When I went through menopause, following the Moon saved me.
I was unmoored without my cycle.”
I’ve heard words like these from many clients and students over the years. And they make sense. The lunation cycle keeps crones juicy and in rhythm. All beings on Earth are built for monthly tides, but women’s bodies know this pattern in a deeper way. When menopause quiets the earlier rhythm of fertility, the moon offers the crone a new one.
From one new moon to the next is about 29.5 days. The menstrual cycle has a rhythm that’s just as long. Like the moon, the menstrual cycle carries a similar pattern of energy rising, energy building, energy cresting, and energy ebbing.
Why Calendar Months Feel Flat
After the end of menses, the body still yearns for this old rhythm. It can find it in the energetic tides of the moon. The new moon brings an inner spark similar to the way the female body feels after the uterine lining has been shed. The waxing moon brings the glow of a body building towards ovulation—which is the flowering symbolized by the full moon. At the dark moon, energy wanes. Like a body that is menstruating, there is a natural inclination toward rest, letting go, a quiet sloughing of what is no longer needed.
Calendars divide time into boxes. Months are 30- or 31-days long. Useful, yes. But lifeless.
There is no tide in a calendar month, no pulse. The first day feels no different from the fifteenth. These are human-made units. They do not cleanse. They do not nourish. They do not change us the way nature’s cycles do.
Distrusting Nature’s Rhythm
I was born in the 1950s. My generation, like that of our mothers, was taught to distrust the body’s rhythm. Menstruation was framed as a “curse.” I spent years doubled over with cramps until ibuprofen arrived in the mid-seventies. Even then, even pain-free, I felt off-balance and too porous during my period. In my corporate days, migraines joined the cycle.
Had I known then what I’ve since learned from the moon, I might have treated those days as sacred. My body was calling me inward—to the deep temple where renewal waits. Eventually, moon by moon, I’ve discovered greater softness, more intuition, more compassion, more real femininity in menopause than I ever knew in my youthful years.
Why Menopause Is a Perfect Time for Moon Worship
You can enter the moon’s rhythm at any phase. But for women crossing into or living within menopause, I find the dark and new moons especially significant.
The dark moon ends the month’s journey. It arrives three to four days before the new moon—bringing an unmistakable signal to rest. Feel the atmosphere inside and around you. Notice when the body quiets. Notice when the mind thins to a small flame. Let yourself slow down. This is not weakness. This is nature’s pause.
When you honor this need, your energy returns on its own. No forcing. No pushing. Just a gentle return toward the light. Whether you’re a crone—or are still menstruating—profound benefits come by following the rhythm of the moon. Keep this practice over time and your energetic sensitivity will sharpen.
On Syncing with the Moon
The moon’s cycle offers support to the feminine at many life stages, premenopausal women, women without community, or women who must work long, structured hours, against their body’s own rhythm. Corporate life often pulls us into a masculine rhythm—linear, steady, unchanging. The moon helps return us to our natural ebb and flow. Men caring for children at home also benefit. They, too, need to learn how to rise, crest, ebb, and rest. “Man caves,” in their way, are lunar spaces. I’ve noticed in recent years that more men have joined my moon workshops. It has been a delight.
Wherever you find yourself, you can start tuning in this cycle. Start with these two dates:
The dark moon begins on December 15
The new moon launches on December 19
When the dark moon comes, listen for the call to cease your striving. Once you’ve slowed down, you’re better able to sense the lift that comes with the new moon. It may be faint. It may come on the day of the new moon itself, or a day before, or a day after. But it comes. A small lightness. A clearer breath. A rise of curiosity or hope. This is the moon’s new month beginning inside you.
The moon has been with us for billions of years. She’s a patient companion. As with any good friendship, your relationship with the moon will unfold over time. Watching the dark-and-new-moon days for a few months is enough to change your internal rhythm. Not at once, not dramatically—but steadily.
Later, when you’re ready, add the energy of the full moons to your awareness. Compare the difference between new moons and full moons–how the energy of rising differs from the energy of illumination. Let your own body be your moon guidebook. It knows more than you think!
If you’d like support for your practice, keep visiting us at Mooncircles! You might also enroll in my monthly Moon workshop. Touch into what’s true in you.
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