Moon Time - Welcoming girls into womanhood

This week I am sending out my first press release for the launch of ‘Moontime’ – Welcoming girls into womanhood.

The e- book is available at www.qualitytime4u.com/products.php.

I thought you might like a preview. Please forward onto anyone you know who has a daughter who is coming into this important time of their lives.

MENSTRUATION - CURSE OR CELEBRATION?
July, 2007 - For Centuries Woman have felt, ashamed, dirty, and unclean during their menstruation period, a Secret, something you didn’t share with the Rest of Your Family. Did you know what was happening to your body the first time you had your monthly bleed?? Did you think you were dying?? A Mother and Daughter Guide.‘First Moon’ - Celebrating the onset of Menstruation, is an e-book written to 'Welcome girls into Womanhood', to see the beginning of menstruation as an occasion for great joy and celebration. This book is written for girls aged 9 years and over, their Mothers, Grandmothers, Guardians and Mentors. Most parts of the book can be read by girls on their own, and afterwards discussed with their caregivers. The chapters are marked clearly, and of course all of it can be read by mothers and fathers. "FIRST MOON", first menstruation, describes a girl’s newly found fertility as part of the natural cycle of life.

The chapter; Becoming a Woman “AROUND THE WORLD” – For Girls, describes how in other cultures girls receive a special celebration.

The e- book gives ideas, on how to celebrate your daughters’ onset of menstruation; How to have a Red Party, a fun way to celebrate with her friends. First Moon gives you ideas on how a Wise Woman can introduce your daughter into the secrets of the female way of life. “FIRST MOON” will give the young girl practical tips for managing painful periods, her menstrual cycle and a word check. I hope that this book will help your daughter look forward to the days when she begins to bleed. It is her special time, when she joins the circle of women. It will be a very important time in your life too. Please don't let it go by unnoticed. Honour yourself and your daughter.

Download the e-book at www.qualitytime4u.com/products.php. Quality Time 4 U is a website dedicated to inspiring and celebrating Woman

Full Moon

Full Moon – 30th July

Tonight it is a full Moon.
From where I am standing The Moon is just rising, sending reflections onto the river below. There is not a breath of wind.
I can see Fish making rings in the river moon light.

The Full Moon is a time to reflect on any unwanted fears, ideas, values, obligations, pressures and stresses.
It is a time to ‘let go’, release anything that no longer serves you.

If possible go out and stand in the light of the Moon.

Say To Yourself;
“I hereby release any energies that no longer serve me,
Name your issues…….
SO BE IT, SO BE IT, SO BE IT”

Thank the Moon, Grandmother Moon.

Moon Time

Do you think of menstruation as a time of shame and embarrassment or a time of sacred joy and celebration

Vicki Noble writes in Shakti Woman: - “that Western Women have forgotten the spiritual significance of the menstrual cycle and need to reconnect in order to empower themselves”.

I think the time has come to honour ourselves and our daughters.
Improve our own, and our daughters self-esteem, and to prepare them well, for the onset of menstruation.
Get My e-book - Celebrating the onset of Menstruation- A Mother and Daughter Guide.
www.qualitytime4u.com/products.php.

Women’s blood, hormonal and sexual cycle are closely connected to the cycles of the moon. An average menstrual cycle lasts 29 and half days which is exactly the length of the moon’s cycle.
The full moon phase corresponding to ovulation and the dark moon is analogous to menstruation.

In societies where women work outside and live together, they all tend to ovulate and bleed at the same time. Women’s emotions and sexual desires also fluctuate in a rhythmic pattern similar to the Moon’s Phases. At the full moon a women can feel receptive and drawn to others, often feeling more nurturing towards family. The dark Moon phase is when a woman prefers to withdraw and spend more time nurturing her self, pulling away from the demands and expectations of other people. These are natural reactions.

In Demetra George’s book;, She describes these archetypes of the feminine as being the White Goddess (white ovulatory pole) and the Dark Goddess (The red menstrual pole); The patriarchal mentality equating light and increase with good and the black and decrease with bad.

In Mysteries of the dark Moon, page 207; “At the white pole we find love goddesses such as Aphrodite and Ishtar, who stimulate sexual desires; mother goddesses such as Demeter and Isis, the fecund wombs of the race, who hold and suckle the child. These Goddesses represent one aspect of a woman’s femininity that is open, willing and values relatedness. She seeks to please her partner, nurture her children, create a nest of comfort and pleasure for her family, and foster the growth of all living things in her environment. The White ovulatory Goddess in women who use her sexuality for attraction, impregnation, birth and nurturance is most acceptable in Western culture.
The Dark Goddess is depicted in Goddesses such as Kali who is fanged, wrathful, with protruding tongues or Lilith with a flaming revolving sword.
To the Patriarchal mind these goddesses are not even seen as feminine, their flow of blood marking their failure to conceive.”

The Patriarchal mentality also feared a woman’s sexual desires which peaked just before menstruation. She was seen as fiery, and assertive, self directed and impersonal rather than fostering procreation. She became feared and any sign of power, be it midwifery, or healing was discouraged. As in the Middle Ages when millions of women, believed to be witches, were murdered.
As a result women were segregated, ostracized called unclean, seen as a threat to man, his laws and his gods.

This has meant that in western societies we regard the ovulating woman as desirable and correspondingly the menstruating woman as being self – orientated, impersonal, often bitchy and hysterical.

We have forgotten that The Dark Goddess has magical powers that we can use for transformation, renewal, healing and spiritual illumination.

The Early Goddess – worshipping societies understood that the dark of the moon was the Goddess’s menstrual peak and that woman, at this time were the most magical, mysterious and powerful.

In Demetra George’s; Mysteries of the dark Moon, page209; “During the menstrual time a woman is turned inward and she can most easily access the workings of her inner life and the powers of the psyche. The heavy, sleep like qualities of the menstrual time help a woman to reach deep meditative states. Through her dreams she can gain information about the workings of her body and mind. A woman’s capacity for prophecy and vision is most enhanced when she is menstruating”.


In early cultures people honoured menstruation it meant creativity, things that were sacred. It was awe – provoking and thought to be miraculous that a woman could bleed regularly without being wounded and without dying.

In Karen Walker; The Woman’s Encyclopaedia pg 636
Menstrual blood was honoured and valued, used in sacred ceremonies. The blood at the earliest altars was menstrual blood. The blood of a girl’s first menstruation was considered a potent healing elixir and was claimed to heal incurable diseases such as leprosy. Cloths stained with the Goddess’s menstrual blood were highly valued as healing charms.

In early Goddess cultures woman would retire into menstrual huts to fast, and practice their magical rites. It would be a time of sharing the secret knowledge which pasted amongst the woman of the community.

Esther Harding In Women’s Mysteries pg 60, suggests that one of the reasons for woman’s menstrual disabilities and PNS today is that modern culture does not provide any kind of menstrual rituals. Menstruation is just each woman’s affliction, where she suffers alone; it has no positive meaning or value.

Demetra George writes;”In order to reclaim their menstrual power and liberate their bodies from menstrual pain, women must follow the cycle of the disappearing dark moon and enter a voluntary retreat during their sacred time of the month. Irritability, discomfort and pain are the ways in which women’s bodies continues to protest the menstrual injustices inflicted by society. Women’s instinctual bodies demand that they pay attention to honouring the menstrual mysteries. The instinctual pull of the dark moon phase is to deliberately withdraw from the demands of others and worldly expectations. This step takes awareness and effort in a society that is constructed in such a way as to deny and invalidate women’s special needs during their moon times.”

However if a woman can find a way to take some time to be alone, in the bath, meditating, take a walk in Nature, Have a Goddess Day,
( visit www.qualitytime4u.com and sign up for my e-zine) she can reconnect with her deeper sacred self, accessing her creative energy.

We need to change our attitudes and re – educate ourselves and our daughters.
Download my e-book 'First Moon' at www.qualitytime4u.com/products.php

Matariki

Matariki (Known as Makahiki in Hawaii) appeared this week in my pre – dawn sky.
Rising on the North Eastern Horizon, on the same spot as the rising sun.

Here in New Zealand, Aotearoa: Matariki heralds the beginning of a
New Year.
The shortest day being 21st June, (tomorrow), I have only the lengthening day light hours to look forward to.

Matariki, also known as The Pleiades marks the beginning and end of the Maori New Year. In Maori traditions this is the time to release any unfinished tasks from the year and to set new goals. Prophets will sit in the darkness of the pre dawn and predict what to expect in the forth coming year. When the stars are clear and bright it is thought that the year ahead will be warm and the harvest plentiful. When the stars appear blurred and hazy a cold and lean year was expected.

Celebration for Matariki varies from tribe to tribe, but the most important is the meditating and then the hakari or shared meal. This meal is very symbolic as it contains the last food of the year.

Margaret Orbell (1995) The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Maori Myth and Legend wrote that ‘Traditionally when Matariki first appeared she (Matariki) was greeted with songs of lament for the loss of those who had died in the previous year. But the singer’s tears were joyful too, because the New Year had begun.

In the Hawaiian tradition Makahiki appears at harvest time and traditionally celebrated by the banning of all war at this time.

The Japanese call Matariki Subaru, which has become well known due to its use by the car maker. The meaning of Subaru is generally thought to be united or getting together.

Exercise:
If there is something you have been working on that seems to be taking forever, now is the time to ask Matariki to show you how to begin manifesting your efforts. Listen to your intuition, pray or meditate and look out for opportunities to bring about what you have been working on for so long.

To encourage peacefulness in your life at this time carry 7 stars in your pocket or bag. These can simply be 7 asterisks or 7 stars hand drawn on a piece of paper.

If you want to be more creative, think about star shaped foods that you can eat at this time, to really bring peace and harmony into your life and your family’s life at this time.

May we all live in Peace
May we all live in Harmony
May we all live a free and enlightened life

Namaste
Jillian Taylor
www.qualitytime4u.com
Matakana
New Zealand

Wayne Mansfield marketing seminars

This week I went to a Web Marketing seminar.
The Ad came through my email; Internet Marketing – Beyond the Basics. $249. 3 hours with Wayne Mansfield, Australia’s Internet Maverick.

The sales letter looked good; I would learn all these wonderful things to get people streaming to my site.

An hour into the seminar I started to feel as though I had been “SUCKED IN”. The presenter Wayne Mansfield was obviously a very successful Web Marketer. He told us in the first half hour about his “Run In” with the Australian Government and the laws on Spam and the millions of dollars his company and he had been fined.
I am watching the clock tick by. Thinking ‘am I going to get $249 worth of info, so that I can bring my web site alive.
On the first page of the hand out book, I learn that Google have stopped counting the number of web pages at 14 billion.
This is my Competition and Growing.
Mr Mansfield then went on to talk about “The Long Tail”. I wasn’t sure I understood what he was alluding to.
Fortunately there is plenty of references on the net, I did a Google search.
At 3.30 pm we stopped for a Tea, Coffee, sandwiches and muffin break.
I’m watching the time click by.
I wonder if they give us all the beautiful food to make us stay longer in the tea room and less in the seminar.
By 4.00pm I am staring to think, I haven’t really learnt anything ‘Beyond the Basics’. $249?????
If I divide up my money, maybe $49 is room hire, nice sandwiches, booklet and pen, that leaves $200 for Mr Mansfield’s time and his Host Richard Gee.
I suppose I am naive. Why would a man who makes Millions of dollars each year waste his time for such a puney amount?
Then in the last hour all is revealed. Mr Mansfield is doing a sales promotion for his Company Blog Quest. For $3000 his company will launch my web site on to the net, and earn me 1000’s of dollars.
I left the seminar remembering nothing is free in this world. We have to pay to get what we want.
My only conciliation, if I write this blog, mention Mr Wayne Mansfield’s name enough times, my ranking in Google search engines may increase.
I’ve got nothing to lose.

Today I saw a poster advertising a spiritual weekend $250. Included, 2 nights accommodation, and two days of wonderful activities; rites of passage, aligning with soul purpose, vision quest…… Maybe this would be better value for money.

The Art of Sacred Communication.

Practicing the art of sacred listening
Listening
When you are talking to someone, be with them fully, focused on what is being said, not with what’s going on in your head.
This is called listening. Listening is not passive. It is an active part of dialogue and it works both ways.

Ask yourself – am I listening from my heart? When you are listening from your heart there is no tendency to interrupt or push or to make your opinion heard. You are just listening. The whole of your body is listening. Your soul is listening.

Blocks to Listening

Comparing.
Comparing your self to the person speaking. You are smarter/more competent and therefore you are a better person. Or they are better – proving your unworthiness.

Mind Reading
Figuring out what the other person is really thinking/feeling. Often this involves making assumptions about how others are reacting to you.

Rehearsing
Thinking about what you are going to say next.

Filtering
Listening to some things and not to others. Hearing only what you want to hear.
Half – listening, while thinking of something else.

Judging
Applying labels to another person – often negative labels.

Dreaming
Being triggered into your own memories by something the other person says.

Identifying
Referring everything to your own experience. Talking about a similar experience of your own instead of responding to the other person’s experience.

Advising
If you come up with advice and suggestions as soon as someone stops speaking, you have been problem solving instead of listening.

Think about these the next time you are listening.

Are you guilty of one of the above?

Being 'Human', it is very differcult not to.

Talking Sticks

Today I had Quality Time with my 12 year old daughter. We didn’t do anything special; it was a day where we lived along side one another, doing our own activities.
We shared eating times together. We went to the supermarket.

It was a great day.

Being with her today reminded me of the time when we made “talking sticks.”

The talking stick was used by the North American Indian tribes. It was honoured and respected and passed around at council meetings. Whoever was holding the talking stick had the right to be heard uninterrupted. Nowadays the concept is used in groups so as to avoid discussions degenerating into mayhems.

This idea can be used in your home.

In busy household’s children can feel that they are not listened to.
If a child has something that they would like to share with you, sitting with the talking stick gives them the knowledge that they have your undivided attention.

MAKE YOUR OWN STICK
It is fun to make your own stick; so why not go for a walk with your child. Explore along a beach or forest. Let your child find their stick, explain that is has to be functional, and able to be comfortably held in their hand.
Decorate your stick; get out your craft box, find ribbons, wool, feathers, beads, paints, felt pens, etc;
Now ask your child to choose materials or do drawings on the stick that represent aspects of their life.
Suggestions: Their favourite animal, what they like doing; dancing, singing. Think about symbolizing virtues, such as love, kindness, honesty, sharing, co-operation, patience.

The idea is to make their stick personal. something they can relate to.

I hope you enjoy.