Our Wombs cycle with the Moon. Yet there is Yang within Yin, and Yin within Yang. Lets begin by embracing our Lunar nature as menstruators, and then look for the hidden Solar within us. Lets discover our respective gifts as they enrich us internally, and bring Balance to the Whole.
Menstruators are Lunar: expressing and embodying the Moon’s cyclical nature. Non-menstruators are Solar – associated with the Sun’s linear nature.
Those who cycle monthly with the Moon — travel from Crescent to Full, and from Full to Crescent. Our emotional life Expands and Contracts rhythmically: from needing quietude and rest, to being social and engaged – we dance monthly with the phases of the Moon.
Like the Sun, non-menstruators’ rhythm is steady. As the Sun rises and sets every day, so do non-menstruators – in their essence – are steadfast. The constant, linear light of the Sun is fully dependable. It never contracts or expands. We rely on it to always be there – no matter what. Similarly non-menstruators – at their best – shine dependable rays of light, which are able to pierce through clouds of illusion.
The problem begins when our culture favors one mode of being, and discredits the other.
Menstruators are Lunar beings, living in a Solar world!
Our world culture favors light, visibility, and linearity. It debases darkness as a skin color, and darkness as an incubator of new creations. The womb, like the Earth, is a dark cocoon, from where life is birthed into the light of the world. It is where seeds germinate, and gather strength before sprouting up into visibility.
Our world culture favors linear rationality as the only way of arriving at conclusions. Science is valued as the only possible way of determining truth. The limelight is typically the one and only measure of success.
What is wrong with this picture?
For starters: it is one-sided!
If there was no Moon in this Solar System, if only the Sun existed, then having a Solar measure as the only measure — would have made perfect sense. Yet on our Earth sphere there is a continual Balance between Day and Night, Light and Dark, Summer and Winter – all continually dancing together. In such a world — having only One mode of being is like tightly binding one’s Left arm.
The problem deepens when the tightly-bound Left arm begins to believe in its inferiority, and accepts the cultural notion that its Ways are less worthy than those of the Right arm. When the tightly-bound Left arm can’t see its own ways as valuable in service to the Whole – it is the Whole that losses, not only the Left arm.
The Right arm, though unbound — is far from being Free!
It pays a steep price in its need to maintain a false superiority over the Left arm – and thus it loses track of its True gifts. The Right arm becomes the keeper of rules rather than a free player.
The truth is that we are all BOTH Lunar and Solar!
We are all a Continuum – to varying degrees. We can each learn to release the one arm that has been tightly bound over our life (be it the Right or the Left), and learn how to play a full musical spectrum.
In order to integrate ALL our gifts – Lunar and Solar – and to dance freely, we need to first reveal the imbalances: both in our culture, and in ourselves.
Having been living in a Solar World for too long – it is time to free our Womb Rhythms, live our Cyclicity, and dance our Phases. Then, we would trace the hidden Sun within us, and cultivate it’s gifts, as part of the full Universe we each are!
2 Responses
I recently went to the Orothopedic doctor with too much pain in my left arm and shoulder. I feared surgery, but the doctor sent me to Physical Therapy. As I worked with the therapist to loosen the tight grip on my arm and shoulder, I prayed that my heart and mind also be loosen and grow larger in compassion and wisdom. Your essay also speaks to me and my beautiful journey. thank you.
Thank you for taking the time to share your journey…!