Springtime is the time of the Maiden. It is a time when you start bringing your subconscious to the light of the day. It is a time of release – birth, not only in nature, but also all the ideas that were incubating within you in the cave of your Dark Feminine. The Maiden carries within the gift of regeneration, resurrection, and renewal. This is the time of new energy and of incredible enthusiasm towards oneself and all of life. Maiden conveys curiosity, courage, and embodiment. Maiden brings your attention to the importance of your body, she maps her gently and with owe, and through your menstrual blood she renews it, so you can become stronger, more vital, more confidant, and filled with energy. Everything becomes bright and new, even your sexual nature; everything becomes fun-loving, flirtatious, and outgoing.
Maiden awakens first stages of intimacy and touch: discovery of your own body, mapping the curves of it; the purity of your body and mind; innocence, playfulness, joy, happiness, peace and clarity; freshness and growth; ideas and needs.
This is the time of your inner-child curiosity. Find her, support her, give her a voice, and through that allow her to become.
Maiden energy is open to the Beauty Way. She brings beauty to every situation you are in. When things get ugly, she brings integrity and peace. She creates beauty in your life and recognizes beauty in everything around her. She takes time to stop and smell the flowers, to breathe, to run and to dance. She lifts her head and sees the stars. She sees the world with the fresh gaze. Maiden is that part of you who still believes in magic. Who speaks to the trees, rivers, ocean, and spirits. She offers you the return of second innocence, but one born of wisdom not of naivety. She can help you to acquire a beginner’s mind so that you can see all as if for the first time. She is calling you to remain open, to learn and to discover.
She is calling you to get to know her body and all her aspects.
When she enters your life cycle, your blood is still flowing – it’s not a gushing menstrual river, but a trickle of a stream of life.
Your blood is life, yet the taboo surrounding menstrual blood seems to be hard to break even for us women. For centuries now menstrual blood was considered dirty, unclean, disgusting, and filled with shame. To this day in some cultures menstruating women are perceived as so unclean and polluting that they are forbidden to touch food and men. Menstrual blood is a taboo. But please stop for a moment and think about it. Your menstrual blood is composed of blood, vaginal fluid, and fluid and cells of the late secretory phase of the uterine endometrial lining, which is shed during your bleed. It is filled with stem cells (multipotent stem cells that are useful in tissue engineering and regeneration). Your menstrual blood is filled with the possibility of life. Of life that hasn’t come to be in a human form, but life, nevertheless. Your blood is filled with cells that create and maintain life. When you look at your menstruation like that can you still think of it as dirty and unclean? Blood used to be considered sacred. It was offered as an offering to gods and nature. Sometimes only blood could tame the raging deity. Your menstrual blood is the most sacred secretion your body produces. In some instances, the best blood offering was considered the blood of a virgin. However, there is research that suggests that the blood wasn’t taken by taking the life of the virgin. It was taken from her menstrual blood. Menstrual blood was used in the manufacture of love charms and potions. It was used to ward off evil and protect livestock. It was considered powerful and surrounded by fear, myth, and legend.
And so was a menstruating woman.
In tribal times, menstruating women would gather in Red Tents or Menstruation Huts. They are present in some places of today’s world as well, but their meaning has changed and degraded. Only by being marked as unclean, polluting, and shameful women are confined into the menstrual huts in Pakistan, India, Africa, and Nepal, to name just a few. They are not allowed to touch food, clothing, children, or men as they may pollute them in physical and metaphysical ways. They are rejected from and by society for the time of their bleed. But in the tribal times of the past, women would gather in the menstrual huts to bleed together in peace and calmness. They would spend time together, tending to their own needs of retreat, rest, and looking within. They would dream and connect with their oracular nature and see the future of their tribe through the prism of their blood. They would be taken out of their ordinary chores not because the bleeding would make them unclean, but to give them the time to rest and to mark the time of sacred ceremony. Because when we bleed, we are in ceremony. The chieftains would come to ask for advice. And bleeding woman wouldn’t be touched by a man not because she could pollute him, but because she was considered sacred. She became the goddess and divinity is not touched by human hands. But his-story changed the meaning of the huts and added a few additional wounds to the feminine.
I would like to invite you to experience this beautiful ceremony.
Wholeheartedly I would like to invite you to touch your menstrual blood. Consciously touch it. Take it on your fingers and rub it between them. Don’t let anyone tell you what is appropriate or not – this is your body and your blood. Find Goddess within, find your inner rebel, and laugh at patriarchy right in the face. Reconnect with the innate knowledge and coding in this life-giving nectar. Touch your blood every time you’re bleeding. Notice the difference in consistency, colour, and maybe smell. Take your blood on your finger and anoint your forehead. Something truly powerful happens when you do that. Close your eyes and take time to feel the connection with the blood and beyond. Feel the wisdom of your ancestors transferred to you through your blood. If you would like to take it further, choose the symbol that means something to you and draw it with your blood on your face or body. Sleep like that and see what dreams this connection will bring. If you are using cloth period pads, collect the water after soaking them before washing them. Share this water with your plants at home and in the garden. Make it a conscious offering to Mother Earth, to your intentions, to your dreams. Get to know your blood and power hidden within. Find pleasure in connecting to it. Tame your fear and embarrassment, release the shame – remember, blood is life.
Your menstrual blood is the most sacred secretion there is.
If you don’t bleed anymore, please do not fret. Now your blood is contained within you. You can stir it yourself in the cauldron of your womb. All the archetypes live within your womb as well. So, call the Maiden and allow her to surface through. Speak to her; listen to her; play, dance; run if you dare. Connect to the image of your womb filled with your sacred secretion. Tap to the wisdom hidden within. Place your hands on your womb and drop down into this beautiful sit of your life force. Through this portal you can speak to your ancestors, and they will answer your every call. Through this portal your Maiden will carry a chalice of fresh blood for you to anoint yourself and your entire ancestral line. Hold this mystery in your heart and in your womb – you are the Magic Keeper, the Threshold Walker, the Wise One in Blood. You are the Teacher of Blood Mysteries to the Maiden to come. Take up space, Sister. Trust the wisdom of your womb.
With love,
Agnieszka xx
If you would like to know more about menstrual blood and menstrual ceremonies, I would highly recommend my book: ‘Dancing with Goddesses: Archetypal Journey through the Menstrual cycle’.
If you would like to work with me, you can book now a free 15 minutes call through my website: www.primetherapy.co.uk