The Rise Of Sisterhood (Part II)

Yikes, we are already at the end of February. It’s our hope that all of us are maintaining our excitement to follow through with our resolutions and intentions while remaining eager to bring more creativity and wellness into our lives in 2019. We recently went in depth in our article The Rise of Sisterhood (Part I), hoping to invite women into greater understanding of why it is oh-so-important to maintain and participate in various types of Women Circles that focus on empowerment, sharing, and developing feminine strength in loving unity. We thought sharing a couple of traditions that focus on sisterhood would further ignite your interest in developing your relationship to other women in positive, healthy and meaningful ways.

There is a certain kind of magic that takes place when women gather together, a lost tradition during the patriarchal rule that is now gaining momentum across the globe as the old paradigm begins to dismantle. Women are slowly reconnecting and reviving the ways in which they nurtured one another, cultivating their femininity, and strengthening their innate powers.

“A circle of women may be the most powerful force known to humanity. If you have one, embrace it. If you need one, seek it. If you find one, for the love of all that is good and holy, dive in. Hold on. Love it up. Get naked. Let them see you. Let them hold you. Let your reluctant tears fall. Let yourself rise fierce and love gentle. You will be changed. The very fabric of your being will be altered.” – Jeanette LeBlanc

The Red Tent Tradition

The Red Tent is a tradition where women would gather during their moon cycles, otherwise known as menstruation. If you want to find out more about it, Anita Diamant wrote a book entitled “The Red Tent” which has been published in twenty-five countries and translated into twenty languages upon which a film was made. In the words of Azriel ReShel “The Red Tent provided a place for women to recalibrate, incubate, dream, slow down and reconnect, during their moon time. This monthly cycle is far more than just a physical cycle, it is a cycle of transmutation, offering the potential for rebirth each month. It is a time of renewal and letting go.”

Women are the creators of life, and honouring their cycles on the New Moons and Full Moons allowed them to heal themselves and also tap into their deep intuitive abilities. Women have always been revered for their ability to tap into other worlds and for using their profound emotional strengths as gifts as well as honouring their physical vessels as creators of life. They were considered goddesses of life and transformation. They would celebrate the rites of passages into womanhood, motherhood, and the wise crone during menopause.

The way some societies treat women’s moon cycles as something “dirty” or an obstacle in the workforce, reveals something about our current perceptions. Long ago, menstrual blood was used to fertilize the land, now it has become something shameful, unclean, and a nuisance. Long ago women were the only ones who delivered babies, not men. They were known as midwives and doulas who took care of the mother before, during and after delivering the child. Many women have forgotten this. The time to relearn the ways of our ancestors in order to protect our birthing process, our femininity, and our voice is here and now. If you want to dive further into the Red Tent movement and the film, you can follow this link for more info.

“The Old Ones say
that the women
will lead the
healing among the
tribes. Inside
them are the powers
of love and strength
given by the Moon
and the Earth…”

~ Native American Wisdom

Image: Tamara Phillips Art

Here are some of the common goals of the global Red Tent movement:

• Empower each other
• See each other as equal
• Listen without judgment
• Value community
• Heal ourselves of deep trauma and stress
• Laugh and make new friends
• Remember we are all connected

Women’s Circles

You can also find Women’s Circles that cultivate female energy through rituals or activities that follow themes around opening your heart, connecting with the emotional body, and cultivating authenticity in a sacred fashion. There is often an element to connect women to their womb-space, learning to listen to their physical bodies and inner intuition. The rise of the feminine is a movement that seeks to bring our planet into greater harmony, allowing women to re-claim their voices and power while healing inner wounds that extend beyond them. There is a Global Sisterhood Movement that began on Women’s Day in 2016. The movement is growing with thousands of women in over 80 countries that unify to transform themselves and others. You can read more about it here.

Sisterhood creates a sacred space to eliminate competition and develop collaboration, to replace jealousy and gossip with compassion, empathy and understanding. When women empower one another it ripples out into their homes, their communities and their workplaces. If you are looking for Red Tent events to participate in Lebanon, there are two lovely women that hold such events: Mireillee Hammal (you can follow this link for public events here and her Facebook page here; and Eva Zayat (her Facebook page of events right here).  There are many other similar events that are listed in Lebitivity or on Facebook that encourage sisterhood groups or gatherings. We hope this inspires you to participate in the rise of sisterhood so that you may be supported, held, and encouraged to celebrate your femininity with other women.

Short video, “I am a Women,” by Global Sisterhood:

References:

Cover image: https://squareup.com/store/om2ohm/

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/angela-d-coleman-/5-reasons-why-sisterhood-_b_5482669.html

https://upliftconnect.com/reviving-ancient-sisterhood/

https://www.globalsisterhood.org/about/

http://www.redtentmovie.com/red_tent_movement.html

https://www.globalsisterhood.org/sister-circles/