Did you hear? A film about the menstrual cycle just won an Oscar!
‘Period. End of Sentence’ is part of a budding global movement to tell the story of menstruality, and it’s so thrilling to witness.
At Red School, we dream of restoring consciousness of the power of the menstrual cycle in the world; to our institutions of health and healing, counselling and therapy, education, business, spirituality; and to political and cultural life.
Imagine that world!
The building of this world starts with each woman (or menstruator) doing the quiet, intimate practice of cycle awareness.
The simple practice of cycle awareness slowly, steadily births the feminine in the world.
Cyclical life offers us a container or holding for our lives. We are held and nourished by the movement of cyclical patterns - the cycle of the seasons, the moon, our bodies changing patterns through the circadian and ultradian rhythms and of course our menstrual cycle.
The repeating pattern of the menstrual cycle is like a companionable presence, generating a very real, tangible sense of being held. It acts as a stabilising force, grounding us in ourselves and connecting to something larger. It allows us to grow into a deep trust of Life in short - to know we are not isolated atoms pinging around in a meaningless universe but rather deeply embedded in a coherent, unfolding Story in which we have a place, a meaning, a belonging.
Awareness of the simple physical reality of the menstrual cycle can begin to ignite this container but as you engage more and more with the energetics of the cycle, honouring its imperatives - the psychological and spiritual forces - you begin to weave a subtle energetic field of containment and belonging.
This energetic field is soothing, reassuring, creating a feeling of wholesomeness, that you are indeed whole. It is the consciousness of Love, of the Feminine.
And as more and more of us practice cyclical awareness we restore this energetic field of belonging - of the Feminine - to the world. Cycle awareness is a form of subtle activism, the consequences of which are potentially huge as women and other menstruators reclaim this inner power.
When you arrive at menopause, while the physical structure of the cycle will fall away and you may indeed feel abandoned, lost and without containment anymore, that subtle holding does not actually abandon you. And through the process of menopause you will find your way to feeling its presence without the need for a cycle. And you will feel surrendered to a larger presence beyond you.
This is why we want to dare you to up your cycle awareness game even more in 2019!
How can you deepen your MCA, both for yourself, and for the world?
Perhaps you’ll choose to risk that ‘Big Bleed’ idea that we write of in Wild Power.
Perhaps you’ll be inspired to find some way to spread the word about cycle awareness, so that this is the year that millions more discover the pleasure and power of menstrual cycle awareness (MCA), and it becomes commonplace for women to speak of their experience.
If it has been a rather private practice for you, we invite you to consider sharing it more with your friends.
Or, if you’re already doing that, perhaps it’s time to explore having more conversations about the value of it in the workplace?
Perhaps you’ve been harbouring a secret desire to do something more already, so see this email as a big YES from the universe to do it!
Here’s to the radical, subversive, liberating, love-generating practice of menstrual cycle awareness!
We’re cheering you on,
Alexandra and Sjanie
Ps: Our menstruality work is also going global! Wild Power is now available in English, French and German (Czech. Korean and Spanish coming soon). And The Women’s Quest workbook is available in English, Portuguese, with an adapted version in Italian. From Pain to Power is also available in English and Portuguese. And our Menstrual Cycle Awareness ebook is available in English, Hungarian, Romanian, Polish, Czech, Hebrew and Spanish (with German and Italian coming soon).
