The Grandmother's hand on my arm halts my imaginings. We stand at the edge of a secluded clearing, rimmed with tall pines.

In the center is a large log house, and around it women--many women--move through the light of Sister Sun and her shadows. Some walk in the clearing. Others cluster on the porch, talking quietly, or sit at the edge of the forest in meditation.

Not far from us, a woman who is combing another's hair leans to whisper, and their laughter rises into the soughing pines.

A great weaving is going on here, a deep bonding...

"This is the menstrual lodge," says the Grandmother. "When our power sign is with us we come here. It is a sacred time--a time for rest and meditation. No one is allowed to disturb our harmony. No warrior may even cross our path. In the menstrual lodge many things are known, many plans are made..."


>>>The spirits of the Ancient Ones have returned to teach us ways of honoring and healing the Earth. It is no coincidence that these Grandmothers are feeding our dreams at this time when the Earth is in dire need of the healing ceremonies of the Blood Lodges. We must return to the old ceremonies of honoring if we want to heal ourselves and our planet. The answers to our survival questions will come through the Blood Lodges.

Since life follows the cycles of the Earth and the Moon, activities of our Ancient Ancestors also closely followed the cycles of the Earth and Moon. The women all cycled together, ovulating at the full Moon and bleeding at the new Moon.

When women started to bleed, they would leave their homes and families to go to the sacred introspective space of the Bleeding Lodge. The Lodge was honored and respected by the entire community, for the dreams and visions of the bleeding women brought vital survival information such as planting and healing knowledge and guidance on community relations. When there were questions that needed to be answered, the women would go to the Lodge and ask the Ancestors. All questions were always answered by the Ancient Ancestors. The entire community benefited through the powerful gifts of the women's bleeding cycle.

Since our Ancient Grandmothers all bled together, many women shared the Womb Lodge at one time. Ceremonies to honor our womb cycles, celebrate the cycles of the Earth and Moon, and rites of passage were developed by these women from visions and dreams during their bleeding times in the Sacred Lodge. These traditions were passed down in the initiatory rites of the Blood Lodge from mother to daughter.

As our current culture has separated us so far from honoring the cycles of the Earth and Moon, these ancient women's rites have become almost forgotten. But, as we granddaughters of these ancient women dream during our bleeding cycles, fragments of their powerful honoring and healing ceremonies fill our spirits. We know that there is a wisdom within our wombs that is our birthright.

The Bleeding Lodge is when women come together to celebrate the ancient ceremonies of honoring our bleeding cycles, communicating with the ancestors, sharing our gifts and passing the women's wisdom on to our daughters (as we are bearing less and less children between us as we attune to the burdens of human population in turning our focus to healing our great provider, Mother Earth). The Lodge reminds us that we live within the cycles of the Earth and Moon. When we honor our wombs, we honor the Great Mother. Remembering and recreating these ancient ceremonies will bring right relation to all children of Earth. Bleeding Lodges will once again become respected women's places in our communities.

The dream will begin to unveil itself through strands woven from many women's dreams. The weaving created through gathering to share on the New and Full Moons and from the records kept will create a fuller tapestry, more easily understood and made real in the ordinary affairs of life. This is the ultimate action: making the dream of peace real in our everyday lives.

Grandmother's cycle and Mother's mind within us assist us with the task of coming again fully present into the world. At the Full Moon we are at our most powerfully attentive, aware and present for action in the world. From the womb of Buffalo Woman, we carry new creations to join with the light, and birth takes place.

As your moontime approaches, feel the openness and sensitivity increasing. Pay closer attention to where you allow yourself to be, and to the energy around you (for you imprint very deeply during this receptive time). Choose to immerse yourself in what you wish to receive, create and magnify through yourself. Turn toward beauty, peacefulness, song and vision for a radiant, harmonious life for your children and the children of seven generations. Refine the objects of your attention, until the blood comes and you retreat into the peaceful beauty and quiet of the Moon Lodge, leaving behind the everyday world for a few days.

The information received as the menses begins is the clearest human picture from within the womb of the Great Mystery, of the unknown and our future. Among our dreaming peoples, the most prophetic dreams and visions were brought to the people through the Moon Lodge. In other words, the most useful information that can come to us comes from each of us women who use our moon times well.

Conversely, for each of us who does not honor this time, much is lost, including the respect of others for our bleeding. Our call is to begin now to honor our moon times, to come together in small hoops (perhaps of 8 women) and create Moon Lodges-communal women's retreats and meditation rooms-for the beauty, for the quiet, for the transparent veil. Dedicating ourselves to the quest for vision that will guide us and our families at this time.

In the Moon Lodge we remember our vow to use this transparent veil in calling vision for our people, praying, "Not for myself alone, Great Spirit, do I ask this vision, but that all the peoples may live."