Aligning with the Lunar Queen
So, the other day I was tracking my cycle on my we'moon calendar, you know, as us witchy ladies are want to do and I noticed something revolutionary that I had never put together before. I happened to start my cycle the day before the full moon last month and so as I was counting the days this month I realized that there are not 28 days from full moon to full moon.
That’s right, you heard me correctly. There are NOT 28 days from full moon to full moon.
Now, maybe to some of you this is not a big deal. Maybe you’re thinking, duh lady, that’s old news. You see, I had always heard of the lunar calendar, or sidereal month, as being in 28 day cycles, which it is technically, because the moon takes 27 days 7 hours and 43 minutes to complete a full orbit around the earth (28 days roughly translated). HOWEVER, a full cycle through the lunar phases takes 29.5 days. And I’m not gonna lie, this little fact kind of blew my mind.
I know, I know, it’s only 1.5 days, right? So what gives?
Well, maybe it’s just me, but I feel like within the new age/new paradigm spiritual communities that I’ve been eclipsing (ha! see what I did there), there’s a pretty big focus on that 28 day cycle. I’ve heard countless stories about how women used to bleed with either the full moon, or the new moon, and about how the average cycle for women being 28 days is tied to the phases of the moon. That our monthly waters are pulled from us much like tides that are at the behest of the great lunar goddess. And I’m not necessarily discounting that mythology, because I am a predominantly lunar creature. I live in relation to my emotional cycles (as do we all), and I cherish my connection to the void, and to my subconscious mind-things that are predominantly lunar archetypes.
At the same time, I’m also in the camp of women who have short cycles. I don’t bleed regularly, and rarely does my cycle align with new or full moon, and hardly EVER is it exactly 28 days.
And honestly, I worried about that fact. I worried that my cycle wasn’t the “right” length. That I didn’t sync up perfectly with either full or new moon. That perhaps I had lost some ancient right of womanhood, of lunar connection.
So imagine my reaction when I figured out that this number I had placed quite a bit of meaning into, that I had set as a subconscious goal for myself, had become suddenly, well, arbitrary. Ah the great cosmic belly laugh of the Creatrix when one of her daughters sees her own limiting beliefs.
Because, really, what is a number? I mean, of course, I want to be healthy. And I have read a good bit of the science on ambient light and it’s connection to the disruption of modern women’s cycles. And, as an herbalist, I know the very real health consequences that can be paired with having an abnormal cycle.
But realistically, I can be healthy and still not have my cycle be lined up with the lunar phases. I can be healthy and not have my cycle be a set number of days. I can be healthy, and have my cycle fluctuate from month to month, year to year, in accordance with my body doing it’s job of responding to the environment it is living within.
And I’m probably late in coming to this realization (but whatever, I’ve always been a late bloomer) but the beauty of being a woman, heck, of being a human, of being ALIVE, is not in our adherence to perfect timing, but in understanding that our timing is perfect. And sure, that doesn’t mean that we don’t need to strive to be healthier and happier as individuals, but it also doesn’t mean that if we are outside the conventional “normal” standard of timing that we are not perfect exactly as we are.
And so my understanding of the underlying message of the lunar queen has shifted from one of conformity to loving acceptance. She may take 29.5 days exactly to move through her phases, but I don’t have to. The greater arc of my life, of my own divine timing, is exactly as it needs to be. Craters and all.
