A Real Goddess Girl’s First Moon Cycle Ceremony - Welcome to the Club 💐
The flow just flows the way it wants to flow. -Elina Navarro
It was a crisp Colorado day in May. It had rained earlier in the morning, but as has been known to often occur with this type of work, the sun came out just when we needed it. The familiar smell of burning copal filled our space, which had been smudged well with the sacred resin. Flowers and photos and offerings and other objects adorned our alter. Colorful ribbons and long sticks were ready for crafting. Around us, the gardens and grasses were green and growing.
We were gathering to celebrate a First Moon Cycle Ceremony for an exceptional young goddess. Our honoree was immensely beautiful inside and out, quite brilliant, highly creative, multi-talented, and deeply loved. She and her mom and I had planned this ceremony for several moons since her first period. We had decided to use the First Moon Cycle Ceremony outline in the “Real Goddess Girls Guide” as a template for our ritual, but added pieces from our own inspiration.
The decision had been made to keep this sacred circle small and intimate. The 11 of us in attendance included tweens and elders and all ages in-between. It included beloved family and best friends. The ceremony was planned outside on a large, lovely covered porch. Our men were asked to energetically protect the circle and remain inside the house. They would be joining us after the ceremony work for the “Period Party” that would follow.
After welcoming and smudging everyone, we began by making ceremonial sticks together which would be used to welcome our young goddess into to the sacred circle we were creating. While we were crafting these, it was the perfect time to explain the upcoming order of ceremonies to everyone, what we would be doing, and why. It was important that everyone in attendance had an understanding of the process and purpose of our work together that day.
While we would be honoring all of her maternal ancestors, it was particularly important to honor our goddess’s maternal grandmother, who was beloved beyond measure and joining us from the other side of the veil, through the power of the Mystery Itself. To that end, we added a photo of her on our altar, and left an empty chair in our circle for her Spirit to sit. Her presence was palpable and joyfully apparent to all in attendance.
The ritual opened with our young goddess walking from out of our sight, (in this case from a newly erected greenhouse,) through a path made with an arch of ceremonial sticks held up by all participants, with the youngest at the beginning and the elders at the end. We played music that was a particular favorite of her spirited grandmother, who had been a singer herself and had often sung this song.
We then gathered around the alter for opening prayers and offerings to Spirit, and to the ancestors of our young goddess and the ancestors of the land where we were, the Arapaho, Cheyanne and Ute people. A Tibetan singing bowl lifted our energy further into the ether.
We then went to our seated circle. We had agreed to do some very simple exercises together to come to presence, and create cohesion in our collective field. We began with one minute of humming together. Then we did a call and response singing of each of our names into the circle. Then we did an awareness exercise that involved focusing on our senses and breath, ending in one minute of silence and stillness. The feeling of presence was profound. A lovely Koshi chime was played to break the silence, blessing us and the space itself with their delightful overtones.
Our young goddess, her mom, and her Aunt, who is the sister of her grandmother in spirit and was standing in for her, then stood up. We proceeded to honor and invoke our goddess’s matrilineal line of mothers by name, up to and including her great-great grandmother. We blessed them all with love and gratitude for the gifts of Life. We then gifted our goddess and her mother with a silk scarf to wear with their regalia, symbolizing readiness for the sacred anointing.
We first blessed our young honoree’s hands with a drop of high-vibe sacred oil, and went around the circle blessing the hands of everyone in attendance with a drop of oil. Another sacred oil had been prepared to bless our young goddess in a special way this day. Her feet, hands, heart and third eye were anointed with this oil, and the blessing of the Holy Spirit to be upon her life, that she may always walk, work, love and see with Beauty. (It had been an immense privilege for this body-mind to have myself been anointed with love and taught the Beauty Way by indigenous teachers throughout my life. Now, sharing this knowledge was one of the greatest honors of my life.)
After this, our young goddess was to exchange little gifts with everyone as an expression of love and reciprocity. When we give, we receive, and when we receive, we give something again, and in this way the flow of abundance stays ever flowing among all. This concept is well understood among indigenous cultures of what is now called the Americas. (In the rich and beautiful traditional Andean culture, it is called “ayni”, a Quechua term which means “sacred reciprocity” and is a core guiding principle of the Andean people.)
We were then ready to return to our altar to close sacred space. The sound of the singing bowl lifted our energy once again. We had decided to close our ritual with another song, which we then played and danced to with much delight.
I shook my rattle! I hooted and wooted! We were smiling and laughing and loving out loud! We were all indeed the living, breathing mothers of the River of Life! And There is Life! THERE IS LIFE!!! 🎶💃✨💖☀️🪇⚡️
Postscript: Please join us for our“Real Goddess Girls Guide” virtual launch 🚀 which will be scheduled soon on zoom! Please check back here for information on what day and time and how to join us. We look forward to seeing you there!
