment and then flip into its opposite, becoming drifty and dreamy the
next. A feeling of purposefulness may fall away to be replaced by questioning
about one's self and what one is doing.
This can also take the form of criticism of self and others, or simply
depression. The single most dominant characteristic of this phase is sensitivity.
We become more permeable both to our own depths but also to the world.
Ironically the power of menstruation comes from the one thing we usually
condemn in ourselves at this time: this very sensitivity. It is a wonderful
opening to feeling and spirit. If you can travel through this opening with
greater acceptance, you'll experience over time an illumination and knowingness
that will suffuse the whole of your life. Your deep feelings are an awesome
intelligence, a form of knowing, sometimes prescient, that goes beyond surface
realities. Without our capacity for depth of feeling, and, yes, it includes
all the so called 'negative' ones, life would lack meaning and intimacy,
ecstasy and joy .
The sensitivity extends the acreage of our souls, encourages us to examine
and challenge ourselves and the world we live in. If the task feels too
great, the sensitivity of menstruation too overwhelming, we should neither
condemn ourselves nor menstruation.
That would be like shooting the messenger. Instead we must learn to
value and harness the power that comes from our greater openness. Take a
stand for more womanly ways of knowing that can track feeling, listen to
gut instinct, notice synchronicities, catch the intuitive flashes and recognize
the connections between all things. Intellect is immeasurably matured by
such skills of knowing.
At menstruation we are being called to attend to ourselves and to matters
beyond the mundane surface level of existence. True power comes from our
capacity to travel in both inner and outer worlds, to experience emotional
and spiritual depths along with our intellectual rigor. This is true for
both women and men. Women are blessed with an inner process, the menstrual
cycle, that reminds us of and supports these capacities. This is a wonderful
gift. A kind of blessing.
Copyright 2002 Alexandra Pope
Alexandra Pope is the author of "The Wild Genie: The Healing
Power of
Menstruation" (2001, Sally Milner Publishing) and "Walking
with the Genie: the Modern Woman's Menstrual Health Kit" (2001, self
published)
Alexandra Pope is a psychotherapist and facilitator.
She runs menstrual health and Wild Genie workshops, and co-facilitates
'The Power of the Feminine' workshop in Australia.
Contact details: aepope@ozemail.com.au
PO Box 1018, Bondi Junction,
NSW 3155 Australia
©2002 Harry Finley. It is illegal
to reproduce or distribute work on this Web site in any manner or medium
without written permission of the author. Please report suspected violations
to hfinley@mum.org