Wise Woman Ezine with herbalist Susun Weed
September 2008
Volume 8 Number 9
    Bookmark and Share        

What's Inside Wise Woman Herbal Ezine this Month...

INDEX  | HEALING WISE  |  MOTHER &CHILD  | WISDOMKEEPERS  | WISE WOMAN WISDOM 
ANTI-CANCER LIFESTYLE | THE GODDESS SPEAKS | GRANDMOTHER GAIA | FEATURED LINKS

Empower Yourself...
Lunar Mystery:
Woman and the Moon

by Roslyne Sophia Breillat


Lunar Mystery: Woman and the Moon (part2)
by Roslyne Sophia Breillat

 

The moon has long been associated with female qualities of receptivity, feeling, moistness, fertility, nurturing, intuition, healing. the Art of Wen HsuFor aeons we have gazed in awe at the golden radiance of her fullness reflected in the ocean.For aeons we have gazed in wonder at the delicate silver arc of her crescent-shaped sister shining gently amongst the stars.

 

 

MOON CYCLES

 

The ancients worshipped the moon as the beneficent giver of divine power. They honoured her as the gracious receptacle of intimate secrets and sacred knowledge. During each of her powerful transitions she was portrayed as a different aspect of woman. These phases were named Maiden, Mother and Muse or Crone.    

  

In her earliest phase, the moon’s delicate silver crescent represents the nubile virgin beginning her adventurous journey across the heavens. Preparing to enter life from a deeper part of the feminine psyche, she symbolises newness, purity and innocence.

 

The Lunar Goddess now begins her waxing phase of birth and growth, her unfolding of maturity, wisdom and freedom. For a young woman this phase heralds menarche, the dawning of her first menstrual period.

    

When the moon is round and glowing, she represents the maternal Goddess of love, the pregnant mother with her full ripe belly. Her golden rotundity symbolises fecundity and abundance for her fertilising powers are potent now. Her powerful presence bestows her creative gift of life to the earth and her bounty. Mother Nature’s womb opens to her heavenly beauty and insects sing her praises all night long. This phase represents woman’s maternal aspect embracing the fullness of her childbearing and mothering years. 

     

When the moon begins to wane she is preparing to disappear into the dark void of her mystery. The Moon Goddess silently slips from existence through entering the deep abyss of her lunar consciousness. No longer visible, her potent presence emanates from an unseen place. This phase is for introspection, stillness and silence. She is now assimilating the changes of her waxing and waning phases.

 

During this transformation she prepares to reappear as the sparkling crescent moon. For a woman this transition represents her rebirth as the wise and mysterious Muse or Crone. Hecate, Dark Moon Lilith, woman beyond existence is the mythical ruler of this mysterious cycle of emotional and psychological death.

 

During this phase the ancients watched in awe and fear as her glowing light disappeared from view. Her unseen influence upon the earth is powerful at this time.

    

Through consciously embracing menopause, a woman will experience deep wholeness and completion from experiencing all the phases of the Lunar Goddess. As the Wise Crone, she simultaneously knows the innocence of the Maiden, the fertility of the Mother and the truth of the Muse.

 

Even if she has not physically been a mother, she has psychically and energetically experienced this phase of her life. Neither old nor young, neither attached to age or youth, she joyfully embodies all aspects of the Lunar Goddess. The transforming power of her essence is that of the fullest and darkest moon. She contains the elixir of the Holy Grail, the abundance of the Earth, the stillness of the lake, the wildness of the storm. She represents all that gives, nurtures, takes in, receives, contains and transforms.   

    

When a woman ceases menstruating, her psyche dances differently with the changing phases of the moon’s cycles. No more will her womb bleed with the lunar influence of oceanic tidal flows, for she is now inspired and influenced from a deeper place of inner knowing.

 

In ancient cultures this aspect of her female essence was sacred. She now cradles the immortal presence of life within her womb without menstruation, birthing or mothering.  

    

During and after menopause, woman’s natural affiliation with the moon potentially becomes more profound, inner, intuitive, perceptive. Through acceptance and surrender, she softens ever deeper into her wisdom, her wildness, her mystery, her power.

 

After emptying, filling and replenishing for many years with the moon’s phases, her body is rapidly changing in preparation for a new phase, a new life. For many women this intense transition is felt as dramatic, disorienting, disturbing and erratic.

 

If a woman is experiencing great disharmony throughout these disruptive sensations, she can minimise this by simplifying her outer life as much as possible. She needs calm and sensitive focus for receptively tuning in to this strange new transition. Through eliminating everything unnecessary from her life, a deeper space, openness, stillness and power will inspire this potent flow of inner changes.   

 

MOON MYSTERY  

 Throughout pagan cultures the lunar deity is worshipped as the wise and intuitive ruler of the feminine psyche. Not always content with the dark of night as her realm, she often appears at will during daylight hours. Daring to show her delicate face amid bright sunshine, she then remains high in the heavens long after the sun sleeps.  

Mysteriously turning her face every few days, she always manifests in a different part of the evening sky. She takes form for several nights as a tiny crescent. Then she swells and grows like a ripening fruit, changing colour and shape until she is glorious, round and golden.

There are moments when this inconstant and unreliable heavenly ruler of cyclic change slowly rises at dusk. There are moments when her capricious presence doesn't bother to appear until the late hours of darkness. When her fullness and light have caused the night to shine as day, she turns her beautiful face once again, preparing to metamorphose as a fine arc of silver.

 And so it is with woman. The enigmatic inconsistency of her feminine nature cannot be measured, controlled, quantified or manipulated, for it vibrates so finely with the instinctual pulse of its own rhythm. Ever in tune with her lunar nature, her body subtly yet powerfully flows from one transforming cycle to another.

 

the Art of Wen HsuWhen she begins her sacred menopausal pilgrimage she is gifted with the opportunity to sing, dance, create, live, love and be as never before. No longer flowing in tune with her lunar menstrual cycle, she is asked to courageously move beyond all she has known. She is now learning to be who she is as a woman in a totally new way. She is being asked to live as the dark of the moon.

      

As your consciousness becomes more aligned with the dark side of the moon, you will know gratitude for this awesome opportunity to sink so deeply into the quiet stillness of your inherent nature. You will become more perceptively attuned to the impersonal female ocean beyond fertility, beyond menstruation, beyond death, beyond fear.

 

If you fully embrace this important transition everything you say and do will be graced with wisdom and inspired by truth. You will inwardly die and rebirth. You will settle into a new place of being. You will become the mystery of the Muse and the power of the Crone. You will know true freedom. You will know All.

 

 

 

MOON CONSCIOUSNESS

 

This innermost facet of woman’s psyche is both adored and feared by man, for he subconsciously recognises it as his self-undoing. Reflecting all that he loves and fears in the feminine psyche, the timelessness of her lunar essence draws him like a moth to a flame. It promises to fulfil his every need whilst threatening to destroy him with this unfathomable mystery that he loves.

 

Every woman has the capacity to unite with her lunar consciousness, for deep within, beneath layers of worldly fears and distractions, she already is this power. Through learning to love his woman's ever-changing lunar rhythm, the rhythm he will never understand, he will know stillness, humility, passion and the authority of his solar power. When he opens to the moon within his woman, he opens to the shining one, his divine inner lover. If he learns to love her through her many lunar transitions, he will know true fulfilment. For like the moon, she reflects the light of his love.

    

2008 © Roslyne Sophia Breillat


www.wildheartwisdom.com - Roslyne Sophia Breillat -
Within the womb of every woman glows the consciousness of Mother Earth. Wildheartwisdom is a web site for nurturing the truth of this powerful feminine spirit and offers support for the female psyche’s many cyclic transformations. Wildheartwisdom focuses upon the deeper joy and purpose of menstruation, lovemaking, pregnancy, childbirth, mothering, relationships, menopause and beyond. Find spiritual guidance for healing from eating disorders, sexual abuse, miscarriage and abortion. There are currently three galleries featuring Sophia’s art and a selection of her article excerpts. As wildheartwisdom evolves more art and articles will be added as well as an extensive resource section. Sophia’s beautiful art and illustrations are for sale and she is currently seeking a publisher for her two books.

 

Collect all three of
White Feather's Seven Directions Movement Meditation
; includes booklet, CD, and video.


Sacred Dance for Spirit and Body

by Whitefeather
Collect all three of White Feather's Seven Directions Movement Meditation; includes booklet, CD, and video. With this complete set you will be practicing this dance with ease and grace. The perfect gift for someone who has everything!

Price:$ 45.00 (plus shipping)

.

Click here to read the introduction and an excerpt from The Seven Directions Movement Meditation by Whitefeather


ORDER White Feather's Seven Directions Movement Meditation Trio in our Bookshop

"White Feather has provided us with a phenomenal expression of human movement that is connected with earth energy. She has shared this with countless people to help them feel their wholeness as an expression of inner truth."
— Grandmother Twylah Nitsch, Elder of the Seneca Wolf Clan

 

 

 


A women's spirituality classic is now back in print!

The Holy Book of Women's Mysteries by Z BudapestThe Holy Book of Women's Mysteries
by Z Budapest
376 Pages
$19.95

The Holy Book of Women's Mysteries is essential for Pagans, feminists, and women seeking to learn more about the spiritual path as it relates to the feminine and the Goddess aspects of witchcraft and Wicca.

order this New Release in our Bookshop

 

 

LOVE LETTERS

Sunday night I found a lump in my left breast. I had your breast book ever since it hit book stores. I read the chapter "There's a lump in my breast" It made me feel good. I followed the recipes and the lump is getting smaller. ….

read more...





Traveler's Joy
Traveler's Joy by Juliette de Bairacli Levy
by Juliette de Bairacli Levy
Explore the free wandering life of this enchant-ing guide by a legendary teacher who lives in tune with the rhythms of nature. Lots of herbal lore. 256 pages, index, illustrations.

Retails for $18.95



"This magical book has made me want to shelve my responsibilities and hit the road! The author's enthusiasm and ability to embrace hardship and bounty alike are truly inspirational. I am encouraged to lighten my material load to provide space for the gifts that the simple life provides. Recipes, travel lore, herbal medicine, literary references, and personal observations make this book an enjoyable read.
"

Order TRAVELER'S JOY in our BOOKSHOP

 


Common Herbs for Natural Health
by Juliette de Bairacli Levy
Re-indexed, re-designed, and expanded. Lore and uses for 200 herbs including cosmetic, culinary, and medical recipes. Juliette de Bairacli Levy is famed for her mastery of herbal lore and her many books on living in tune with nature. Foreword by Rosemary Gladstar. 236 pages, index, illustrations.

 

Retails for $18.95

"This is the book that got me started in herbal medicine. It's solid gold; not only useful but incredibly fascinating." Susun Weed

Read a review

Order Common Herbs for Natural Health in the BOOKSHOP


 

Nourishing Traditions
by Sally Fallon with Mary G Enig, PhD

The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats.

This well-researched, thought-provoking guide to traditional foods contains a startling message: Animal fats and cholesterol are not villains but vital factors in the diet, necessary for normal growth, proper funciton of the brain and nervous system, protection from disease and optimum energy levels. Sally Fallon dispels the myths of the current low-fat fad in this practical, entertaining guide to a can-do diet that is both nutritious and delicious.

Order Sally Fallon's book at our bookshop Or order via mail: Ash Tree Publishing PO Box 64 Woodstock, NY 12498 include a check or money order for $29.95 (Nourishing Traditions retails for $25.00 plus shipping.

HOME | ARCHIVE | FORUM |  SITEMAP |  SUBSCRIBE


Wise Woman Herbal Ezine is sponsored by www.susunweed.com and www.wisewomanbookshop.com

Breast Cancer? Breast Health! the Wise Woman Way

©Susun Weed -Wise Woman Center
~ Disclaimer & Privacy Policy ~


INDEX | HEALING WISE | MOTHER & CHILD | WISDOMKEEPERS | WISE WOMAN WISDOM
ANTI-CANCER LIFESTYLE | GODDESS SPEAKS | GRANDMOTHER GAIA | FEATURED LINKS