Between the Moon - 3. Wild Power Interview with Red School's Alexandra Pope and Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer

Episode Date: June 12, 2022

In this episode from the archives I am joined by Alexandra Pope, and Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer, authors of the book Wild Power and co founders of the Red School, whose mission is: To activate vitality, creativity, and leadership, through the magic of menstrual cycle awareness and a conscious menopause. They envision a world in which the cycles of life are revered and respected as quiet orchestrators of our lives – instilling a deep reverence for the planet and everything on it. We're also gifted with the presence of my dear friend, colleague, and collaborator Sita Rosalie Davis. She is a lead facilitator and trainer at THE MOON IS MY CALENDAR and has translated and printed the Spanish version of the new moon calendar journal since 2019. Sita and I have an ongoing practice of cycle check-ins in our work and are so grateful for this opportunity to speak with Alexandra and Sjanie about navigating the cycles of the inner and outer seasons.LinksRed School: redschool.netIG @red.schoolTHE MOON IS MY CALENDAR: themoonismycalendar.comIG @themoonismycalendaroneearthhealingarts.comIG @sita_oneearthhealingarts This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themoonismycalendar.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome, dear listener to Between the Moon, a podcast about self-study in relationship with cycles. I'm your host, April McMurtry, founder of the Moon is my calendar. In this episode from the archives, I am joined by Alexandra Pope and Sharnie Hugo Wurlitzer, authors of the book Wild Power, and co-founders of the Red School, whose mission is to activate vitality, creativity, and leadership through the magic of menstrual cycle awareness and a conscious menopause. They envision a world in which the cycles of life are revered and respected as quiet orchestrators of our lives,

instilling a deep reverence for the planet and everything on it. The menstrual cycle is understood as the heartbeat of that. great orchestration and most crucially honored as the sacred source of life for us humans visit red school.net to learn more we are also gifted by the presence of my dear friend colleague and collaborator Cita Rosalie Davis she is a lead facilitator trainer at the Moon is My Calendar and has translated and printed the Spanish version of the New Moon calendar journal since 2019.

Sita shares her love of nature and cycles in her yoga classes and workshops with yoga therapy clients as they brave their path of healing and with coaching clients as they embrace their own cyclicality and learn to follow the natural flow of their own hearts unfolding plan. Visit OneEarthhealingarts.com to learn more. Sita and I have an ongoing practice of cycle check-ins in our work and friendship. And we are so grateful for this opportunity to speak with Alexandra and Sharnie about navigating the cycles of inner and outer seasons. Now on with the episode. We're here to have a conversation about tuning in to our bodies to menstrual cycles.

awareness to the inner and outer seasons and to the moon. So thank you so much for joining us. And we're going to open with a quick menstrual cycle check-in so that you can hear what that might sound like as we explore language of how to talk about something that has not been talked about for many of us in this way that it is rising now in our world. So, Sharnie, would you like to start? What day of your cycle are you on? And what does a menstrual cycle check-in sound like?

Good one. So I'm day 17. I'll sort of talk you through the process as I do it because it's quite good for me to just sort of pause and just take stock. So that is in part what I'm doing. I'm just taking a moment to just notice. in and feel into my body, my energy, my mood. Just something that really helps me with this

check-in is to kind of feel what my natural tendency is. So for me today, day 17, I'm starting to feel, my physical body feels strong. I have a vitality and I actually feel like I've got a lot to express, like I needed to go for a run this morning. I feel quite full of, um, full of myself. Uh, so there's a sense of kind of wanting to kind of bust out and just expel energy is

one of the feelings I have. And then if I feel a little bit deeper inside myself and into my kind of emotional landscape, I, I feel a, tenderizing. It's like something or something raw is stirring in my heart and I'm feeling some of the complexity of life even as I'm in this kind of quite robust, resilient, quite vital system. So I'm kind of feeling two energies. One is, yeah, as I've said, quite vital and full of expression and strong.

And the other is this raw tenderizing complexity that's stirring me from within. So that's me kind of taking my sort of, that's me doing my, my weather forecast for myself. That's what the weather's like inside my being. And one of the things we love to do, April, is just distill it into a word to something quite lovely about going, okay, so what would my word be for today? So, or my phrase might be cross currents. That's my word, cross currents. I feel like I'm negotiating cross currents.

Yeah. So lovely to do it with the three of you. Thank you for asking. It's so personal. It's really beautiful. Thank you. It is. Thank you for going to that deep space and that exploration.

and it really does, it sounds like poetry. Thank you. And how about you, Sita? What would, for you checking in today of where you are at in your cycle and what are those stirrings and sensations within? Such a beautiful invitation. I am tuning in from day nine of my cycle and I noticed myself sort of moving towards my skin after many days of feeling connected upwards and downwards to the earth and to the cosmos

to the spirit realm. I feel like I'm moving into the sensual, physical part of the experience of my cycle. Like I wanted to stay in bed this morning and just feel the sheets on my skin. So simple. the mug in my hand, you know, it's got all this texture. And I just feel more sensitive to be able to tune into the material world and the sensuality of everyday life. And I think there's a hummingbird that's visiting right outside my window right now. There is just drinking from the nectar of the Mexican sage plant that's outside my window.

So what a perfect greeting for a sensual moment. Wow. Thank you. Thank you so much, Sita. And I'm wondering, Alexandra, what is a check-in sound like for you or for someone who is not or no longer experiencing a cycle of bleeding, but how to connect in with this? this awareness of mood, emotion, sensation. Thank you, April, for that question. And I'm going to start with the moon,

because with the moon cycle, I have an echo of my menstrual cycle. It's an echo, it's not intense, but it's subtle. It's subtle and strangely distinctive too. Or certain days are very distinctive. And I'm on day 23. 23 of the moon cycle and this was always the time in my menstrual cycle where I had real mojo and I was just really comfortable I had energy I knew who I was so I'm actually feeling I feel well and and discernment a kind of um not detachment but a kind of spaciousness uh with things there's a

a clarity of thought. It's not like I'm mushed in the center of things. I've got this kind of, you know, slightly out and dispassionate, you know, yes, there's dispassionate, kind of discerning and there's a strength there. I know who I am. It's a good energy. I feel in a good space. and it's also that time in the cycle of the year as well. So having said all that, there is also this vulnerability because it is a vulnerable now in Saoen and it's the vulnerability of that crossover in the seasonal year that moment.

So I have to be conscious of the fact that there is a vulnerability and because I have this mojo in this partner cycle, I can be gung-ho up until the dark moon. And actually, I have to admit that I have to take care of myself through the dark moon. Yeah, because I get quite high. And I shouldn't overdo it. Isn't that the lesson over and over?

For me, it is the lesson that's over and over. Yes. That writing that high in the crest of the wave. And so I'll do a quick check-in and say, I'm tuning in from day 16. And so I'm feeling that crest of the wave. And with more awareness now, after having practiced this cycle awareness and checking in with myself and the moon daily, then I know instead of continuing at that accelerating speed, that there will be a time in the near future to,

to kind of pump the brakes or put the brakes on. And so what that looks like now for me today is there's a feeling of pressure, I think, of completing things so that I can clear my plate and not have it so full going into the dark of the moon that there won't be a chance for that releasing and rest and listening and that openness so that now I'm, you know, I feel sort of like, Sharnie, what you were saying,

I feel like that energized, that strength that like moving forward. And yet also the awareness of that is going to turn the corner. And I want to also put myself in a good position so that I know that I will have more moments of stillness. both being in the present and then planning, knowing that the cycle is going to shift and also what happens when there's the full speed ahead, riding that summertime high, where it's like, I've got all the energy, and I'm saying yes to all the things, and then to see where that leads. So I'd love to lead into then the descriptions that you give in the book Wild Power to describe these kinds of energies as inner seasons and how how beautifully too and

Alexandra when you're saying that the moon cycle being the echo of your menstrual cycle of the days of the moon cycle and those energies that both Cita and I share and talk about as the outer cycles both the season being the echo a reflection of the lunar cycle and then our own inner cycle inside of that. So for anyone who's listening and that isn't familiar, could you share a little about the inner seasons and then those crossover days between some of the seasons, like what you're describing two of that fall into winter that we're in right now as we're recording this? Danny, why don't you take that away?

Yeah, okay, I'll sort of describe the basic map, and then, Alexandra, you can fill in some colour. I'll do the sketch, you do the colouring in. So the menstrual cycle has four phases, and we liken those phases to the seasons of the year. And we use the seasons of the year as a kind of metaphor, I guess, sort of shorthand way of capturing some of what the essence of those phases are for us women, what some of the landscapes are that we move through in our being.

So let's begin with menstruation. So that is from the first day of bleeding. And actually the first phase of the cycle starts a day or two before bleeding. There is a moment of separation that prepares you for the bleed. So this phase of menstruation, we aliken to the winter. We call the inner winter of the cycle. So it's from a day or two before bleeding. It includes the time of bleeding.

And depending on how long your bleed is, it could be until about day five or day six. That's the first phase. And that leads on then to the pre-ovulatory time. So if we're thinking in terms of a 28-day cycle, This is roughly from about day 6 to about day 11. And this pre-ovulatory time we call the inner spring of our cycle. And following on from that, from about day 11 to about day 18, 19, the phase of ovulation, we call the inner summer of the cycle.

And then the pre-menstruum, which is the time leading from ovulation to menstruation, that phase we call the inner autumn. So that's on a 28-day cycle. It's roughly the 18, 19, until about day 26 or, you know, just a couple of days before you believe. That's the sort of textbook sketch. But it's not, it isn't a day thing. It's more of an energetic thing. So those days are just a guidance to sort of atten your awareness.

But actually the seasons are much more of a felt sense. And really only you can know. when you're in a season and when you're moving from one season to the other. And those moments of moving between seasons are very significant. We notice them quite, they usually catch our attention because we move from a kind of known, stable place of a season. And then there's this transition moment. So we call those the crossover days where our being is having to negotiate one

place and moving into another. So it's a little kind of a bit of a wobble that happens in the system. And there is a crossover that's happening between each of those seasons. And we call them a crossover day, but sometimes it's a couple of days. And other people, especially when you're going through big transition in your life, those transition moments between seasons can be more accentuated and more elongated. So don't take the day thing you literally. But just to give you that map, that there are these phases and that there are these moments between these phases that also hold a very particular quality and experience. So, Alexandra, do you want to just color that map in for us? I'd love to. You know, each season has a sort of tone to it. Each season has these lovely, juicy

powers. There's kind of like a dominant tone to each one. And we talk about the crucialness of sort of really fulfilling each one, that each one has its place in the ecology of our being. So it's like an inner ecology. And so the inner winter, the dominant tone of that is this yielding or letting go. It's the time of just letting go and not pushing your agendas. And in that letting go, you open up this huge inner territory, this inner spaciousness. you open into a kind of a spiritual dimension, but there's the quality of rest and soothing and reconnection

and remembering who you are, and there's a visionary quality to that too. So it's truly this thing of just letting go physically and into ourselves and saying goodbye to the world. So that's the dominant tone of the inner winter. And then the tone of the inner spring, I realize I think I really love spring. I was just thinking as I was out walking.

Oh, I love spring. I love that potential. But the buds are just, oh, and you've got that same thing in yourself happening. It's just new beginnings. And you know, you can get cynical and worn out with life. But every month with your menstrual cycle, it's like, oh, yes, it's possible. Oh, yes, I can go climb that great. big mountain, you know, metaphorical and literal. Oh, yes, everything's one. This lovely sense.

There's an innocent quality to it and it is this sense of possibility. You know, you get reaffirmed in who you are. It is so delightful, so sweet, so gorgeous. And there is a fragility about it too. But it is so exquisite and lovely and full of potential. And oh, we need to relish that season. much in ourselves. It's so beautiful. I'm totally sold on spring. I'm sold on all the seasons. And then you come into the inner summer, the oblerity time, and the dominant tone of this is really a kind of, I love this word resplendent, you know, kind of a resplendent energy or flowering into something. And it's really the time where you can sort of have it all or imagine you can have it all. You know, you're at a peak of

energy. So it is very much that sense of being in charge of your universe. You sort of can feel like the queen of the world right now. And I do hope every woman does have that feeling here of really being on top of things and like you can you can actually spin all the plates at this moment. Isn't that amazing? You can spin all the plates and nothing is too much trouble. So it has you've got huge capacity and a generosity of spirit to the world. So it is about the material world. really and I loved your description, SETA, about feeling like you're coming back, you know, feeling your sensuality with the material was exclusive that description. And, you know, because you're on that cusp, aren't you, you're moving into the summer.

So you're very much in your body, we hope, and, you know, in your material, doing what you do in the world and so on. So, yes, having it all. And it is sort of superwoman territory here for a little while. And then the inner autumn brings another really crucial energy. And this is a little bit more challenging, and we become more challenging in the world because of that, which is that it's about getting real. We get real with ourselves. And actually here we discover what our boundaries are, what our limits are.

So it has a quality of self-reflection, introspection, and a quality of sight. It's like there are things you can see here that you could not see in other parts of the cycle. It's extraordinarily how it happens. It's truly like a veil parting. So you have this quality of sight, of vision, and you can see into things. So you're seeing into yourself and going, oh, why did I consider that? Why did I say yes to that? So there's this lovely reality check with yourself.

But also you're seeing into the world, and you can become a truth speaker for the world at this time. And this is the part that's more, it's a provocative, and it's very powerful. And as a post-menopausal woman, I live this energy daily. That's my dominant tone because of my life stage. And it's a challenging power to hone and hold without coming across as reactive or cranky or difficult. Well, you're going to be difficult because you're interrupting the crap, basically. I can't get over that one. So getting real is the tone of this time.

And then you bring in all these amazing powers with that, truth speaking and sight and so on. And then how exquisite that you come back to the inner winter again and have, you know, this time to walk away from it all. Wow. Tita here. It's so empowering and deeply moving to hear these experiences that, of course, as a woman, I've had my whole life. but they're so often invalidated by society. So to hear them described so clearly and so eloquently is it's just beautiful and empowering.

Thank you for the work that you're doing. Thank you. It brings me to think and wonder about all of the different cycles that we're navigating at the same time as women. So experiencing the inner new moon, the inner winter, when the moon in the sky is full versus the experience of ovulating with the full moon or at the height of summer. So can you speak a little bit about all of the different cycles that we're navigating simultaneously and the way that they interact and how we can bring awareness to those multiple layers and levels?

You think I should start, Alexandra, and I'll join in. Yeah. Well, the first thing I want to say is that your menstrual cycle dominates all of them. It's the strongest one. I mean, if you're tuned in, well, even if you're not tuned into it, the menstrual cycle wins. You might as well tune in. Because it's inside you and it's personal to you. So it has a very particular quality of experience. the menstrual cycle is the kind of dominant tone in you. And then your experience of your menstrual cycle is then going to be colored by the moon phases and the seasons.

Now, it depends on how sensitive you are. And some women are high sensitives. And I always think of one wonderful woman who is, you know, a real ecstatic. She loves this work. and she has a fierce passion for it and commitment to her own cycle awareness. And, you know, sometimes she's had, how does it, you know, a lineup of sort of menstruation, dark moon at the winter solstice. Now, that's the tricter.

That's the trifecta of, you know, cosmic experiences in the underworld. And she's the mother. And you know, and she's also highly ecstatic. So she is a real channel for those deep, almost kind of shamanic forces. And she has to have fierce discipline in her life so that she doesn't blow the fuses in herself equally. She has experiences of, you know, the line up with the summer solstice, the full moon. And I can't remember she was menstruating or whether she was ovulating actually. But I'm thinking of myself.

When I used to menstruate on full moon, frankly, I was talking. talking in tongues, you know, I was like out there, like, you know, overly ecstatic. And if I had, if I was public, you know, like out at something, I was high, high, high, because I get very high. I don't drink alcohol because I'm far too high already. And, you know, if I'm with friends and everything, oh my God, you know, hopeless.

And I lose myself. I really lose myself. And then I completely fry my nervous system. You know, it was a lot then. equally when I bled a dark moon, oh, so exquisitely intimate and deep and holy, that inner holiness. So one was kind of high ecstasy, great. The other was this deep, exquisite intimacy and inner holiness. Or somewhere in between those two.

So you have to kind of get to know your own nature, really, and get to know where you're vulnerable. and I don't mean that in a negative sense because vulnerability is like where you're most permeable and therefore most open to something and to really take appropriate care around that. Yes.

Shani, why don't you share something from your... It's such a fascinating inquiry this really like all the different cycles and how that influences our being. And as you were describing it, Alexandra, it made me reflect

on how when the seasons of the year and the phases of the moon are sort of aligned with where we are in our cycle, how that can be so deeply supportive to really feel the support to follow what's happening inside us. It can be such a lovely sense to sort of have the seasons and the moon at your back, so to speak. And equally, because it magnifies your own internal experience, that can quite intensify something. So on one hand, it can be profoundly supportive, and on the other hand, it could be very challenging if it's magnifying something that is, as Alexandra says,

a vulnerability or place in yourself that you struggle with. You're going to have that amplified in some way. And here's the other piece that's very, very interesting to me is, you know, as we attuned to our own cycle on really learn to live into that and to really follow our own rhythm and put that at the forefront because that it's our menstrual cycle

that is connecting us to ourselves. So for me, that really is the place to begin. And then from that place, to feel the influence of the other cycles on my being. And when they are other than where I'm at, this creates a very interesting creative tension there is something then that I am kind of batting up against or or in in in tasselworth that then can really be and I use the word

creative very broadly creative that can really evolve something or bring something else to the surface that wasn't there it's it's another it's another it's like adding another flavor into the mix and suddenly you're like ooh so this spring with you know dark moon it's like oh that's been vulnerable innocent something it gives you access to other places in yourself it's really quite magical and and so i think if i was going to to sort of uh kind of say anything about all of this ultimately it's about us trusting the place we're in in our cycle trusting the season that we're negotiating and trusting the perfect constellation of all of those elements that are working in concert to really support who we are. I mean I

I really fundamentally believe that you know in answer to the question is the universe friendly my answer is yes and is life conspiring to support us my answer is yes and I feel that's kind of how I negotiate these energies is like there's a perfect constellation playing out which is support me to unfold in my way. So thank you all just the way that those ingredients mixed together. Like you said, here's this other flavor. Here's this flavor of spring within this time, this like optimism and possibility, possibly

within another time inward and how those flavors kind of mixed together. I did want to, this is April and wanting to ask because I've heard from a lot of women in that this language around sinking with the moon, that there's an idea that you can be in sync with the moon. And I think what we're describing here is a way to relate to all of these overlapping cycles that are happening. And I know for my menstrual cycle, it goes, it goes around the clock. You know, in tracking on the new moon calendar and journal, I just, I watch how the cycle goes.

And then when I'm in the new moon, what that's like, and it's moving. and now it's passing over the full moon. And so it's a constantly changing, which is why this menstrual cycle awareness and having a framework, although like you said, it's not to the day, it's not a prescription, it's not fitting into a box, and yet it is constantly shifting.

So just to mention that because I do sometimes hear that a kind of a, that there's a way that one should be menstruating as if menstruation should be happening at the new moon or a certain time of the lunar cycle and to work with it that way, which is a different approach than what you're describing and offering an approach is, tune into the body and listen what is what is going on in there, what information is there. I'm really, I'm really smiling at the moment because the thought that's just occurred to me, April, is like, wow, do we women constantly seek ways to, to sort of make ourselves wrong and try to be perfect. Like, could this just be another thing we're trying to do? Like, our cycle has to sync with the mood.

Otherwise, it isn't a good cycle or a right cycle, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Well, so I think from there, to bring this into daily life, so I think for everyone, I mean, this is such an enjoyable conversation. And so my hope and dream, too, is that this conversation is something that really becomes a part of daily life, that there's an understanding for us and for women who are bleeding or who are not or for mothers with daughters, but also into our partnerships or relationships, our friendships, with our coworkers and people in our lives and community, how this can become come into the forefront. so that this conversation isn't, you know, so that it finds its way. I'd love to start off with that.

Then, Shania, you could add your two pence worth. Yes, when you look at the world today, you think, oh, how do I do I do this in my daily? daily life because this is not a, you know, A, my mental cycle's not being recognized and acknowledged. B, this is just so linear our culture. It's like, oh, one gear, top speed, you know, and any deviation from that and, you know, you're sort of less than or whatever, not functioning well. And so how do, how do I bring my cycle into the world? Well, the most importantly, it starts inside you. And the first thing you have to do is validate the fact that the menstrual cycle is a real factor in your life.

It is there. It's a living presence in you and working you. And you have a right to that. You have been taught that your menstrual cycle has been a limitation, a problem, something to be ashamed of. And we're going to just throw that out the window right now and re-enoint this system within us. That's an exquisite inner guidance system. So what I'm naming here is the importance of you coming, recognizing your cycle, the accepting it and anointing it as a healthy, vital phenomena in you. That is on your side.

And the reason you experience it as not on your side is because you are living in a culture that is expecting you to be the same all the time and no one is the same all the time. Not even then. Have you got that, folks? And we are going to fix that thought once for all. And we are going to just it quietly because this is where you have choice and freedom. You may not always have the choices and freedoms you want in the outer world, but within your own imagination, how delicious to go, wow, I've got this resource in me. I'm going to practice cycle awareness with myself and no one has to know about it. This can be just with me and I can just make, you know, I can go about my day and I can go,

oh, I'm on day one and I think deeply in the cave and, you know, here I am out in the world, you know, and you'll be just making decisions and being sweet with yourself, you know, as you go about your business. And you're going to have all sorts of valuable experiences like that. But so that's where it begins. And this is where trouble begins too, because you see the moment you start practicing, the moment you start getting interested in and excited by your menstrual cycle, you are unable to keep it to yourself. And you start talking about it by with one other person. And I tell you it's

contagious. We talk about planting the menstruality mean. You only have to plant that word, you know, that the menstrual, just mentioned menstruation in a conversation and suddenly like something shifts in the field. And if you are just loving your experience of it, you're going to communicate something so you just share it. It'll come out. It's going to come out. You can't stop it. I'm just letting you know that now. And because that meme has a life of its own. And so you will talk about it. And then one thing leads to another. And you start to have allies. And there's nothing more lovely than having a best friend with whom you go, oh, it's one today. Or, you know, you just read, they say, oh, come on, let's go out. Oh, no, I'm just crossed in the inner autumn. And I just

need to be like you to go under the duvet or whatever it is or yeah or it's party time you know and so you've got this lovely shorthand way of talking with your friends and then your friends completely get it and then and then the lovely thing about cycle awareness is that is that it breeds um inner confidence it breeds in a kindness so you start to feel a kind of filling up it's like you're really filling up with yourself from the inside. And then that affects how you do business in the world, how you go about things. And you start making decisions, choices, etc. From this place of cycle awareness.

And I'm not going to hand it over to Sharnie, who lives with cycle awareness in a relationship with two gorgeous young daughters and runs Red School with me, all the complex things of that. It's so beautiful listening to you describe it, Alexandra, because I can just reflect in my own life how me, the more intimacy and permission I give myself to follow my cycle, the more it, you know, menstruality takes hold of me and the more it just, as you say, it's just sort of just keeps coming up everywhere and people are asking, and look, I know it's my work as well, but it has a life of its own menstruality. it really, truly does. So I don't necessarily make active attempts to go out there aside from my work to preach about cycle awareness. It's not like I'm walking around my children's school environment or whatever, you know,

kind of calling everyone to cycle awareness. However, people become curious. And we women all know that there is something so inherently powerful and life-affirming in living in tow with our cycle. and, you know, in my family life, it's just an organic thing because I live and breathe my cycle. I have a wonderful inner season's clock, which I have up on my wall, and that shows where the moon is, and it also shows where I am in my cycle. And that's something that my whole family can see at any given time.

You know, what's in the season I'm in? and it's just become like a casual part of our referencing and our decision making and the things I say to my children are and what we are going to do and what we aren't going to do because of where I'm in my cycle. I've got a seven-year-old and five-year-old and they sort of get the gist. I just say, you know, it's my inner winter. I just really want to go out. Just stay home today. I'm feeling, you know, sort of cozy and I just want to rest and curl up. And so it's that kind of thing.

And with regards to my partner, for me, it's about me knowing what my needs are in each phase of the cycle. And then I can now just so cleanly express that to him. I'm just, you know, without I going through the whole kind of rigmarole of wild you, blah, blah, blah. You know, I know, I'm in my inner autumn and I just, I really need you to take the reins for a while. You know, that kind of thing. That's just I need to step back and take place. And that kind of. So it's given, it's given me a really.

good way to communicate my needs with him and a way for me to feel kind with what I'm needing and to give myself permission to ask for what I'm needing because I feel it and see it in the context of my cycle, you know, and my husband and I have had to negotiate things right. Well, if I'm taking time off during menstruation, then can he have some date? Because he's as hands-on in my family, as domesticated, as involved in parenting. So like he's off doing something else. He's here in the think of it with me. But, you know, I get days off administration.

He wants some, you know, get out of jail-free cards at other times in the cycle, which of course he's quickly insightful to. You know, he uses his win. He needs them. He's got out of jail-free card or whatever, you know, his man cave card or whatever you want to call it. Yes, that's how it looks in my life the moment. Thank you for sharing that. It's powerful to feel how relationships.

relationships shift when we are able to recognize our own needs and express them clearly. So thanks for that example. This is Sita here. So April has developed this wonderful tool, the New Moon Calendar Journal. And this is one way of charting our cycles and tuning into deeper awareness of our inner and outer phases. So I'm wondering if we can share some examples of what is most helpful to chart. And with the New Moon calendar, we use symbols, which is a really powerful way to get into the right brain, which we talk about as being the feminine brain.

And what a great way to shift the way that the world is the dynamic of the, of the left brain dominant world. And so what are the sorts of symbols that you would recommend putting in the in the journal as a way to tune in more deeply to our to our different aspects of life that we want to keep track of? That's a lovely creative question. My mind has just had a instant download. I'm curious to hear what you have to say, Alexandra.

I would start very simply with what we call the energy dynamic of the cycle. So this movement from inward to outward, administration we're in and ovulation we're out. So I would perhaps find a symbol to say, you know, where is my attention going? Where is my attention most being called? It's more inward, more outward or somewhere in between. I would probably be curious to start of tracking where my attention is most prominent or most strongly being called at any particular phase of the cycle. That would be one symbolic representation I would probably do because that really attunes you to the deep river of the cycle, that movement of in and out. And then the other deep movement that's part of that energy dynamic is that of rest and activity.

So menstruation, rest and ovulation activity. So sort of from low energy to higher energy. So a symbol that would track your energy levels, really, is your energy rising? Is it falling? Is it stabilizing? That would be another layer of symbology that I would suggest playing with. So where your tension is and what your energy levels are doing. Alexandra, what I'd love to hear what you.

Well, I actually wasn't having any thoughts and I love what you're saying. That's a great way in actually. And then on top of that, what has come to me is to then start to what I would call notice the hot spots of your cycle. There might be a symbol for hot spots of, I don't know, the things. I don't know, they could be hot spots of trouble, and I mean trouble with a capital T as a sort of good. Or like those kind of potent, this kind of potentized days in the mind that are just so distinctive. I always have ringing in my ears, a friend of mine in Australia, who would say to her children, it's day 25, don't argue with me.

just that don't argue and she called it her don't mess with me day I just kind of love the idea that you have these like signature days and have these lovely names like the don't mess with me day or the I don't know

the duvet day or the some women have places in the cycle where they're sexually you know just off the Richter scale it's just so intense I just think it's really fun and dreaming you know having dreams that are so powerful, so become in distinctive phases.

So I would look for the hotspot times of the sun. Yeah, to really kind of eke out particular days and what their capacities are. And that brings me to one other, because we could probably go on and on and on with ideas here, but the other thing I think is probably really important is some kind of symbol to represent what season you feel you in.

Because that's something that only you can answer, Like no one can tell you what season you're in. So for you to just go, oh, what season am I feeling I'm in? And to have a symbol for that. And there will be days where you don't really know as well, which is okay. And then some symbol for when you feel you're in transition

would also be a really good thing just to be noting. I feel that would give you a very, it starts to really kind of hone your awareness of these landscapes inside you. Oh, this is such a fun question. I'm suddenly going bananas stuff. I'm just thinking it's like you're creating a template for your character. It's your kind of character energy.

It's a template for your energy pattern, your nature pattern. And of course, there's permutations in that. And also as you're getting older, that's going to shift because your experience of your cycle in your 20s is different to your cycle in your 40s. So you've got this overall evolution unfolding. But there is always going to. to be a sort of fundamental template there that is very distinctively you.

And it's sort of like a printout. So it's a bit of a crude term, but a bit of a printout of your character of who you are. It's kind of cool, actually. Yeah, in many ways, and this is April sharing that the, it's almost like understanding what is my baseline, like what is my foundation, what am I working with so that I know when I'm out of range of that or when I know that I'm going, you talked earlier, someone said that blowing the fuse. So I know if I'm heading in that kind of a direction because I know the signs or I can sense I'm tuning in and coming back to myself enough to know where this

template. And again, it's like even with tracking each cycle, no cycle looks the same. No, no cycle is going to be a replica of the next one so it's not like okay press repeat and then it just is repeating but it's so dynamic and this conversation has been so dynamic i feel so even more inspired um to do this work and and to share it in a way where it is a dynamic understanding of how we're moving in the world through all these different cycles that are themselves in in constant change. It's a lot to navigate. And when that shut down or tuned out,

those cycles are still affecting us. They're still present. But it's coming into that awareness. Coming into that deep awareness. So I know at the Red School there's several resources. I want to just leave one more thing here. Because I just feel this sort of punchline to all this. And I have, I'm just not,

I'm probably opening up something here. huge, but I want to say that this is all leading somewhere, this cycle awareness. It is, what's happening is you're being tuned. You're being tuned up. You're being tuned down into yourself. You're being tuned up to step. You're being tuned up to be a channel for something in the world. The world needs people who are attuned.

You're becoming attuned. You're developing a psychological muscle. And, you know, in our kind of very egoistic, narcissistic culture, that attunement is being dulled and deadened. And we need, this is how the feminine coming through, through this attuning. It's a very important that. So I just really want to say that that's what this, this is growing somewhere.

And it's going to have huge meaning when you come to menopause. I leave you with that woman. Thank you for putting it into that, that, that context of the why, of the why that we're doing this, the attuning ourselves and just like an instrument, you know, that coming into alignment. And so we can share that and have that conversation with, with the world and with everyone, because it really doesn't feel like a gender-specific kind of, you know, if I just keep this to myself or identify in a certain way, I really see it's like it is a wave and there is a tide that is shifting this in this direction so these conversations can happen in whatever way that we identify and experience ourselves within multiple cycles.

So I would love to wrap up and close with resources that you have at the Red School where people can learn more and connect in with this work. Yeah, for women who are wanting to know more about what we mean by cycle awareness, probably the best place to find out about that is in our book, Wild Power. chapter dedicated to the practice of cycle awareness. So that's that was that would be where I would suggest people go if they want to learn more. But just in terms of a free resource we've got a course called hormone harmony which is just very very much it's a simple introduction to finding alignment with our cycle and also just

addressing some of the hormonal issues and and the symptoms that have come up for women around their cycle and how to take care of their health around that so that they can actually connect with the psychological and emotional process that's at work. Because a lot of the menstrual symptoms that are happening in a way are, they need to be careful first before we can really feel more deeply into what's going on for us. So it's a good place to start. And even if you don't have any mental health conditions, it's a great way just to step into this world of cycle awareness

and just hear more about what we have to say about it at Red School. So you can get that at Red Schoolonline.net. It's called Home and Harmony. And you've also recorded a podcast, which has almost like going through chapters of the book of areas that are explored in there and having more conversation. Yeah, good suggestion. That's a great resource. It's called the Wild Power series and it's available on all podcast platforms.

and also on our website. There's lots of good hours of listening there. Beautiful. And I know, so Sita and I've had the experience of, you know, reading about tracking and reading about charting and chart your cycle and do this. And there's always, you know, any time I try to do that on a linear Gregorian calendar in the boxes, I'd put a dot and then I'd have to count these days and flip the pages. And it just didn't make sense.

And most of my life until my late 30s did not know if I was coming or going and live the chaos of maybe I'm pregnant, what's happening, where am I? Really disoriented, super disoriented. So I have lived the experience of not having the cycle awareness and then moving into the awareness and really needing to create a tool that made sense for the cyclical living. And so having the new moon calendar and journal formatted in a circle with the new moon at the top is the anchor,

then anchors the moon, and then to chart within that, we can see where am I in relationship, to the moon and where am I in relationship to myself? So the tool really did come out of that. What is it like to be so chaotic without having an anchor in a way to really having a way to chart that made sense in a circular way? So I know women who've seen this calendar and pick it up

and immediately there's like this click or this light bulb goes off of, oh, this is what I've been looking for because I know that I want to connect with the moon, with myself, and yet where to do that. and how to do that. So for each new moon, there's moon letters that go out from the moon's my calendar and there's a PDF of that cycle that's available for anyone on moon letters.

And also the 2019 edition is in print available online. The Spanish edition. Oh, my God, how exciting. I can't wait to have mine. And it's like a flower opening up. And so Sita just translated for 2019 and was just in Mexico and had that printed there. And so that is the seeds that are starting to take, to really take root for this work around the world. Amazing.

Beautiful. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for this conversation and for for, for, for, for, being here is a part of this unfolding process and this very dynamic conversation and really helping us to have a language and develop that personal language for how we express ourselves in a world that is linear

and wants to keep us linear to go outside of that and to really honor and be true to what's happening within and what's shifting there. I'd like to really thank both of you for a very spacious and beautifully held conversation in a real pleasure to articulate things with you. Your questions just sort of opened up something, didn't they? It's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you very much to both of you.

And thank you for the wonderful work that you're doing of creating a sort of tangible, physical way that women can visualize and express and track their cycle experience. Beautiful. Thank you so much to both of you. Very inspiring and empowering, like I said. All right. Well, we'll put a pause here and to be continued. And for all the listeners who have been following this journey, this conversation, thank you for being here. And may this, may this bring an inspiration into your life and your awareness around cycles so this conversation can find its way through you with your own voice through your own language. So sending many blessings. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Your presence is a gift. If you like this

podcast, please subscribe, leave a review, share it with a friend, all the things to help it more people who will benefit in some meaningful way. I'm April and I'll be with you next time on between the moon.