What We Pass On... by Janina
If you want to know where something really powerful lives, look at the force that has been used to suppress it, they say.
The more I explore the depth of my own story, my own journey of relationship with my body and my sexuality, the more I understand why I do the work I do.
Why do I talk about moon blood rituals all the time? About the menstrual cycle and its significance, about resonance with the seasons of life, about womb wisdom and herbal self-care, about the ancient mysteries of the feminine?
Because I know the destructive power of shame and silence. I know how much it can isolate a young woman from the world to be at war with herself.
To be at war with herself is what she is taught by society. Topics around gynecological, menstrual and emotional health during puberty are burried beneath mountains of shame, and control. Women are turned against their own bodies and each other for the profit of institutions and corporations that form the patriarchal structure governing humanity. From the beginning.
There is little to no education for girls that encourages them to embrace their changing bodies, access their own pleasure and find belonging, because it is not "useful" for the development of those patriarchal structures. On the contrary. It endangers them.
Shame, competition, silent feelings of unworthiness, all those imposed demons create deep wounds, and most of all, they weaken. They take immense amounts of power and resilience - which could have risen from encouraging self-love - away from young women. The weaker, the more disconnected from themselves, their sisters and mother nature (or "the great goddess", if you prefer), the easier they are to oppress.
To turn it around, I would go as far as saying that it is impossible to oppress a woman with an intimate relationship to her cycle and blood, a woman aware of the power they hold.
I know this, because I have lived it. I have spent many years in self-hate, isolation and desperation. Because I was ashamed of myself. Of my own nature, how absurd is that?
To be honest, a very short while has passed since the realization that this body-related shame was the root of most of my youth's suffocating darkness.
I wish I would have known then what I know now, but the past is something I cannot change. What I can do, is to direct the present towards a brighter future.
This is where we can interfere. This is how we can transform a destructive patriarchal society into a world where the energies of male and female are balanced. We can weave that future with the story that we tell our children.
Imagine what will happen if we raise loving, curious, confident, wild, empowered and resilient daughters that will not allow anyone to take control over their bodies and souls. Understanding, gentle and respectful sons that worship the feminine for it's creational powers rather than fear and try to enslave it. Imagine that future. It brings me to tears.
It all starts with healing our own wounds, changing our own perspectives. From that space we can plant a seed that will nourish many generations to come.
(This picture shows a print of my vulva that i have made with my moonblood. It is a symbol, a reminder, a promise. To never forget the mysterious forces that forged me into a cyclical being full of depth and wonder. To never stop dismantling the layers of shame that have been imposed on me. To keep teaching all that I have learned, to pass on all that I remember. To believe in a future of wild, free-bleeding daughters.)
Janina, 27, Berlin (picture taken 2019)