A Quick Primer on the Moon’s Cycles

🌑New Moon – Winter – Menstruation – Night
 
During the winter months, we crave warmth: think cozy blankets, a cup of hot coffee or tea, curled up on the couch with a good book. It’s a quiet time, a time of solitude. In nature, it appears that there is death—the leaves have fallen, the seeds are sleeping under the earth, the lively green hues have changed to white or brown or gray. But we know life is just still, just for a season. For a night.
 
We feel similarly as menstruation approaches. What is pathologized as PMS—the moodiness that may truly come from the desire to be alone, the craving of coziness and comfort and stillness—they are calling us to this winter energy, to follow what our body is desiring. It is a time of going inward, solitude, trusting your deeper knowing and perhaps keeping to yourself.
 
I truly believe that some of the physical discomforts we often experience during menstruation are in part because we are expected (by others and ourselves) to show up exactly the same as any other day, and we just don’t have the energy to do that. So it manifests as cramps and headaches and a sour mood—we aren’t meant to show up with the same energy day in and day out.
 
And during this time, the moon is doing the same. She has gone dark. Like the seeds, she is still there, though we can’t see her. This is the New Moon. This is the beginning of the cycle.
 
🌓Waxing Moon – Spring – Follicular Phase – Dawn
 
During the spring, we start to see life emerging again, by way of crocus emerging from the earth and buds arriving on trees. It is the start of something new.
 
The waxing moon is growing brighter by the day, the hours of sunlight are getting longer, and in our cyclical bodies, our hormones are typically encouraging one or more follicles to develop in our ovaries. You may feel more energized coming away from your bleed, feeling creative and lively as you thaw from winter’s cold.
 
There is a sureness here—no pregnancy is present, yet there is hope for what’s to come.
 
🌕Full Moon – Summer – Ovulation – Day
 
This is the time to shine. This is the time of travel and parties and gatherings and work and when the energy of the extrovert comes out. Our energy moves outward and wants to be with others. This is a great time to launch something new, or write an essay or poem or throw a party. You might also feel more aroused, or your partner may seem a little more attractive—and attracted—to you. This is biology telling you it’s time, that this is your fertile window in all the ways.
 
All around us, things are in full bloom! The garden is robust and the sun is ripening fruit on the vine, showing off Nature’s fertile glory. The grass, the trees, the roses—it’s all lush and verdant.
 
THIS is full moon energy, as she shines in all her brightness, lighting our path at night and calling us to stay up late and play.
 
🌗Waning Moon – Fall – Luteal Phase – Dusk
 
Finally, we transition to autumn. The leaves are falling, the summer harvest is brought in, and the garden beds are put to rest. We look back on what we’ve gathered and grown, and we plan ahead for the long winter months ahead.
 
The light of the moon grows dimmer day by day, as does the length of daylight.
 
During this phase, the corpus luteum sends hormones to the womb to either support the lining for implantation and pregnancy, or to prepare the blood to release in a few short days. It is a time of waiting—if you are trying to conceive, this may be the hardest part, as there’s no way to know if you’ll be moving into another winter, or if you are going to shift into a whole new cycle with a pregnancy. As with every other phase, there is no way to speed it up or skip ahead.
 
And then, we return to winter, to the new moon, and to menstruation. We can know what to expect, because it always is, always has been, and always will be. This is the cycle of things. This is life and death and life.
 
When we tune into our cycles, we can see them as a wayfinder or a map. We are reminded that what is will not last—whether that’s discomfort or pleasure. Both are temporary, they will leave, but they will emerge again.
 
This is a primer written from my own experience, reading, and heart. Your own cycles may feel different, but I’d guess the energies are similar. I don’t always bleed with the new moon, and there’s nothing right or wrong about that. This is one of the gifts of my moon journal practice—a daily practice of noticing and self-study. Over time, you come to integrate your own story into self-knowledge, and are reminded by your own biology and the seasons of all that is, and all that is to come.
 
If you’re curious about this practice, I’m hosting a free online workshop about on Tuesday, November 22, 2022. You can sign up here.