Seasons of Womanhood: The Wheel of a Woman’s Life
We all need a map from time to time. When we are familiar with the terrain we can leave the map at home and allow ourselves the freedom of wandering as we will. But when we find ourselves at a new horizon, a fork in the trail, the ford of a river or one of life’s thresholds, it’s good to have a map.
The map, if appropriate to the terrain we are in, can help us better understand where we have come from, what has shaped us on the journey and what may have been missed. It can also help give us the big picture of where we are and provide some possibilities of where we may choose to go.
Our souls need maps too. Or rather we need maps to bring us back into alignment with the path our souls already know to follow.
In this patriarchal society we women often find ourselves holding a map drawn by a man. Which is not to say that map is not helpful, it may may well get us from A to B, but what do we miss along the way? What landmarks unique to women are not on that map and what may a stop at those sacred places inspire our souls to remember?
The map we offer as part of the Seasons of Womanhood program is a circular one, a wheel, because women, like the earth and moon, move in cycles.
Grown from the Ground Up
This map has emerged from ancient traditions, those in touch with the cycles of earth, moon and womb. It starts with the most fundamental noticing of how the sun appears to move across the sky each day and how the seasons change as the earth moves around the sun each year.
We four women are mostly of Celtic ancestry so we draw on that tradition in the understanding of this map. There are many maps from other traditions and lands that are not ours to share. We encourage you to learn the cosmologies of your own ancestors and delve into how what they have to teach you about the journey of womanhood. We offer this particular map in hope that it will inspire your own unique exploration of the facets of womanhood and creating nourishing sisterhood.
Let us start with a day, one spin of the earth in relation to the sun. When you sit outside all day in the same spot with nothing to do, not even food to eat, the sun quickly becomes an anchor point and reference for the passage of time. You notice it rises in the East, passes through the South and sets in the West. It then appears to head underground, the North, until by some miracle it comes back up in the East again.
Let us consider a year, one cycle of the earth around the sun. Life appears to dawn in the East as Spring, new shoots push their way up through the cold earth, leaves begin to bud, and lambs are born. It is the time of new beginnings, of inspiration, spring cleaning and a time of hope after the long winter. Gradually, as the earth turns we move into Summer, the South, hot, fiery sun, lush fields and forests, growing fruit, grain and animals. It is the time of laughter, dancing, picnics, fun and busyness as we soak it all in. And as day turns to twilight so too does Summer sink into Autumn in the West. Leaves start to fall, the fruit and grain ripen and drop, we gather in the harvest with gratitude for what is reaped and grief for what yet dies. As our home on the earth heads into the North, Winter shows itself cold and dark. It is the time of death, dormancy, when the trees draw their sap down into their roots, plants and animals retreat underground and we humans head inside. But Winter is also the time of renewal, regeneration, seeds under the dark soil work their magic so that as the earth turns to the East, Spring once again emerges.
So we map the year onto the day and East is the Spring Equinox, South the Summer Solstice, West the Autumn Equinox and North the Winter Solstice.
The seasonal wheel of the year (northern hemisphere), cardinal directions and the corresponding moon cycle.
If we now consider the moon we see it too follows a similar cycle. In it’s dark phase it appears to have died to us like Winter in the North but soon the first waxing crescent appears on the horizon which then grows over the month into the full moon of the South. As the solar year turns so the lunar month turns and the moon begins to wane in the West as it heads back into the dark phase before the New Moon in the North.
These cycles of sun, moon and earth are endless. Our ancestors, from all cultures, tracked them and used them as a map, a way to mark time, to know when to plant, tend and harvest, to do certain rituals and to give them hope in the darkness of Winter that Spring would indeed come again.
The Women’s Wheel of Life & Blood Rites
All beings follow the daily and yearly cycles here on earth, and women with wombs also follow the lunar cycle each month. But there is a bigger cycle, that of our lives, that can also can be mapped with the dance of these celestial bodies.
We are all born as Winter turns to Spring in the North East. In the Spring Equinox of our lives many women with wombs experience the first blood rite, that of Menses. As we move towards the fullness of Summer and the Full Moon we may pass the blood rite of First Sex in the South West on the way to Motherhood in the South. Here we may encounter the blood rite of childbirth or child death. Whether we give birth to a child, a creative project or a business the South or Summer of our lives is always full and busy as we nurture what is new into being.
As the wheel turns we move into the West or Autumn of our lives. The children, creative projects and businesses begin to need less tending so we can step back a little and enjoy the fruits of our harvest. This is when we step into the power phase of our lives, we become Matriarch, leaders of the clan. As the bodies of women with wombs change and head into the blood rite of peri-menopause there is a tendency to lean more into the spiritual realm and away from the material. Things change, become less defined as we move past the West and into the North West, as the gatekeeper to Cronehood is encountered, Menopause.
We step out of Menopause into the depth of our wisdom in the North, Winter and the dark moon. Here, we truly own the hard won lessons of life are so deep in our bones we have no need to speak them, we simply live them as we turn our attention toward the next rite, Death. As we pass through the Mystery we find ourselves again in the early Spring ready to be born again.
Blood Rites on the Women with Wombs Wheel of Life
We offer this map as a way for women to take stock of which life passages have been honored and which have not. In the final session of The Archetypes series and in the 5-day Women’s Ritual Immersion you may choose, or not, to create a ritual (private or in a group) to honor those blood rites not already marked well in your life. Many women find this incredibly healing. Others choose not not focus on blood rites and instead look to the women’s archetypes as a map for making sense of their journey of womanhood.
Blood Rites for Women without Wombs
We are heading into another historical era, one where the previously rigid lines of gender are becoming more fluid. Brave souls are carving out space for their own authentic gender identity and the medical field is opening up possibilities we have never before experienced.
Blood rites of passage have traditionally refereed to phases of life encountered by women with wombs - menses, childbirth, menopause. The world now is calling for a more expanded and inclusive definition of women’s blood rites as there are more and more women who’s life is not centered around havering a womb. We see surgeries as blood rites, including hysterectomy, and gender-affirmation surgeries; we welcome women who want to ceremonially mark these types of blood rites.
Making it Your Own
Notice, dear women, what happens in your being as you read these words: Menses, First Sex, Surgery, Childbirth, Child death, Peri-menopause, Menopause, Blood, Rites, Maiden, Mother, Matriarch, Crone
What sensations arise in your body? What memories or images come to mind? What longings are you aware of?
Take note of what arises for you. Do these words bring joy, gratitude a sense of belonging? Do they bring shame, fear a sense of rejection? Maybe all of that.
Allow yourself to notice what is true for you in relation to these words. You may want to write the responses you notice, or draw them, or sing them or dance them. However this wants to move in you is welcome.
We we work with these responses in our time together.
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