Will
the pickle really spoil if I touched it during menstruation?”“Akka,
why do they tell us not to touch anyone, to sit in a separate room and eat from
a separate plate when we get our period?Two
thoughts play hide and seek in my mind as I try to answer these questions from
young girls. One, that I should help them understand that these restrictions
are not because they become impure or polluted during menstruation. Two, that I
should never, ever, hurt their religious or cultural sentiments beacuse I have
neither the knowledge nor the right to make that judgement. The latter makes it
difficult to do the former, and so round and round I go in my explanations, at
best being able to tell them that these practises have been in place for ages
to ensure women get some rest during their period. And leave them with the
thought that it is their personal choice to follow these or not.
It
is not once or twice that I have come across these questions as an educator on
menstrual hygiene for adolescent girls. It is every single time. After having
addressed more than 6000 adolescent girls from rural backgrounds over the last
4 years, you’d think that I’d have tried to come up with better explanations by
now! The wake up call to find right answers to these questions came when I
recently read what a well known educator/organization working on this issue had
to say about such questions – the answers were a rude dismissal of such
practises calling it superstition and unscientific, having no place in today’s
time.
My
first thought was – With what right do we dismiss someone else’s belief when we
neither know the origin of such practises, nor its significance in the
practitioner’s family?
My
second, more interesting thought was – What if there was indeed some ancient
story of menstrual magic hidden in these rituals, which we would lose out on in
our arrogance of rubbishing these questions? Surely, something as natural as
menstruation could not always have been looked down upon?
The
urge to be able to talk to girls and women, especially from rural backgrounds,
in their own language and way of thinking and give them back the meaning of
their rituals, started me on this journey.
Please
note that I have no scientific way of proving the validity of following content
and my intention in this exploration is to understand what might have been the
original reasons behind the rituals and taboo on menstruation.
Understanding the power of Menstrual cycles
Today,
while most women and young girls in India are being told that menstruation is
an impure, inconvenient, sad fate to be put up with, the Western world has gone
a step ahead and invented pills that would help women no longer menstruate!
Unlike what is now thought by most people, menstruation was originally
considered a highly sacred process, equipping women with strong powers which
could be life-giving (hence worshipping women) or dangerous (hence secluding
menstruating women). Herein lies the beauty and the contradiction. To
understand how this came about, we need to know how menstrual cycles are linked
to moon cycles, and what changes each phase in the cycle brings.
Menstruation and the moon
To
someone hearing this for the first time (like me), it is strange to think that
the moon could affect what goes on in my body! Did you know that the menstrual
cycle and the lunar (moon cycle) are of 28 days and
all
women apparantly menstruated at the same time as with the new moon in ancient
days? Charting your menstrual period according to the moon is one of the oldest
forms of menstrual calendars. In fact, it is believed that the first calendars
were based upon women’s charts of their menstrual cycles and the moon cycles.
For
those who want a scientific reason, here is what one study explains:
In the days before electricity and living exclusively indoors, women’s cycles
were influenced by natural moonlight. The principle is guided by the theory
that moonlight provided an important synchronizing signal (scientists call
these “zeitgebers”) for menstrual cycles that is now lost in our modern
environment. Clinical studies performed by researchers at Harvard University,
the U.S. Air Force, and the University of California, San Diego Sleep Center
have shown that women’s menstrual cycles can become more regular after the
women were exposed to a certain dosage of artificial light while they slept.
Significance of each phase in the cycle
A
woman’s body goes through 4 stages in one menstrual cycle, just as we go
through 4 seasons in a year. I found the explanation quiet fascinating and
could actually relate to much of what I read, although I was never consciously
aware of these changes in my body. (The information presented below is a
combination of content I borrowed from different sources mentioned at the end
of this blog.)
Week
1: Menstruation (Days 1-7) – Begins with the first day of bleeding (it should
ideally be a new moon). Within hours of starting your period, your estrogen
levels will slowly begin to rise and you will tend to feel a shift from the
heaviness or ‘PMS’ of the days before. This is considered a process of
cleansing and removal of all negative thoughts and emotions. Many women,
including me, have noticed that on the first few days of our periods, we feel
an urge to suddenly clean our homes and remove all the clutter from our
closets- and our lives. Our natural biological cleansing is accompanied by a
psychological cleansing as well.
This
is the time when women feel the need to go inward and be silent and
contemplative. The rituals around seclusion during menstruation were partly
meant to serve this purpose.
Week
2: Pre-Ovulation (Days 7-14) – This is the phase soon after the period when
most women feel at their energetic best. The steady increase in estrogen boosts
your brain’s serotonin levels, which leads to an increase in energy, enthusiasm
and a more upbeat feeling overall. This phase is considered ideal to kick off
new projects or creative work.
Week
3: Ovulation (Days 14 – 21) – This is the phase of Ovulation, where women are
apparantly more physically attractive than on other days, and are more
attracted to others. This is the time in our cycle when we need to be
connecting to people and relaxing in our outside world. It can also be a time
of vulnerability, and it is important that we keep ourselves grounded and be
mindful about our actions.
Week
4: Pre-menstruation (Days 21 – 28) – On the other side of ovulation, you’ll
feel the effects of decreasing estrogen and testosterone and increasing
progesterone. Progesterone is the ‘ebb’ to estrogen’s ‘flow’. It will increase
your desire to move inward, like the waning moon. Research shows greater
activity in the right hemisphere of the brain – the part associated with
intuitive knowing – in weeks 3 and 4 of your cycle. Always trust your
intuition. But pay especially close attention to it in the second half of your
cycle!
Alternative explanation for Pre-Menstrual
Syndrome (PMS)
A
number of girls and women suffer from aches, pains and mood fluctuations just
before their period. Here are some fascinating explanations for this mentioned
in different websites
The
Pre-Menstrual phase (week 4) consists of the final days before you begin a new
cycle. Progesterone continues to rise until just before the end of this phase
when estrogen, testosterone and progesterone all plummet to their lowest
levels. If you deny the natural need you have to slow down and turn inward,
feelings of resentment, frustration and anger find a way to surface.
The
crankiness, impatience or annoyance so infamously called Premenstrual Syndrome,
that we may experience in the last two weeks of our cycle, is really more about
the feelings you have because you are not flowing with what you body really
wants you to do – that is slow down, withdraw from the busyness of the outside
world and look after yourself, not everybody else.
“The
premenstrual phase is therefore a time when we have greater access to our
magic—our ability to recognize and transform the more difficult and painful
areas of our lives. Premenstrually, we are quite naturally more in tune with
what is most meaningful in our lives. We’re more apt to cry—but our tears are
always related to something that holds meaning for us. Years of personal and
clinical experience have taught me that the painful or uncomfortable issues
that arise premenstrually are always real and must be
So
next time, instead of dismissing the depressive or disturbing thoughts that
occur to us during the pre-menstrual days, an effort to understand it and
address the reason would be much more helpful. Women have all the natural
magical tools to deal with life – if only we were more aware of it!
The significance of rituals
I
was quite surprised to read that the rituals around menstruation have been the
same across the globe, be it Native America, Europe, Africa, Australia or Asia.
The same practises of seclusion during menstruation, similar taboos related to
touching food, not entering religious place, etc have been documented world
over. Perhaps, it is only in parts of Asia such as India, where we still see
many women who follow the rituals even now, and therefore most of us wrongly
conclude that it is only in developing countries like India that such
“superstitions” still exist. I have tried to read up and gather information
from as many different sources as possible, to throw light upon how the rituals
might have come into being. Here are a few rituals, taboos and thoughts around
menstruation I was able to decode to some extent
“Menstruating women have to remain in seclusion until
the period is over”
Often,
the reason given in today’s time is that menstruating women are impure, unclean
or dirty and hence need to be kept aside. In the book Blood, Bread and Roses,
by Judy Grahn, she offers fascinating explanations for this..
Menstruating
women were considered to be having special powers during menstruation, which if
not used properly could cause harm to others. In addition, practical reasons of
predatory animals smelling the blood in ancient times and coming for the kill,
would have led to these women being kept in separate huts to protect the
community. Since most ancestral women menstruated at the same time with the new
moon, the seclusion huts (also called moon huts) were filled with women with
special powers who together performed sacred rituals for the good of the
community. Women who came out of the seclusion hut were revered for their
visions and wisdom gained during this time, and often guided the community as
to where to go for hunting, etc.
This
in fact led to men coming up with similar rituals for adolescent boys, so that
they do not feel left out. Thus emerged the ancient rituals (still practiced
among some tribals) of young boys beating themselves and cutting their skin so
that it bleeds resembling menstruation, and stinging themselves with bees and
ants to drive themselves into a hallucination, to resemble the visions women
had during menstruation. Poor boys!
“Menstrual blood is impure, bad blood”
All
blood, even that in men, has originated from menstrual blood. Menstrual blood
in ancient times was considered highly powerful and potent. It was used in many
rituals and especially in making magic potions. Even today, any thing that is
red in color used in ceremonies is apparently indicative of the ancient ritual
of using menstrual blood. One study said that the red mark on the forehead of
Hindu women was originally menstrual blood. Similarly, the symbol of Blood of
Christ in Christianity is also indicative of menstrual blood. It is also said
that the color red which is widely used in women’s lipstick and other cosmetics
today, indicative of seduction and power, had its origin in menstrual blood
used by our ancestors to make themselves more attractive.
“Menstruating women should not enter temples or
participate in religious ceremonies”
This
is one taboo which perhaps hurts the sentiments of most religious women and
young girls. The thought keeps cropping up – “Am I so dirty during my period
that even God would want me to stay away?”
Unfortunately,
no one, including the elite women who practice this, had thus far been able to
give me any explanation for this restriction, which was not negative. After
much digging and research, I have found few explanations which are actually
meant to protect women, rather than distance them.
It
is believed that during menstruation, women are constantly dissipating energy
from their bodies. Most religious chants are meant to balance out the energies
in our body. However, this would interfere with the natural losing of energy
that must happen in menstruating women to prevent excessive energy build-up.
Hence, menstruating women are told to keep away during such occasions, so that
their natural processes are not tampered with.
The
other reason I came across was that menstruating women become open to receiving
and absorbing energy during this time. This means, they can easily absorb
other’s energies, including negative energies. Hence, they are asked to stay
away from crowds and gatherings.
Another
document said that menstruating women are so powerful, that their offering to
God drowns out the offerings of everyone else present in the room. Hence, they
are told to stay away from places of worship during menstruation.
These
explanations might also be valid for the taboos around touching others and
touching certain types of food during menstruation, since touching involves
transfer of energy.
Gifting the stories to the next generation
As
someone who has taken the responsibility of educating young girls on
menstruation, I take it upon myself to share these explanations of the rituals
and taboos with them, so that they can appreciate the spirit behind the ancient
wisdom, whether or not they chose to follow it.
But
even otherwise, I think there are important messages in these ancient
traditions for all of us. These traditions have their roots at a time were
women were worshiped and considered as beings capable of divinity; where the
wisdom of women was relied upon by the whole community. Today, when we talk of
increasing crimes on women, we often talk and think in terms of feminism or the
newer concept of gender equality. But, let us not forget that we are largely a
religious country and majority of us do not speak the elite language of
feminism and gender equality. Perhaps, it will be these stories that would
plant a seed of change in men and women about their attitudes and treatment of
women.
Lastly,
following any of the above rituals or practices is a personal choice. There is
a tendency to dismiss these rituals as superstitions without investigating
enough the knowledge or wisdom behind these practices. As educators, we have
the responsibility to make an extra effort to understand the knowledge behind
these rituals and the way they were conceived. Let us act responsibly about
what we tell the next generation.
-
Sinu Joseph
P.S.
My exploration on this front will be an ongoing one. I request you to please
share with me any such positive stories or explanations around menstruation
that you have heard, and help me connect with people who might know more about
such stories.
Menstrual
taboos exist in most cultures (most cultures view menstrual blood as
potentially dangerous & place restrictions around it). In the past, Western
(male) anthropologists held that such taboos existed because
menstrual blood was seen as polluted and unclean. More
recently, some female anthropologists have questioned this assumption. They
argue that some cultures have menstrual prohibitions not because menstrual
blood is seen as dirty but because it is seen as sacred and powerful.
In Polynesian cultures, for
instance, menstrual blood is seen as “taboo” which means that it is seen as
sacred, special, powerful, set apart. Things that are “taboo” have special
restrictions placed on them because they are seen as powerful and potentially
harmful (warriors who have killed in a battle, for instance, are also “taboo”
for a while after they return home).
Regardless
of whether a culture considers menstrual blood polluted or powerful/sacred,what
surprises me is that menstrual blood is always seen as dangerous. Polyesian
cultures have taboos on what women can do while menstruating – a menstruating
woman cannot go to fishing areas (for instance) because then no fish will be
caught. She also can’t go into the garden because then the vegetables won’t
grow. If menstrual blood is seen as sacred and powerful, why can’t its
power be viewed as beneficial to society (rather than as dangerous and
primarily harmful to society, like the power of witchcraft)?
I think the reason behind this is
that a lot of cultures fear powerful women – a powerful woman cannot be
trusted. This fear of powerful women is present in European society as well:
historically, mainly women were accused of witchcraft & killed, and women
who worked medicinally with plants were quickly viewed with suspicion as
‘witches’. The idea that women have this dangerous ‘witchy’ power over men
continues today. A beautiful woman is called ‘glamorous’, ‘enchanting’,
‘bewitching’ and ‘spellbinding’ (a ‘glamour’ was originally a spell cast on a
man to make him believe that a woman was more attractive than she really was).
In
Western society, menstruation was never viewed as powerful (only as polluted),
however had it been considered powerful I think that our
society would have feared it & labelled it as dangerous just like most
other cultures around the world.
It
seems to me that almost all cultures view menstruation as dangerous in
some way (even in the cultures that also view menstrual blood as
sacred/special). I would love to hear of a culture that told women “come to our
fishing areas when you are menstruating, to bring us good luck!” I vaguely
remember reading somewhere of a culture where menstrual blood was seen as a
positive ‘lucky’ force, so I think that such cultures exist
although they are in the minority.
I know
that some menstrual restrictions exist because of the idea that the
powerful force of menstrual blood clashes badly with other sorts of
powerful forces… but what I don’t understand is why can’t the power of
menstrual blood be seen as primarily neutral or beneficial to
societies around the world, rather than as primarily destructive?
