The Fifth Season

Body temperature. Pulse. Breath. Blood pressure.

Medicine has long used vital signs as clues to what is happening inside the body.

The menstrual cycle can offer information too.

Cycle length, bleeding patterns, pain, changes in flow and changes from what is usual for us can all tell us something worth noticing.

But menstrual awareness can take us somewhere beyond measurement.

The cycle moves through changing hormonal phases, and with them we may notice shifts in energy, mood, appetite, sleep, temperature, sexuality and our desire to turn towards or away from the outside world.

We are not exactly the same woman every day of the month.

There can be freedom in knowing this.

Instead of demanding endless consistency from ourselves, we can begin to recognise our own rhythm.

There are many ways of mapping that rhythm. Some women experience the cycle through the language of inner seasons. Others notice different patterns entirely.

The point is not to squeeze ourselves into another system.

It is to pay attention.

When do I naturally turn outward?

When does energy rise?

When do I need more solitude?

What changes as bleeding approaches?

And what is different this month from the last?

Significant changes, unusual bleeding or severe pain deserve medical attention. Listening to the body does not mean replacing medicine. It means knowing ourselves well enough to recognise when something has changed.

And eventually, for those who reach menopause, the bleeding stops.

But cyclicality does not.

There are rhythms older and larger than menstruation.

Light and dark. Activity and rest. Seasons. Moon. Tides. Bloom and retreat.

The monthly blood cycle may be one of our earliest teachers in something the body continues to know long afterwards:

we were never linear creatures.