Menstruation is a mysterious process of the female organism that is seldom talked about, even among women. To understand why, it’s worth taking a look at its cultural history.
The flow of blood and the connection between the female cycle and the phases of the moon, which, according to Rudolf Steiner, goes back to very ancient times, brought women into a relationship with cosmic forces in prehistoric times and was a reason magical and healing powers were attributed to them. Women spent the menstrual period in special, sacred places under religious regulations, for example, to not touch the ground or look at the sun. Moon kings and moon goddesses were worshipped in many ethnic groups and moon cults were practiced. As late as the seventeenth century, it was still customary among the indigenous people in the region of Virginia in the United States for girls to fast for three days in a pit during the rite of puberty and to dream of their future. According to Rudolf Steiner, the former constitution of women, originating in prehistoric times (“inherited” from Old Moon), was such that all women ovulated on the full moon and bled on the new moon as one synchronized group. The rhythm and its phases still exist, but women now experience this as separate individuals. Here we can see a harmonious accord of social bonds with freedom and one example where a relic from a previous time is kept from having a harmful effect in the “wrong” era.
As access to cosmic processes was lost, menstruating women were seen as strange and sinister, and, over time, they were ostracized and despised. In the twentieth-century United States, disgust and revulsion towards menstruation were expressed in calling it “the curse,” “evil blood,” “red hell,” and “on the rag.” Women were also declared to be the weaker sex on account of their monthly complaints. For the most part, they adopted these attributions themselves; menstruation was only reticently discussed. The second women’s movement, at the end of the 1960s, consciously placed the female body at the center of its politics and discourse. This meant that menstruation and its accompanying symptoms could be discussed more openly. In the 1978 book The Wise Wound: Menstruation and Everywoman by Penelope Shuttle and Peter Redgrove, severe menstrual cramps were treated using psychoanalysis and dream analysis according to C. G. Jung and placed in a completely new cultural-historical, psychological, and medical context.1
Even today, menstruation is not considered to be completely “socially acceptable.” How can we approach menstruation in modern times? Anthroposophical medicine is able to expand upon many aspects of menstruation. For this reason, the Women’s Council of the Anthroposophical Society [Frauenrat der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft] organized two online lectures by the Berlin gynecologist Angelika Maaser, an active member of the Society of Anthroposophic Doctors in Germany [GAÄD, Gesellschaft Anthroposophischer Ärztinnen und Ärzte in Deutschland]. Barbara Messmer interviewed Dr. Masser about menstruation in order to delve deeper into the topic from an anthroposophical perspective.
Barbara Messmer: Dear Angelika, please say something in general about a woman’s cycle based upon your experiences in your gynecological practice.
Angelika Maaser: First of all, the cycle is something wonderful. As women, we’re stimulated by it naturally, to continuously go through change and remain in continuous motion. It’s an oscillating rhythm, based in ancient times upon the moon. Today, we’ve brought these forces within ourselves and individualized them, so now each cycle is also individual. Cycles of 24 to 35 days are completely normal, and they can also change with life and its demands. This is very important for me to share. It’s not a uniform cycle that’s prescribed, and the “28 days” are a purely statistical value. Incidentally, apps that track women’s cycles have now discovered that the average is 29 days, which can also be easily explained by the different lunar cycles.
As women, we have the opportunity to recognize when our lives are out of rhythm through changes in our menstrual cycle and then can perhaps change things accordingly. It’s interesting to note that the age of menarche (the age at the first menstruation) is moving further and further forward. A number of reasons are thought to be behind this: early introduction of intellectualization and sensory overload, vaccinations, eating habits, and certain psychological reasons. Unfortunately, we still have very few studies on it. What’s interesting, though, is that girls in Waldorf school get their periods on average around a year later than girls in typical public schools. When periods start too early, at the age of eight or nine, it’s clearly very difficult for young girls, who suddenly find themselves in a woman’s body that doesn’t correspond with their psychological development.
You see the cycle as divided into two halves. What are the general biological processes involved in regard to the anthroposophical view of the fourfold human being?
The first half of the cycle is characterized by development. The upper members—the astral body and the ‘I’—are loosened slightly, and the body is teeming, so to speak, with developmental forces: the uterine lining is built up; the skin is better supplied with blood; the hair and nails grow faster; and the woman’s inner state of soul is characterized by vitality, liveliness, and openness to the world. This development culminates in ovulation, in which the follicle (egg sac) bursts. When the physical (follicle) perishes, the spiritual enters: fertilization occurs here.
The second half of the cycle is characterized by a deeper intervention of the upper members. The uterine lining is transformed and differentiates, the previously abundant growth calms down, and women are more withdrawn and introverted in their soul life. This increased intervention of the ‘I’ can also be observed in many women by an increase in basal body temperature of around half a degree Celsius in the second half of the cycle. There are studies that show that these changes even extend to their speech, which is richer in adjectives and subordinate clauses (more classical, overall) in the first half of the cycle and more static and sedate in the second half.
Shuttle and Redgrove claim that in the premenstrual phase (PMS)—the second half of the cycle—women reveal a side of themselves that they don’t otherwise express. In general, they tend to want to be easy to care for and “low-maintenance,” whereas during PMS, they may express anger, distance themselves, and assert their rights. Do you agree?
Yes, absolutely. I’d put it a little differently, though. In the second half of the cycle, the need for withdrawal and time to oneself is much greater. Demands and responsibilities that bring women to their limits when in their full strength will then be experienced as overwhelming and excessive, so that women have to fend them off and push them away. I’m sure that many women would actually welcome the safe spaces that used to exist for menstruating women, where they could be undisturbed. One of the first steps I take in treating PMS is to encourage women to allow themselves a bit of this retreat, if their everyday lives allow it. Young women today have begun an important discussion around the idea of a “cycle-friendly lifestyle,” though, of course, we must maintain a certain political caution here.
What are the characteristic features of menstrual bleeding for the female organism?
Blood is something very special here, and through menstruation, our blood renews itself a little every month; at the same time, the body loses a little of its iron and has to absorb and incorporate it again. This means that dealing with iron and its forces is also a very lively process. This is especially easy to understand when it comes to heavy menstrual bleeding: women describe the experience as if their life force is draining out of them, and the heavy bleeding at the beginning of menopause can be experienced as life-threatening.
In this context, it is perhaps important to mention that women used to menstruate much, much less because they had long breaks during pregnancy and breastfeeding. This means that women used to have around 40 periods in their lives, whereas today, we often have around 400.
Shuttle and Redgrove call menstruation a “wise wound” because a brief “moment of truth” can occur during this time. What can you say in this regard?
That’s a very beautiful formulation. It is, indeed, a very special wound because while the blood is still flowing out and the old cycle is ending, a new cycle is beginning. The end and the beginning are together in one moment. Blood is also given to the Earth.
What is the rhythm of the female cycle like in our time of contraceptive pills and modern conditions of civilization?
The menstrual cycle and all attendant disruptions can be overwhelming for many women under today’s conditions because, to a certain extent, there’s no possibility of allowing it to follow its natural course freely. The pill suppresses the body’s own rhythm and replaces it with the regulated pill cycle. This bleeding is not real menstrual bleeding but bleeding due to the withdrawal of a hormone, a kind of counterfeit bleeding, so to speak. For a number of complaints (and sometimes even without them), it is recommended to take the pill for a long period of time without a break. The question always arises as to whether counterfeit menstrual bleeding is better than no bleeding at all. Every woman has to answer this question individually. The pill’s mechanism of action is to suppress ovulation, and ovulation is always a turning towards the cosmos, which may include turning towards a sense of what is to come. If we take the pill for a long time, this opening may not take place, and we may forego a perception of what’s to come. Also, the role of irregularities in my cycle, which indicate that I should, perhaps, manage myself in some other way, will also be suppressed. Even so, sometimes this suppression is helpful, for instance, when the circumstances of one’s cycle are such that maintaining a functional daily life isn’t possible. I’m often very grateful to offer this option to my patients. What’s important is that women know and understand what they’re choosing.
I’d like to touch on two more topics in a woman’s life. The first is the interruption of the menstrual cycle: pregnancy, as an exceptional state.
We could talk about the wonders of pregnancy for hours. The interrelationships of a woman’s fourfold being undergo a change: the upper members loosen and give space for etheric growth for what will develop within them. As a result, pregnant women are, to some extent, withdrawn from Earth, but, on the other hand, a new earthly body begins to develop within them. Rudolf Steiner described how the uterus, especially one undergoing pregnancy, is a piece of the cosmos upon the Earth. If we carry these thoughts as a basis for caring and communicating with a pregnant woman, then good, dignified, and respectful treatment will come of its own accord.
And the second topic is the ultimate end of menstruation: menopause.
Humans and whales are the only species where females have a span of life after the time of fertility. With life expectancy of around 85 years for women, this means a good third of our lives. The building-up and breaking-down forces previously used in the menstrual cycle become spiritual forces after menopause. As is so often the case with transitions, this transition is not always smooth, but it compels or urges us to enter this new phase of life with wakefulness. And I’ve observed in many of my patients that there’s an enormous and impressive increase in soul-spiritual forces once these no longer express themselves in the physical body, and thereby these forces become freely available to serve the community.
Many thanks, dear Angelika, for these enlightening descriptions and perspectives!
Frauenrat der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft [Women’s Council of the Anthroposophical Society]
Seven women are currently involved in the Frauenrat der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft [Women’s Council of the Anthroposophical Society]: Dagmar Elbel-Piehler (Hanover), Birgit Grube-Kersten (Berlin), Friedlinde Hüther (Mannheim), Karin Kesper-Kirsch (Koblenz), Margarete Kokocinski (Mannheim), Petra Kühne (Frankfurt), and Barbara Messmer (Frankfurt). In 2014, their combined efforts resulted in the exhibition “Friedensimpulse von Frauen” [Women’s impulses for peace,] which was on display at various locations in Germany until 2020. A brochure on the exhibition has been available since 2019. In 2023, the tenth anniversary was commemorated with a big celebration. In addition, a women’s library, currently with over 1,000 books and an online catalog, is being developed. Over 30 women support the Women’s Council from afar.
For several years, the Women’s Council worked with the fourfold human being as developed by Rudolf Steiner and its relation to the constitutions of men and women. Gender language, equal representation on committees, the issue of peace, female role models, matriarchy, outstanding anthroposophists, feminist literature, and female formats for events are ongoing topics of concern for the group. Last but not least, since the beginning, questions of knowledge have been addressed, such as those raised in the fourteenth chapter of the Philosophy of Freedom: is the bodily basis merely a counterpart to the spirit, or does it have a decisive influence on the spirit, itself, for our development into free, whole human beings?
More: Arbeitszentrum Frankfurt, Der Frauenrat | Friedensimpulse Von Frauen
Translation Joshua Kelberman
Photo Christina Deravedisian
