Harmonizing Your Moon Cycle Phases, Part 1.

I have touched upon the subject of syncing your own personal moon cycle, when your menstruation comes, and how to sync it with the Moon before. This time, I would like to share a perspective of the woman’s cycle from Vedas, and how each phase of the cycle is associated with certain activities every woman should be doing if she wants to have a healthy cycle. I will then share some tips on what to do during each cycle phase, not based on the Vedic knowledge, but from my own experience and research (in a separate article). I personally enjoy following it.

So, from a Vedic or spiritual perspective, your period is a time of great cleansing. Impurities come out in the form of blood, thus cleansing you from accumulated toxins from the past month and also from bad karma that also accumulated in the past month. Because of this women generally live longer than men. Men don’t have this very regular bodily activity going on so nothing really comes out that much. In Vedas, man’s karma gets cleansed during the hair trim.

Proper habits and behavior during the time of your active period are very crucial and considered the foundation of a family’s well-being. The time of the moon is a chance for a woman to start living her life from scratch.

An Ideal Cycle

So, if a woman is healthy, her cycle should last for 28 days, and her period should last for 4 days. The blood should be bright red, no other color. There should not be any clots. The pain should be minimal or non-existent. If the period lasts longer than that, it means there are some “rotten” thoughts and unreleased emotions that got stuck, so the body will need more time to release it. If the period is too heavy, this means there is generally an emotional withdrawal. And if the period is scanty, this is about the lack of desire to have children and share feminine care and love.

So, if a woman tries to follow the following recommendations, her cycle should become nearly ideal in about six months. An important part of this process is to start your own moon calendar, in order to learn yourself better and understand internal processes, and also just to plan your woman’s life. So, we need a calendar and colored pens. And we will start with the first few days.

Phase 1: Days 1-4 of Your Cycle

The day of your period is the first day of your personal moon calendar. The new cycle begins yet again. Mark these days with red. And these are the recommendations for the next four days. They let the woman cleanse the karma of not only one month but also all previous ones. The effect of these practices is quite strong and compensates for the uncomfortable feelings of the four days in full.

❦ When you are on period, it is important to limit your communication with other people. Avoid visiting places like temples or churches, and avoid touching or looking at deities’ images or statues. In the practice of yoga, it is necessary to avoid touching malas (prayer beads). If you need to recite mantras, you need to use a virtual calculator or count mentally. These days are when we “drop” our bad karma on others, not literally but energetically.

❦ It is best to organize your days so that you come in contact with food the least amount of time. It can be hard, but doable with some preparation. That includes – no grocery shopping, no cooking, and no farmer’s market where you touch it. In Vedic tradition, it is considered a desecration of food. Before you think “how last century it is!” or something along those lines, please remember about the energetics of your period – it is a cleanse from toxins. Would you want toxins, even if on energy level, to come in contact with what you are about to eat?

The same principle goes towards the cooking that a woman does while on her period. If someone, especially her husband, eats this food, they are basically eating her period, on a subtle level of things. That can impact men, not in a good way (some sources say – he may become impotent), his attitude towards his woman can change, there is an unexplainable irritation happens and even repulsion. Because men can feel that on some level something is off but they cannot explain it. It is also believed that 80% of cheating happens exactly because of this.

So, if you are married or have a partner, please prepare in advance. It may not work at the beginning, but with time and practice, it will become a habit. Make sure you arrange meal preparations ahead of time and talk to your significant other. Ideally, during your moon time, there is another woman who temporarily cooks food – a sister, mother, an older daughter, nanny, friend, or husband himself. If your man insists you cook food, then cook it. It is better to avoid a strong argument that will affect your family than to be stubborn about it. It will become his responsibility. If you have to cook, please try to avoid contacting food directly as much as possible.

❦ It is preferable to eat alone during your moon time. There was a reason why women would go away to their own little “moon hut” where they were on their period in the past. This is not to degrade or punish themselves but to respect others with the understanding that you are going through a cleansing process, and no one else needs to be a part of it. You just need some time for yourself, until you can be fully engaged in your daily life again. It is great if someone else cooks for you. So, period time would be a great time to go visit your mom, sister, or female friend and stay there for a few days.

❦ Your main activities during your moon time should be rest, some light house cleaning, doing things around the house, reading regular books or some spiritual literature, and listening to some educational lectures. You can pray too if you practice it. Of course, gentle yoga for your moon time is lovely too, some arts and crafts, visiting museums and galleries, walking with children, yours or someone else’s.

❦ If you are non-vegetarian, it would be great to aid your body in detoxing by eliminating meat, fish, poultry, and eggs from your diet. It will also have a strong rejuvenation effect on your skin. If you follow spiritual or Vedic tradition, it is suggested to follow a mono-diet. For instance, you can eat only fruits or only some dairy products. Or only liquid food like soups and smoothies. Ideally, your moon time should be without legumes, and with mostly light, pleasant, warm, and soft food. You need to learn to get positive emotions not from food these days (although oftentimes it is exactly the opposite – chocolate, cakes, etc.).

If a woman works, she needs to try to avoid eating with her colleagues, as well as not to tend to anyone or assist anyone as much as possible. Your mood during those four days is not the best anyway, so why disturb anyone with it?

❦ This one can be tough, but it is also one of the recommendations. It is better to avoid sleeping with your significant other, or at least to sleep on separate bed sheets. Before you do that of course talk to your partner and explain to him, why and what you are about to do. You can sleep during the day.

❦ It is strongly advisable to limit or avoid sexual intimacy during your moon days. Just remember – you are detoxing right now. Things are coming out of you, nothing should be going in. Naturally and intuitively many women usually don’t want that. For the same reason, many choose to use pads instead of tampons or even silicone cups (and I am one of them, used to love cups but am now back to pads!). Try to minimize or avoid kissing, and hugging too. So, a little “period getaway” by yourself or to your mom or friend is again a good idea.

Make sure to change your clothes every day and wear something new. And wash what you already used yesterday. It is better to avoid dressing up in order to not excite men around you. You don’t need that kind of attention now. It is especially important for those women who actively work. Just dress nice but more simple, is all.

❦ Again, avoid using tampons or silicone cups. Things need to flow out freely, not getting stuck and accumulating inside you. Chemically treated tampons also can cause all kinds of inflammations, irritation, and unnecessary problems down there.

❦ Avoid planning any important events during those days.

❦ It is recommended at the end of your moon time to wash your eyes with rose water or with a decoction of barberry. This cleanses your subtle energetic body. It is also good to do it every day.

❦ Used pads need to be taken outside of the house immediately. Do not leave them in the trash for a long time inside.

On day 5 of your cycle after your morning shower wear something white as a sign of the end of the cleansing period.

Phase 2: Days 5 – 11 of Your Cycle

Mark those days with green color. This is the color of planet Mercury, and that is why those days are very beneficial for contact and communication. This is the time of our cycle when we are most ourselves, i.e. no or almost no hormones affect us so we are in our most neutral and calm state of mind. Make sure to mention that to your partner! 🙂

This period of time is great for making important decisions and deals, and making large purchases. You won’t be clouded with hormones and moods.

Phase 3: Days 12 – 19 of Your Cycle

And we are back to being influenced by hormones! Mark those days with magenta or orange, this is the time of your ovulation. The standard day of ovulation is considered day 14, but it can be before or after that too. Your blood has the most amount of female hormones now. So, at this time you are not yourself at all, your behavior is completely controlled and dictated by your body.

Because of that, a woman these days often makes interesting decisions. She can have a crazy shopping spree (that she may regret later), and she pays a lot of attention to her looks. And there is a reason for that – your skin during ovulation usually glows and you look the prettiest because Mother Nature expects you to mate. So, women are usually very interested in men at that time, and they like all men regardless of their obvious faults. So a lot of flirting, cheating, and unwise sexual encounters happens at that time (resulting in unplanned pregnancies or unwanted diseases). It is a time of most amount of crimes, rapes, and scandals. A very raw, rough energy attracts women.  She also becomes more aggressive towards other women. In brief, she is a female in heat.

For a woman in a relationship or marriage, this period is usually when relationships improve. A woman is incredibly attentive and charming. So, for a married woman, this is the best time, her husband is a very happy man at that time. If a woman is single and doesn’t have this kind of knowledge, she may have a tragic ending during this period. Usually, girls go out looking for a sexual partner to bars or nightclubs, and then they deal with the consequences.

Phase 4: Days 20 – 27 of Your Cycle

This is the time when your body realizes: that pregnancy either happened or not. If not, this is the time of “depression” because biologically speaking we did not reach the main goal of female life – conception. Mark those days in black.

This is the time when other hormones take place, like progesterone, and moods are down. A lot of women’s suicides happen at this phase. A woman is incredibly irritable, sad, and moody. So the main task during this phase is self-improvement and self-observation. Just realizing where you are in your cycle now and why all of this is happening to you will help tremendously. This is why we have this calendar. It is also a great idea to talk to your partner and explain where you are at, and that it is temporarily. Often times spouses or partners have more arguments during this phase.

Conclusion

After six months of following your moon calendar like this and observing yourself, you start feeling different phases of your cycle intuitively. And a lot of things make much more sense, trust me.

And an interesting conclusion that we can make here is that a woman (every single woman) is only fully adequate for a few days to a week in one month. One week! Vedas explains further that this is the exact reason why women are not a good fit for full-time regular employment. I mean, if you think about it, you literally constantly change, up and down, then it also makes sense. It is hard both for you and your colleagues.

What to Do With It All?

☾ Start studying yourself deeply. Realize you are an ever-changing being. Observe yourself at all times. Make discoveries about your body and your emotions. Understand what you need to work on. Most women are unhappy at the core simply because of that – they know nothing about their cyclical nature, and they choose to suffer. There is always another path – of wise womanhood. Once you step on this path, you become softer, and calmer, and your health will improve.

☾ Exercise and move regularly and according to your cycle phase. Eat according to your phase too.

☾ If you had the experience of abortion, try to find practices of self-forgiveness, forgiveness of that soul, maybe try to fast in order to repent (not necessarily religiously, just emotionally), and follow Ekadashi Fasting.

☾ Learn about and study biographies of elevated spiritual women, and female saints. It is especially beneficial to read about them out loud. Learn about the twenty-five transcendental qualities of Radharani (for followers of Vedic tradition).

☾ Learn to serve other women, instead of competing with them. Learn to avoid saying “no” to women. This way we are working on our negative female karma.

☾ Try to educate and foster yourself so that you do those things from women’s activities that you especially don’t like. This also cleanses our female karma.

☾ Learn how to bake.

A Note to Mothers

If you have a daughter, remember the first day, month, and time when her period started. A specialized astrologer can then predict her entire female life with great accuracy. Ideally, a woman should have her period until she is 60 years old. If it stops sooner and menopause begins before that, it means a woman is moving towards being old faster.

In my next article, I will share more specific recommendations (foods, exercises, activities) for each particular cycle phase, as well as some tips and tricks from Vedic knowledge on various period issues.