Moontime Mandala

Copyright © 2001 by Kelly Rose Mason

Moontime Mandala©

All women carry the cycle of life and death within us. Its center spirals in and out of our wombs and it manifests in our monthly bleeding cycle. In ancient times, women carried this knowledge and knew how to use and flow with the energies of their moon cycles. There was no shame or taboo around women's blood. In fact, it was the source of women's power, and the monthly rituals they practiced around their bleeding time were the first rituals in human history.

Like many sources of authentic power, this knowledge has been denied and twisted throughout patriarchal times, bringing women to the point where we stand at a precipice. And the view down is frightening and ugly: a world in which our power is cut out unnecessarily, enslaved by medication, regulated by hormones, even rendered obsolete by science. Sadly, recent articles in mainstream magazines are celebrating a new drug that will halt menstruation permanently, declaring it a "victory" for women who want to succeed in a man's world: a way for us to "take back our power" and not have our monthly "curse" anymore.

This is a critical time for women. A time when we must lift the so-called "curse," and proclaim the truth: Our bleeding cycles are a sacred blessing. The word "blessing" is an old English word for "bleeding". It is time we remember that our moon cycles are not a hindrance to, but rather the source of, our power. Therefore, I believe the most important and powerful path for women in this age lies in reclaiming the fruits of our Birth Rite: the wisdom and knowledge available through our ability to bleed in cycle with the earth and the cosmos, our ability to create and sustain life in our wombs, and our ability to hold our blood as we become older. These "Blood Mysteries" are the last of the women's rights/rites we have yet to demand. Perhaps because they are the most fundamental, evolutionary and revolutionary for our society. Or perhaps because they are something we must first and foremost demand from and for ourselves.

My work has sprung out of a question I have asked over and over again most of my adult life: "What does power look like in a feminine form?" The answers I received from Spirit all led me to my womb and my blood. And so I came to embrace my bleeding cycle as a spiritual practice and I manifested that practice in what I call a Moontime Mandala. The Moontime Mandala© is a sacred art piece created by each individual woman to represent the different energies and phases that she passes through during the month while simultaneously tracking the moon cycle.

Primates are the only species in the world with a menstrual cycle (other species experience an estrus cycle during which they bleed a little around ovulation to indicate fertility). Additionally, human females are the only creatures whose menstrual cycles are the same length as the moon cycle. Studies have shown that without the presence of artificial light and hormones in our food, women would naturally bleed on the dark/new moon and ovulate on the full moon. Energetically, the dark moon time is similar to woman's bleeding time and the full moon time is similar to the way a woman feels when she ovulates. Thus, by tracking the moon in relation to our cycles, we can better understand the energies at play in our lives throughout the month. We move around the mandala in a counter-clockwise-or moonwise-direction to honor the way the moon moves around the earth…

Used as an altar piece, the Moontime Mandala© becomes a daily ceremony and a beautiful way to remind ourselves that our bodies and our cycles are sacred and that our energies are ever changing as are the seasons, the moon and our lives. This daily practice and awareness allows us to flow with those energies rather than against them. It allows us to embrace paradox and change and to practice non-attachment, it enables us to think and feel in circles and cycles rather than in a linear fashion, and it helps us to understand that we are all one and connected by the web of our blood lines.

The simple daily practice of tracking where we are in our monthly cycles concurrently with the moon cycle can profoundly affect every level of our existence. On the physical plane, the awareness and acceptance of our bleeding and our body's ever changing form can drastically reduce "PMS" and cramping. By consciously linking the moon to our bodies, we can regulate our cycles and more effectively control our fertility. Ester Harding suggests in Women's Mysteries, Ancient and Modern that the prime cause of neurosis, illness and pain suffered by women today is that we have no menstrual ceremony of any kind. Caroline Myss, in Anatomy of the Spirit, agrees: "Problems with menstruation, cramps and PMS are classic indications that she is in some kind of conflict about being a woman, with her role in the tribe, and with tribal expectations of her."

On an emotional level, our cycles are a gift, a built-in way each month to let go of what needs to be released and to plant the seed for the next month. This practice transforms "PMS" into "PMP" (Pre-Menstrual Power)- a highly creative, truth telling time when we have complete access to the issues that keep us from being our highest selves. And on a spiritual level, our cycles connect us directly to the divine within ourselves. Our bleeding time brings about heightened vision and sensitivity, a time when we have direct knowledge of spirit. Historically, Native American women would go into their moon lodges during their cycles and receive visions they would bring back to their tribe. In fact, many important prophecies throughout time have come from bleeding women. The oldest Greek Oracle in history, at Delphi, was ruled by the Moon Goddess. "Delphi" means "womb."

In these crucially changing times, it is of the utmost importance that we ground ourselves in authentic power, sink our roots deep into the earth and do our personal transformative work. We can accomplish this through the amazing gift that is our bleeding cycle. This gift is the source of our spiritual power that will catalyze our personal transformation, and it is the source that will allow us to stay rooted firmly in the earth when all the rootless, unsustainable structures of patriarchy crumble around us in the years to come. Going forward, we must hold firmly the thread of blood that connects us with each other, with the planet and with the universe. It is our greatest gift. It is our blessing. It is our Birth Rite.

If you are interested in purchasing a Moontime Mandala© kit ( $35 plus shipping- includes all necessary materials and instruction booklet) or in attending a workshop on Women's Rites of Passage and Sacred Cycles, email kellyrosemason@attbi.com. Kelly Rose Mason is a level II Reiki initiate, an Esalen certified bodyworker and is earning her Masters degree in Women's Spirituality at New College of California. She has studied with Brooke Medicine Eagle, Starhawk, Vicki Noble, Luisa Teish, Judy Grahn, Gloria Karpinski and many other wise women of the Women's Spirituality movement. She is currently writing a book about the spiritual power of women's moon cycles.