LILITH, The Goddess of Menstruation

 

Often the degree to which a woman suffers during menstruation is a strong indication of how empowered her inner Lilith (the Wild Woman archetype) really is.  

 

For example, just before we bleed & during menstruation we are at our most psychic & intuitively sensitive – this is the time when our Lilith energy is the most pronounced.  

So what is commonly referred to as PMT – pre-menstrual tension is actually the time in our lunar cycle when whatever is still unresolved from the previous lunar month will come to the forefront of our mind & eat away at us until we deal with it.  

Also at this time we become attuned to both our shadow traits & the shadow traits of others, as well as any areas where we have imbalances in equality in our lives or suppressed anger.  

During this time it is imperative we honour our inner truth by speaking our inner thoughts & feelings as much as possible.  

The more we can do this, the less we run the risk of hissing at others like a pressure cooker or boiling over in a fit of rage.

Similarly, many of us have stored within our physical, emotional & energetic bodies collective rage at the suppression & persecution of the feminine during the last 2000 years.  

This, along with the unspoken shame & lack of sacred power connected with our blood cycles & an unwritten expectation that women should above all else nurture others before themselves manifests itself in our bodies in conditions ranging from pelvic inflammation, fibroids, endometriosis, irregular cycles, excessive bleeding, fainting, vomiting, diahorrea & painful cramps.  

So if you suffer from any of the above complaints chances are your inner Lilith is not too happy & would greatly benefit from a visit to a moonlodge or some nurturing & journaling on the first evening of each moontime (period).  

Similarly, questioning the attitudes towards menstruation is another healthy place to start.  

For example, using cloth pads & returning the rich nutrients in your blood to Mother Earth (or your pot plants) is a great way of honouring the magickal life giving blood that cycles within our bodies rather than buying expensive non-biodegradable pads that resemble nappies or medical dressings that are thrown out with the garbage.  

Or worse still, tampons that don’t allow your uterus it’s monthly rinse cycle but instead plug you up so you can pretend you aren’t even bleeding - the ultimate denial of your womanhood & feminine power.

It has been said that when a woman is bleeding she is at her most likely to rebel & question those in a position of authority.  It is for this reason that menstruation has become such a taboo* within our society because where there’s fear, there’s power.  

And women who are connected with their sacred blood cycles & their Lilith archetype will not lie down & allow others to dictate to them how to behave.  

*’The word, (taboo) comes from the Polynesian tapua, meaning both “sacred” & “ menstruation”…taboo also means forbidden, wonderful, magic, terrible, frightening & immutable law’

Merlin Stone, author of ‘When God Was a Woman’ makes the observation through her detailed research of ancient matrilineal & matriarchal cultures that historically the societies that didn’t honour the sacredness of menstrual blood have been the most bloodthirsty, namely ours.  

Similarly, Judy Grahn, in her wonderful book, ‘Blood, Bread & Roses’ makes the interesting point that just as tribal men’s rituals imitate menstruation as a rite of passage, our modern equivalent is ritualized warfare, a form of male blood power that seeks political & cultural renewal thorough destruction & bloodshed.

Similarly, we when bloodletting feel at our darkest, most destructive & inward (especially if our period coincides with the phase of dark moon) & so need to set ourselves apart to still our sensitivities & attune ourselves to our inner needs.  

If we steer away from artificial lighting (that plays havoc with our natural cycle) & rest with warming herbal teas, such as ginger instead of expecting ourselves to frolic in the surf like the white bikini clad girls in the sanitary pad ads we probably wouldn’t feel half as tetchy.  

It is interesting to note that the word, ‘sanitary’ means hygenic or clean, insinuating that menstruation is in fact dirty.  

This is further impressed upon our psyches with the young girls ‘cleansing’ themselves in the ocean whilst wearing the colour white for purity, the colour of the maiden phase, rather than the colour red, the colour of the fertile mother who bleeds.  

(Ironically swimming in cold water is also one of the fastest ways to bring on menstrual cramps!)

Honouring Your Wild Woman

Lilith is the part of us that cannot & will not hold our tongue to ‘keep the peace’ if we disagree with someone or with the status quo.  

Despite the fact that this may result in uncomfortable consequences in the short-term, to go against our inner truth & not stand up for our principles is to evoke Lilith’s inner torment so we feel we have no choice but to ultimately speak.

Our inner Lilith will stand up to external authority for a cause or ideal, even though that may result in being scapegoated by the establishment, the media or our immediate social circle.  

Lilith will risk rejection to follow her inner truth & obtain true selfhood. 

Lilith represents the wild, untamable aspects of the feminine psyche that have been culturally shamed as ‘unfeminine’ & are therefore supressed.  

For instance, a woman giving birth is similar to a primal animal in that she loses control over all bodily functions, grunting & screaming with abandon until the act of creation is complete.  

This is an image of womanhood that is largely hidden behind a medical veneer that appropriates the credit & respect to the physician rather than the birthing woman.  

And so she is viewed more as a victim in need of assistance than a powerful shaman journeying through the realms of death & rebirth. 

The wild feminine is as powerful as a woman can be, giving rise to all her natural sounds, movements & feelings without a single condemning thought entering her consciousness.  

Most women fear letting this side out for fear of looking ridiculous, alienating those around them or being carted off to a loony bin.  

And yet, to not have safe times & places where we can vent every shade of our inner terrain, induces isolation, overwhelm & neurosis despite how carefully we manicure our personas.  

Like the women in the original 1960’s SCI FI film, ‘Stepford Wives’ where the women are drugged into a docile submission through both the chemical lacing of the town water supply & the mindless materialistic propaganda on the home shopping network, which they come to regard as ‘normal’.

Ultimately the most empowering thing we can do is to reclaim those parts of us that have been demonized & shamed by our patriarchal society.  

Doing so will heal us & create wholeness.  

For instance, let Lilith have some expression every once in a while by letting your body hair grow, not wearing a mask of cosmetics every day & dare to be loud, outspoken & forthright in your views & behaviour.  

Not to shock, prove a point or be ‘politically correct’ but to simply be a human being, not a human acting in a way that we’ve been conditioned to in order to meet with approval from those still sleepwalking within the corporate agenda.

Author Unknown