In women’s life cycles, there are key practices that can help reconnect women with the rhythms of the cycles. These reconnections such as yoga or meditation, can nourish every one of us as a way to honour the rhythms of our cyclical experiences of female bodies. These magical cyclical powers are called siddhis.
As identified, there are eight (8) female siddhis that are purely biological functions of being a woman. Since they are purely biological functions in women’s bodies, they have crucial features such as being hormonally driven and thus, powerfully under the influence of a woman’s emotional life and the nature of woman’s spiritual awareness.
In the order in which they are encountered in a woman’s life, these eight female siddhis are:
1. Onset of menstruation at menarche
2. Monthly lunar rhythm of menstrual cycles
3. Female orgasm
4. Pregnancy
5. Miscarriage
6. Labour and birth
7. Lactation
8. Menopause
Because four or five of these eight female siddhis are experienced by nearly all females, the numbers of women who can encounter these potential siddhis is huge. The female siddhis are naturally arising physical experiences; it is important to notice the difference between experiencing their physiological aspects as bodily functions, and recognizing these experiences as potential siddhis.
The onset of menstruation at menarche (The Beginning of Menstrual Cycle)
Menarche amplifies a young woman's first menstruation; it signifies her transformation from childhood to adulthood usually known as puberty. Most traditional cultures celebrated this transition with religious ceremonies of varying complexity, honoring not only the girl but womanhood itself.
Below are other remarks during this cycle:
Women's bodies were thought to be spiritually powerful. This power increased during menstruation, when the life-force of the body, blood, flowed from the center of her reproductive/ spiritual power,
It is at menarche that this spiritual power is perceived as dangerous to the community, because the young woman has yet to learn how to control it
Menstruation Cycle
Menstruation is a spiritual time that allows women to connect to a deeper part of themselves. It is a time to release old and negative energies, and begin a new phase of self-growth and reflection.
Below are other remarks during this cycle:
The menstrual cycle reflects our cyclical nature. Women are connected to the rhythms and cycles of nature and our menstrual cycle is a physical reflection of that,
The body is always working for us, not against us,
We now know that hormonal changes during menstruation cause changes to the brain which affect our creativity and productivity, and synchronizing our lives with these hormonal changes can be our superpower,
The 4-female archetype: The Maiden (Follicular), The Mother (Ovulation), The Enchantress (Luteal), The Wise (Menstruation & Menopause)
Female Orgasm
When we orgasm or climate with our partner, it bonds the two of you at an energetic level as well as spiritual level. Explosive orgasms, or as usually experienced by most men, your basic sexual energy is released. It results in manifestations, stress is released, and one feels the depletion of their sexual energy.
Implosive orgasm is healing or it produces “unity work.” It draws your energy INTO you and restores and nourishes the body as well as the soul. This is most natural for women to experience and it’s a bit of why women feel full of energy afterwards. It’s so impactful that for some there is fear of extending themselves towards others in this manner.
Other traits that we need to be aware of during this cycle are:
Orgasm allows the energy of the body to align between our physical perspective and non-physical that connects both sides of who you are. In this state, our mind temporarily “loses control.” We become essentially in a deep state of surrender to the experience of ourselves and if you are engaging in this orgasm with a person whom you LOVE you unite the nonphysical self with that person and it in essence amplifies or puts you in a state of “oneness.”
Orgasm in Tantra can reach awareness where our identity is set aside and one is free to reach their infinite nature. People can reach a higher level of enlightenment. Some cultures believe it’s the closest one can reach the heavens.
Pregnancy
Pregnancy signifies growth, potential, and the nurturing of something precious. For some women, pregnancy is a truly spiritual experience. As they marvel at the wonder of the growing life inside their body and they recognise how they have become vessels in an ancient process which is moving through them in spite of them. An awareness of something higher that they have not connected with previously arises within them.
As a woman moves towards transition, she will face a moment where she is required to surrender her control – in that moment she will transcend herself and be immersed briefly in the superconscious sea of unconditional love before the adrenaline hormones summon her to wakefulness to get ready to meet her baby.
When consciousness is brought to the process, the transformation can be healing, empowering, integrated and stabilized.
Miscarriage
Miscarriage is a loss that can feel both utterly devastating and enormously complex. It teaches woman about openness, vulnerability, and self-compassion. At some point, you also need to release shame and guilt. However, during this process, it increases intimacy in relationships that only happens when you walk through something hard together
It is a sacred transformation through grief of losing a baby in miscarriage, things that only woman can experience deeply painful loss can become an unexpected opportunity for evolution.
Labour & Birth
At the peak of childbirth, a woman in labour not only has the capacity to heal herself, but to heal the whole of humanity. Pregnancy and childbirth have been perceived as spiritual events because of the miraculous processes involved. She may reach places within herself, and I would argue within universal consciousness, that she never even knew existed.
How a baby is born and how well a woman is treated when she gives birth sets the tone and is the matrix from which a child will grow into a future we have not yet imagined.
Other traits on this cycle:
Childbirth is a life experience of rich spiritual meaning. Women report birth as being deeply spiritual and in some cases a time of spiritual transformation
Childbirth as a time to grow closer to God, the use of religious beliefs and rituals as powerful coping mechanisms, childbirth as a time to make religiosity more meaningful, the significance of a Higher Power in influencing birth outcomes, and childbirth as a spiritually transforming experience
Lactation
It is believed, through breastfeeding transmits spiritual nourishment to the infant and the act of suckling at the breast leads to the religious wellbeing of the child. The prominence of breastfeeding goes beyond the providing of breast milk for the infant and the breastfeeding practice appeared to be necessary to the spiritual and psychological nourishment of children.
Below are also related to these traits:
Breastfeeding can feel holy and sacred; it can be a time for the mother and baby to be at one with each other
Breastfeeding has summed up in microcosm my whole faith as it is both sacred and mundane; a spiritual experience and yet completely of the flesh
Breastfeeding healed and let mothers experience anew the miracle of birth and the wonder of their new-born child
Breastfeeding is considered as a physical act. However, it may have an emotional, mental, or spiritual feature as well
Menopause
During menopause, a woman’s changing hormonal balance begins to reveal a new way of experiencing life. As a new hormonal balance emerges, women begin to take note of the disparity in power, injustice in society, betrayal in relationships, and disappointments that they once were willing to overlook. In other words, the rose-colored glasses come off.
Other ways we can see the menopause cycle:
Grieving loss, forgiveness, and dealing with anger in an honest and healthy way are important tasks for women to work through. Expanded time and spiritual freedom are the freeing gifts that follow. The final gifts of vision and courage challenge women to embrace a new calling that they can pursue with their “courageous dragon self.”
It is a gateway into the most empowering phase of life
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