Attuning to the Lunar Cycle
Our course is designed, and content is delivered in accordance with, the new and full moons. Attending to the lunar cycle - attuning ourselves to the rhythm of the moon - is a core practice in honoring menstruation, and one that can be activated simply and powerfully regardless of whether or not one’s body bleeds.
It is widely experienced in communities living amidst natural light and dark - that is, communities without artificial light - that those who menstruate do so in alignment with the new moon, and ovulate with the full moon. This is not universal, and I speak of it not to suggest or prescribe a right timing, but to point to a common experience for many bleeding bodies across space and time. It is not the right way, but it is understood to be a way that has been often and for many.
What is your relationship with the moon? On any given night, are you aware of where the moon is their cycle. Do you spend time engaging with the moon visually, or energetically? If you are reading / listening to this material when it was shared, the moon is currently new. The new moon according to science, occurs a day or two before the new moon according to Jewish tradition. The scientific new moon is when the moon is fully dark and invisible in the sky. The new moon in Jewish time, Rosh Hodesh, or Head of the Moon, occurs when the first sliver of the waxing moon is visible in the sky.
The lunar cycle is 29.5 days, meaning it takes this long to complete once cycle - from new moon to new moon. The four anchor moments in the moons cycle are when the moon is new - fully dark, the first quarter moon - when the moon is waxing and half visible in the night sky, the full moon, when the moon is at pinnacle, fully round and bright, and the last quarter moon, when the moon is waning and half visible in the night sky.
Each of these aspects of the lunar cycle has energetic associations. When the moon is new, the energy is often understood to be internal, a time to reflect and rest and to seed visions for the coming month. In the waxing aspect of the lunar cycle, energy builds and has a levity and bright momentum. The full moon time is often understood to be a pinnacle of creative energy and a time for festivity, fullness and wild or free expression. The waning aspect of the cycle begins a process of shedding, releasing or turning in the direction of completion within.
This is the lunar month. A related way of measuring lunar time is called the sidereal month, the 27 days, 7 hours and 43 minutes it takes for the moon to complete one full orbit around earth.
Whether or not we are in bleeding bodies, and whether or not we are physically cycling with the moon, being aware of the monthly lunar cycle and how our energies are corresponding to the moon’s can be a powerful practice. This month, and each month of this course, notice the moon’s phases. Notice your own energies and how they align with the cycling of the moon, if they map in any particular ways. Notice what energies present for you at new moon time, at full moon time, and in the in-betweens. Consider noting these on your calendar, or whatever way you track time. If your current calendar doesn’t list the lunar phases, consider drawing them in - at least the primary four. Or consider creating or printing a lunar calendar ... I particularly like the We’Moon calendar and there are also plenty of awesome one’s available online.
Consider also cultivating additional direct connection with the moon. Write a letter to the moon - a love note, an expression of friendship, an invitation to tea ... whatever feels authentic for you. Dance for or with the moon ... either by your intention or by making visual or energetic contact with the moon as you dance. Light a candle for the moon, include a prayer or poem for the moon in your nightly ritual, or create one that includes the moon. Sing moon songs, or write a moon song.
This first assignment, attuning to connection with the moon, supports us having a deeper and wider anchor for the sacred menstrual experience, rooting not only in the physical body, but in the cosmic body and in the root of time.
Menstrual Synchrony
Synchrony is a state or phenomenon of simultaneous occurrence. Menstrual synchrony is a name for when menstruating bodies in close proximity, in connection or in community with each other align to bleed at the same time. The original menstrual synchrony was one of aligning with the moon and the menstruants in one’s family or community. For some of us these days, menstrual synchrony occurs if we are sharing living space or close life journeys with other bleeding ones. For some in Kohenet, menstrual synchrony happens on Kohenet retreat - some retreatants begin to bleed when they arrive at Kohenet gatherings, whether or not that timing aligns with their usual cycle.
Kohenet Sheva, from cohort Bet, speaks powerfully of menstrual synchrony:
‘[There are] aspects of blood consciousness that we are disconnected from because we don’t bleed in community. Blood synchrony is different when there is conscious communal bleeding. I am positive that when we bled together there was this similar but different and very powerful. It shaped the community when we bled together and ovulated together. It feels like this deep mystery that we are disconnected from. I can have glimpses, and in an embodied way I have an understanding of what it could be, especially since I know what it is from dreaming in community and I see how that could translate to the blood community. But we are by the nature of our society, disconnected. It’s like being a tree in an ancient forest versus being a city tree. A city tree - a shade tree lining the streets - still has so much magic and beauty and potential and power. It’s just not tapped in like a tree in an ancient forest in community would be, like in the black forest in Germany.
[I have a practice of] noting in an embodied way what’s going on with communal bleeding. I’m part of a group that’s been meeting for four years - there are seven of us. There has been very interesting menstrual synchrony at certain times, OR being out of synchrony. When I shaved my head a year ago, I bled out of synchrony from the circle and that was something that was very powerful for me and what I needed, because I often, as a receiver, will go to other people’s cycles but really needed to be grounded in my own cycle.”
Questions for Reflection: What is your relationship with synchrony? Have you experienced synchrony of any kind? What led to it? What did it feel like for you? Do you have experience with menstrual synchrony, or asynchrony / being out of synchrony? What is your sense of what led to these experiences? What have they been like for you, what have been their gifts and edges?
Sacred Jewish Time / Rosh Hodesh
Rosh Hodesh, or Head of the Month, is the Jewish marking of the the new moon. It is named in Numbers 10:10 “And on your joyous occasions - your fixed festivals and new moon days - you shall sound the trumpets over your burnt offerings and your sacrifices of well-being.” Rosh Hodesh is named again in Psalm 81:3 “Blow the trumpet at the time of the New Moon, at the full moon, on our solemn feast day.”
In the Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin 42a “Whoever pronounces the blessing over the new moon in its due time welcomes the presence of the Shekhinah.” The first textual reference of Rosh Hodesh as a women’s holiday is in the Talmud - tractate Megillah 22b - in which women are forbidden to work on Rosh Hodesh. And again in Talmud Yerushalmi Ta’anit 1:6 Women who refrain from work on Rosh Hodesh are following an established custom. In Rashi’s comments on this passage, he delineates specific activities from which they must refrain - spinning, weaving and sewing - skills that women in particular contributed to the building of the mishkan / temple.
Rosh Hodesh is announced in prayer services on the shabbat preceding the new moon and there is a recitation of the birkat ha-hodesh. In Jewish liturgy, an extra paragraph is added to the Amidah, and to the gratitude prayer after meals. There is also a reading of the section from Torah about the Rosh Hodesh sacrifice, a recitation of Hallel (in abbreviated form) and an additional service (musaf) is added after morning prayers.
Rosh Hodesh circles - monthly gatherings or groups for Jewish women and non-binary folks, and some for Jews of all genders - have become a custom since Jewish feminists in the second half of the 20th century reclaimed the holiday as a time for gathering in group and for shared ritual practice.
Questions for reflection: What is your relationship with Rosh Hodesh as a holiday? Is it a sacred moment you have given attention to in prayer, in ritual or in group space? How do you desire to mark or connect with Rosh Hodesh practice?
Delumination
Delumination is the practice of decreasing one’s use of artificial light and of weaning from electricity use at night.
Intentionally welcoming darkness in one’s space, cultivating a relationship with the dark and creating patterns that include a steeping regularly in it can transform our internal rhythms, waking and sleep cycles and the resilience of our nervous systems. Allowing our body time in the dark also helps us feel and attune to the lunar rhythms, with more light around us when the moon is full, and more dark when the moon is new.
Consider taking on practices of delumination in your life. You might decrease your use of overhead lights for the duration of this course, using instead candlelight, or reading lamps whose bulbs you replace with red lights.
Cultivate greater awareness of your relationship with the dark. Consider the dark as a friend, or a lover, or a guide, or a teacher, or a healer. Let the dark bring you its gifts, and be curious about what wants to reveal.
Questions for reflection: What is your current relationship with the dark? What is your desired relationship with the dark? What are practices you might take on to support your increased intimacy and connection with dark? Are there ways your relationship with the dark can be supported by attention to how you engage language of light and dark?
My favorite written resource on delumination is Rubin Naiman’s book Healing Night: The Science and Spirit of Sleep, Dreaming and Awakening.
A poem by Shaykh Ibrahim Baba Farajaje, titled Alone with the Alone invites us to consider ways we have been trained to demonize the dark and makes a call to us to dismantle the demonization of the dark. Listen to Alone with the Alone here.
As you reflect and practice delumination, as you attune to the cycle of the moon, as you extend your curiousity into realms of synchrony, as you attend also to Jewish time, as you engage this first new moon phase of one with a flow, may you be blessed, may you feel the support and connection of this community and the goodness and potential available to you in this inquiry.