Original by Hu Xiaoxian SunnyWakers Peanut
2024-02-03 15:31 Yunnan
A menstrual cycle is 28 days.
The moon orbits the earth in 27 days.
The interval between two full moons is 29 days.
A woman experiences 13 menstrual cycles a year.
Is this set of data a coincidence? What is the relationship between women and the moon?
That morning, Teacher Meher was wearing a bright orange sweater, holding a cup of black coffee. She said, “In today’s society, it seems that everyone is gradually being incorporated into the same operating system, as if everyone should follow the same instructions. Many women, in order to gain a foothold in the world, have to face conditions like men, to work, live, and even pay more. But women really don’t need to live like men. Women should still live from their hearts.”
As I fiddled with the recording device, I could feel a long-buried memory being activated within my body. This “memory” carried some grievances, some anger, a lot of helplessness, jumping out from the subconscious box, sitting there, tilting its head, frowning, asking a series of questions: What should we do then? How do we live it out?
Looking at the women around me, the energy they need to put into life is astonishing. There is no one raising a girl like a jungle witch anymore. Everyone waves the flag of freedom and equality, but no one notices that the bodies of these girls in the guise of freedom are still singing ancient tunes.
The monthly visitor reminds us to take a break, to start a time of inward solitude; those hidden emotional and physical parts that are not accepted need to be sorted out and discarded. Menstrual pain speaks of a hidden emotion that is unwilling to be accepted. Menstrual pain says: Let go, let this energy flow out naturally with the menstrual blood, let go…
Teacher Meher said:
In fact, women experience a cycle of death and rebirth every month, a continuous process: spring’s rebirth, summer’s flourishing, autumn’s withering, winter’s death, but also nurturing another rebirth. Each end of the lunar cycle is like experiencing a small internal death process, so we don’t need to fear death because each death brings a new rebirth (this “rebirth” is a description of connecting with natural world energy, unrelated to religious content).
If we can consciously dance with our bodies and collaborate with the seasons, we will better understand the wisdom of the female body, follow the rhythm and wisdom of the body to sow, act, and settle.
Teacher Meher’s description of the moon cycle energy:
New Moon, the first moon phase, Shaoyang, follicular phase:
The energy of a young girl, full of self and trust, full of hope, starting life plans, holding many novel ideas, stepping out boldly.
Confident and self-beautiful, enjoying the process of being pursued.
Half Moon, the second moon phase, Yangming, follicular maturation phase:
The energy of a young woman, more open-hearted to accept and help people and things around, lots of giving power, cultivating plans and ideas into concrete content.
Lover and beloved, acceptance and giving, planting the seed of life.
Full Moon, the third moon phase, Shaoyin, luteal phase:
The energy of a middle-aged woman, returning to herself, slowly turning inward, sensing and willing to quietly convey wisdom. A strong sixth sense.
If not pregnant, the reserved energy for nurturing life will be well transformed into a witch’s magic. The wisdom appearing at this time can illuminate all needed moments.
Waning Moon, the fourth moon phase, Taiyin, menstrual phase:
The energy of an older woman, needing quiet space for introspection, quiet thinking, sorting, choosing to keep or let go.
This is the end of a cycle, summarizing the wisdom of the previous round, moving from death to new rebirth.
To be continued…
Hu Xiaoxian
Written in January at the Departure Courtyard, Naxi Tower City
Subsequent Thoughts…
While writing this topic, I experienced a heart flow like the changing seasons, feeling very touched… Suddenly recalling Teacher Meher mentioning today’s sorrow. Nowadays, many ancient female wisdoms seem rarely known or recognized. Women still look as they should, but deep inside, few have the chance to live such cycles. Everyone is too busy—busy fighting, socializing, doing housework, competing with the world… One day, my good friend suddenly said to me on WeChat, “At the age of 40, I finally understand what it means to ‘midlife crisis.'”
I want to dedicate this piece to her.
“Midlife is just the beginning of life’s wisdom, listen quietly…”
Cross The Wall – Women’s Strength Part 2
“Vivaldi’s Four Seasons: Summer perfectly explains the sudden hot flashes of menopause.”
Teacher Meher said: “The lunar cycle for women is a process of dying and being reborn, a continuous cycle. For thousands of years, male-dominated societies have always had reservations about this female power. Most women are actually unaware that the so-called definition of beauty can be tamed or designed.”
“I think of my grandmother, my mother, and the women in my family and around me. Many Chinese women rarely live a joyful and vibrant life after entering menopause in middle age. Instead, they worry about the old age yet to come or dress themselves up as ageless goddesses, continuing to use filters, believing that the beautified photos represent their true selves…”
After delving into this topic, I researched and gained a deeper understanding of what has happened in the collective memory of women over a long period.
The Disappearance of Witches
We often see references to the persecution of witches in the Middle Ages in many texts and films. But why, during this specific period, did witches suddenly need to be collectively hunted down? If they existed, what crimes did they commit to warrant being publicly burned?
Upon researching, I found that…
The “witch hunts” took place during a time of population decline, labor crisis, and price revolution in Europe. Starting from the mid-15th century and lasting for three hundred years, hundreds of thousands of women were brutally killed in front of their relatives and neighbors. The trials and executions of witches were not purely religious acts but rather a battlefield where modern nation-states exercised and developed their disciplinary techniques.
The “witches” appearing in trial records were mostly elderly rural women who became the weakest members of their communities due to the disintegration of their original communities. They lived independently without stable and secure sources of livelihood. They were considered to possess “divine power” because they were herbalists, midwives, fortune-tellers, and spiritual interpreters in their original communities, and most importantly, they were the keepers of communal memory.
In the Americas, colonizers, under the banner of civilization and missionary work, eradicated the so-called “primitive” ignorance of indigenous peoples. The targets of the “witch hunts” were the guardians of their original community homes. These women were priests in their indigenous religions, wives, and mothers, who strived to preserve their homes and traditions against the colonizers.
Colonizers, through their European experiences, had learned that creating divisions within communities was the most effective way to dismantle resistance. At the same time, during African colonization and the slave trade, colonizers quickly realized that disciplining and controlling women and their reproductive abilities were fundamental means of accumulating labor.
The enslaved labor system established in the colonies supplied Europe with large quantities of raw materials and living supplies, thereby reducing production costs and labor value, maintaining the minimum wage level, and ensuring the highest rate of capital exploitation.
Between paid and unpaid labor, production and reproduction, paid labor and unpaid labor, hired labor and slave labor, there exist necessary divisions that are concealed, and behind them are the differences in power relationships.
Back to the Present
Nowadays, if you add up women’s paid and unpaid work, their daily work time is usually longer than men’s, and the contribution of unpaid work to global GDP is about $10 trillion.
At the same time, women control less household wealth. The global gender income gap is currently 37.8% (for example, 18.1% in the UK, 23% in Australia, and 59.6% in Angola).
For example, women in central Uganda spend nearly 15 hours a day doing housework, taking care of children, farming, cooking, collecting firewood, and fetching water. They have about 30 minutes of leisure time each day. (I wonder how much free time Chinese women have each day. As for myself, I need a period of solitude every day to maintain my mental and physical health balance, which is invaluable to me.)
Recently, I read the book “Invisible Women” by British scholar Caroline Criado Perez. Strictly speaking, this book cannot be called feminist, at most it is a documentary book, but the objective data provided in the book left me silent for a long time as a woman…
Pain Points
Although many female friends do not truly understand the sources of many of their current pain points, I believe that feeling the existence of pain points is a step closer to awakening than being in a state of numbness.
Multimedia is filled with many seemingly vibrant lifestyles and secrets to maintaining youth and beauty. The misunderstandings caused by overly simplistic interpretations and fear make more and more women reluctant to age. The “illusion of staying young” distances many women from their inner voices—the only way to face natural laws calmly may be to “choose to reconcile with oneself and start exploring inward.”
For example: Menopause issues
Teacher Meher said: “Menopause issues are not ultimately caused by physiological distress first but psychological, more precisely, due to a lack of understanding. She has very unique insights and solutions for menopause topics and hopes to come to China this year to share them with everyone.”
“The 20-year cycle of the purple fire has begun, and women’s strength will be more genuinely seen.”
(To be continued)
Hu Xiaoxian
Written in early February of the Year of the Jiachen, just after eating tangyuan…