In the spring of 2019 I was perusing the web researching women’s menstrual health stats and came across The Menstrual Research Society (MRS). I was stunned, and a little ashamed, that I had not ever encountered the organization. Upon browsing the site I saw a deadline to submit a “paper or poster presentation” for the upcoming conference in Colorado Springs in July.
I had zero idea what either a poster or paper presentation was as I had minimal experience in the realms of “higher education”, the world of conferences and peer reviewed research etc. However, I was used to the discomfort, and enormous amount of self love required, of being the black sheep in many rooms- so you betcha I was gonna submit my proposal to present a poster. The accepted my one paragraph pitch immediately to highlight:
“The Shadow Side of Reproductive Rights”
Poster?! I had to make a poster. Ok, like a high school art project (if you grew up before the early 90s), a kind of collage to portray my message. I wanted beauty, depth, impact, clarity- I wanted it to speak womb in a way that I had a sense was underrepresented at the conference. Needless to say my Aries fire was a tad over zealous.
I gathered paint, Crayola markers, various women’s health magazines, quotes and stats from the web to compile into a doc for print-cut-paste, glue stick, glitter. My 200sq foot home, turned art studio, had tiny scraps strewn about for days. I often left the house with a shred of of sticky discard and glitter stuck to my butt.
I painted two wombs. One with oil pouring out of the uterus, into the ovaries and dripping down onto the Earth. And another womb sprouting the canopy of a tree that, without intention, ended up looking like a tree out of the African tundra; Africa is where a large majority of the MRS’s efforts are exported. I then pasted the stats and messages about the feminine, about women in power, about consumerism, what our family systems could look like etc. in place, rolled it all up into a sleeve and boarded a plane.
My home for three days was an unoccupied, grey clad dorm room at the University of Colorado. I landed and quickly set out to find the closest orgo cafe/hippie coffee shop to anchor some sort of a morning routine; I needed a bit of familiarity and safety to help bolster the confidence in presenting my poster. I considered escaping for the three days into the Garden of the Gods, a space I traverse with much more ease than the conference room, but I stayed course.
I arrived early the first day to hang my poster in the assigned spot and, oh goodness, I truly did not know that a poster presentation, for the most part, is a blown up snap shot of results from months or years of research in some area of said topic at hand to ally the graduation of said presenter into qualification for peer review and credibility as some thing worthy of being a beacon of said topic. The walls of the conference room were covered in laminated versions of power point presentations- and there was me and my hand painted wombs.
Women would come by and ask me about my research, my message and my work. Every single one of them squirmed a bit, one walked out of the building in tears.
My Research:
Waking my womb from the slumber of patriarchal control, healing sexual and ancestral trauma, reversing 12 years of hypothalamic amenorrhea, being initiated by midwives and medicine woman into Womb healing and physically holding and listening to the Womb as I guided women (and a lot of men but that is for another day) through the portal of healing in clinical and private settings.
Despite the access we have to information and the emergence of feminine wisdom upon the planet, the majority of women know very little about their bodies. And these are “highly educated” women, some of them teaching about the many avenues for women's empowerment.
The Womb kept sending me messages session after session over the years.
The Messages:
~The world is run by women in the global North. There is a reason the feminine body has been deracinated and women subject to severe oppression since the dawn of wounded patriarchal control- it knows the true power of the Womb.
I was in the midst of privileged women (including myself- meaning I can write this and not fear for my life), pioneering important things, although the room was still blanketed in a strong subconscious sense of competition with one another, and I wanted to highlight another solution for the global crisis of women’s health and safety.
Due to the privilege of women in the global north, if our focus turned to healing our own bodies, listening to our wombs and following the wisdom, we would begin to see a global shift in women’s health and safety.
Power structures would wobble as the economy is heavily dependent on women hating themselves and their bodies, consuming products to remedy the self hate, consuming products to keep their families “lookin good”, competing with each other and exhausting themselves to be successful inside of a system that will NEVER allow the full blossoming potential of feminine wisdom. But it will allow little advancements to make it look like we have freedom.
The quantum vibration of the Womb is the most powerful force on Earth as it helps keep Life in balance- which is a feminine principle. When that vibration is askew well we have what we have now.
There is a reason the Mayan people, the Hopi elders and the 13 Grandmothers prophesied that when the women heal their wombs, remember how to give their moon blood to the Earth, remember their power in Circle together- the Earth will restore to balance.
Capitalism feeds on the Barbie/Marilyn Monroe/Hollywood/ effect. Women’s bodies, the feminine body, are capitalism’s number one resource. The rest of the world is heavily influenced by this. The world pedestalizes the American/westernized dream, the consumer driven success model and what success, family, belonging, sex and love look like- which are largely targeted at, and upheld without us even knowing, by women. Isn’t she such a star, look at that life, that house, that man, that car- all the while she is suffering inside and looped up on pills to make the pain stop. It is not her fault that she is commodified, and yet it is her sacred work to unravel the misogyny that lives in her body and free herself, for herself- and the rest will follow. No more mother wound. No more over giving. No more bleeding out. (a hellofa lot less anyway)
Over 80 percent of purchases and purchase influence are made by women. Women make 91 percent of new home purchases. Female borrowers have an average debt 9.6 percent higher than male students, one year following graduation. 66 percent of consumer wealth will belong to women in the next decade. ~ (a 2023 finance poll)
Money in the hands of women is what the world needs. Give a woman enough resource and space to listen to herself and we move mountains and shift the landscape to right relationship with abundance and power. A woman is naturally wired with a community mindset, Woman is abundance. So if she has committed to reclaiming her womb as a compass in her life, she will be guided to invest in ways that propagate Life in balance. She will be realigned with Sacred Law.
Women who are connected to their innate wisdom know that it is NOT the money that brings about true abundance. However, a woman with money does not necessarily equal feminine power- unfortunately that is a large majority of women- just ask Instagram.
The wounding is deep. The ways this insidious manipulation lives within our bodies is hard to detect as it disguises itself to stay alive and can easily seduce us back into participating in misogyny. This is why circles of women dedicated to supporting one another in the healing process is vital. I have seen miracles unfold in women’s lives from committing to this work together.
I am not saying that a woman can’t stand alone in her full power on the current world stage alongside “the boys”, but can she do it in a way that brings about balance without depleting her own life force? I want to believe she can. Or, is it time to remember our true power and cast our vote within models that support sacred reciprocity?
~What women need to know to make informed choices, listen to their wombs and stand in power…
There is no such thing as reproductive freedom when the Earth is dying. There is a shadow side to reproductive rights. It lives in the illusion that our current reproductive technologies, and the medical model they are connected to, support freedom, healing and body autonomy.
Our reproductive technologies, at this point and for the most part, diminish more than empower feminine wisdom. Bless our foremothers who paved the way for women to access some level of reproductive freedom. However, the majority of the solutions for managing women’s bodies are bandaids that in the long run reinforce the cage women have been trying to break free from.
HRT (hormone replacement technologies) including the copper IUD(on't) and IVF treatments, all contain an element that suppresses the health of the feminine body. None of these technologies are benign. They do and will have an impact in the short and long run. At the very least, they silence our intuition which is the seat of our power. It is part of the parasite’s design to shut down this innate intuitive wisdom in all people- not just women.
Don’t even get me started on hysterectomies. The majority are completely unnecessary.
If the womb is sending a woman messages through imbalanced menstrual cycles, pain, fertility challenges, sexual dysfunction and emotional imbalances it is because it is trying to bring her into contact with her wisdom and heal things that are not only necessary to her life, but to Life at large. This means all women regardless of age.
Sometimes we get messages we don’t want to hear. Messages that get to the heart of letting go of a way of being that isn’t serving us or the Universal family. Women are healers. We birth new life. Sometimes birthing new life means letting things die, including “dreams” that we bought into.
I see this play out a lot in the case of IVF (in vitro fertilization- petri dish conception) What if that woman’s soul contract, her greatest act of Love in this life is not through having children. Maybe the Goddess needs her womb to heal so all children can be born free. What if the reason she is not getting pregnant, on her timeline, is because she are being guided to something more vital to her life in that moment?
The body is the wisest machine. When we override it, as all of us do everyday including me, there are consequences. There are many many layers to this that need nimble and compassionate hands to peel back.
All I ask of these women is- what is your womb really saying? And once you have really listened, become informed about what you are choosing if choosing a reproductive technology. There is likely a subtle element of harm even if it is undetected in the moment “by all of the research”. In fact the drugs given to boost ovulation are unhealthy for and hard on the body. A lot of women suffer through IVF.
Yes we are God AND we also don’t always get to play God on our terms because a lot of our terms are not based in Love. It all depends on what the prayer is feeding. The difference between intuition and trauma, between the Womb and the wound is crazy hard to differentiate.
Every time we take another step away from Natural Law we compromise life. The IVF does not cure or address the reason the couple or the woman could not conceive. That wound still lives in the background to surface again in some other way. When we compile all of these “little” choices, that seem benign in the moment because we can’t see the immediate impact, we end up with a global crisis called starvation, depletion of resource, addictions and genocide of billions of species. The ego is so hard to navigate when it is driven by a powerful (the most powerful) procreative instinct mixed with trauma, impulse and misunderstood desire.
There is tremendous rage and grief that must be accessed inside our bodies around why we are fallow and why our desires are so convoluted. Below those layers lives the wisdom and deep truth most women deny and turn away from because there has not been help for them to access and follow it. Every woman must make her choices and meet herself around this painful process. It goes deep and no one without a womb could ever fully understand. I have held these women. To say I have compassion doesn’t touch it. Every womb is my womb. Every woman is me looking back at me. My sister, my lover, my wisdom keeper.
I am not condemning all use of reproductive technologies. They are valuable for specific populations and situations, at times life saving. I have even suggested them to clients in certain circumstances.
Hormonal birth control must be made accessible to marginalized populations worldwide where women are subject to rape and dire environments that put them at high risk for drug addiction and single motherhood- while those of us who can make different choices do that deeper work of reparation of own bodies for all bodies.
We also don’t need anymore teen mothers. Yet…
Our young people must be educated about their bodies, the collective implications of their choices and how sacred and powerful sexual connection is. I have found that when our youth are given the full spectrum of information and told that they have power to influence their future, they listen. I am fully aware I am writing within a bubble where we are raising our children differently than the majority of the population.
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. ~ Margaret Mead
In the case of severe endometriosis, life threatening fibroids and late stage cancers these interventions can bring great ease to a woman’s life when it’s too late for natural interventions and healing.
I fully support abortion services for all of the reasons. And, if women were educated about their wombs they would have the ability to navigate their fertility with greater empowerment. A word of caution around language my sisters- I have heard women, many times, say “give us our power back” as they march through the streets. This implies that our power comes from inside the cage we are trying to break free from. They can’t ever take our power away as it is incorruptible which is why the efforts to try to diminish it live in almost every facet of society. Walking with that embodied wisdom while standing up for Love with our voices is what shifts the dynamics.
Through and past menopause the womb must be healed and revered for its wisdom for a woman to live in balance and have access to her precious and powerful creative desires. And some really well prescribed bio identical hormones in some cases can really free a woman to transition with more ease.
If all of our Grandmothers had up and healed their wombs I would not be having to write this.
Women were planted by God There is a root spiraling from of each womb that suckles from the inviolable Well at the center of Life We are the dream keepers, water bearers, life givers Women rooted to Life are women rising full and flowing with the nectar that feeds all of the children.
~I also had a lingering question for that room
“Has anyone asked the women in that African community if they want our solutions?”
In many cases women globally need our help. They are being brutalized. They can’t even ask for help without risk of being killed. There must be interventions.
Yet, the solution is to come in and make them like US. Teach them English, put them in school, give them birth control and tampons.
Ok ok- this is all really good and it isn’t great. What about their ancestry? Their own language? What about being empowered to discover a new way of being upon their lands that generates abundance and opens doors that may not look like the current capitalist success model? What about indigeneity?
We can’t help them with that because it is still fleeting/ buried/ forgotten within our own bodies and on our home turf. What is our true lineage? What is at the root of this mess exactly? The answers live in the Womb. The first stories and dreams of those who walked with the good prayers live in the Womb and they are waiting to be sung free.
I am not suggesting a devolution into archaic times. I am suggesting that there is a way for all beings and new technologies to thrive on the Wheel of Life. Diversity is necessary for the cornucopia to feed all. Yet, it is not advancement nor is it a solution if it is not Life inclusive.
When women regain the memories of true belonging and true power from within their wombs we birth a new story collectively. A Universal intelligence is reawakened that amplifies a shift in consciousness from fear to Love and from separation to unity. The First Flame that sparked life alive lives within all of us, is forever burning and the most powerful force known as it made YOU. Support women, support life, support yourself.
I tried at least 40 times to write this. It has been living in me for too many years. I did not want to sound shaming, cynical, mean, unloving, self reighteous etc. I did not want to call women out, we have had enough of that. I wanted to call them around the Circle of Life again to do this healing and reparation work that no one else has the power to do. It is NOT a burden my sisters. The future is in the wombs of the women.
Oh and My Work:
Loving free all that keeps me from filling the Well of Wisdom in my own womb, sharing, expressing and speaking the diverse mystery of Her Many Faces.
Blessed Be. Shira Starfire