Moon Phase = full, waning toward gibbousWeather =upper 30's at the moment...yay!Current reading = none
Quote: "It is never 'only a dream'..."
- The Sandman, 'Dream a Little Dream of Me'

November 5, 1998

It's Thursday - that means starting a new chapter in The Artist's Way. I've made it through one week and am starting week 2 - Recovering a Sense of Identity.

I'd forgotten so much since I went through it before or perhaps I'm just more open to it this time. Either way, it's not quite as hard since I have an entire group on the same journey as me.

I don't know how long this entry will be - it hurts like hell to sit at this computer. I can certainly understand why women are more powerful at moontime - the pain can sometimes drive one to incredible lengths. My lower back is killing me right above where it joins my pelvis and it is not a result of my working on the first SHA poster. It has been there, lurking and mocking me since before I began working. Perhaps that's why so much of the poster has gotten done tonight - while I'm working, I don't think about it. I don't think about anything at all.

Many traditions, especially tribal ones, would very nearly exile women during their moontime because it was said to be 'dirty, disruptive and a contaminant.' Some traditions didn't allow women to cook; to be near any magical workings...some even went so far to say that a woman couldn't step over a plate during this time.

Truth is - a woman at her moontime is pretty powerful, once she realizes it. It isn't dirty. It certainly can be disruptive as hell but it isn't a contaminant. The truth about all those taboos placed on women, in Native tribes anyway, because they had what was considered 'medicine' (power) that was so strong it could kill - and negate any magicks that men had. Men on the eve of combat; the wounded and sacred objects were particularly susceptible. John (Fire) Lame Deer has been recorded as saying, "The Oglalas do not view menstruation as something unclean or to be ashamed of. Rather, it is sacred...but {the Oglalas} thought that menstruation had a strange power that could bring harm under some circumstances. This power could work in some cases against the girl, in other cases against somebody else."

I can believe it.



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