Hey DeeDee, I took your advice, and look what I found:
I want to say that this is a fantastic idea, as menstrual blood even though it has come "out of the closet" so to speak recently is still not seen in a positive light by most women and certainly hasn't "bled into" the mainstream yet.
Menstruation used to be known as the curse. This is Judeo-Christian, and many other Patrirachal religions brainwashing technoque for dis-empowering women for thousands of years, like the cursing and defaming of Eve, Lillith etc.
Indiginous peoples such as Native Americans honoured women's monthly bleeding cycles as Sacred. That time of the month was called Moon Time and Native women went to Moon Lodges, huts, or shelters in the ground to set apart their regular cycles from their bleeding times. It was noted that women were at the height of their psychic powers when bleeding, and so that time set aside was not originally to shun them or see them as unclean but to empower them to be with their bodies, their blood flows, to dream, rest,and renew. Women's menstrual blood was considered holy and powerfull, after it was recognized that babies came from the same blood, and so menstrual blood was scattered on fields to fertilize them. It is still a great fertilizer, and is recommended that you use your sacred moon blood on your house plants,or garden, dilluting with water and watch them bloom.
Before the advent of modern electric lighting all women bled at the same time. Ladies you know yourselves that this is still true today when women live together their cycles blend to occur at about the same time, even with artificial light interfering with our cycles. Because our bodily rythyms are governed by the Moon, all women ovulated on the Full Moon, where a big bright ova shined down on the earth from the sky, and all women menstruated on the dark or New Moon. All women were psychically and physically joined together! Imagine the power of that!
Well of course it terrified the men,so what was originally considered scred became taboo, although the word taboo itslef originally meant sacred. I think it was just twisted as thousands of years of Patriarchal and religious rule took over.
Young girls first onset of menstruation was an occassion to celebrate. The girl was set apart, some endured tests and physical hardships as an initiation into adulthood, and perhaps to prepare her for the work of eventually being able to give birth.
Menstrual blood must be re-imagined as a Holy, Sacred, Prescious Gift, not a curse, or something to be despised,or defiled.
It is what separates the men from the women. All PMS, like any other physical discomfort or disease, stems from the relationship we have to Spirit, to our bodies, emotions.
When we honour our periods as special times out, to allow ourselves to rest and renew as we shed our uterine linings like a snake sheds its' skin, we embody the life cycle mysteries, of birth, death, re-birth and transformation. Women are inherently living the life cycle, much more so than men.
Menstrual blood,like birthing blood is the only human blood that is shed naturally, not caused from physical harm, damage or injury and not linked to physical death. Therefore it it the Blood of Life. Many Feminists have lauded their menstrual blood, there is a Museum of Menstruation in New York, and many fabulous books out there as well.
Did you know where the phrase "rolling out the red carpet" which we think of as meaning special treatment honouring the famous or royalty comes from? Yes, you guessed it. The original "red carpet" was a special rug which menstruating women bled into and which was considered to be sacred, and therefore was rolled out for the same reasons that this custom has continued till today.
Orthodox Hebrew scripture actually states that women are closer to G-d/Goddess than men because they give birth, therefore are more like God/Goddess Itself. That's why the men have to pray so much.
