by Vanessa Hawthorne, London, UK
RELIGION, PERIODS, POWER.
In Catholicism women are not allowed on the altar because they are unclean – because they bleed.
In Judaism you are not to touch anyone when you are bleeding: a quick search on google revealed this quote:
”A menstruating woman defiles everyone and everything she touches”. Hackles up.
I was talking with a young girl recently, who is being brought up as a Muslim; we spoke about being Muslim and what sense she made of their traditions. When I asked how a woman’s period was viewed, she wasn’t sure but knew that a woman could not pray while she is bleeding as her prayers would not be accepted by Muhammad; she can only pray when she is clean.
Not long ago I watched a movie ‘Agora’ – about Hypatia, a renowned astronomer, lecturer in philosophy and a woman who made a ginormous contribution to the development of mathematics during Roman Egypt. In a scene where the Christian priest is reading from what they were implying was the bible and therefore the word of God, that women should be silent, modestly dressed and not really seen – my hackles went up. In this speech he was condemning Hypatia to her death by saying she was a witch. I got angry at this point.
And I was struck by the theme that was staring me in the face:
ALL THE MAJOR RELIGIONS OF THE LAST TWO THOUSAND YEARS HAVE TOLD WOMEN THEY ARE UNCLEAN.
Internalised message: “there is something God finds unacceptable about you”. I was suddenly struck by what I felt the cause of this systematic denigration of women on a grand scale was all about… fear. Fear of the true power of a woman who honours herself and her period.
But why?
BECAUSE A WOMAN WHO HONOURS HERSELF AND HER NATURAL CYCLES IS POWER-FULL.
This is something that was news to me too, not that long ago.
Let me take you back a year. It was an Esoteric Women’s Presentation and a woman presented that she had realised she was not in full honouring of herself because her periods came when she was busy at work: that if she were honouring herself fully, her cycle would support her by arriving on her rest days. So my immediate thought was “that’s bonkers!”. Then I suspended disbelief and listened some more – how she had experienced a change by noticing and reflecting on how she had felt and lived her day. Next thought… “this is for ascended masters, not little ol’ moi”.
But fortunately I decided to start paying a little more attention to my day and how I felt. The beginning stages of this process can be read about here: “Re-claiming my Relationship with my Period”. Within six months my period shifted to support me by arriving on the first day after my working week. Now, no ascended master am I, just an ordinary lady.
To say I found this extraordinary is an understatement. It is amazing to feel your body supporting you to this level! On one occasion my period moved itself about by arriving an hour after I finished work. My period has consistently changed cycle length so as to not be heavy when I have a big working day ahead.
I have come to know and experience for myself that our period is never late or early but always exactly on time for what is needed for you to clear and to support you. How beautiful and power-full is that?
So The Way of the Livingness as presented by Serge Benhayon and Natalie Benhayon to the Women’s groups has inspired me (and hundreds of other women) to honour ourselves and the true power of the menstruation to heal. I know of no other religion to do this. And it begs the question:
- Why do other religions not want women to know this about themselves and actively discourage a loving relationship with their cycles? And follows my next question:
- Why did women give up on themselves and what they knew all those years ago?
It is for us to reclaim that, and it is a returning to what we already know. It’s not about saying: ‘those bad men’ – if we had stayed in our full power and claimed ourselves fully as women, no matter what, energetic law states that a force can only push you over if you allow it.
I write this so women can have an opportunity to allow the veil to be lifted on the evil (morally wrong) that surrounds us, and to say that there is another way.
The Way of the Livingness is my religion, and I thank God for the grace that I have come across Serge Benhayon and his family and the exemplary way they live that inspires me to live in the full glory that I and everyone else is.
To say I am grateful is an understatement!
The Truth about Universal Medicine 
These religions make up narrative that suits their agendas.
Absolutely Elizabeth to live our sass, sexiness, and sacredness here on Earth.
When we live in honour of the natural cycles of our body, the body honours the rhythm of our cycles.
Sometimes it feels like my body knows far more, and in details, about the kind of day, if not week, I am going to have, than my minds does. It is absolutely fascinating.
The word “live” has a very strong energetic stance. I think it’s difficult to basterdize because it speaks for itself – what you live is what you do every day. The way you take care of your home, walk to your car, drive your car and how you are at work. The way you are in relationships. romantic or otherwise. The way you are in the supermarket, the food you choose and how you prepare it. The way you sleep and the way you wake up. Are you active, or not. Is your job active or not. All these aspects are part of our livingness, our day-to-day. So when we look at those, we get to see the quality of our being crystal clear.
I love what you say here that a force can only push you over if you allow it to. This stops the blame game in its tracks.
I grew up hating the fact I was a woman – I saw women as weak and subscribed to many of the negative stereotypes – women are manipulative, cunning, deceitful and calculating. Very interesting to write this and realise that wow, how great I was born a woman to learn and accept the beauty in being a woman. This didn’t happen anytime fast. Not at all. I developed eating disorders and tried to starve myself out of curves. I did that pretty successfully, exercised like I was possessed (which I was!) and didn’t have periods for most of my adult life.
Then I started going to the Women’s Group you speak of and my periods sort of started to return. I’m nearing the menopause but I’m now getting a monthly period for the last 2 years. This is a miracle for me. It’s coincided with me slowly accepting I am a woman. I could write tonnes more suffice to say I’m getting this life as a woman is really about discovering the power and beauty of being so and discarding all the negative beliefs, the shame, the injustice done to women so I’m no longer perpetrating this evil by not living the fullness of being a woman with curves (something I’m finding very uncomfortable to be with at present but my next step).
I can relate to some of what you shared growing up being a female, I used to feel similar in some respects, I became a tom boy, not liking or wanting to be a woman.
I had a rough day with PMT yesterday. But it was also a 14hr working day. Reading this blog I can relate to my body’s timing as supportive. And also a realisation that I don’t have to be a victim of the PMT, I created it afterall, I can work with it.
I remember as a teenager hearing some of these messages about women and their periods being unclean and feeling how degrading these beliefs were. On a simple physiological level the menstrual cycle is truly amazing. On an energetic level the menstrual period is an amazing gift to women to support their connection to their sacredness, especially if they are able to work with self love, self care, and self honouring each month, and let the period clear what is not true energetically from their bodies.
It is an interesting mentality that many religions and people consider menstruating women unclean when it is a completely natural and essential process of being a female.
Yes, and a completely natural and essential part of everyone being born – how sacred and precious is that?
It’s a completely natural and normal process. One that’s vital for a woman’s health (like bone density!) so is it the truth of the energetic happenings that is squashed and crushed under the lies or purely physical mechanisms.
A great article Vanessa, the more we honour ourselves the more we learn about how we are living through the menstruation cycles and what it reflects back to us.
Honouring ourselves is super important, and paves the way for how we are with people in the world.
This exposes the evil in the world when something as sacred, power-full, magical as woman’s period is portrayed as dirty and unclean. It is now up to us women to claim back the sacredness of our cycles, and you are a great living example of how every day ordinary women can do this. I know I have done it and gone from needing monthly medication to manage my period (heavy bleeding, clotting, pain) to have a cycle that truly supports me and whilst still bleed heavily at times, no clotting or pain and no medication.
That is actually a great question. It is most likely the only current religion with more than a small number of adherents that honours the cycle.
The word ‘period’ comes from the Greek word ‘periodos’ – ‘peri’ meaning ‘around’ and ‘hodus’ meaning ‘course’. Does this not indicate that a menstruating woman is connecting to a rhythm and an order that speaks of a certain majesty (universality) the human form is a part of, but does not own.
A woman that honours herself and her natural cycles is a huge threat to the force that stands in place to diminish her natural ability to restore true sacredness within us all.
First I think that women have been suppressed because they reflect an enormously powerful presence when they are allowed to be themselves in full, which brings us the foundation we need to move forward in our evolution as human beings. They bring the bed rock and quality we need and this seems like it’s too much for some to swallow. Second I love when you shared about how your body actually supported you in giving you your period when you were ready for it, but I realize that that can happen when we listen to it in the first place.
It is pure evil that such great attempts have been imposed on women throughout history to dishonor her connection, to feel shame about her sacredness purely as a strategy to dis-empower us from living in our fullness. When we as women live connected to our essence, connected to the cycles we are intrinsically part of we live the power, wisdom and sacredness of our Soulful light through our incarnation. This power that is lived is not one that seeks to overpower another but rather a grace that serves to offer the reflection of how our divinity, how our sacredness can be lived in this world.