What your menstrual cycle says about you according to the moon

Lisa Lister is from a lineage of traveller women who have worked with herbs, the stars and folk medicine to intuit, predict and heal. She is an artist, an author, a well-woman therapist and a womb and fertility massage practitioner sharing cyclic living, rhythmic intelligence and in-your-body-mental practices with her followers. 

In recent years there has been an upsurge in interest in the connection between the moon phases and the menstrual cycle. I share about this rhythmic intelligence and the reflection of Mumma nature’s cycles on our own cyclic nature in my books, but a question I get asked a lot in response to this is: “how can I sync my cycle to the moon?” By which the person usually means: “how can I make it so that I ovulate with the full moon and bleed with the dark moon?” Yep, this is a THING.

It is said in folklore that if you bleed at the new moon and ovulate with the full moon, you will be fertile and ‘in tune’ with the moon and her cycles. However, this was before the pill, before electricity, before we stared at computers and mobile phones all day, before the meat that some of us choose to eat was pumped with hormones - all of which has worked, very successfully, to unplug us from our direct connection to the phases of the moon and to the cyclic nature of our own bodies.
 But there are ways to reconnect it. It involves dietary changes, sleep masks and regulating light intake.

That said, while bleeding in tune with the moon and her phases IS possible, please know that it's NOT necessary. You don't NEED to sync your cycle with the moon because it already is.
 Whichever moon phase you bleed in (and you'll notice that this can and will change depending on what's being called up and through you to respond to and work with throughout your bleeding years) holds its own power and magic for what you need to receive right now.


IF YOU BLEED DURING A…WAXING MOON


You're being called to use your menstruation phase to explore and make new discoveries. To take risks and get curious about new possibilities. Read books that hold teachings you've been meaning to read but haven't got round to, or listen to podcasts by women you admire and who inspire you. 
This is a time to grow and play and have new experiences. Taste different food, take a left when you'd normally go right.



IF YOU BLEED DURING A…FULL MOON


Bleeding at the full moon is a call for you to combine the vitality, fullness and potent power of the full moon with the let-go of your own menstruation blood to manifest and bring something creative into being. 
To create outwardly, for the collective, for the world. 
It will be NO surprise that right now, MANY women will be bleeding with the full moon because they're being called to act and create in response to political situations. (The work here is not to fight, but to turn rage and anger into a creative force for good.)


IF YOU BLEED DURING A…WANING MOON


You're being called to tend to whatever came to fruition for you around the time of the full moon and cultivate it, edit it, get really clear on it. Use the information that you're open to receive during your bleed time (if you didn't know already, you're a divination rod when you bleed) to help you get geeky with the details, to clarify, and to really stabilise and solidify ideas or situations, and to verify knowledge that will help to develop plans and projects as you continue to move through your cycle.



IF YOU BLEED DURING A…DARK/NEW MOON


If you bleed during a dark to new moon, you're being called inwards. To nourish yourself, tend to your needs and immerse in some serious self-care practices. Your dream time will be potent so be sure to make notes in your journal because when you bleed during this phase of the moon, you have one foot in this world and one foot in the great void. The cosmic womb. You have access to all that's been and all that's to come, it's pretty wild!


It's a good time to be still, to be in silence, to come into your crone/wise woman power and let your wise self be your guide because honestly, trying to be in action or do…well, anything will be tricky when you’re bleeding in this phase. (That’s because you’re not meant to. You’re meant to be resting. I know, radical, right?)

This knowledge, this access to our rhythmic and cyclic mysteries, is how we reclaim our power.

For more insight on our rhythmic and cyclic intelligence, read Lisa’s books, sign up to her muse letter at www.thesassyshe.com or join her SHE Power Collective on Patreon.