NO
By Lian Brook-Tyler
One of the most important things I teach women is how to fall truly, madly, deeply in love with their menstrual cycle.
That requires they get up close and personal with their blood which though isn’t the point of this post, is vital to say because any menstrual practice that isn’t based on full intimacy with blood will only be perpetuating the very disconnection that the vast majority of women already have with their beautiful body and its sacred cycles.
One of the menstrual practices I teach is writing a list of all the things their Wild Woman, the pre-bleed archetype, is a NO to.
This NO will be felt as:
Sensitivity
Tears
Tension
Anger
Irritability
Cravings
Headaches
Tiredness
Notice how this list sounds exactly the same as the symptoms of PMT/PMS that we mock, dismiss or make wrong?
In doing so, we mock, dismiss and make wrong the powerfully protective, instinctual aspect of ourselves, the wild part of us that knows what is no longer right for us to tolerate and is ready to say NO.
As I’m lying in bed sinking into this bleed, I happened to read back over my list of NOs from a couple of years ago - it’s like reading something a completely different woman wrote.
The NO my Wild Woman growled back then, rippled deep into my womb and psyche, then out into my life… none of the things she was a NO to are now present in my life.
So much so, I hadn’t been keeping a regular practice of writing down my Nos, I hadn’t needed to, my Wild Woman was calm and content, and just asked for a little more time alone and for more wanders in the wild.
But this month my Wild Woman has been howling.
It turns out that as I’ve reclaimed my power over the past two years, and then as I integrated from my last shamanic initiation which has been particularly gruelling physically, there’s suddenly now new things she is a NO to.
Saying NO will be…
Inconvenient.
Indulgent.
Dangerous.
And honour her I will.
I honour the Wild Woman’s NO by entering the Red Temple to meet my Wise Woman, the archetype of the bleed time, to hear her gnosis about uncomfortable truths, to be told what I need to let go of, no matter the sacrifice, and for my blood to carry it away.
The ancient wisdom of the cycle is calling us to become our true wild, wise soulful selves, we only need to be courageous enough to heed its call.
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