The Menstruality Podcast - 180. How Your Cycle Can Help You Realise Your 2025 Visions (Alexandra & Sjanie)

Episode Date: January 9, 2025

Happy New Year! Today we’re back with our first live episode of 2025, and we’re trying out something new and fun - we hope you love it: a ‘power card’ reading for the year to come. Our theme for today is how menstrual cycle awareness can help us all to tap into our visions and dreams for the coming year, and how the daily practice of checking in with our cycle can help us to make them real. So we start by unpacking how the menstrual cycle - and especially menstruation - can help us tune into our deepest longings and dreams, and then how each inner season has different powers that help bring our dreams into reality.And in the second half, Alexandra and Sjanie choose three different cards to offer you a menstrual power ally on your quest to apply your cyclical intelligence in 2025. We explore:How our cycle can support us through the evolutionary process of bringing dreams to life. Our visions are big and they invite us to grow up and stretch into the new capacities we need to fulfill them - and our cycles can be our allies on this growth pathHow the menstrual cycle can be your ‘oracle’ - an invitation to commune with the deepest and wisest part of ourselves.Three different powers from inner autumn, inner summer and inner spring, to inspire and support you to bring your dreams to life this year, in a cycle-aware way. ---Receive our free video training: Love Your Cycle, Discover the Power of Menstrual Cycle Awareness to Revolutionise Your Life - www.redschool.net/love---The Menstruality Podcast is hosted by Red School. We love hearing from you. To contact us, email [e-mail]---Social media:Red School: @redschool - https://www.instagram.com/red.schoolSophie Jane Hardy: @sophie.jane.hardy - https://www.instagram.com/sophie.jane.hardy

Welcome to the Menstruality Podcast, where we share inspiring conversations about the power of menstrual cycle awareness and conscious menopause. This podcast is brought to you by Red School, where we're training the menstruality leaders of the future. I'm your host, Sophie Jane Hardy, and I'll be joined often by Red School's founders, Alexandra and Sharni, as well as an inspiring group of pioneers, activists, changemakers and creatives to explore how you can unashamedly claim the power of the menstrual cycle to activate your unique form of leadership for yourself, your community and the world. Hey, welcome back to the podcast. Thank you so much for joining us today and happy new year. This is our first live episode of 2025 and we're trying out something new and fun, I hope. We hope you love it. It's a power card reading for the year to come using the Red School power cards

which have lots of different powers from the different inner seasons of the cycle. We'll explain more about it later. Our theme for today is how the practice of menstrual cycle awareness can help us all to tune into our visions and longings for the coming year and how the daily practice of checking in with our cycle can help us to make these visions and dreams real, help us to bring them into reality. So we start by unpacking how the menstrual cycle and especially menstruation can help us hear what it is that we're really longing for and dreaming about and then how each inner season of the cycle has different powers that can help us to bring our dreams into reality. And in the second half, Alexandra and Sharni choose three different Red School power cards to offer you a menstrual

power ally on your quest, your journey to live your cyclical intelligence in 2025. So let's get started with how your cycle can help you realize your 2025 visions with Alexandra and Sharni. Well, happy new year, Alexandra Pope and Sharni Hugo-Wurlitzer. Yes, we're back. Yes, we're back. This is our first live episode. How are you doing? Well, I'm feeling very sort of lighthearted and kind of easy and relaxed.

Yeah, yeah, I'm feeling the excitement of new beginnings. I am so grateful that I have work that I love because coming back to work at the beginning of January is such a joy for me, you know, seeing all of you. We work with such good people. We do such fun, pleasurable creative work. So I'm just feeling that, that like back doing what I love as much as I loved. And I really, really did love the deep

winter drop and doing nothing this new feeling of like being back with you all and doing this work and we're all in springtime summertime right where are you Shani yeah yeah we all are on the upswing. So I'm in that very ripe, juicy place between the inner spring and the inner summer, day 10, and I've got the moon just a day behind me, day nine of the moon. So it's very smooth being lined up with the moon. There's like less contradiction um and I'm feeling today just so peachy I feel peachy I feel very round and wholesome and plump and good like I just want to be picked off a tree and enjoyed. I feel desirable.

I feel very desirable, which is nice. And as I was saying to you yesterday, you know, there's always a tinge of this inner autumn energy in every day of my cycle because of where I am in my life cycle, you know, in my 40s. I'm really in the autumn of my menstruating years. So there's always that quality, but the way it's showing up today for me is a depth of presence, which is really lovely, because I remember, you know, in my sort of 20s, actually, the summer energy could like sweep me out of myself and I could almost become so

infatuated with life and the world outside myself that I lost connection to myself but I feel very deeply connected to myself and there's a lovely sense of being that I'm with nice I can almost see the autumn energies in your face I was just as I was looking at you this morning and seeing how gorgeously desirable you are but there's a there's a seriousness in your eyes like I'm just particularly I haven't seen you for a few weeks. Do you see it too, Alexandra? Well, yes, but I also feel, I feel the base note of Sharni now that's so different from before. Yeah. Oh, yes.

On her way to menopause. On her way to menopause. I can feel, and I come into relationship with that, you know, that I can feel the, I don't know how to put it, but actually the way I was reflecting on it was because I was thinking about it this morning. And I feel since turning 70, these last two years have been like this mini echo of menopause that I have been negotiating a new life stage. And there's been quite a tussle that's gone on in me. That's like negotiating this new kind of energy I now have to inhabit. There's a kind of gravitas that comes. There's a real seriousness that comes in getting older it

requires a sort of a real inner discipline and um and there's a power in that but negotiating that has been really not comfortable and i feel like i've been i don't know i don't know what, I was going to say scratchy or something, or, you know, at odds with myself a little bit. And I sort of, it's not like you're at odds with yourself, Shani, but I can feel like your spirit is now, because you're not in menopause yet, you won't be for a few more years,

but your spirit is having to play a different game now to get set up for what menopause will ask of you and I think I can feel that different game going on in you yeah it's so true it does feel like right game on and that word serious is absolutely what's happening for me. I just have to say how beautiful it is to be witnessed in these subtle changes, you know, as I'm growing and changing. And it makes me realize that being surrounded by people who are cycle aware is such a blessing because you know our own cycle awareness practice helps us to really see other people's cyclical experience and how they're evolving and shifting and changing through the inner seasons of their cycle each month you know but also through the seasons of their life it really opens our capacity to see each other which is so beautiful

it's such a fertile ground for connection and I think in relationships that's really true you know although if you're in a relationship with a man they don't really have the experience themselves but by paying attention to you they they can come to understand it. But in our communities with other people who cycle, you know, being with other women who get it, there's such a deep seeing of each other. I'm totally with you, you know, because I was away with Ade and Artie and Frodo, the dog, all males, non-menstruating males for two, two weeks and I felt lonely I had a fantastic time we were in the outer Hebrides in Scotland it was amazing and on that level I was yearning for

contact with cycle aware people being with my women and it's so good to be back and there is a part of me that never quite feels seen until I'm with you like oh I can exhale and be seen and so speaking about being seen let's witness me in in where I'm at in my cycle which is day 12 and I'm pretty sure I ovulated yesterday and I really made a shift because in our team meeting yesterday I was explaining how I could feel myself cusping on the cusp of inner spring pre-ovulation moving into inner summer ovulation and I was feeling like a newly born deer how I often feel in inner spring that was like on an ice rink and all its legs were flailing out in different directions and I had to really pay attention but I've really turned now and I can I can feel that the sociability of in a summer is really present because I had about 20 interactions this morning

from seven in the morning to nine when I dropped Artie off at forest school with there's a lot of snow and ice in Sheffield so talking to people like the snow nursery drop off and i was it was also easy chatting flowing and you know i'm an introvert so it doesn't always feel easy to do that so i was really grateful for my inner summer connection feeling sociable feeling part of the community yeah part of the community such a sweet spot that yeah luscious i enjoy it for like the three days of the month that it happened that's it you really learn to savor things when you're practicing cycle awareness because you know it's it's just a stage it's just a phase and you milk it how about you alexandra well day nine of the moon and um it was so it was so interesting

like you shani there is this deeper note going on of that i was just alluding to of a life stage i'm you know stepping into which has this um seriousness about a deeper seriousness and it's a responsibility is the word I'm thinking and I think that's what I've been avoiding these last two years is I'm not taking that responsibility on that's too grown up you've said that so many times in the last couple of years this feels very grown up I've noticed it you've said it a lot on the podcast I think maybe I'm not fighting it no actually I'm not I can feel it shifted I feel something has completed so there's that note going on and then there's you know there's the subtle it's subtle with the moon but there's a subtle

fun with the moon so and the way I noticed it this morning was I am because I love to meditate in the morning and um I can always drop into such a deep stillness around the dark moon and this morning my deep stillness was interrupted by lots of brilliant ideas it was like I thought oh no the brain oh geez now I've got I'm coming into the summer now I've got I mean it's great I get lots of ideas you know I'm going well yeah I could write that blog and then yeah we could do yeah and I'm and I go great. I get lots of ideas. You know, I'm going, well, yeah, I could write that blog. And then, yeah, we could do, yeah. And they go, no, no, I'm meditating. So my brain's a little bit exhausting. And I cherish that morning meditation because it actually tanks me up.

And I didn't feel quite so tanked up this morning. Yes, yeah. Yeah, curse the mind, hey, for all it's worth. Curse the mind. Sometimes just won't let us get the replenishment we so deeply longing for. It takes a lot of inner discipline, doesn't it? I know, it was fierce. It was a little bit of a something you know well our theme today

is how our cycles can help us to log into and then realize the visions and the dreams we have for this year to come and our not very subtle agenda is to invite everyone listening you know myself included to take the opportunity this year to double down to commit to the next level of cycle awareness practice in our lives so that we can create what we long for in our lives and in our world so we're going to get into all of that how can our cycles actually help us to realize our visions but just before we get into it I want to give a little tease for what we're going to do the second half of the conversation which is a power card reading to expand on some of the themes we'll get into that but maybe could you tell us a bit about the power cards the red school power cards what they are how they work where they came from

yeah well so we are going to do a power card reading later because we felt it would be really lovely for each one of you to have a power that is going to commit to do the work of practicing cycle awareness this year in a way that is really going to support the potential that you hold, the dreams that you hold, the longing that you have in your heart for yourself and for the world. So we thought having a power ally could just add that little like cherry on the cake for your practice this year. It'll be a power ally that will unpack for you to really help you to, I guess, focus your cycle awareness practice in a particular way, and maybe even focus on a particular phase or aspect of your cycle experience, what you need to care for to fulfill your intentions.

So we've not done this before. Well, we've done lots of power card readings, but we've not done it on the podcast before. We've been thinking about doing it for a while because it's really good fun and it's a really fun way to learn about the cycle. So these power cards, which are beautiful and round of course circular and cyclical they've I mean they've probably been in the making since forever I mean Alexandra was saying this morning she's like been she's had fantasies or ideas of creating some kind of oracle card or power card forever.

And I'm remembering at the very first apprenticeship training that we have, and to kind of lay them out in the room. Because we always set up the space with a kind of map of the cycle on the floor with a big red circle in the middle and red ribbons to demarcate the four phases of the cycle and then we've kind of played around with putting these powers in the different parts of the cycle as a kind of visual representation of what you might experience so for anyone listening um what these cards are are really just a few of the powers, capacities that you have access every month, each phase is a different stage of that cyclical process. And as you, in your menstrual cycle. And we know that the kind of hormonal system shifts. So there's this physiological change that happens in the body.

And at the same time, there is an emotional change that happens there is a psychological change and with all this these different abilities wake up in us at different times in our cycle so i was thinking about it when i was lounging around in the bath this morning because that's what you do when you're a plump peach on day 10 of your cycle. You turn up late for work. You turn up late for work because you were being a plump peach in the bath desirable and I was thinking about how each of these phases you could sort of think about each inner season of the cycle, each phase of the cycle as being like a different color in the color wheel. And then within each phase, within each color, you get all, you get the whole spectrum of that color. You get all you get the whole spectrum of that color you get all the shades and nuances and varieties of that color so what these power cards are are some of these particular shades or qualities that

you might experience in that phase and this particular pack of power cards has 13 powers in each phase because 13 is a magic number as we all know and we've um we've sort of demarcated each season with a different color so you can quickly see which season they're from so of course red is the in a winter, and then inner spring is green, inner summer is blue, and then the inner autumn is orange. And we've just given simple words to describe these powers. And part of what the power card reading is gonna be is Alexandra and I unpacking these words and the meaning of these words through what we've experienced from the

power of the cycle so our understanding of these words really have come from us living the cycle experience month by month and waking up to these powers in ourselves more and more and really understanding what they mean and how they um how they shape and inform us and how they can be accessed and how they can be used as well because that you know their powers they have effect they have impact they can be harnessed people use them in lots of ways now don't they because people buy packs for themselves to use personally but also in workshops when they're teaching about the menstrual cycle, they'll lay them all out at the beginning. People choose cards.

There's lots of ways to. Yeah, it's an amazing learning tool. And actually Louise, who's on our team, was saying that her and her husband do a power card reading on the 1st of January every year and draw a power card for everyone in their family, which I was like, oh, that's cool. Yeah, we use them every day don't we alexander yeah mine are very very dog-eared and uh you know like some of them have seen better days

that was my fault alexandra got hold of my cards and you put your mug down on the generosity card card worn by by a mug okay so we will we'll do our power card reading in a bit but before we get to that let's talk a bit about can you can you break it down for us the process of how connecting to our menstrual cycles can help us to connect to our our visions for our life and our dreams for our life and bring them into reality well i i want to begin by saying that i don't know how people do it without a cycle the cycles are it's our menstrual cycles are an incredible resource for supporting us. So at a sort of very foundational core level, committing to cycle awareness is an act of connection and commitment to yourself. And it's like saying yes to yourself, to your timing, your rhythm, because cycle awareness will keep you in touch with how you actually are. But also, as you do that, you sort of awaken the capacity

to actually care for the place you're in more and more and not let the outer pressures of the world so inveigle their way in and screw you up, basically. So it's an act of rooting into yourself and saying yes to yourself. And as you practice it each day, you are really pacing your own nature and your energy and so on. So you're creating this ground and this soil, if you like, within which your intentions, your visions can, come through, actually, firstly, for what it is that's actually most important for you to attend to. I mean, menstruation is the ultimate moment where you'll get such clarity on what it is that you need to really go for this year. But that it keeps you.

It's like when you know what it is that you want, it's like you can literally, literally, imaginatively, that's literal, imagine is literal, plant it in the soil of yourself. And so, you know, you can do a lovely ritual, perhaps, when you're bleeding about what it is you're wanting to line up for this year and make a really clear intention. It's like you're really planting that seed in the soil of your being. And if you don't have that menstrual cycle anymore,

you can use the dark moon. So, yes, that's a lovely little embellishment that you can do so you you plant the seed within your cycle and then through the act of cycle awareness each day you are attuning yourself to yourself and you're attuning to how this vision is sort of talking or guiding you in a sense. You know, the cycle kind of is in cahoots, if you like, with your deep self, you know, with what it is that you're wanting to realize. and find ways to honour who you are as best you can. You are, one, you're creating the soil for the realisation of it, but you're also getting guidance and insight that's going to show up at different phases of the cycle. I mean, each menstrual month when you bleed, you'll get real deep clarity.

But, I mean, pre-menstrustruum the autumn of the cycle is an incredible clarity and clarifying moment and and you also then speaking of powers you have these different powers in different phases of the cycle that you can in a sense capitalize on that really support and nourish the realization of your intention. It's like our visions, they're bigger than us. They're a thing we're being stretched. We set ourselves something that we don't have right now, so it's going to ask something of us. So when you're really committed to your cycle

awareness practice you're really committing to growing each phase of the cycle is like a developmental stage of of you and as you care for each stage you are growing up bit by bit and growing up into your capacity to both realize it, but to actually hold, you know, what it is that you're wanting to realize. Yeah, Shani, do you want to step in and add some embellishments of what I've just said? Well, I love where you started, Alexandra, with this statement that, you know, when you commit to menstrual cycle awareness,

you're committing to this practice of connecting to yourself. And as we're sort of at the start of the year's cycle, and for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, you know, coming out of the deepest, darkest day of the year and kind of moving into the spring in the outer world, it really is a kind of potent time to connect with what matters to you, to really let yourself receive guidance. And we talk about the menstrual cycle as being your oracle, because when you are in this connection with yourself, you're actually in conversation with the deepest, wisest part of

yourself. So often, when we're kind of thinking about what we want in our life, what we want to change, what we want to create, so often that is coming from a place of cultural expectation, or what we see others doing, or what we think might be a good idea for us to have. Often our intentions or goals are outer referenced and no wonder we struggle to realize them because they aren't coming from deep within us and we aren't deeply aligned with them. So just through practicing cycle awareness, you're deepening that sense of connection with yourself and you are creating a relationship of listening to yourself, which is a simple thing. But hey, how often are we doing that when we spend our life listening to like social media and listening to interviews and just as you're doing now and other people's ideas there's so much input there's so

much so many people telling you what's a good idea never mind your whole upbringing where you know you were influenced and imprinted by the grown-ups in your life about what they thought was a good idea. So actually practicing cycle awareness creates a dedication to this listening to oneself. And as Alexandra, as you said, you know, menstruation is such an opening for that guidance to come through. It's like when we're bleeding, it's almost like the world is held at bay for us. You know, we come into this protected space if indeed we're honoring our bodies and really kind of going with energy of menstruation. We come into this protected space where the noise of the world falls away.

Often I feel like my mind has been decommissioned. You know, I feel dumb when I'm bleeding. I feel stupid. Like I don't have mental faculties. My goodness, what a blessing. Because the moment my mind is offline, I'm in touch with this kind of deeper yes knowing and it's it's so pure yeah it's so beautiful isn't it alexandra beautiful it's so good it is so good because it's in that

place that we really truly know what we need to tend to and care for. And, you know, one of the reasons we love holding this annual event, which is called Your Menstrual Cycle, Your Oracle, which we're going to be doing next week, is because it actually creates that sanctuary for everyone in our community, old bees and newcomers, to be able to have that time and space to really listen to the wisdom of their cycle through that lens and to really feel into that deeper knowing of what they need to tend to. So yes, I love that piece, Alexandra, because it really highlights how to that working with your cycle to fulfill an intention begins and ends with really receiving that intention from a very real and true place in oneself because how you begin sets the tone

then for everything that unfolds and if your dream or your goal or your intention is true and really you and really what life is asking of you and what your deep self is longing for the unfolding of it in of it is um so much easier you know i i was thinking that actually there's i always love that image that you came up with in wild power of the vision or the idea coming with its own jet pack jet pack of it. It's not like you have to motivate yourself. It is you are motivated. There is just this impulse because it is so right and it gives you courage because, of course,

our visions are going to require risk, aren't they? They're distracting us. And you're going to be putting yourself out there in a different way. You're stretching yourself. You're going outside your normal, comfortable boundaries. But having that deeper knowing waken up in you that this is what I'm doing, it has its natural energy in it, this jetpack of fuel that just carries you. And that and of course, in that first half of the cycle, you've got that natural rising energy.

So, you know, we were talking about I was talking earlier about how each season has these powers that can support you to realize your vision and um it you know each season can really um kind of in very specific ways um it's like a wave carrying you in different ways there's different quality waves that come in that do different things that help you with the manifestation and the realizing but i'm really thinking of that spring energy where you know there's that feeling of everything is possible that's one of our powers isn't it in the inner spring um where even though your vision is huge there's a sort of daredevil energy in you that goes, yes, let's do it, you know, not thinking about any of the practical detail of how it's going to get done. But it helps you to take that first step.

And what a shame to miss, you know, not to have that connection to that, to experience that nudge across the line to take that first step because is it just a natural impulse there in you that does it it's not like you have to bully or force yourself yeah yes i love what you're pointing to alexandra because i think um something that is has been lost in a culture that isn't cycle aware yet is this appreciation that creativity is cyclical. I think so often people think that creativity is linear. You move from point A, from an idea to point B, the realization of that idea. So that is absolutely not the case. When we have an intention or a goal for that thing to be fulfilled, we need to move through a secular, what's secular? A secular, a secular, a process. We must, because it requires all those stages and phases.

And just you gave that beautiful example of the inner spring. And so that was the other thing you spoke about earlier on, Alexandra, is when we have an intention, we think we're creating something. You know, maybe there's something we want to make happen in our lives, a real goal. But in order to create that thing, we need to change. You spoke about that. We need to grow into that person who can embody, experience, realize that thing. So this is what's so beautiful about the cycle it's both the guide to the making of the thing the creative process as you described Alexandra like the the first step of the journey

but it's also a guide to um your inner growth the ways you need to develop and change in each inner season in order to become the realization, to become the person who is living that new future, that change. So it's working on multiple levels, which is very magical and exciting. We would love, love, love you to join us for our annual New Year Visioning Retreat on January the 14th. It's free. There's usually a wonderful circle from all over the world that gathers. It's called Your Menstrual Cycle, Your Oracle. It's an online retreat hosted by Alexandra and Sharni. It's two and a half hours of rest, rejuvenation, where we'll dream together, play, create and envision, all guided by the intelligence of the menstrual cycle as your own wise oracle. The retreat will work for you whether you currently have a menstrual cycle or not so if you have health challenges you might be pregnant or breastfeeding in menopause post-menopause then this is for you

too and it's not your usual annual planning strategizing retreat it's actually an invitation to step out of strategy mode and ease into deep listening we would love to have you with us you can join us for free at redschool.net forward slash oracle. Well, hey, shall we do the card reading? Yes, let's do the card reading. So, okay, for everyone who's listening we're gonna draw three cards and we are suggesting that you choose a number now one two or three so that you get the card that you need to support you with your year of cycle awareness to really support you to fulfill the intentions and dreams that you're holding holding this year so pick a card just one here's your number one two or three one two or three and sophie what number are you gonna choose two two okay i'm going with three for myself

personally alexandra what number are you going with i think it's two all right so you two are going for two and i'm going for three. All right, Alexandra, I think you should draw the first card. All right, you trust me? Well. All right, folks, I'm shuffling here. The croupier of the universe. Is that what they're called, the croupier at the casino?

Is that what they're called? Croupier of the universe. Okay, so here is card number one interesting okay i won't say what it is yet okay and i'm gonna draw card number two okay go for it you do three i draw card number three oh yes go for it okay got it all right so let's reveal what card number one two and three are card number one is an autumn card it's complete ah i knew that card was going to come up yeah i'm having a whole conversation about it with myself this morning. Oh, good. Yeah. Well, I've got things to say.

Card number two is a summer card, and it is connect. And card number three is a spring card, explore possibilities. Ah. Well, we've got three seasons here. Let's just set the question as well. The point is here, how can this power support you in your committed cycle awareness practice to realize your visions this year? Yeah, this is the sort of secret power you need to be really caring for. So it's an inner autumn card.

And the inner autumn is, you know, the contracting energy part of the cycle where you're coming more and more back into yourself and your energy is dropping more and your sensitivity is, you're becoming more sensitive, more permeable to something bigger. But it is, you're coming towards the, you know, you're coming into the end of the cycle. So it has that feeling of sort of completing things, of addressing, you know i always think of the you know you suddenly just before you bleed you you have that big purge to clean and you finally get rid of that you know

gherkin at the back of the fridge that's been there forever and you finally get rid of it you know so it has that quality um autumn as you progress through it or sort of really sorting out cleaning and clarifying so outer stuff sorting cleaning stuff but also within yourself of really deepening into what's really going on for yourself away from all the gloss and glamour of the world but coming and really meeting and facing yourself so it's a feedback time so that's um something of the autumn energies not all of them but just some of them so shani do you want to yeah i think um if if i were to sort of create a visual of the menstrual cycle i would put put this power, this autumnal power right at the end of the premenstruum, at the end of the inner autumn, just before you cross over into the inner winter,

not just before you bleed, but just before you go into that first phase or first chamber of men's of the inner winter which we call the void so I put this kind of right on the line there and it's it's there because it is a power that is woken up in us because we are really confronted with an ending. Energetically, we know this is the moment where we are about to be called to retreat. We're about to be called to down tools and stop. We're about to be called to down tools and stop the momentum, the doing, the efforting, whatever it is that's been going on and to sort of step out of day-to-day time and space certainly to step out of our willfulness and our willful doing and that is um for our psyches quite a moment i would say all kinds of things get illuminated when we face an ending. For example, you might feel resistance, you may feel denial, you may feel fear, you may feel urgency, kick in, grief, all number of things surface. Endings have a way of uh being quite confronting because endings are limits they're a kind of moment in the cycle experience and psychologically what's being announced to our deep self is

time's up like no more go no further this this is it and i know for myself personally and this is what I was dreaming into this morning was um there's always almost always a part of me is like yeah but yeah but can't we just can't there surely there's a way you know that everything is possible energy that you've got like that really surfaces me yeah but but surely this can't be it surely this there's got to be a way to just do more have more more more more and this complete card is really about the power of limits and reaching the limits of what our um of what our human self can do. Yeah, of what our human self can do.

So I really, I think this is the threshold where we are called to drop our own will and lean back into or allow something other something bigger than us to come in and to actually to hold us to hold us so um it's quite a fierce power one that i'm very in very personal relationship with at the moment. So you're really describing here, Shani, a kind of line in the sand that's being drawn between, you know, the limits of your capacity and allowing something bigger to come in. And I'm going to just add in some other things here, because I was thinking this is quality of, there's another side to this word complete, which is it has a,

complete is a command. It's like an action. And I immediately think of it as, you know, get off your ass and do something it's like it brings the heat you described you know an urgency that comes up towards the end of the cycle and it feels to me also like this command to really risk something or do something or complete something or, and I'm experiencing that because of getting older, I'm suddenly going, oh, you know, death actually isn't that far. Well, I mean, it could come anytime death, but you know, finally, you know, how many working years have I got left? Oh, I've got this huge thing I want to do. And it's complete means feels like a real command from the universe to me to don't

piss around, step up, and just do some things, you know, take action on something, you know, and complete this business. There's a real command in there and urgency in there. Yeah. I'm seeing a number of um that could be relevant to you if you've drawn this card so there's this is something to really hear what alexandra said if you've drawn this card this year for you is about stepping up to this um new level of responsibility that allows you to bring completion to whatever it is you're doing. And it is in a way the last act of agency, the last act of will, where you are required to actually dot the i's cross the t's do that work of finishing which is very very challenging for a lot of people but if there's something that you've been lingering on or like and haven't quite because it takes a certain kind of self-belief and a certain kind of courage to go, I am completing this. I'm bringing this to

a place of fulfillment. That's a key word here, fulfillment of realization. And that takes a lot of courage because you know, once you've completed and realized things, the thing that happens next is that it goes out into the world and it gets judged, it gets seen, etc. So there is an edge there. So it takes something to step up to that responsibility and go, actually, no more excuses, no more messing around. Yes. I'm the discipline of doing this thing that I have set in motion that is mine to do, completing it. So I'm really with you, Alexandra, that feels really, really powerful if you've picked this card. And there's a second reading that I'm seeing here as well, which, you know, it could be both and for people, which actually there are two more. So I'll go with the second one, which is this card is also inviting you to take pause

and take stock of where you've come to on the journey because this power of complete is only here because you've got to a point where completion is possible. In other words, this power is about actually really getting you to recognize what you have created, to feel the whole of the cycle that has come up until now and all that's been done, all the work, the energy, the effort, the making, the doing, and we've all lived lives,

we've all done stuff, this is relevant to all of us, it's to do with the sort of cherishing and valuing of the place we're in. We've climbed a mountain and we're near the summit now, but it's like before you turn around and come back down, just stop and take in the view like look around at the life you've created what who you are what you've done and so on so I feel that quality of fulfillment or a feeling of value is also really really important yeah it's really super and the third thing which is what I was alluding to at the beginning is to really accept the limits of your life and to really recognize what is yours to do and what is not yours to do and to uh really allow that to um hold you that that there is a limit to your capacity, there's a limit to your time, to your

resources, etc. To actually trust in those limits and know that they're holding you to what ultimately needs to happen. Okay, number one is take what you will from that smorgasbord of offerings around complete beautiful okay should we move on to number two I'm eager being a two on myself how can the power of connect help us to realize our visions this year yeah so this is a an summer power, and you were describing it so beautifully with what you were experiencing when you're day 12, Sophie. where we've made that journey from the deep interiority of ourselves in the inner winter to shifting our attention and focus from inside ourselves and from the subtle, mysterious experience of being a human into an out of focus and the more material, mundane, human experience of being a human. And in that place, we tend to have a lot of energy, generosity, where we can actually be with the community of life, you know, it really is this power of community bringing us into connection with something beyond ourselves in the world you know other people and it could even be in connection with nature with the world

around you a very very beautiful energy and we all need it as humans I remember someone once saying how animals who have four legs, you know, their primary connection is with the earth, but humans who are upright on two legs, our primary connection is social. Wow. And, you know, we need one another. We need to be witnessed. We need to be seen.

We need to give and be received and so on. That's a very very important part of the cycle process that's a really beautiful image um yes i feel this there's a simplicity to this you know sort of say don't hide don't hide yeah and i can jump in here alexandra from my my receiving place that i'm inhabiting at the moment that when I see the word connect, I think of it's not just about giving, it's about receiving too. Like being part of the community is reciprocal. We can allow ourselves to receive and give. That's the natural flow of connection and community it's about being in relationship with the world and um and not hiding yourself

you know um and i think if you well you and i have got this card and i mean for me it really is about and we can all sort of interpret it slightly differently, but for me it is really about just get out there and spread the word. That's how I'm hearing it, you know, because I live on my own and I have a lot of time on my own and I have this rich inner life and it's like bringing that out into the world. Let me just take pause for a moment with i want to just pause with this word connect it is you know about sharing yourself uh and sharing your ideas perhaps sharing um your vision i mean there is a point of course

when one has a vision of just really holding it inside oneself for some time but there comes a moment where we really have to start showing ourselves because then there's another kind of magic that kicks in when you connect with people and it's like another kind of magic that kicks in when you connect with people. And it's like another kind of energy that you get fed by. So there's something very simple and very lovely about this card of connection, of sharing yourself. And actually also, I mean, it is about connection keep really nurturing that connection with yourself but because we have it as a summer power it is also very strongly about out there going out there risking showing yourself risking putting yourself in different environments and tasting different things.

Yes, showing yourself. Yeah, so it's really important to say the reason we have access to this power in the inner summer is because of the connection that we have felt at menstruation in our inner winter and how we've held that connection to ourselves through the inner spring. So for those of you who've drawn this card, with this year of practice of cycle awareness, for you to really root into and allow your intention to grow you and to grow through you to hold that line of connection to yourself is really really important it's what will give you the capacity to connect with the world and share what you've got to give and express something of who you are with others. So I want to come back

to this thing of your day-to-day MCA practice and really honing in on prioritizing your connection to yourself and the place you're in before you start to think about what other people might want of you or what you have to do on that day or what the world might expect of you to actually just let yourself feel how you are and have the experience of the place you're in before you have to do whatever it is you have to do. Because often through our day and through whatever we're doing, that connection to ourselves can get muddied and thwarted. And it can be harder to hold on to when we're in that out of focus place. So really stay, create some kind of holding for yourself around really giving yourself that time and place of

connection to yourself, you don't get swept up by whatever else is happening and I think it's um very important if you've drawn this card as well to kind of stay in a um I want to say sustained place of listening because yeah you've set something in motion with your intention this year, and you are practicing checking in with yourself. So really keep your eye and, you know, keep your ear to the ground of how your cycle is leading you and what's coming next, what's unfolding, where the guidance is coming from. Yeah, I think that's going to be very magical, actually. I can't help but feel if you've drawn this card, you're on a magical ride that is going to be really fed

by connection to yourself and from that place connecting to others. All right. Fellow connectors, let's do it. Let's do it let's do it okay card number three was explore possibilities in a spring card explore possibilities i love this card because it's very permission giving um so let me just speak it's an it's a spring card and our spring energy you know i alluded to it earlier has all that uh this natural rising energy that sort of carries you and helps you to cross the line into something you know it helps you to risk, to dare to do something different. It really can help you to initiate, to get going on something.

And also that spring energy has, if you're really pacing it well, really caring for your, because your spirit is quite tender and young at this point. And you've got this, you know, right, if you've rested well, you have this natural rising chi. If you can pace it, you can actually stay in quite a nice little bubble magical bubble with yourself um and and it's a magical bubble where everything feels possible and it really i mean that's actually another power isn't it i mean i want to say actually it's a magical bubble of innocence total innocence yes that's the magic word isn't it it's a total bubble of innocence that sort of can really hold you when you start to take those first steps with something and i know this is how i experience

it when i'm starting something new you know when we have to write something shanee when we're designing a course or when we start writing our books you know i come to a new chapter and i go what the what am i going to say how am i going to and and i just have this rule this is my version of explore possibilities is just write shit it's like you just start to play with things you just you just play with an idea an idea comes and you don't think about how that idea should you know be structured or formed you just whack the idea down and you start playing with it you don't you don't have it's not you know you don't have to be kind of serious and and even think is this going to work you just test things out you experiment you you try this pathway and or you know I'm just trying to think of examples here because I'm

thinking about writing and it's very very real for me because I've got to do some writing on some things you know for red school and and I thought oh god where do I begin I'm thinking what would Sophie say about how you start something blah blah blah and I thought oh fuck excuse me Sophie Sophie no no not because I do need you actually I actually do need you but I thought no no not that thought I want to play that role in your creative process I don't need her right now what I need to do is just to write all the random thoughts that are coming to me I just i'm just going to write random stuff and just put it all out there and that's me exploring possibilities so you can hear

there's no critic at work assessing it going you shaped it you know does that sound right when you want to be promoting something blah blah? No, no, no. No critics. This is a protected zone. Remember, you're in the bubble of innocence. Oh, this explore possibilities is such a special thing. It's a special power. You know, really banish all critics and just let yourself play with some ideas,

play with trying to do something that you want, whatever your vision is. Yeah. I'm feeling that if you've drawn this card, which I have, you're in a new beginning of sorts. You're in a process that is just getting started and for you to inhabit this new beginning it would really behoove you to drop all expectations and to really let yourself off the hook of having to be good at something or be an expert or know what you're doing or even finish anything yes it's really that's not the energy that is going to serve you this year it's a it's it's

much more about learning from doing learning from experimenting and you know if I think of myself and this card I feel like I'm in being invited to put some of that seriousness that you was speaking about at the start of the school to one side you know that part of me that it can be very kind of cynical and almost too thorough and know too much before I know to one side and actually to step into that place of not knowing. You're really being asked, I think, to feel this improvisational energy that we often feel in the spring of our cycle. And when it comes to your MCA practice this year, again, I want to invite you to not have some sort of agenda or a list of what you think you should do in the different stages and phases of your cycle, like, oh, it's menstruation, therefore I must X, Y, or Z. But instead, to drop all that, and to actually listen and feel and experiment with how to respond to the place you're in,

in any given day of your cycle. So proper beginner mind stuff. You may well be a beginner, which will make that easy for you. But you're an old hat really drop the ideas of what you think you should do and really let yourself play with possibilities and I'm so glad I picked that card because that sounds like very glad too I shall enjoy to all my bullshit I shall thoroughly enjoy working with you Shani this year and I shall thoroughly enjoy reminding you cards I'd love to hear from everybody and I feel like I think what I might do is post these three cards on Instagram and for anyone who's listening who's having real like ahas and insights or just wants to share I picked one I picked two I picked three come and have join the conversation in the in the comments on Instagram I'd love to

hear from everybody it's so great to hear what people are taking away from it exactly and also I just want to add really take a moment to receive the card for yourself because you know on a different day shani and i can bring different kind of reflections on cards so it's really interesting so notice how that card is talking to you or touching you um as well don't don't just get completely caught up in what we have been talking about really take a moment with it and think what what can this mean for me this year to really tend to this power more consciously in my cycle awareness and my manifestation work and so on yeah beautifully said and if you're feeling inspired by this conversation and we really really hope that you are to commit to your cycle awareness practice

then please come and join us if you haven't registered already come and join us at red school.net forward slash oracle for our free annual new year visioning retreat your menstrual cycle your oracle where we're all going to rest back together sidestep the whole like new year's resolutions thing and just rest back together into cycle wisdom to help you find your your themes and your you know your guiding guiding visions for the year and how your cycle awareness practice can support you, come and join us. It's on next week on Tuesday, the 14th of January. That's a good question.

Something like, yes, it is the 14th. Yeah, come over to redschool.net forward slash Oracle and you'll be able to join for free. Thanks, you two two this was really fun we should do this again really fun loved it thank you yeah it was really good and really good illuminations about the cycle through it as well to be continued bye loves bye Bye-bye. oracle it's on January the 14th. Okay that's it for this week I'll be with you again next week and until then keep living life according to your own brilliant rhythm.