Learn to respect the flow of your life, connect with like-minded people, reflect and recharge.
A Women’s Circle is a small group of women who meet regularly to connect, pause and reflect. Women’s Circles are also known as Moon Lodges or Red Tents.
Moon Lodges usually meet on either the new moon, full moon or both. Our Moon Lodge meets on both new and full moons. New moons are open to new participants; full moons are closed to a set group of participants. New Moons and Full Moons are wonderful markers of the natural cycles in life. Life is change and unpredictability but it is also cycles and wonder and predictability.
Red Tents historically were places of retreats for women during their menstruation. Having given so much of themselves during the rest of the month in taking care of others, they were a place of relaxation, retreat and creativity.
Qualities of a Women’s Circle:
- Spiritual not religious – A Women’s Circle can focus on a specific religion such as Christianity or Paganism, or it can draw from different religions. They are a means to seek and find divinity – within yourself. We all come in different packages with different upbringings and personalities. The root of the word spirit is from the Latin word to breath; in other words, what makes you ‘come alive‘?
- Intuitive – that womanly art of knowing in your gut. Learn to find it, trust it. Find your essence. We all have gifts that we bring to the table. Do you know what your’s are?
- A connection to nature – Gaia, Mother Earth – that which gives us life and the cycles in life and nature. Life seems to flow more easily when they are respected. It is all about being in tune with others and your environment: a full moon shining on the river, softly falling snow and the first buds of spring. These things make me feel alive.
- Sensual – not sexual but sensual – engaging all of your senses. Women’s Circles incorporate items that speak to your soul such as rocks, statues, pictures, incense and sage for the negative to drift away through the smoke, candles, music, drumming, singing, art, poetry, grapes or homemade cooked items to be communally enjoyed and perhaps a glass of wine. It should be a retreat with soft pillows and blankets … a safe haven. This is your women’s circle, and it should call to your soul: each cell relaxing as you enter.
- Quiet, safe, accepting, non-judgmental. In a women’s circle, you are able to step outside of your roles and responsibilities as homemaker, cook, wife, mother, provider, whatever and just ‘be’. When you take time out to recharge yourself, you are able to bring more to your unique roles in life.
- They should be the same women making a consistent effort to attend. Like anything worthwhile in life, they require time and effort for success. It is something that is built over time as you develop trust/intimacy and allow yourself to be vulnerable.
- Talking sticks or bowls or whichever-word-you-want-to-use. Borrowed from Native American culture: an item that is passed around. While you are holding it, you have the ‘floor’ to speak ‘your truth’. Others should give 100% of their attention without responding in any way. This is an exercise to build your self-confidence and essence. In normal life, we are influenced by the nuances of conversation: a nod here or a yawn there. Schedules that need to be kept, children crying … when you take turns speaking your truth in a trusted environment, your unique truth is allowed to form. Your truth is not my truth is not his truth, but it is oh so important to find and stand behind. It is quite difficult to get used to this as your normal everyday urge is to encourage or discourage other’s communications, but it is quite a powerful concept. When you are done, you can say ‘I have spoken’, and the rest of the circle responds, ‘you have been heard.‘ The beautiful thing is that when you become more used to this in a women’s circle, you are able to carry it to everyday life. And it is a beautiful thing to be heard.
- Intentions should be set. When words are spoken or written, they become powerful. That which you give your attention to, grows. Give it towards improving your life. We have a notebook where we write down our intentions. Even small ones are important to put into writing and acknowledge as for one thing, they can more easily be measured as a success. I love that quote from the Chelsire Cat in Alice in the Wonderland. If you don’t know where you’re going, any ol’ road will get you there. It’s so important to stop in life and figure out where you want to go.
Women’s Circles are primarily a means of personal growth.
What does growth mean to you?
For each of us, it is something different. Perhaps it is learning to set boundaries, accept humility, take a class you always wanted to – whatever propels you along on your unique path.
They are a small community that is formed to encourage growth in its members by removing yourself from the ‘thick of life’ in order to pause, reflect, connect and honor beauty and nature.
For more information and/or to connect women’s circles, please join our Facebook group here:
the divine feminine app: Find a Women's Circle 