Honoring the Rhythms: Embracing the Wisdom of Women, Our Cycles, and Sacred Ceremony
In our Community, the menstrual cycle is not just a biological event; it’s a deeply revered and powerful time for women. We hold specific and important traditions around a woman’s lunar cycle, recognizing its profound connection to the spiritual realm and the earth’s natural rhythms.
The Power Within: Purging and Regeneration
We believe that women embody immense power during their monthly cycle. This period is seen as a time of purging, regeneration, and heightened spiritual connection. It’s a sacred interval where women are particularly attuned to the spirits and their inner wisdom. Due to this unique energetic state, the use of certain traditional medicines is not needed and is, in fact, discouraged during this time. In rare instances, engaging with these medicines during menstruation can lead to adverse effects, including heavy or uncontrolled bleeding.
Sacred Space: Planning for Ceremony
For these significant reasons, women who are menstruating are not permitted to participate in our ceremonies. This tradition is in place to ensure the safety and integrity of the sacred space for all involved. We kindly ask that you plan and schedule your retreat accordingly, being mindful of your cycle.
Should your cycle begin unexpectedly early, we understand that this can be a difficult situation. In such cases, for the safety of both yourself and other participants, you will be asked to move to a separate building. Please know that we will continue to care for you and will explore other supportive therapies during your time with us.
Understanding the Tribal View: A Shaman’s Wife Shares Wisdom
We’re honored to share insights from the wife of one of our revered Shamans, offering a deeper understanding of the tribal perspective on women’s cycles:
“For too long, the menstrual cycle has been viewed negatively, often ignored or hidden. Society has taught us to suppress our emotions and conceal our cycles, fearing that we might be perceived as weak. But releasing these societal constraints can profoundly impact a woman’s emotional, intellectual, and spiritual growth.
Women of childbearing age live in a world often oriented towards masculine perceptions, which can obscure our innate understanding of ourselves and our cycles. This environment rarely provides guidance to navigate the rich feelings and experiences that accompany menstruation.
Every woman experiences her period uniquely, highlighting the importance of understanding and embracing the cyclical nature of the female body. This awareness allows us to better understand our own timing and how we perceive ourselves. In essence, a woman can learn to discover the profound gifts within menstruation, fostering a positive view that can then empower her daughters and other women to accept their gender and their unique cycles.
Many women experience physical and emotional discomfort before and during menstruation, often viewing these symptoms as negative and something to be fought. Yet, if the root of this discomfort lies in the very fact of being a woman, then fighting it is not the answer. Western traditions often lack the frameworks to help us understand and positively utilize this awareness.
When a woman truly recognizes that her menstrual life is an expression of her cyclical being, she begins to see herself as part of the grand rhythms of the universe. This deeper acceptance of her true condition can bring harmony to her life. There are countless traditions, stories, myths, and legends that offer profound teachings and ideas for managing our periods.
By recognizing, healing, and forgiving, we can choose what truly matters in our lives, honoring what we’ve inherited from the women who came before us while releasing what no longer serves. This is an invitation to heal the female lineage.
Consider this: a woman’s eggs are formed when she is still in her grandmother’s womb. In a profound sense, a part of you was once in the womb of your grandmother, and so on. We carry within our cells and DNA the history of our ancestors—their emotional fields, mental structures, and physical experiences. Healing what is connected to the legacy of the women who precede us benefits not only ourselves but our entire lineage, understanding that time and space are relative and often mental constructs.
Healing begins when you become aware of what is truly yours and separate it from what has been passed down. This means recognizing patterns that generate pain, frustration, embarrassment, or guilt—whether physical, emotional, or mental. From this point, we offer workshops that include healing meditations, guided representation, creative expression, and lineage work.
The menstrual cycle is a truly vital ritual and a significant aspect of the yagé tradition. The teaching, ‘The woman who is on her period cannot take part in the ritual,’ is rooted in the belief that during this time, she is ‘downloading energies.’ As such, her presence could potentially cause energetic disruptions to the yagé, the shaman, or other participants, and even to herself.
In our tradition, women are advised not to attend the ritual for three days before and three days after their period. Following the end of the cycle, they are encouraged to bathe with basil to cleanse the energy produced during menstruation. This does not imply that our cycle is impure; on the contrary, many legends speak of our menstrual cycle as sacred medicine.”