Full Description
Drawing on the wisdom of ancient cultures, the natural cycles of life, and her own groundbreaking research, Pia Orleane, Ph.D., offers a template for how we can restore balance to our emotions and health, ease tensions between the sexes, and heal our fractured culture by honoring divine feminine consciousness and re-embracing natural cycles, including our innate need for rest and retreat. She explains the biology of how our bodies operate by hormones released in cycles and shows how balanced hormones help eliminate anger, depression, insomnia, anxiety, and fatigue. Exploring ancient traditions and rituals surrounding blood and sacred retreat, she explains how the seclusion of women during menstruation and of men during vision quests offered a cleansing process for body and mind, alone time to clear suppressed emotions, awaken our innate creativity and sensitivity, re-attune us with the deeper rhythms of the body and nature, and restore harmony between the genders and balance between the divine feminine and masculine.
Contents
Foreword by Barbara Hand Clow
Opening Remarks by Cullen Baird Smith
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 The Cyclic Nature of Life
2 Biology and Healing
3 Religion Replaces Spirituality
4 Blood Mysteries
5 Clearing, Cleansing, and Divine Sexuality
6 The Power of Words
7 Deep Listening
8 Relationships of the Heart
9 Dreaming Cycles
10 Creativity Cycles
11 Menopause Magic and Andropause Awakening
12 The Water We Are
13 Welcoming the Divine Feminine
APPENDIX 1
The Research
APPENDIX 2
Blood Rituals around the World
APPENDIX 3
Taboos Surrounding Menstruation
Notes
Bibliography
Index
