Menopause and the Moon

“When I went through menopause, following the Moon saved me.
I was unmoored without my cycle.”

I’ve heard statements like this from many clients and students over the years. It makes sense. Aligning with the lunation cycle helps keep crones juicy and in rhythm. All earth beings are designed to live in monthly rhythm, but women’s bodies are more uniquely attuned to this cycle. When the menopausal body drops  the activity and rhythm of menses, it’s a wise woman who joins her own tempo to the Moon’s.

From one New Moon to the next takes about 29.5 days. Fertile women’s cycles are similarly timed. There is similarity too in their tides and symphonies of emotions. We feel the sense of beginning at the end of menses, which is like the igniting spirit of each month’s New Moon. The body begins womb building after menses; similarly, moonlight increases in the waxing weeks following the New phase. Next comes the cycle’s flowering and fulfillment—the Full Moon—and ovulation. At the Dark Moon, energy ebbs, and there’s release, akin to menstruation’s sloughing off of the uterus.

Calendars vaguely hold this rhythm, dividing time into 30/31 day intervals. But unlike moon-time, there’s no “nature” or “energetic movement” in calendar months. They’re “units,” concepts, not energy. Calendar months don’t cleanse and nourish us the way Moon cycles do. Energetically, the first day of any month is no different than the middle or its last day.

I was born in the 1950’s. My generation of women, like our mothers before us, didn’t trust, let alone treasure, the natural rhythm of our wombs. My period was introduced as a “curse.” I was frequently incapacitated with cramps–until the miracle of ibuprophen was introduced in the mid-seventies. Yet, even cramp-free, I felt vulnerable and “off” during my periods. In my corporate days, I began to get migraines at this time. Had I only known then what I’ve since learned from the Moon!  My body was calling me inward, to the rich temple where my femininity was being renewed.  With the Moon’s tutoring. I’ve become more feminine in menopause than I was in more naturally juicy years.

We can jump into the Moon cycle at any time—each Moon phase is its own invitation. But if you’re a menopausal woman who’d like to start anchoring herself into this nurturing universal rhythm,  one of the best times to enter the cycle is during the six days of the Dark and New Moons—which will come in two weeks.  The Dark Moon ends the cycle, coming three to four days before each New Moon. Its call to rest is a profound signal and not subtle. Just pay attention. Notice when your body says you’re tired during these days—and then let yourself slow down. Unless you’ve neglected this need for too long, you won’t want to rest forever, so enjoy.  This is nature’s pause.

I don’t know if there’s value to synching one’s menstrual cycles with the Moon. I’ve heard from many who are delighted when they do this.  In my experience, women tend to cycle more strongly with other women than they do the phases of the Moon. But lacking that sisterhood, the Moon will do.

As the Dark Moon comes to an end, sense for an internal energy shift.  Wait for it. If you’ve rested properly, this will be a natural arising. It may come on the day of the New Moon or a day or so later, sometimes a day before. You’ll know when you feel a certain refreshed lightness of being, a slight or strong increase in your optimism, energy, and enthusiasm.

Observe these six days–Dark and New Moons–for a few months. Moonplay is an accumulative venture. Watching the Moon over time is how you get into rhythm.  Doing it once or twice a year won’t change much.

If after observing New Moons, you’d like a further step, start observing Full Moons too. How do the days before, during, and after the Full Moon week differ from those of the Dark week? Let your body be the Rosetta Stone that helps you read the Moon’s flow. Get still. Breathe. Tune into the texture of the atmosphere—the energy—floating within and around you. Describe what you feel, even if it’s so subtle you think you’re making it up. Over time your sensitivity and discernment will increase.

There are other groups who can benefit enormously from entraining to Moon phases. Among them, premenopausal women, of course; any female without strong community; also, women who work full time outside the home. The corporate rhythm has a masculine sameness to it that can tear a woman away from herself.

In an opposite yet similar situation, men who work full time caring for children at home can also use the lunar support. They need to learn this rhythm of rising, cresting, and falling as much as women have had to learn the daily masculine march. Men have Moons too! Man caves are strong evidence. I’ve been cheered to observe over the past few years, that more and more men have been drawn to enroll in my Moon workshop.

Woman or man, if you’d like support for your moonplay, you can follow me on Facebook or Instagram, for the daily changes of the Moon.

Touch into the deeper layers of your lunar nature (order my in-depth report,  “Moonprints” here).
Or commit to your archetypal vibrance by enrolling in my monthly Moon workshop  this cycle.  Get closer to Mama Moon!