How can stories of the Goddesses, and the cycles of nature support us at Perimenopause?

We have just got back from the most wonderful Samhain retreat at st Nectans Glen waterfall with Louise (mmmyoga)

The theme of this retreat was to learn from nature at this time of year: to make space to let go, and to allow ourselves to embrace the cycles of life, death and rebirth, particularly throughout the transition at perimenopause.

This time of our life is often referred to as the autumn of our lives, a time where just like the leaves fall from the trees, we let go of old identities, in order to step into our new role and next phase of life, and often embracing more of our power.

Letting go we know is not always easy and many of us have responsibilities and little space, so like nature at this time of year we wanted to help to create that space to stop and slow down, to allow and to honour this as a time of transition.

As well as turning to nature, as we often do on our retreats, we also turned to stories of the Goddess's to support us. We set the theme of the retreat and then we see what Goddess would like to support us...

Two tantric Goddesses from different traditions/lineages

What I always love about these retreats is that we reflect on the stories of different traditions who often have very similar messages. At first we debated whether it was ok to bring together Goddesses that are traditionally celebrated by different cultures. But we knew we both believed that all of these forms are mirrors for the Goddess already within us, and different representations of something that we all know deep within.

The more apparent this becomes through the similarities we find. And in a way, rather than division, it feels that this brings more of a sense of connection and unity. This reminds me that the different stories are really a reflection of the Goddess within, there to guide us back to ourselves, and underneath all of the differences between all the religions and traditions, we return to our true nature.

On our second retreat almost as confirmation of this we found this card in the gift shop with this message...

All faiths are connected by the simplest message of all, to love and be loved

Chinnamasta

Louises yoga classes were themed around Chinnamasta. In this image we see her standing on a copulating couple and having cut off her own head, feeding her servants and her own severed head with the streams of her blood.

It sounds a little gruesome but as Louise explained her story we could see how it linked to perimenopause!

Cutting off her head represents learning not to be ruled only by ego and the mind, recognising that we are a consciousness beyond these: Maybe that doesn't initially sound like its related to perimenopause, but we are often required to let go of who we think we are at this time of life, shedding the identities of our ego to move into more of who we are aside from these roles, recognising ourselves as more than these identities and stepping more fully into our souls purpose. I know that society doesn't always see it this way, but we are moving into a powerful time of our lives and the more we embrace who we truly are the more we can harness this power. So we might need to cut off our head metaphorically!

Standing on a copulating couple represents using our sexual energy not just for egoic desires but also for spiritual purposes. There are also many negative connotations around perimenopause and sex too, women feeling the there is something wrong with them if their relationship with their sexual energy changes, but maybe like chinnamasta our sexual energy is going through more of a transformation, and we have the potential to learn about new ways of working with this, seeing it more as a spiritual power.

And the three streams of her blood represent 3 the channels of life force energy flowing through the head symbolising kundalini awakening. I often feel like many of the 'symptoms'of perimenopause can be similar to that of kundalini rising and many traditions talk about post menopausal women having access to holding a new level of power. In our culture however this is not respected in this way so often these symptoms are seen as something untoward or scary when if perhaps if we reframed them and gave women more space to feel these, or learnt from chinnamasta how to work with these channels of rising life force in a healthy way, perhaps it could be different...

Perhaps this image of Chinnamasta doesn't seem so scary now?

Mary Magdalene

I would definitely not have thought when I heard the stories from the bible when I was at school that Mary Magdalene story was similar to that of Chinnamasta, but over the last few years I have come to realise that these themes are also the themes in Mary Magdalene's stories have supported me massively in my own journey of perimenopause.

To be honest actually I don't think I even heard about Mary Magdalene story at school and that's the point.. maybe she was a powerful woman in the story who knew how to work with her creative life force energy for spiritual purposes and that's why she was labelled as a whore and erased. Pretty similar to the perception of post menopausal women in our culture. Rather than being respected and recognised for their power, they are often made to feel invisible, useless, or worse. Perhaps recalling the story of Mary Magdalene in a new way, we are bringing back the story of the feminine that has been missed out and we are helping to restore balance as well as respect.

When I experienced a sudden awakening of my kundalini energy at perimenopause it was Mary Magdalene who helped me. Through dreams, and little bits of information that I found at the right time, she taught me how to work with the channels of energy depicted in Chinnamasta's image and it was then that I thought more about Mary Magdalene as a tantric Goddess too.

I have struggled managing awakening and perimenopause, as well as my real world responsibilities and being a mum. I found Mary Magdalene's story reassuring as her image is one I could relate to of a woman who has lived in this world and understands the struggles. However maybe Chinnamasta also teaches us this too in the way that she still manages to feed herself and her kids/servants with this energy flowing through her!

I had also been thinking before our retreat of the Sumerian Goddess Inanna and the story of her descent, how she goes deep into the underworld and at each of the 7 gates she has to remove her crown, her jewels or an item of clothing until she is naked and dies in the underworld... she is then reborn and returns through the 7 gates re adorning herself as she goes, until she comes back looking the same on the outside. This reminded me of perimenopause and how we might be shedding so much and going on such a deep journey and even death of our old self within, yet to the outside world we are often holding down jobs, looking after kids and no one might know what we have been or are going through during this transition!

This story is also mirrored in Mary Magdalene story. I do remember the story from school of her being healed of seven demons, and that kind of alludes to her being crazy, needing to be saved and so on...but perhaps looking closer we can see (as Meggan Watterson describes-image is from her oracle cards) the 'demons' that she was fighting perhaps representing her battling with her own ego. Perhaps also representing the same 7 gates of Inanna's journey of death and rebirth, and Chinnamasta cutting off her head.

So the themes in so many of the stories are the same, as they are simply reflections of the journeys we all take within ourselves, and somehow it feels reassuring to know that women throughout time and location have turned to these stories for comfort and support at transitional times in their lives.

Joy

On the very last day of our retreat, I felt such a playful energy come in to support us in our final circle, it was clear that this was the feeling of fairy energy. St nectans Glen is alive with this beautiful playful nature energy.

They wanted to remind me that it doesn't always need to be so serious.

We had recognised space and rest as important for any transition, but what we felt so much over this weekend was joy!

The leaves as they fall from the trees look so beautiful, almost like they are dancing...

We can still find joy in letting go and in fact perhaps it helps us to.

It reminded me something that Louise had mentioned about the image of Chinnamasta, even through she had cut of her head she was still smiling!

We certainly had a lot of laughter over this weekend and I feel that I shed a lot of layers too!

You can learn more about our next Samhain Retreat here.

Learn more about the ways I can support you though this transition or sign up to my mailing list at the bottom of the page to keep updated.

You might also like my other blog posts:

The call of the goddess at midlife

Finding the magic in the transition of perimenopause

Thanks for reading!

These are just my reflections and my interpretation of some of the stories, just sharing for you to take anything that might resonate.