Women Who Bleed With The Moon

The moon has always been the primary symbol for female energy; its cycle around the earth takes approximately twenty-nine days, the same amount of time as the average woman's menstrual cycle. It is often felt that as the pull of the moon affects the waters of the world, so does its motion affect the body of woman.

A women's blood and hormonal cycle follows the ebb and flow of the moon; from new moon to full moon, estrogen increases leading to ovulation, or maximum fertility, at full moon. From full moon to new moon, the waning half of the cycle, progesterone predominates. Traditionally, women used to start bleeding right before the new moon, in the dark of the moon.

In modern times, women begin their menstruation during different phases of the moon. Their bodies are out of sync with the moon and their spirits have forgotten the meaning of Grandmother Moon. One way to get back in harmony with the moon is by performing ceremonies and rituals at different times during the moon cycle and also by honoring the time of menstruation.

When a woman begins her monthly bleeding, she has a very special vibration. The blood flow is cleansing as the old uterine lining is sloughed off, one monthly reproductive cycle is ended. At menstruation, women have the chance to rid themselves of all old thoughts, habits, desires, and be receptive to new visions and inspirations for the next cycle. This is the dark moon phase.

If a woman continues her normal routine at menstruation, then she loses a uniquely female opportunity for introspection. She also finds she gets more tired, irritable, and upset because her physical rhythm has slowed down. She needs rest, more time for meditation, and less time doing housework, cooking, working in the outside world, and taking care of children.

In many Native American tribes and other tribal cultures, there is a separate moon lodge to which all women go. Since most women menstruated at the same time (have you noticed women who live together bleed together) during the dark of the moon, the grandmothers and fathers took care of the children. Food was left outside the lodge several times a day. Women during menstruation were/are considered to hold a certain power and not allowed to mingle with the rest of the tribe. Many tribes have taboos against these women, believing that their power would interfere with the hunt or take away the power of the medicine bundles.

This is also why women are not allowed in sweat lodges and must stand outside the circles in other ceremonies when they are in their moon time. We know now that women were also segregated because of fear of the immense power which enabled them to bleed each month and never die -the greatest of all the Mysteries- while a male warrior might succumb quickly after losing so much.

Women's Medicine Ways' Cross-cultural Rites of Passage by Marcia Starck

I love this article. Only so often do I bleed with the moon and it is such an honor!

I am so sick and in so much pain that I don't even get up long enough to see a moon. This is not my favorite time of the month.

that's a really nice article. I sometimes get embarrassed about talking about periods and stuff (lol, i don't know why!?) but my are very very light and always exaclty with the moon. Now I feel kind of honored. I had no idea, about ANY of that stuff in the article! But it's neat! lol. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you for sharing this article . I'm on the New Moon cycle, and so is my best friend even though we live nowhere near each other. I live in VA and she lives in MA. I've always known that my cycle ran in synch with the moon and here's the proof!

Enchanted blessings ~
Candi

That was a great article! I really enjoyed reading it! Thank You

wow! I always bleed with the moon. I always have too. that's a very interesting post!

Before I went on the pill it was all over the freaking place. 11 days on, 20 days of, 3 days on 11 days off, 10 days on 11 days off... it was freaking crazy. I was so anemic people though I had cancer or something.
Now on the pill, it's much more normal, but the moon is completely out of the equasion.

Thanks for this article! It is interesting, when my husband was overseas (way before I met him) in the Navy if the Vietnamese hookers were unavailable due to their cycle they would always say 'I'm Lunar!'

My cycle has always gone with the moon and my worst periods if I'm gonna have a bad one are those where the moon is opposite my natal or square to it.

when i started using the nuvaring for birth control i made sure to start it in accordance with the moon cycle so that my period would be around the dark moon. this is the way my cycle has been without hormones and i wanted to keep it this way. from everything from meditation and excercize to spellwork and energy levels, i feel more imbalance when my menstrual cycle matches the lunar cycle.

This was a really great article. I know this is a late post, but does anyone know if it's "normal" to bleed a little during ovulation, and/or what that means? This only started happening to me when I turned 30 and now I'm 31

Thanks,
lightbright

My doctor told me some spotting sometimes occur during ovulation. But if it's a concern you should see your doctor. Always better to be on the safe side.

This is a very interesting phenomena, thanks for mentioning it.
I used to bleed on the full moon, now I ovulate on it.

When I was married the !st time and trying to conceive I was doing a ton of reading about cycles. If you have an irregular cycle, the book said to sleep with a bedside lamp on for 2 weeks and this would re-align your clock and circadian rhythm.

Pretty interesting huh?

I'm completely bass-ackwards! I bleed with the full moon... hmm... wonder why that is?

Very interesting article.  Something I've never noticed, the moon's cycle and mine.  I would love to check this out, but ironically, my doctor and I are waiting for blood tests to come back.  We think I'm starting menopause.  :roll: