I'm not always like this

[smokingboot]

Promise I'm not. You know those women who drive you mad by moaning about their period? I am about to join them, for which purpose I use the merciful cut, because there is way too much information here. But the good news is that I am helped in expressing my thoughts on this deep primal aspect of womanhood by Wild Genie, a link you can get to from the webpage on 'Wemoon' recyclable sanitary towels (http://www.wemoon.com.au/womenslinks.html#menstrwomenshealth)




The menstrual cycle is the psycho-spiritual template in women.
(Is that right? Because my psycho-spiritual template has clearly designed me to be a big red fruit out of God's apple orchard today, soft, sweet and nurturing. Today I am lovely, downright lovely. Lovely lovely lovely)

Constituting the ground of woman's being, the cycle has an 'intelligence'
(Does it really? Well, I hope its intelligence is happy with forcing my lower torso to wince and pucker like a child weaned on a pickle. Not that anyone sees it, as I have spent most of the day in the bathroom)

and function that goes beyond its role of baby making, A woman's cyclical life opens her to an enormous elemental force that is both intensely intimate and universal: ecstatic, creative, erotic, restorative and full of love. We can enter the depth of this space monthly at menstruation and the menstrual cycle is our training ground for fully understanding and realising this power.

Oh yes, how erotic I feel, that must be it. And restored too, that's why I can't do anything except snarl. See me snarl, but don't be afraid. My bloodied tongue and bared teeth are full of ecstatic, creative, erotic restorative love. Honestly.*

Our failure to attend to the menstrual cycle as a vital and vitalising psycho-spiritual process deprives women of a fundamental layer to their process of maturation and empowerment including preparation for the profound psycho-spiritual challenges of pregnancy, birth and mothering. Unless we address this issue our healing, psychological and spiritual disciplines will constantly fall short in speaking to and nourishing women today. Our spiritual, psychological and physical wellbeing will continue to be undermined.

Why of course, I feel empowered too. I feel empowered enough to reach deep down into my sacred vulva and shake the hand of my inner psychopath, giving her full leave to leap out in lycanthropic shape and rip the ribs out of the next ninny to use the word 'maturation.' Don't run. If you run, I'll be forced to chase you, and I can't be responsible for what happens then.

The loss of this wisdom equally affects relationships between women and men. In effect men are deprived of an opportunity for maturation too.

Deprived of an opportunity to read this and wonder what the hell maturation means. Or what any of it means. My dear XYs, there's a world out here of reuseable tampons and moon cups you never know. Makes you feel left out, right?


Menstruation is still largely a taboo subject, which today has been safely relegated to the realms of 'just a biological process' that women have to learn to 'manage'. Some of us may also experience very real suffering such as period pain, endometriosis, or PMS that may obliterate any capacity to enter menstruation's imaginative depths. I believe that regardless of whether you personally care to engage with these ideas or not to live in a menstrual positive world would be immensely healing and dignifying for all of us.

'A menstrual positive world?' What imaginative depths? All I can imagine is taking certain individuals and ripping their heads off and using their spines as chainwhips. My menstrual headspace is not Wuthering Heights, it's Grand Theft Auto. Positive?

I am sure that this helps some women, but for goodness sake, don't tell me I'm connected to the moon or the universe or the primal depths or anything through messy bloody physical process because I swear it's dangerous stuff - if this is the way of connecting, does it mean that non-menstruating women can't connect? That girls, old women and men can't? Society has created plenty of ways to discriminate against those who aren't regard as 'prime,'let's not create any more. If I connect or don't, it's all about my head, heart and soul. My can has nothing to do with it.


And now, because it is too ridiculous and the Christmas tree lights are calling, I can feel my mouth twitch and my mood lift. The webpage isn't complete rubbish. I am quite taken with the ecological soundness of re-usable towels, but I certainly don't want any this Christmas. Not unless they're the funky leopard print ones.

* and look, I've lost me brackets. Eeh, marvellous.

Comments

[semyaza.livejournal.com]

I'm not really here, but you've made me laugh so I had to comment. I'm trying very hard to imagine a bucketful of water-soaked pads sitting in my laundry room, waiting to be washed. I'm trying to imagine the cold water doing its job properly so that the damn things are clean by the time they come out of the wash. I'm trying to imagine the feel of wet cotton next to my skin.

You know, there's a reason our grandmothers rejoiced at the advent of the sanitary napkin as we know it today and the facial tissue. I do my best for the landfill, but I have my limits. I eschew the wemoon pad and the linen handkerchief. Pah!

As for all that vitalising psychospiritual stuff--I enjoy bodily functions of all sorts, but the only part of a period that ever gave me a creative burst and sense of empowerment was the blissful calm when the pain receded.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

I don't get calm after a period (in fact, it could be argued that I don't do calm at all). All I get is a blank sense of 'what was this last week about?'
Funny thing is, I somehow then forget it until the next time. And then get surprised when bad dreams, murderous moods etc arise...