Sunday I was blessed by the Grandmothers. In the center of a circle of beloved women, I received an ancient empowerment. Afterward in tears of gratitude, I addressed the Council of Grandmothers in Ojai, California.
A memory awakened of a time when these sacred rites of passage welcomed the infant into her earth family, the girl into womanhood, the woman into the council of sages, the elder into the spirit world.
Without these rites of passage, we have lost the sacred. Struggling to find our way in the world, we search in dark places risking our health and our wellbeing then spend years recovering.
Hold your hands in the prayer position, then open them to create an inverted V. That is the blade, a masculine symbol. Now turn your hands down placing the point of the V in your lap. That is the chalice, the symbol of the feminine.
How many of us women have had to turn their chalices upside down to use them as a blade and fend off the world?
Even modern medicine seeks to masculinize us. We are encouraged to take the birth control pill all year round to avoid those messy periods. What will happen in a few generations when the menstrual cycle becomes the “curse” again, like in the dark ages?
There was a time when women revered their bodies. And men respected our power. Women’s sacred bodies transformed blood into life and food into milk. During their monthly cycles, women sought respite away from men and the labors of life. In the amazing resonance of hormones, women would menstruate at the same time and came together in the red tent, the menstrual hut, or the chamam to cherish themselves.
When the food supply is poor like during the famine months, aboriginal women live off stored body fat and cease menstruating until there is enough food to conceive. Women need at least 16% body fat to have enough reserve to make hormones.
Years ago, I suffered from runner’s amenorrhea. No periods secondary to very low body fat. I say suffered because without adequate estrogen, my testosterone was unbound and free to wreak havoc on my skin. Adult acne isn’t pretty or pleasant. Without adequate estrogen, my hair was dry, lifeless; my nails brittle; my nerves fragile. Without estrogen to balance my hypothalamic circadian rhythms, I suffered somambulance-sleepwalking. Moody and sleep-deprived, I was nearly manic in my approach to life. I could not accomplish enough, fast enough, or perfect enough to be satisfied.
So I tried bio-identical hormones. Natural botanical transdermal estrogen and progesterone relieved all my symptoms and brought my periods back. After a few years I had been treating many patients with natural hormones and they loved it, but I wondered if the body couldn’t make hormones on its own.
So I did some research on how to stimulate the hypothalamus nutritionally. Since there wasn’t a product available at the time, I formulated one. Actually, I dreamt of a nutritional formula and prepared a batch in my kitchen. Then discontinuing all hormone replacement therapy and other nutritional supports, I began taking my creation — Genesis Gold®. Within two months, I had gained five pounds and had my first period not induced by exogenous hormones! I’ve had periods ever since and kept on the five pounds, stopped exercising obsessively, and pretty much eat whatever I desire.*
Although I do not have access to a chamam, I do celebrate my cycles every month, joyfully rediscovering my womanhood.
Thank you, Grandmothers, for reminding me of my Sacred Feminine nature.
Love and Light,
Deborah Maragopoulos MN FNP
Intuitive Integrative Health
*Statements not evaluated by the FDA
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