Throughout the last 35,000 years, a young woman’s first bleed was reason to celebrate with a variety of rituals.
This practice came to a halt around 5,000 years ago when modern society shifted away from being matrilineal-centric toward the Old-World European viewpoint which considered something previously held as sacred to be unclean. This in turn made women not only second guess their connection to the moon, cutting us off from the rhythms of nature, as well as the subtler ties of how our menstrual cycles and ovulation is tied to lunation which in turn affect our dreams and the unconscious mind.
Western culture generally replaced these beautiful ancient rituals with superficial celebrations that do not help a young woman really understand the gifts that come with being female. We have lost the spiritual elements; the reverence for the feminine, and with it, we’ve since increasing brutality toward women and our young girls. Often times our young ladies grow up with low self-worth/esteem, and try to seek validation from outside sources.
For too long, young women have been without empowered role models, left with devices such as social media to sell them on products that seduce, objectify and manipulate their true essence. Many women experience disconnect from their womb, which creates imbalance, disempowerment, repression and dis-ease.
There are elders who called to teach the power of their bleed so our initiated maidens may walk with security into adulthood with an unwavering center as they come face to face with their shadow each month. By choosing this work we are committing to empowering future generations as the wheels turn and the return of the feminine continues to grow strong.
Sacred Menarche was created to answer this call. We seek to bring back the ancient teachings through the beautiful act of ceremony at the start of a maiden’s moon-time journey, designed to help mark a her walk into Womanhood. This celebration is unique in that it asks us to remember the power of our blood. It focuses primarily on nurturing the initiated young girl, honoring her changing body, filling her with confidence and empowering her as the goddess she is.
These rituals and teachings allow our young women to access the incredible wisdom that becomes available to us during the time of our menses each month when we are more perceptive and often times most sensitive. The Sacred Menarche ceremony is meant to symbolize the fertility of our blood as a gift from the divine.
Through Sacred Menarche, I seek to offer our young women the blessing of their bleed and reverse the curse of “the rag” and all the negative connotations around our menses. What this will do is empower them to recognize their value and the responsibility of what a miracle it is to be a woman with the ability to create and sustain life within her womb. It also helps connect us to the attitude of support and sisterhood, replacing competitiveness with compassion for one another, removing any notion to connect to the lesser energies of the “mean girl” stereotype, which is rampant among our society.
I created Sacred Menarche to help women create beautiful ceremonies in their own communities. Surrounded by loving female elders, we dive deep into the topics of health, tracking our cycles with the moon phases, collective and individual body image issues, tapping into our inner knowing, as well as honoring and adorning each young maiden by having them cross the threshold of red fabric, lined with rose petals as they walk away from their childhood and into Womanhood.
They are then asked to write something on becoming a woman and what that means to them in their own words. Once showered with rose petals, having had their feet washed, and adorned with a crown of flowers, we close with a special cord cutting ritual to mark this day and her walk into womanhood. Faced before her Mother or other mentors, their waists both tied to one another symbolizing an umbilical cord that is then cut and completing with a poem is then recited as a call and response.
Etched into their heart forever is a sense of worthiness, and courage to welcome Womanhood and all that it offers.
Tnah Louise is a creative catalyst who wears many hats, but mainly she serves as a ceremonialist and Ritual Maker. She is passionate about holding space and reintroducing the act of ceremony into everyday life, as well as helping individuals, families, and her community mark milestones and transitions in their lives. Sacred Menarche is the project through which she shares her knowledge of how to create beauty-full rites of passage for the initiated one's first blood. She serves the birthing community in the Los Angeles area as a Mother Roaster, cooking nourishing postpartum meals, encapsulating placentas, holding closing of the bone ceremonies, and practicing the art of belly binding for new mothers. Visit her website Sacred Passage for a more of her detailed menu of classes, postpartum and ceremonial services offered.