Energetic Archetypes Of The Menstrual Cycle | Live Recording

Join Meghan Norean for an exploration through three energetic archetypal maps of the menstrual cycle. Learning the energies of the Luminaries, the Inner Seasons and the 5 Roots of Inner Winter will empower you to live a life aligned to your natural rhythm.

This is a recording from an Insight Timer live session from January 2022.

Transcript

Welcome to the energetic archetypes of the cycle.

I myself,

I am day 21 today in my cycle.

I started bleeding right as the clock struck like 12 on New Year's Day.

So I'm aligned with the calendar dates this month,

Which is always really nice and convenient.

I don't have to think too much about what day of my cycle I am.

So I'm day 21,

I'm in my inner autumn,

The pre-minstral phase.

And yeah,

I'm feeling quite,

I have this feeling that I want to organize and get everything in place.

So I'm looking around my room and I'm like,

Oh I really just want to clean it,

I want to organize it.

And thinking about my work,

I'm thinking about all the little task things that I want to get done before the end of this cycle.

And I've got a lot of editing work,

So that really aligns with this energy.

You felt the same way,

Did a lot of cleaning,

Decluttering,

Organizing.

Yeah,

That's definitely a pre-minstral energy.

It's like the menstrual nesting,

You know,

When you're pregnant and you're getting ready to bring a child into the world.

And you have that sort of nesting period where you're getting everything ready.

That's the same sort of energy that we have in our pre-minstral.

So that when our menstrual phase comes,

You can just let go and relax into that space.

You don't have to worry about things being out of place.

The way I talk about the energies,

I talk about day one.

Because day one of the menstrual cycle is the first day of full flow bleeding.

And that is the same archetypal energy as the new moon.

So usually when I guide people,

Especially people who are in post-menopause,

Or if you are pregnant,

Post-partum,

Have amenorrhea,

So you don't have your cycle for some reason.

Connecting with the lunar cycle,

I usually guide them to do day one is the day of the new moon.

Okay,

But before diving in too deep with that stuff,

I do want to share that the sort of frameworks and how I learned about these energetic archetypes come from the Red School.

So it's Alexandra Pope and Shani Hugo-Werlitzer as my mentors,

And I went through their training to become a menstruality mentor.

And so the foundation of what I'm teaching today comes from that lineage.

And then I myself have taken on my own experiences and my own language and really worked it to be how I understand it and feel it within my body.

So I invite you to do the same,

To find what works for you and your body as I'm going through and sharing these today.

So we're going to start with a zoomed out picture,

And then we're going to go deeper a layer,

And then we're going to go deeper a layer.

So like I said,

There's going to be three archetypal blueprints,

Maps that we're going to go through today.

And we're going to start at the widest one,

Which is called The Luminaries,

Or what I call The Luminaries.

I didn't know about this word until I saw a TV miniseries called The Luminaries,

And then I realized it was based on a book as well.

And Luminaries,

The Luminaries specifically,

With the capital L,

The proper name,

That means a celestial object that gives light.

And so when you think about what you can see in the sky,

What are the two largest bringers of light in the sky?

And obviously the first one would be the sun,

Right?

So the sun giving us the light that we need,

It's the brightest thing in our sky.

And then the second one would be the moon,

You know,

The largest reflector,

Obviously during the full moon,

Whenever it is reflecting of the sun.

So we have these two celestial objects,

The sun and the moon.

And I think it's pretty obvious to think about this cycle of the sun and the moon,

If we put it into our 24 hour day,

Right?

So we think about the ways in which the sun and the moon dance around in a cycle in our 24 hour day.

And so we're going to put that,

You know,

That's the archetypal energy of our first map,

The Luminaries.

And if we put that onto the other cycles,

Putting it onto our menstrual cycle,

We have two poles in the menstrual cycle.

So like two points where your body is physically doing something.

So one would be menstruation when your body is physically shedding of the lining and bleeding.

And then the other point is ovulation where your body is physically releasing that egg.

So those are the two points,

The two poles of the menstrual cycle.

And if you want to connect it to the lunar cycle,

That would be the new moon and the full moon.

And connecting it to the earthly seasonal cycle,

That would be at the winter solstice and the summer solstice of the yearly cycle.

So we have these two poles and putting that with The Luminaries,

The time of menstruation,

The new moon,

The winter solstice,

That would be the time of like the depth of night.

You know,

Like where it's the darkest time of the night,

The height of the moon.

And that's the energy of this pole.

The other side of ovulation,

Summer solstice and the full moon,

Would be the time of the height of the sun,

Like the high noon sun.

And then the in between is when the sun and the moon are crossing,

Crossing one another.

It's that transition phase where we're moving from night to day.

The sun is rising and it's getting brighter and lighter.

And then on the other side,

As the sun is descending and the moon is becoming dominant,

It's getting darker and darker gradually.

So what I call from menstruation to ovulation is then called the solar path.

So it's like the waking up of the sun and it's gradually on its ascent into the sky,

Which means the energy of the sun is going,

You know,

It's going up and out.

So that's our energy from menstruation to ovulation.

Your energy is going from the lowest point at menstruation and that's moving up and out into a more collective energy at ovulation.

And then from ovulation to menstruation is the lunar path.

And so that is then you take that transition,

That shift in your energy is now turning back in and down.

And the Red School names these the via positiva,

Which is the solar path,

And then the via negativa,

Which is the lunar path.

So it's that energy of moving up and out and then the energy of moving down and in,

Back within yourself.

Yeah,

And what I love about this energy is that I try not to talk in binaries.

You know,

Being a non-binary person myself,

I love this energy of solar and lunar because they're not static,

Right?

It's not a linear structure where there is one at one side,

One at the other side,

Like other,

You know,

Especially like when people talk about masculine and feminine,

That's usually how they talk about it as a binary.

So we have these energies of solar and lunar,

But when you look at them in the cycle,

It's not linear,

Right?

Because there's this gradual growing and then gradual decaying,

And this gradual expanse and this gradual contraction and just goes back and forth like your breath as well,

Right?

Like your breath,

It's not like one point of exhale,

One point of inhale.

No,

It's a cycle that it goes through.

Yeah,

So that's our first archetypal blueprint is the luminaries.

I definitely feel that in the,

Even in the yearly cycle,

Right?

Like in the winter,

I just want to be a homebody,

You know,

Like stay at home,

Be comfy,

Cozy in my blankets.

And then like in the summer,

It's a lot easier to be outside and to do activities,

You know,

That are,

My energy is moving outward.

So connecting even in with that like yearly cyclical energy with the luminaries.

And then the second,

The second map,

The second blueprint is usually a lot of,

A lot of people's favorites.

It's the inner seasons.

So what I shared in the beginning,

Like today,

I'm day 21.

That's my inner autumn season.

So I often talk about,

When I talk about my cycle,

I will talk about where I am in my,

My inner seasons.

You know,

I've become much more intentional with working with the earthly seasons and just the last couple of years.

And yeah,

It's,

It's really amazing then to see the way my body and my energy is moving with the earthly seasons.

And I'm like,

Was I always like this?

And I just didn't notice,

Like I just wasn't aware.

Or am I,

Is my body starting to adapt and align to these cycles because I am,

You know,

More aware of how they work?

So that's been like an interesting question.

You don't really have seasons in Florida.

Yeah,

It's a little bit hard.

I live in India.

And so really there's like three seasons.

I mean,

Like culturally there are actually six seasons,

But I don't feel,

I don't feel a lot of them because there's just such a small shift.

But the more I pay attention,

The more I see those subtle changes.

And even just this year,

Noticing when the snails come out,

That was an interesting like observation.

Like there is a season where there are snails and the other seasons there are not snails.

So that was,

That's been interesting.

And so the more you become aware and the more you pay attention,

You'll start to notice,

You'll start to notice things.

All right,

So we're going to move into our seasons of the cycle.

So we have these two,

Right,

The two halves of the cycle,

The luminaries,

The solar path and the lunar path.

And zooming in,

We're going to break it down into four,

The four seasons.

And so we'll start with the winter.

So here in the northern hemisphere where I live,

We're in the winter season right now.

And this is aligned to the menstrual phase.

So that's called the inner winter when you're bleeding.

And that is also the energy of the new moon.

So it's like the the dark,

The darkness of the new moon,

You know,

Like the darkness of the winter.

You know,

Especially around the winter solstice when it is the darkest night.

And so this energy of the menstrual cycle usually begins about a day or two before you begin bleeding.

And some of you may feel like a natural shift where you want more space for yourself and want to just,

It's like you're building that cocoon within you.

That energetic shift is the beginning of the inner winter.

And the inner winter is both the end and the beginning of the cycle.

It's like I said,

Like it usually starts a day or two before you begin bleeding.

And that would be day one of your cycle when you actually start bleeding.

So it's the end and the beginning.

And if you think about the cyclical energy of everything that has a cycle in the universe,

It's that life,

Death,

And rebirth.

And so the inner winter holds that archetypal energy of the death and the rebirth.

So it's like the beginning of the winter is the death and towards the end of the winter is the rebirth.

It's like the time of the ground is being cleared and ready and then the planting begins still in the darkness.

So here in the winter we've got the death and the rebirth.

And the energy of this is the time to rest.

It's the time to renew yourself.

And this can be very difficult in our modern worlds which are calling us to show up and be the same every single day.

And so your sacred invitation during the inner winter is to do as much of nothing as you can.

So it's just to be.

And so seeing all of your responsibilities and seeing all of the things on your to-do list and deciding what is the most important.

And only doing the things that are completely necessary.

And letting everything else go.

Putting it off,

Putting it on your list for the spring season and really taking that time for yourself.

Because if you put that into thinking about back to the 24 hour cycle,

Like what happens to your body if you don't sleep for a night.

Like if you stay awake for a complete 24 hours,

How is your body the next day?

My guess is,

And the times I used to do this in college,

It's really hard to function.

It is really hard to function without any sleep.

And so your hormones are the same way.

It's like this is the time of the cycle where your hormones are saying,

I don't have the energy to give you.

Like it's time to rest.

It's time to take some time for yourself.

And the beauty of that is in the rest you can access altered states of consciousness.

Because like I said,

This is the time of the cycle where you are the most,

Your energy is moving the most inward,

Down and in.

And so it's connecting you with this divine essence,

This divine source within you.

This deep connection to knowing who you are at your core.

And so if you take the time to rest,

That is what is accessible for you.

And I'll talk more in detail about the third map,

Because the third map is when we'll go deeper into the inner winter itself.

So then,

After the winter,

After you've done bleeding,

Or the time of the waxing moon,

Or the time of the spring season,

We have this inner spring energy.

And this is a transition phase where we're moving from menstruation to ovulation on that solar path.

And so our energy is gradually and slowly moving from the deepest parts within to moving up and out.

And so this season of the spring comes with a lot of curiosity,

A lot of playfulness.

And it's that time where you have planted the seeds,

You're nourishing the seeds,

And waiting and watching for them to come up out of the ground and begin to bud.

It's that energy of new life,

New beginnings.

So working with your intentions here,

You set your intention,

You plant it in the inner winter.

So when you come into the spring,

It's sort of like this exploration and this playfulness about never really knowing when are the plants going to come up,

When are they going to bud,

When are they going to blossom.

And just being attentive and watching that as they explore their own way up out of the ground.

And that's what your energy is doing as well.

So you might find yourself really creative during the spring season,

Really connected to,

Again,

This inner child that holds the inner child archetype as the spring.

And so lean into those energies.

And the sacred invitations there,

The energy that it's holding is to actually cherish yourself.

So thinking about your inner child self and how you would cherish and hold yourself in that space.

So that's the sacred invitation of your spring.

And again,

Coming back to that energy of transition.

Thinking about that energy of when the sun is rising,

Right?

And so you have that deep dark blackness of the night.

And then gradually,

Right,

It turns to a dark navy blue,

And then it turns to a lighter blue,

And then a lighter blue.

And then finally you see the sun's rays begin to peak above the horizon.

You get some sort of pastel colors coming,

And then finally the sun rises and you see the crispness of the rays coming through.

And so that is the spring.

That's the slowness,

The gentleness that you want to move through the spring.

It's very easy to go into states of burnout if right after you're done bleeding you're like,

Yep,

Alright,

I'm just going to go back to full force,

Back to 100% where I was before,

And just keep pushing along.

That is a recipe for burnout.

So really going gently,

Going slow,

Cherishing yourself,

Having that time to play in the inner spring will help hold you away from that burnout energy.

Alright,

Then we move in what comes after spring summer.

Alright,

So then we have the inner summer,

Which is aligned to ovulation,

And the full moon,

And the summer solstice energy of the yearly cycle.

And so this is where your energy is the most focused on what's happening outside of yourself,

What's happening in the collective,

What's happening with your work,

With your purpose in the world.

It's a time to then begin to blossom and manifest those intentions you set in the winter,

The intentions you set at the new moon,

Now you come to the summer,

The full moon energy,

And that is the time to manifest,

To see how that's coming to life.

And it's the time really to get down and do the work,

And your hormones,

You have that energy to do that.

Let's come back to this hormonal chart.

So you see after the winter,

Estrogen is usually what gives you the most energy,

What you feel your energy pulls.

So you'll see here,

Towards the end of spring and into the summer,

We've got this surge of estrogen,

And then we've got ovulation,

And if you're paying a lot of attention you usually will feel an energetic downtime,

Usually like a day or two around ovulation.

Because it takes a lot of energy to release that egg,

Which is the egg that is being released is the largest single cell in your body,

And so it takes a lot of energy to release that from your ovary into your body.

And then your estrogen begins to pick back up.

So the inner summer it's really dynamic in energy if you're paying really close attention to the subtleties,

But this surge in estrogen is what will give you that energy to really,

You might find it easier to work later or work more hours during the summer.

You might find it really easy to spend more time with other people and being social and not get tired or worn out as easily during the summer.

What else?

It comes with a natural state of optimism and confidence,

And this energy of being able to show yourself out into the world.

So normally if you're a shy,

Introverted type of person,

It would become just a little bit easier during this inner summer energy to show up and show yourself.

To the world.

So you know if you are that more shy introverted person and you have like a presentation that you need to do or some sort of public speaking event,

If you can plan that for your ovulation time that would be,

You know,

Ideal.

So that's that time where you would have just a little bit of a boost of confidence to do that and show up.

And the sacred invitation in the summer is to find pleasure.

And I did a lot of work with pleasure this last earthly season of the summer,

So this past June,

July.

And in the sacred cycles coven that I run.

It's the membership that I the membership platform that I have,

And we go through the energies of the earthly,

The earthly seasons,

And how they connect to our menstrual cycles.

And so we did this whole cycle on pleasure,

And really expanding our understanding of what pleasure means.

And so like,

I was finding pleasure in like,

There's this really beautiful flowering tree in our garden out back that has like this.

This like deep,

Deep,

What's the color,

Like a magenta,

Like this deep magenta flowers,

And like just finding the pleasure in that color of the flower.

And like,

That's just like this,

This sense of like beauty,

Right,

When I become aware of that,

And like seeking out things that make me feel good.

And you know,

Pleasure,

A lot of times when you think about pleasure like the first thing that comes up is usually connected to something with sexuality.

And it's just like so much more expansive than that.

It really is anything that makes you feel good.

Anything that,

You know,

Brings this feeling of like pleasure and goodness within you.

And so that's sort of like the abundance of the summer is being able to tap into those things that make you feel good and I really hate the phrase guilty pleasures.

I really hate that phrase.

Because like why,

Why should we feel guilty about things that make us feel good,

Like we should not,

Should not have to feel guilty about things that make us feel good.

And yeah,

Let's,

Let's invite more things that make us feel good.

And I think that could really resource us better if we're leaning towards pleasure,

Specifically in the summer energy.

Let's see,

Read your face is most symmetrical during ovulation.

It is!

Your face becomes symmetrical and also your voice.

What's the,

What's the word?

Like the level,

The level of your voice changes.

It's like the frequency,

The frequency of your voice changes and your face becomes a bit more symmetrical because just biologically our,

Our bodies were created to,

To mate and reproduce.

And so it's meant as a biological process to,

You know,

Find,

Find a mate that will,

Will align to your,

To your hormonal energy to reproduce.

Alright,

So then our last,

The last season,

We've got the inner autumn.

Ah,

The inner autumn,

The premenstrual phase,

The waning moon,

And the autumn season.

And again,

This is a transition phase.

So this is,

We're on the lunar path,

We're moving from this height of the summer and gradually and slowly moving down and in.

And,

You know,

Thinking about the sun setting again,

So that gradual slowness with which the sun sets,

You know,

The moon usually has already risen before the sun has completely set.

And how it just like subtly one step closer to night,

You know,

Continuing to get just a little bit darker until it's,

You know,

Completely dark at night.

And then thinking about the autumn earthly season,

Especially if you live somewhere that experiences the,

You know,

The shift in the deciduous trees when they begin to turn colors,

Right?

The leaves turn their colors and begin to fall,

Fall away.

And that gradual slow transition with which they do that,

Right?

So it's not just like one day you wake up and all the leaves are on the ground.

No,

It happens over,

You know,

Periods of weeks or months.

This slow transition.

So that's an invitation during the autumn season.

Slowly,

Slow down,

Gradually letting go.

And what do you know about the autumn?

It's also the time of harvesting,

Right?

So it's a time to reflect back,

You know,

What has happened in this past cycle?

Thinking about that intention you set in winter,

Thinking about how you explored and played throughout the spring,

Thinking about how that came to life and manifested and blossomed in the summer.

And then taking that shift and taking a moment to reflect back,

Deciding like where I am in my life right now.

Is this where I want to be?

Or do I need to do some course correcting and,

You know,

Find my way back to the place I want to be?

And what do I want to take with me?

So that's the harvesting energy.

What do I want to take with me that I have learned,

That I have gained,

That I am holding from this past cycle?

And what do I want to let go?

So that's the decay and the letting go of those leaves that are falling.

So it's like this harvesting and then letting go energy of the inner autumn.

The autumn is the inner elder.

So it's that,

You know,

You're beginning to gain the wisdom as you're looking back over the cycle and learning what,

You know,

What has transpired,

Those things that you want to harvest,

Those wisdom nuggets that you want to harvest from the last cycle.

So again,

Coming back to this hormone cycle,

Right,

We're here in the autumn and progesterone is the dominant hormone.

But for a lot of us,

The balance of these two,

Estrogen and progesterone,

Is not in an optimal place.

So for a lot of us,

Either you'll have low progesterone or you'll have higher estrogen.

And that's what will bring a lot of the symptoms that you experience in the premenstrual phase,

In the inner autumn phase.

And also energetically,

If you're experiencing a lot of things like irritability,

Frustration,

Anger.

Yeah,

So if you experience like really more extreme PMS symptoms or things that like you can't seem to relieve,

Then definitely like get your hormones checked out,

Those levels of estrogen and progesterone.

I usually test seven to nine days after ovulation to really see like where those levels are at that peak point in the autumn.

And then energetically in the inner autumn,

The premenstrual phase,

You know,

This is the natural home of the inner critic.

Because it carries this energy of course correcting,

Of editing,

You become very critical about like what is in your surroundings and also what is within you.

And that can be like a helpful tool,

Right,

To take a critical eye into these things that are in your life.

And you know,

My mentors talk about the inner critic being about 95% bullshit,

But there's usually like a 5% truth that might be hidden underneath the layers of your inner critic.

And usually it comes out when you start asking the question,

Why,

You know,

If your inner critic says something to you and you ask why,

Why are you saying that?

You know,

What's below that?

What's at the root of that?

And usually under that,

When you can get to the root and the why,

You get to that 5% truth that's hiding underneath that wants to be seen,

That wants to be integrated.

Also connecting that into like the shadow self as well.

Because usually underneath that,

That's like,

It's rooted in the shadow self.

So energetically,

If you have a lot,

You know,

If your inner critic is really loud,

If you have a lot of shadows that have not been integrated,

If you have experienced a lot of trauma in your life,

If your nervous system is not at a,

You know,

An optimal place,

All of those things can contribute to your experience of your inner autumn or your premenstrual phase.

So the sacred invitation here,

One of them is to learn how to say no and build boundaries.

So remember,

We're transitioning from the height of summer to the depth of winter,

We're moving on that lunar path,

Slowly moving down and in.

Need to learn how to say no to things.

Because if you spread yourself too thin,

That's a recipe for burnout,

For disaster,

For stress,

For all of that.

And so moving slowly down and in,

Gradually saying more no's as you go,

Gradually letting go and releasing all of the things that aren't supporting you,

All of the responsibilities that are not necessary,

And building those boundaries because you're beginning to make that cocoon again,

To go back into the winter,

The winter rest time.

And so you know as the caterpillar is building its cocoon,

It's also a gradual process where it's slowly weaving itself into that cocoon before it hibernates and rests within.

So that's the energy of the autumn,

And if you continue to say yes to everything,

You're probably going to find yourself experiencing some more of those PMS,

You know,

More of that energy of the PMS because of getting irritable,

Frustrated,

Angry,

It's probably because you're doing too much and you're trying to be too much to too many people,

Or you're going too fast in this time.

So slowing down,

Saying no,

Letting go,

Building boundaries.

Those are the invitations of the autumn.

So just reviewing,

We went through the luminaries,

The two halves of the cycle,

The solar path from menstruation to ovulation,

The lunar path from ovulation to menstruation,

And then a deeper layer breaking it down into four seasons with the inner seasons,

Inner winter menstruation,

New moon winter season,

Inner spring pre-ovulation,

Waxing moon spring season,

The inner summer ovulation,

Full moon and summer season,

And then the inner autumn pre-minstrel waning moon and the autumn season.

So we're going to dive one layer deeper,

And I won't go into too much detail with this last one.

The last one is what I'm actually at the moment recording a course for here on Insight Timer based on this last energetic blueprint.

And so,

Yeah,

Hopefully it'll be ready in a couple weeks and you can take the course and learn a little bit more deeply about it.

So the last one is called the five roots of inner winter.

And so we're just again,

We went from the two halves to the four phases.

And now we're just taking the one phase of the inner winter,

The time of menstruation and breaking that down into five,

What I call the five roots.

Because I call menstruation the sacred ground.

And then I call these five roots,

You know,

These are the energies of the roots growing down into this fertile ground of menstruation so that then you can move into the spring and the summer and have these have these solid roots within your being so that you can have the strength to grow,

You know,

To grow up stronger to have more blossoms in the other seasons.

So I'll just say,

Say the five roots.

The first one is separation,

Then surrender,

Then renewal,

Then visioning,

And then clarity.

So again,

The inner winter being the death and the rebirth of the cycle.

So the very beginning,

Like I said,

It starts usually a day or two before you begin bleeding.

And that's the first root of separation.

And that is the energy of the the death of the ego within within the cycle.

So the death of the cycle is actually the death of your ego.

It's the death of the everyday consciousness,

What is drawing you and connecting you to the to the outside world.

It's like you've been slowly letting go and building that that space and that boundary in the autumn.

And then finally,

When you get to that first day of inner winter,

That root of separation,

It's that final final cutoff.

Nope,

I'm dying to that egoic self and I am going in to that divine self,

That divine essence within.

And so you might feel that shift like it's a withdrawing from the world.

You know,

You're just noticing that like,

I just need just need a bit more space away from other people,

Away from my responsibilities and things in the world.

And just just noticing that,

Noticing that shift.

And it's almost like it's almost like a veil drops.

And you can see you can see like the essence of things.

You can see the sacredness of things more easily.

And this space is also called the void.

Now you think about it,

It makes sense because the death of the ego can leave like this,

This emptiness within and experiencing that energy of void.

Now,

Usually there's sort of like two types of people that experience this energy of separation,

This energy of the void.

On one side,

People could experience this as like a really,

Like a magical time.

It's like the sacred invitation to like,

Let go of all of these masks,

All of these illusions that you wear on the outside world that are connected to your ego.

And dropping all of that,

You know,

And there's nothing else to do or be but your,

But yourself in that,

You know,

That true divine essence of you.

So some people could feel that as like this really sweet,

Magical invitation to go within.

On the other hand,

Depending on your life experiences,

It could trigger like fear and abandonment because,

You know,

You're separating,

You're dying to that self that you are in the outside world,

That egoic self.

And that depending on,

You know,

If you have,

If you have a lot of experiences that are connected to traumas in your life,

It can expose those and triggering these feelings of abandonment because you're separated now,

Right?

And so just noticing how you might feel that energy like right before your bleed and just being really tender and gentle with yourself in that space.

Because it's almost like,

You know,

Thinking about when you,

You know,

If you get a burn on your skin,

That's kind of like what it is.

So it's like tending,

Tending to yourself after a burn.

It's like very,

Very tender and like right on the surface of your being.

Okay,

So that's the energy of separation.

Then surrender,

The second route comes right at the beginning of your bleed.

So that first day,

When that first full flow starting begins,

You know,

If you do spot before you're bleeding,

That's probably,

That's still in the energy of separation.

And then when that first full flow comes,

That would be the energy of surrender.

And just like it sounds,

That is the time to let go and just be.

So again,

Only doing things that are 100% completely necessary.

And just being with that,

With that divine essence of yourself.

It's like you're coming back into connection after a cycle of moving away.

You're coming back in to connection with your divine self.

Or any other,

You know,

Like you might not call it your divine self,

You know,

You might call it the universe or source or love,

Whatever that is for you that you connect with deep,

Deep within your,

You know,

Your spirit,

Your soul.

And so,

Yeah,

This is the time then to rest.

This is the time to,

To ground in your being and really grow,

Grow that root deep that will support you in the coming seasons.

So that is the energy of surrender.

So separation and surrender are the only two that have sort of like a starting time.

So separation,

Like I said,

A day or two before you begin to bleed.

And it actually can be just a couple hours as well.

But it definitely comes before you bleed and then surrender coming that day one,

First day,

Full flow bleeding.

And then the other three,

Renewal,

Visioning and clarity,

They aren't tied to any specific start date.

And it just depends really on your bodily makeup,

Your cycle,

How it unfolds.

So just paying attention to how they might come through for you.

But renewal is sort of like,

So,

You know,

You've separated,

You've let go,

You've surrendered,

That that ground is,

Is fertile,

It's nourishing.

And this renewal.

So this is like the beginning of the rebirth of the cycle.

Right.

So it is renewing you,

Renewing you into a deeper connection with your true self.

It's like getting another layer deeper.

So each cycle,

That's what you're doing,

Each cycle you're uncovering another layer of who you are and being in connection with that,

If you're taking the time to rest here in the inner winter.

So reconnecting to what I like to call the soul of the world or the universal consciousness.

And actually during this time of the cycle,

You get an oxytocin wash.

So this is just right around when estrogen is beginning to start again.

And as soon as it's starting,

You get this oxytocin wash through your body.

And it feels like,

You know,

Some people call it a mother hug or it just feels like this holding of,

You know,

Divine love.

Where you feel,

You feel renewed and you feel in that deep connection with your,

With yourself,

With who you are.

And after that space,

Then comes the visioning.

That's the fourth route of visioning.

So,

You know,

You have opened yourself up,

You know yourself who you are and you're ready to receive visions.

And usually in this space of the fourth route of visioning comes the big picture,

Like the big picture you're calling in life,

Your purpose,

What you were created to do in this lifetime.

That's what comes during this visioning.

And a lot of times it's really big and it might feel overwhelming because it could be something like save the world.

You know,

It can be like this really big thing.

But you have to recognize that that's your calling over your life arc,

You know,

Like from birth to death in this lifetime.

That's the calling that you have been weaving from the beginning of your days through to where you are now.

And the invitation there is then to just receive it.

So you're not doing anything with it.

You're still in that energy of resting in the inner winter.

You're just receiving it.

You're just downloading it.

You're just gathering it.

So doing things like journaling during this time is great.

Just journaling down everything that comes through,

Even if it doesn't make any sense to you,

Even if it's just sort of like an image,

Just draw that image.

You might notice like some aha connection pieces happening during this time.

Realizing how these threads have been woven throughout your life so far.

Just receive all of that.

Just be in that space of.

.

.

What is the word?

Receptivity.

Yeah,

That space of receptivity.

And then after you've received these visions,

Sort of like a funnel,

Right?

Receive the big picture and then comes the fifth route of clarity.

So you're coming to the end of your bleed.

You know,

You might be if any of you like have spotting towards the end of your cycle.

This would be sort of that energy as you're beginning to shift,

Transition from winter to spring.

We're funneling down this big calling,

This big purpose for your life.

And then it comes down into clarity.

And sometimes this is like a very,

Very practical,

Tangible task.

Like you might receive just like one thing to do this cycle.

So that's the thing.

You're taking this big life purpose and you're bringing it down to what's my intention for this cycle.

So what is the one thread I can pull from my divine purpose that I can weave throughout this next cycle?

And just being open to see what's going to come through in that route of clarity and carrying that sacred thread.

So again,

You're at that space.

You're setting the intention.

You're planting that seed of this piece of clarity that you've received.

Planting that seed,

Exploring,

Playing with it in the spring,

Manifesting it,

Doing the work in the summer.

And then coming down to the autumn and reflecting,

Harvesting and course correcting if need be.

Before then you surrender,

Let go to open yourself up to receive more of your vision and then another piece of clarity.

And it all starts again.

And again,

If you don't have a menstrual cycle,

You can still hold these energies in the new moon energy.

That would be the inner winter time and in the winter season energy.

And so following along with the winter season and going into those spaces of separation,

Surrender,

Renewal,

Visioning and clarity.

All right.

Those are our three maps.

Oh,

And it's one one one right now.

Beautiful.

I love it.

OK,

So yeah,

Just a short overview.

We have the luminaries first,

Solar path and lunar path,

The two halves of the cycle.

Then coming a layer deeper,

We did the four phases of the inner seasons and then a layer deeper,

Just the five roots of the inner winter.

And what I'll share here at the end is that while these are,

You know,

These are archetypes,

Which what does archetype mean?

It means like a universal knowing,

Like a universal energy that's woven through the universe.

But how that shows up for each one of us is unique.

You know,

We all have different we all have different bodies.

We all have different biologies,

You know,

Biological processes in our body.

We all have different hormonal makeups.

We all have different,

You know,

Life experiences,

You know,

Upbringings,

Cultures.

You know,

All of these all of these play into who who we are.

Right.

And so while I am sharing like this overarching universal archetype of the cycle,

How you experience it yourself is going to be very unique.

And the only way you're going to know that is by tracking and charting your own cycle,

Which is why I created a workshop called Chart Your Cycle.

And it's a 90 minute workshop that will actually go through different ways of charting your own cycle in alignment with these archetypal energies and seeing in which parts of the cycle,

You know,

You have a lot of natural strength and you feel really aligned and things are working well.

And you just feel like,

I got this.

And then other points of your cycle where it's not aligning with the archetypal energy and you might feel quite vulnerable and challenged.

And knowing that those are then the parts of your cycle that you feel called into,

You know,

Healing and how you can how you can do that.

But then once you know those things,

You can create your self-care plans.

You can communicate to other people.

It has really transformed my relationship with my spouse because I can now communicate what I need.

You know,

I can clearly see,

Oh,

I am,

You know,

Day,

You know,

I tell I'm day 25 of my cycle today.

So if you could give me a little bit more space,

That's probably going to help not only me,

It's going to help you as well in our dynamic today.

So knowing those,

Knowing your natural rhythms and being able to communicate and articulate that can be really,

Really empowering.

Yeah,

Really like learning,

Learning your own cyclical rhythm by charting is going to be the most the most important thing.

I've been doing it for about six or seven years now.

And still,

You know,

Still to this day,

I don't know how many stacks,

You know,

I have like a whole a whole stack of cycle charts that I have.

Over the years.

And still today,

Like seeing new because,

You know,

As a cyclical being,

Nothing ever stays the same,

Right?

We know that we know that especially for us here that are spiritual people that are meditators.

We know that like the only constant in life is change.

Right.

And so by tracking your cycle,

You're going to learn like your own rhythms,

But that's going to change throughout time.

It's going to change throughout whatever experiences are happening in your life.

So it really basically is just like a self-awareness practice.

It's a mindfulness tool to have this connection to to your body and to the moon or to the earth,

Whatever you're really connecting to.

And bringing us into more sustainable ways of being in this linear world that we're all,

You know,

Stuck in right now.

You know,

I guarantee almost all of us here are in a society that is very rooted in a foundation of a linear way of being.

You know,

That's run by patriarchy,

By capitalism,

You know,

The things that are telling us that we need to be the same all the time.

And so having this practice of charting your cycle is it's like a it's an unlearning of what society has told you.

And it's a relearning of your natural your natural way of being.

When you begin to chart your cycle,

Your body starts telling you what it means.

If you're listening,

Like that's all we need to do.

We need to listen.

And if you're listening to your body,

It starts to tell you,

You know,

It started to tell me,

Like,

Get your iron checked.

You know,

I checked or get,

You know,

These blood tests and checking like realize that,

Oh,

I have severe vitamin B12 deficiency and folate deficiency and iron deficiency,

All creating anemia.

And,

You know,

Can then start and work with that,

Realizing that my energies,

I was pushing myself too much in the spring season of my cycle.

And when I began to slow that down,

My cycle began to flow smoother as well.

And so like becoming into this coming into this awareness of it's just like learning learning the language of your body and learning the language of your womb,

Learning the language of this cyclical energies.

And when you listen and learn from that,

It's going to guide you in the ways to find your healing,

To find those places that are sustainable for you,

That ease and spaciousness that we're all,

That is our birthright as humans.

Yeah,

It's been lovely,

Lovely being with you all.

I think I'm going to go and organize my space.

I'm going to clean up my space before I eat lunch,

Because that's my energy I'm holding day 21 of my inner autumn.

I'm wanting to to nest a little bit and clean things up.

And I hope you all have,

You know,

Beautiful days,

Afternoons,

Evenings,

Wherever you are.

All right,

Beautiful people,

I will see you again soon.

Reviews

So helpful in being able to understand how to better honor my body, experience, and emotions! Thank you ❤️

Sharing with everyone! We need this cyclical way of being!

Such an interesting topic. I learned so much in listening to you, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom. Your calm energy is really soothing, and I’m already sharing your talk with others who would benefit from living in alignment with their natural rhythms. 😍