In our lives we have four phases:
- The first stage is that of the Maiden – a time of change, of physical, mental and emotional change into adulthood.
- The second stage is the Mother – our adult stage of life, which is usually cyclic and when we stand grounded in the outer world.
- The third stage is that of the Enchantress – a time of change, of physical, mental and emotional evolution into completeness.
- The fourth stage is that of the Crone – our elder stage of life, where we sit between the worlds.
The Enchantress years can start in our forties as we begin to alter physically and to lose the regularity of our menstrual cycles. We change – our body changes, our emotions change, even the way we think starts to change. And the change doesn’t stop with last menstruation (which is called ‘Menopause’*), it continues after our Menopause, and often it can take up to 10 years before we enter our Crone phase of life where the transformation is complete and our energies are stable.
The menstrual cycle teaches us a lot about the four stages of women’s lives. Within the menstrual cycle are two cycles: a cycle of varying physical energies, and a cycle of changing dominant thinking (I write more about this in my book The Optimized Woman).
The Enchantress phase of our cycle is the pre-menstrual phase, and it is a time of decreasing physical energy and stamina as our hormones decline. But we also experience a change in our thinking as our subconscious mind becomes more dominant. The subconscious mind is the level at which we process our patterns, our memories, and the information the intellectual mind cannot hold. This mind is quick – but it doesn’t think in words, because this ability belongs to the Maiden phase and its dominant intellectual mind. Instead the Enchantress mind is amazingly intuitive, creatively inspired, spiritual, and free from restriction and inhibition.
When we walk the path of the Enchantress years, we walk the path of the pre-menstrual phase. Not only does our body alter, but our thinking becomes dominated by the subconscious mind. Not remembering a word or a name is not a sign of ageing – it is a sign of the Enchantress mind becoming more dominant! We are not growing old, we are becoming Enchantress, and we are thinking with her intuitive, spiritual and inspired mind. In a world that defines intelligence by the ability to use words and numbers the Enchantress stage is seen as a decaying of the mind and a degeneration of our abilities. But this is not the case. We are in fact growing up! Everything in our life is leading us to this stage of growing wisdom, of knowing without words, of inspired living, of spiritual awareness, of vision and of caring for the future of all.
The Enchantress stage is not to be feared, because we have been there before. Each of us enters the Enchantress energies of the pre-menstrual phase. We know what she likes, how she feels and how she thinks. We learn over the years to listen to the Enchantress within us, to meet our pre-menstrual needs and to embrace the amazing gifts and energies she brings us. We know that when we welcome her and make room for her in our lives our healing occurs, and our lives become magically transformed.
The Enchantress dances her life without restriction and without the need to be anything other than herself. She creates and weaves, cares and inspires, rides the waves and focuses the powers of the deep into life-giving blessings.
If we saw ageing as a sign of sacred change, or of humanity reaching its ultimate position of sitting between the world of spirit and the world of the everyday life, then perhaps we would treat our elders with greater understanding and respect – and give them space to be who they are and to bring their wisdom and inspiration into our societies.
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*‘Menopause’ is a medical term for the blood of last menstruation. It is a medical word, created from ancient Greek words meaning ‘last month’, for something that announces that we are deep in the magic of our Enchantress years. I suggest we find a new term for our last blood, and in keeping the tradition of ancient Greek, I suggest the name ‘Sophia’.
‘Sophia’ means ‘wisdom’, and it acknowledges that we are released from the restrictions of the outer world to walk our path to spiritual fulfilment. To have had our Sophia is to go deeper into our female energy awakening.
