Reclaiming the Ancient Rhythms of Womanhood

Mascari, Brooke - April 22nd, 2025

Long before modern clocks and synthetic lights, there was the moon — our first calendar, our cosmic mirror. For women, the moon was more than a celestial body; it was a rhythm keeper, a guide, a womb twin. In ancient times, when life pulsed to the pace of nature, women’s menstrual cycles were often aligned with the phases of the moon. It is said that we bled together under the darkness of the new moon, a time when the night sky was still and quiet, mirroring the call inward that menstruation brings.

This wasn't just a poetic idea. It was lived, embodied, and honored.

Moon-Synced Sisterhood

Before artificial lights disrupted our circadian and infradian rhythms, women living in close community, exposed to the same natural light and darkness, frequently found their cycles syncing. This phenomenon, known as menstrual synchrony, though debated in modern science, is well-supported in anecdotal, historical, and tribal traditions. Women would retreat together during their bleeding time, gathering in “moon lodges” or “red tents,” sacred spaces of rest, reflection, and renewal.

During those days, the community paused for them.

Menstruation was not seen as a nuisance, but a sacred pause. An invitation to release, receive visions, and reset energetically. These were days of fasting, dreaming, and inner work. Women rested. They were not expected to labor or tend to others. Instead, the grandmothers, the wise post-menopausal women, took over.

The Grandmother Hypothesis: Evolution’s Sacred Matriarchs

Modern science has a name for this ancient pattern: the Grandmother Hypothesis. It suggests that one reason human women live decades past their reproductive years, unlike most mammals, is because post-menopausal women became critical to survival. These grandmothers were the keepers of wisdom and healing. They hunted and gathered, taught, protected, and provided childcare so the younger women could recover and stay healthy enough to bear strong children.

But in the sacred feminine lens, it wasn’t just biology - it was design.

These elder women were the stewards of the tribe’s well-being. They carried ancestral memory. They guided with intuition honed through life’s seasons. They became the backbone of the tribe, holding space while the younger women journeyed through their monthly rites of release and renewal.

Period as Portal: Why Ancient Women Fasted and Rested

When a woman bleeds, her body shifts into a deeply parasympathetic state. Her intuition sharpens, her physical energy wanes, and her energetic field opens. Ancient women honored this as a portal. A time to connect with spirit, to dream deeply, to receive guidance for the tribe. Fasting was often a natural part of this process, not out of discipline, but because the body craves simplicity and stillness during menstruation. In resting and fasting, women could fully tune in to the messages of the body, the ancestors, and the earth.

They weren’t isolated; they were set apart.

They were not dismissed; they were exalted.

And in that sacred time, they found clarity; not just for themselves, but for their families, their tribes, their world.

Remembering What We've Forgotten

Today, most of us don’t live in tribal rhythms. We don’t gather with sisters to bleed under the new moon or rest while our elders tend to our children. Instead, we push through. We apologize for our bodies. We numb, hide, and dismiss our cycles as inconvenient.

But the wisdom still lives in our bones.

Each month, your body whispers a reminder of your connection to the moon, to the earth, and to the women who came before you. When your womb contracts and you feel the pull inward, it’s not weakness - it’s a sacred call. A call to rest, to listen, to come home to yourself.

Reclaiming the Rhythm

What if we honored our bleed like our ancestors once did?

What if we created modern moon lodges - even if it’s just a cozy corner, a journal, and a day off?

What if we nourished our bodies, shared our stories, and began to see menstruation not as a burden, but as a superpower?

What if post-menopausal women were seen not as "past their prime" but as stepping into their most potent era - the Era of the Matriarch?

Because the truth is this: women are cyclical, like the moon. We wax, we wane. We are not meant to be the same every day. And the more we remember that, the more we can live in tune with our truth.

Let this be a remembering.

Let this be a revolution.

Let this be a return to the rhythm that is - and has always been - ours.