Celebrating your First Moon & Being Creative with your Cycle

Posted on | March 27, 2009 |

Celebrating your First Moon (an exerpt from Thirteen Moons and Menarche ‘a journey into womanhood’ - both avaliable here )

The word ‘celebrate’ comes from an ancient Greek word ‘melpo’ which means to sing, dance and praise!

There are many ways to celebrate your first blood- here are a few suggestions-

• Have a RED PARTY! Invite your friends and all dress in red, decorate your home with red flowers, red cloths and eat red foods!
• Have a ‘pamper party’ with your girlfriends, give each other facials, paint your toe nails, braid one another’s hair- create a special girlie space to share your stories and perhaps read some of the ones in this book. Light a candle and share chocolate!
• Create a ceremony - ask your mum and friends to help.
• Talk to your mum about the steps to becoming a woman- is there something you’d like to help you to feel more grown up- to get your ears pierced, have your hair henna’d, or maybe redecorate your room? Chat some ideas over with your mum.
• Make yourself a moon necklace or moon belt that you only wear when you bleed.
• Create a special corner in your room for when you bleed- decorate it with pictures, crystals, stones, shells, goddess statues, candles, incense…
• Ask your mum to buy you some red bedding- soft red sheets to curl up in at your moon time!
• Write a letter to yourself- from your ‘young woman’ self to your ‘child girl’ self, honour her for being courageous to be taking these steps in to womanhood with you! Keep this letter safe and read it now and again.
• Start a women’s circle- gather your girlfriends together once a month- on the full moon or dark moon and have a pamper party, or watch a dvd, listen to music or together create items for your altars or make moon jewelry!

Be Creative with your Cycle by Dominique Sakoilsky

Our bleeding time is a time to turn inwards- its nice to have a special place to go (this is where the tribal moon lodges came from)…here’s some ideas for you! Give yourself a space, especially for your bleeding time, where you can be comfortable, relax, turn inwards and connect to yourself and the earth.

Some ideas to create a space for moon time:
Cushions, pillows, blankets.
Tarot cards, runes.
Pencils, paints, pens, paper - to make notes, pictures, poems, dreams.
A drum.
Goddess figures.
Special shells, stones, crystals.
Candles, incense and smudge stick (sage for cleansing & protecting, sweet grass for spirit and mugwort for visions.)
Oil burner (chamomile and lavender essential oils to relax.)
Massage oil.
Don’t over clutter your space or make yourself feel over stimulated, bleeding time is a time of reflection and inner connectedness which flows out to connect all around.
Often, making things helps to still the mind and help us deeper in to the wisdom of our bodies.
Dream pillows stuffed with lavender flowers and mugwort, decorated especially by you makes a beautiful bleeding time gift to yourself, or making a prayer stick: choose a stick that appeals to you and wrap threads of different colours and textures all around it, add other decorations, such as beads, crystals- anything that feels right. Smudging and chanting while you work will help open your heart and put healing intent and prayers into your stick. You could keep all your sticks from each month and burn them together in a ritual to release your prayers or burn it each time you make one.
Threading a necklace; putting healing and sacred energy in to it, connecting to your cycling nature when you wear it. Choose beads that relate to your different cycle phases and the moons cycle.
Touch your menstrual blood or paint with it, how does that feel? Does it bring up feelings of how you relate to your blood, the way it looks, feels, smells?

All these suggestions can help you open the doorway to your intuition and enter your Dream Time.


Celebrating Your Moon Time! By Rachael Hertogs
o Contemplate your first period and be grateful to your body for
all the years it has supported you and for all you have gone through – your life has brought you to where you are now!
o Give your period a name that creates affirmative thoughts about it; Moon Time, my moon, red moon, red tide, scared cycle, moon cycle, my flow, my sacred time, my special time…..
o Make a special Menstruation cushion for you to sit on while you bleed
o Sew a soft red bag to keep your sanitary wear in
o Chart your cycle so you know when you are due, and book a day off!
o Create an intention at each bleeding time to use the magic of your blood to bring healing in to your life
o Give yourself a henna hand tattoo
o Wear red knickers
o Rest and relax- have a massage, do gentle yoga, sit by the fire, chant, meditate etc
o Use soft comfortable cloth menstrual pads
o Make a menstrual journal and record your dreams, visions, feelings during your Moon Time
o Ask a friend/partner to cook your favourite meal
o Create a peaceful place (your personal moon lodge/red tent); dedicate a room to your moon time ; decorate the room with fabrics and candles
o Make a red silk dream pillow stuffed with relaxing herbs- only to use when you’re bleeding! (sleep herbs are chamomile, lavender & lemon balm, for a Menstrual pillow use hops, rose petals, lavender and mugwort)
o Light red candles
o Choose special moon time bedding; red satin sheets or red flowers…
o Make a menstrual belt with leather strips and beads
o ‘Take a personal inventory’ before your period; complete any tasks that need finishing, say things that you may have been bottling up during the month, ‘clear you side of the street’ so you can be fully present with your Moon Time.
o Wear a red scarf
o Stock up on good foods for your bleeding time
o Drink red juice- grape, pomegranate, cherry, cranberry, beetroot
o Begin a women’s circle; meet with friends and share your thoughts, feelings, and experiences of your cycle.
o Make a Moon Time Altar, choose special items that reflect your moon time and support the meditative qualities of this time of the month.
o Buy or make a special moon time necklace to wear when you bleed
o Eat red foods- beetroot, apples, cherries, strawberries, pomegranates, red onions, red peppers, cranberries, raspberries
o Buy herbal teas and tinctures that ease your menstruation
o Turn off the TV, your mobile phone, the computer, the lights and sit in candle light
o Wear red lipstick!
o Read inspirational women’s books
o Leave water out under the full moon, drink it and let the moons energy fill you
o Have someone braid/comb your hair
o Splash or spray yourself with Rose water
o Sing a song to Grandmother Moon
o Buy or make a special Moon Jar/container to keep your Moon Time things in, such as cloth pads/moon cup, jewellery, belts, altar items, fabrics, candles etc
o Paint or henna your nails
o Make a Moon Lodge; a place for bleeding women to gather, sing, relax & share women’s wisdom together.
o Read books about the Goddess
o Henna your hair
o Write in your journal about what has happened in your life since your last bleeding time.
o Meditate on the moon
o Make a list of all the things inn life that nourish you and make you happy
o Ask yourself- what is my image of a woman who embodies the scared and holy time of menstruation?
o Stay in bed all day, sleep, dream & bleed!
o Bleed directly on to the earth
o Wear a red skirt or dress
o Wash your cloth pads and sing a song to the earth while watering the ground with your blood water.
o Draw or paint, get creative- just see what comes
o Burn incense or sage and give thanks and a healing prayer- let the smoke carry your prayers in to the universe
o Honour your scared intuition, surround yourself with things that help heighten your menstrual sensory perception
o Your blood is sacred- dedicate your blood flow to healing.
o Say a prayer of gratitude when you begin to bleed each month; thanking your body for connecting you to the rhythm of life.
o Anoint yourself with scented oils
o Wear red clothes!
o Eat chocolate!
o Buy a red hot water bottle
o Paint with your blood!
o As your blood flows from you give an intention it is aiding you in letting go of anything you are holding on to that isn’t supporting your life’s choices.
o Make a belly pouch- to keep your hot water bottle at your belly (or use a scarf)
o Drum, rattle, sing, chant, then in the quiet listen to your inner voice- ask it for guidance
o Play with divination/oracle cards
o Gather your women friends for a pamper evening, give each other face masks, foot rubs and eat lovely snacks!
o Have orgasms- they ease cramps!
o Rub warm oil on your lower back and belly
o Bathe in rose petals
o Make a red hot water bottle cover to ease your cramps
o Tell your friends and family you are on your Moon Time
o Make a massage oil blend just for your bleeding time, use it every day you are bleeding.
o Give thanks to your body and tell her you love her!
o Go for a night time walk and see what phase the moon is in. make a note in your journal and compare moon phases each month.

Written in 1998 added to when inspired further by 105 Ways to Celebrate your Menstruation by Kami Mc Bride

Category: cloth pads

Comments

6 Responses to “Celebrating your First Moon & Being Creative with your Cycle”

  1. Kelly Brown
    June 13th, 2009 @ 12:22 am

    Great post! I’ll subscribe right now!

  2. rosostrov.ru
    September 26th, 2009 @ 4:26 am

    It’s interesting to find how challenging the content side is for some. All I can say is WOW!! You have stunned me with the amount of valuable reading here.

  3. Anna
    September 30th, 2009 @ 1:48 am

    thanks for the advice.. wise words for any girl. Definitely something to be celebrated!!

  4. Becca
    March 4th, 2010 @ 2:59 am

    What fantastic ideas. I remember my first one - my parents took me out to dinner, but nobody actually mentioned why were were there. LOL I guess Dad was too embarassed still!

  5. Younge
    March 31st, 2010 @ 10:40 pm

    I’m looking forward to getting more information about this topic, don’t worry about negative opinions.

  6. skarface
    April 15th, 2010 @ 7:38 pm

    This is my first visit here, but I will be back soon, because I really like the way you are writing, it is so simple and honest

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