Wise Woman Wisdom ... Beautiful Menopausal Woman by Roslyne Sophia Breillat

 

Beautiful Menopausal Woman

Beautiful Menopausal Woman
by Roslyne Sophia Breillat
Death and Rebirth – part one



Beautiful menopausal woman, there may be myriad moments where you feel as if you are dying. And this is so, for many parts of your identity will die if you surrender to the important lessons of this empowering pilgrimage of rebirth. You are dying to the life you have lived until now, to all that went before, to all unreal concepts of femininity, to all illusory ideas you have cherished. You are dying to everything that is not aligned with the energy of this powerful transformation. Throughout menopause your body and psyche are immersed in a natural phase of shifting, changing, emptying and purifying. And if you open to this mighty power everything that does not support the birth of your new life will be taken from you.

You are navigating a ship into unknown waters as you embark upon this sacred journey of your innermost depths. You are not required to carry much upon this journey, for so much must be shed, surrendered and let go of now. And soon you will sail to new shores of wisdom, to a new place of power. As you hover in this twilight realm between death and renewal you may experience a long phase where you have no sense of direction. It is important to be present with this strange space of unknowing, for this is where the seeds of your new life are sown. And it is important that you do not resist the subtle whisperings of your perceptive menopausal wisdom. The transforming power of this profound death and renewal will soon allow your female essence to emanate from a more authentic place.

Every cycle of a woman’s life involves an inner death and rebirth process. And so it is with menopause. This powerful transition dances in unison with its own intrinsic rhythm. This rhythm is not rational or constant, for it naturally fluctuates between the balance of dark and light, the harmony of night and day, the chaos of death and rebirth. And it creates a wave of inner reflection that lovingly yet impersonally evaluates, changes and deepens the purpose of the life a woman has been living until now. For her menopausal muse is calling her into her realm of transformation, her well of wisdom, her cauldron of power. And if a woman courageously intuits the potential of this call she will unleash abundant treasure from within.

You are being reborn ~ into what, into whom? It does not matter now, for it is not yet your time to know. This time is for final completions, for taking care of unfinished things, for beginning anew. It is for tying up loose ends and clarifying messy communications. It is for releasing friends, work, relationships or any other situation that has no place within the heart of the wild menopausal woman. This time is for learning to nurture your body with a greater integrity and a deepening respect. It is for listening to your womb’s wisdom and your heart’s desire for change. You are standing alone as wise woman of truth within a male dominated world. And everything that no longer nourishes your inner transformation must fall away, must die.

You are being purged within your cauldron of fire, within the purifying flames of the Dark Moon Goddess. Come now, gently, let go, surrender, dive into this fire, dance joyously in these flame. For they embody your power, your passion, your wildness, your wisdom. At no other time in your life are you being asked to be so uncompromising, so authentic, so ruthless, so real. Dare you become who you really are? Dare you poise upon the brink of this vast cauldron of wise female knowing, stripped naked of all future and past, of all that does not honour your true power as a woman? Dare you dive into the healing balm of its sweet and mysterious depths? Dare you live from the fullness of your potential, your essence, your love?

Of all the transforming phases of initiation for a woman, menopause is the one where she requires the most aloneness and solitude. She does not need separation, loneliness or isolation, but a tranquil sanctuary where she can open, heal, reflect, nurture and know herself more deeply. If she is to fully embrace the joy of true freedom, she must now gather the courage to flow upstream within a culture that adores the unreal, the mask, the false cloak of pretence and denial. During this emotional and psychological death of menopause, life asks her to merge, to relinquish, fall apart, let go, melt, disintegrate, dissolve. If she consciously embraces this process, she will unite with a deep sense of reverence for the wisdom of her inner female mystery. Through emptying, she will become filled. Through surrendering, she will know peace. Through acceptance, she will awaken.

Please don’t try to rush through menopause, dear woman, as if it is something to be over and done with as quickly as possible. Contemporary society has taught you to deny your profound insights, your intuitive knowing, your infinite power, your passionate love, your mysterious depths. Please create space for honouring these innate feminine qualities, for they are your loving companions throughout this transitional pilgrimage of the wise heart. Menopause is not something to be beaten, overcome, suppressed, hidden, coped with, glossed over or denied. Menopause is not a source of ignorance and shame. Menopause is potentially a natural, vital, necessary and empowering initiation into impersonal depths of female wisdom and truth.

Please don’t wish for menopause to go away. Please don’t repress this gracious beauty of your wisdom beneath layers of fear and apprehension. To do so would create separation from the awesome power that desires to birth new life, sweeter love and deeper passion. Please give yourself as much space, solitude and stillness as you need, for this is your time of deepest transformation. And this time is precious. This phase is for gentle nurturing, for heartfelt communication, for intimate communion with your body, your spirit, your female soul. Please welcome this important journey of power and wisdom, and the rest of your life, with tenderhearted sacredness.

During menopause a woman can easily become disturbed and fearful when this vibrant wellspring of wisdom pulsates throughout her being. For she has been taught by the world to act as if her many transitional cycles aren’t really happening. She has become too familiar with, too accepting of a society that treats her greatest moments of transformation as unimportant trivialities. She has become too comfortable with her true essence being hidden, veiled over, joked about, diminished, dishonoured, forgotten. For the profundity and purpose of her cyclic rhythms have been long suppressed by the force of patriarchal civilisation. If she resists the calling of her menopausal power she will not hear the song of her divine wisdom or know herself as wholly female, holy woman. Her body is love. Her life is love. Whenever she denies this innate knowing, this profound truth, this mysterious depth of her being, she suffers. And whenever she suppresses the spiritual purpose of menopause she is denied her rightful place as the beautiful wise woman of this earth.

Like the moon, she waxes and wanes, and like the tides, she ebbs and flows. It is natural for her to turn inwards, become reflective and seek solitude during menstruation and menopause, for these are her phases of deepest mystery. She is not meant to be too busy, too outwardly focussed during these intimate transitions. For they require the presence of nurturing stillness and deepening awareness within an environment of sacred space. Like menstruation, menopause is a gift and a blessing, a potential opening of female consciousness. Menopause is not a curse. This phase can gift her with deeper intuition, abundant creativity, sensitive compassion and serene grace. For her relatedness to her body, to those she loves, to her inner and outer realm, are undergoing a mighty transformation of death, replenishment and renewal.

You, dear woman, are love. And it requires presence and stillness to be true to your essence, as it requires presence and stillness to receive the subtle fragrance of a rose, the exquisite depths of your lovemaking or the invigorating freshness of the rain-soaked earth. Whenever you enter a new life transition, you are preparing to move deeper into the eternal mystery of your female power. The male world expects you to work excessively, keep busy, keep moving, act “normal,” “function,” when you are menstruating, pregnant or journeying through menopause. When you are menstruating, you are intuitively drawn within, away from the outer world, into the timelessness of your cyclic mystery. Here, you inwardly die and rebirth with the moon’s cycles, merging with the spiralling rhythm of your feminine spirit. If you are gently surrendered you will enter a place of deeper consciousness during these days of lunar opening and reflection.

The modern world never allows you enough space to be in this place, for it draws you ever outwards, demanding you to pursue the dream instead of being the reality. Through its ignorance of your true nature it cunningly seduces you from the stillness of your being and the depths of your essence. Western culture teaches you to work throughout your pregnancies and to rush through childbirth. It teaches you to hurry through lovemaking, suppressing your softness, your vulnerability, your openness and your instinctive sense of what is right for your body. And you pay a big price for the constant pull into its whirlpool of thoughts, emotions, doubts and fears. Whenever you give birth, menstruate, make love, become pregnant, begin menopause, you are being asked to die psychologically and emotionally to the world’s incessant demands for untruth. And you are being asked to align with your intrinsic wisdom of Mother Earth.

Each of a woman’s transformational cycles requires the presence of stillness, the joy of an open heart and the subtlety of intimacy. And each of her transformational cycles requires a phase of rest and replenishment away from the distraction of everyday activities. During menopause she is to rebirth as the queen of her inner realm. She is to die to the personal aspects of the girl, the mother, the princess. She is to die to unreal dreams, ambitions and aspirations that hinder her arising wisdom. When she opens to the wise power of menopause she inwardly gathers the harvests of all her previous life cycles. She can then fully embrace the many facets of the girl, the mother and the wild wise woman from a vast impersonal place. For the spiritual purpose of menopause is to awaken her as the woman who embodies the glorious richness of every aspect of her femaleness.

Male medical professionals cannot understand and will never understand a woman’s experience of menopause. They commonly and mistakenly interpret this profound transition as the death of her uterus, her femininity and her sensuality. A man can never fully understand what the menopausal woman is experiencing and neither can a younger woman. For this unique power of menopause is beyond the experience of those who have never listened to its wise heart or experienced its transformational rebirth. This phase of her life is so all encompassing, so filled with mystery and purpose that she can only imbibe it through truly living it.

During menopause others often perceive her as behaving strangely. A woman never behaves strangely when she is seen, acknowledged, honoured, loved, heard. She never behaves strangely when she is free to live, love and be from the glorious wellspring of her wisdom. As she dives into the depths of her awakening power, those who do not understand must wait upon the brink, for they cannot enter this awesome place with her. Nor can they surmise, calculate, imagine, intellectualise or quantify her experience, for it is not of the mind. Right now, her experience is for her alone. After she has completed this powerful pilgrimage and emerged from her inner cave of transition she may speak openly of what she saw, felt or experienced. For her bounteous gifts of loving wisdom will then be ready to pour forth into her relationships, her work, her community, her outer world.

Copyright ~ Roslyne Sophia Breillat
Not to be reprinted without author’s permission

Sophia is a woman who lives, writes and paints from the heart
Website ~ www.wildheartwisdom.com

 

 

 

Nutritive and Tonic Herbs - 2 CD Set

Nutritive and Tonic Herbs
2 CD Set - Susun S Weed -
8th International Herb Symposium
Length - 1 Hour/11 Minutes

But nourishing and tonifying herbs are often overlooked in favor of more dramatic, faster-acting stimulating and sedating herbs. Can stinging nettle, oatstraw, comfrey leaf, linden flower, red clover blossoms, burdock, chickweed and dandelion really replace supplements? How come I call them nutrition powerhouses?

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CORRESPONDENCE COURSES
with Susun Weed

FOUR COURSES: Green Witch, Green Allies, Spirit & Practice of the Wise Woman Tradition, and a new course ABC of Herbal Medicine. All are multi-cultural and are suitable for beginning, intermediate, or advanced students. Most of my students take 13-15 months to complete one course, but there is no time limit.

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Spirit & Practice of the Wise Woman Tradition focuses on understanding, internalizing, and using the Three Traditions of Healing (Wise Woman, Heroic, and Scientific) and the Six Steps of Healing. Health-care practitioners find this course exceptionally helpful, but anyone who cares for the health of others (even family members) will benefit.
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