Redeeming Periods: A Spirituality of the Menstrual Cycle
What is a faithful Christian —even theological— approach to the menstrual cycle? It’s disgusting to many people, inconvenient to more, but an enigma to most. I’d like to suggest that there is a better way to think and live with periods that reflect the gospel, our Creator and the redemptive mission of Christ, and release us as menstruating women to better participate in those purposes. Let’s explore together where the western approach to the period seems to have come from and discuss whether this approach is actually all that biblical or helpful for us today.
Cultural Perceptions of the Menstrual Cycle
In her book, Waiwhero: The Red Waters—A Celebration of Womanhood, Ngãhuia Murphy explores an understanding of the menstrual cycle from within te ao Mãori. According to Murphy, a woman’s cycle is closely tied to the history, future and wellbeing of the whole whãnau; it’s a family issue, and therefore requires honour and respect. Waiwhero—the flow of blood—is tapu, but also signals that pregnancy will not be occurring, and thus a potential descendant is being returned to the earth. During bleeding, men are taught that the menstrual cycle ensures their whakapapa lives on, and that they therefore must play an active role in protecting and nurturing women. Wãhine are taught, and Murphy encourages them, to lean into their womanhood and embrace the space given to rest and recreate.
This sense of honour and mutual responsibility is a far cry from western notions of the period. Western women are chided to hide their periods—girls hide tampons up their sleeves, try to open sanitary pads as silently as possible and, at all costs, avoid the period horror story of ‘leaking’ in public. Euphemisms for menstruation are rife—“It’s that time of the month” or “Aunty Flo has arrived” were ones I grew up using—reinforcing that a woman’s period must be hidden and only spoken of in secret. The expectation is that a woman must just carry on with life, like everybody else, despite all the changes her body goes through each month.
“Recovering the menstrual cycle from western disgust and learning how to live in sync with this cycle is a theological statement, as much as it is a practical lifestyle. It has a highly dignified view of the body [and] honours the method God instituted for human reproduction.”
Where did this disdain come from? Some argue it arose from Levitical laws in the Old Testament regarding menstruation and its ritual impurity, but a number of factors suggest this does not follow. As one example, according to biblical scholar Lloyd Bailey, the ritual impurity attributed to menstrual blood doesn’t seem to be a reference to sanitation—faeces and urine, also understood to be ‘unclean,’ were not treated with the same intention as menstrual blood. Instead, the laws of segregation surrounding menstruation seem motivated by the understanding that blood is deeply connected to life and the living, and is therefore neither to be made light of nor to be dismissed as inconsequential—a theme that runs throughout all the rest of Leviticus. In view of this, consider how much more reverence would be instilled by menstrual blood, a product of the cycle that participates in the creation of life itself.
Western attitudes of disgust with the period can be seen to have its roots in ancient Greek dualistic philosophies of the body, rather than being of Hebraic origin. The Greek perception of human sexuality is deeply disparaging, and its perspective of the physical world more generally is awkward and hesitant. Controlling and restraining the body and its functions—as women are often taught to do with their periods today--seems to have its roots more in Greek ideals of “self-mastery” than in the Christian call to control the “desires of the flesh” (Gal 5:16-17). Rather, a more faithful Christian and biblical response is that the physical world is good, and more importantly for our discussion, the body is good.
The Menstrual Cycle as a Framework for Life
Living within natural rhythms is not exclusive to women—the rest of creation operates within countless seasons and cycles with regular ebbs and flows. In his book, Your Life in Rhythm, Bruce Miller discusses the vital importance of paying attention to all variety of these rhythms and leaning into them, rather than ignoring them as if life is consistently linear. Our 9-to-5 world does a poor job at accommodating these natural rhythms with its linear, daily-grind model—a model that is actually more appropriate for men and their daily testosterone cycles, incidentally. Women in societies like our own live in a linear society structure, but they themselves are not linear, and neither is the rest of life!
What is the alternative? Instead of fighting bodily cycles, I believe women have the opportunity to harness them as a framework for life, with seasons of work, rest, mental focus, and heightened emotion (to name a few—see below) all built in, each with their own advantages. Harnessing these seasons is not denying that God can work outside of them, or that we are always tied to them deterministically. However, it does also affirm that God and God’s creation provides and works within seasons of time—see Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 for one example of this wisdom. A greater sense of trust and surrender may be available to a woman who decides to live more intentionally within her God-ordained cycle as is summarised below:
A chart depicting spiritual rhythms built around the menstrual cycle. PDF downloads available below.
Phases of the Menstrual Cycle
Menstruation: The Winter Phase
Bodily Features:
Bleeding and shedding of endometrium (lining of the uterus), a.k.a. the ‘period.’
Hormones oestrogen and progesterone are at their lowest of the whole cycle, accounting for the significant drop in energy.
Opportunities and advantages:
Slowing down and intentionally resting.
Spending time apart from others, as in Leviticus 15.
Release of blood may also be a good time to release other things in life, e.g. overbearing responsibilities and expectations, or unhelpful thoughts and sinful attitudes that can go unfiltered during Autumn phase.
Pre-ovulation: The Spring Phase
Bodily Features:
Oestrogen levels gradually increase in preparation for ovulation, lifting energy levels.
Increased focus and a sharp memory.
Opportunities and advantages:
As the hormonal cycle is essentially starting again, a number of other areas and projects can also experience a refresh.
Reduced sentimentality can lend this phase to spring-cleaning-like activities, whether literal or metaphorical.
Ovulation: The Summer Phase
Features:
Ovulation (release of an ovum), and thus the peak of oestrogen levels, high levels of serotonin and a spurt of testosterone.
Increased confidence, energy and desire to connect with others (all factors that may help lead to pregnancy…).
Opportunities and advantages:
Intentionally invest in relationships.
Say ‘yes’ to new opportunities and put previous ideas into motion.
Premenstruum: The Autumn Phase
Features:
Provided the ovum is not fertilised (i.e. pregnancy), hormones wane in preparation for menstruation.
Energy dips and confidence can fade, giving way to increased intolerance and critical evaluation.
Opportunities and advantages:
Carefully consider taking action on the injustice or conflict that you may otherwise be overly tolerant of.
Intentionally increase grace and kindness toward yourself, and recall truth in the face of insecurity.
Set appropriate boundaries for the cycle ahead.
Redeeming the Cycle as Redemptive
Recovering the menstrual cycle from western disgust and learning how to live in sync with this cycle is a theological statement, as much as it is a practical lifestyle. It has a highly dignified view of the body, honours the method God instituted for human reproduction, affirms a woman’s femininity, and submits to the God-ordained seasons given to creation to govern its being. These seasons may even provide a framework on which to hang spiritual disciplines and practices, so that a woman’s spirituality can also operate in sync with her cycle—tying spiritual rhythms to naturally existing ones is not a new idea, but has been practiced by Hebrews for centuries in the Jewish Shabbat and Sabbath rhythms. A template of this variety is linked below, based on a cycle length of 30 days.
It is my hope that the recovery of a dignified and resourceful view of the menstrual period will help women to engage theologically with their menstrual cycles, make a statement about their cycle’s Creator and Redeemer, and from their cycle also draw strength to more fully participate in God’s redemptive purposes in the world. The menstrual cycle presents itself to us as something to be lived into, not in spite of. Period.
Below is a link to a variety of resources and print-outs to help develop spiritual practices and rhythms around the menstrual cycle. The resources to suggest ways women can live into their cycles and engage with God in different ways according to the unique advantages of each phase. The wheels are based on a cycle length of 30 days, but the grid is adaptable to any cycle length.
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Grace Paddison is a youth pastoral leadership student at Carey Baptist College - Te Kareti o Iriiri Carey.