We are Seasonal Beings, Constantly Becoming.
The seasons don’t just visit the earth, they also visit us—our bodies—as life seasons and, if you have a cycle, as seasons within the reproductive cycle.
There are four bridges your body has to cross and five for those of you who become pregnant. Your birth and death are bridges into and out of this life and there is also a bridge for each transition into three of the life seasons, from childhood into spring, from spring into summer and summer into autumn.
From childhood, you will transform into the springtime of your life. It takes a few years to move into this season; the changes start flowing on the inside first, in the chemicals in your blood before you see any actual blood. Some folk are fond of thinking, sometimes even saying, “You’re a woman now” when the blood arrives but what they really mean is, “You’re a becoming, you’re still on the bridge, crossing from one life season to the next and you’re undergoing a magical transformation.” After menarche (first period) it usually takes a few years for the weekly seasons to move fluidly and cycle through you regularly, if you let them. And it makes such a difference if you learn to work with the changes that each weekly season offers.
The next season is summer—the chapter of your blooming and fullness—whether you have a baby or not. If you do go over the bridge/the physical rite of passage of summer, it is less than a year for your baby to quicken and grow inside you, for you to bear two hearts for a few months, and for your body to transform. This season is usually the busiest and fullest, whether you have a baby or not. Spring and summer equal oestrogen blooming humans; the waxing moon stage of your life, your youth and your fullness. Whereas autumn and winter are the waning seasons. In summer, you are at your peak as life rushes through you. It is best lived with the circular knowledge that the other seasons are coming, each with their own opportunities and challenges.
The bridge to autumn, for most (like spring), will take a few years to cross, for others it can be sudden and/or medical. The waves and winds of autumn will come and go, moving through you—one step on the bridge, another back to summer, then another along the bridge and so on—to take you through the fire of transformation. You are stepping into the waning of your life so of course, just as the leaves fall, so do the memories of your waxing time. But autumn is also the season of your harvest: it is the time of stepping into your full power. As the oestrogen wanes in your veins, so too do your levels of accommodation. Yes you still care, you will always care, but the things you have really come here to do, now need to be done. In order to do it, you won’t be as accommodating as you once were. Time is running out! You see your winter ahead and beyond that, your death so you must speak and live your truth more clearly and loudly than ever before. You will also need to rest and be still more often. If you have practised your weekly seasons well, this will come more easily. If you have not, burn out and a rockier road may loom.
The bridge to winter is usually a creaky one. Although not marked by any physical rite of passage—like a first or last period—it is still most often, an eventful one; perhaps one fall too many or an illness that brings you up short. Whatever it is, it will make you stop and be still and look back at your life and if you’re brave enough, forward to your last bridge—your death.
On a physical level, these seasons and bridges are a part of living in a body with a uterus and hormones. On an emotional, mental and spiritual level they are so much more. You can choose to travel these rites of passage with knowledge and consciousness. It’s vital to know that we are rhythmical, cyclical beings—we have four chambers in our heart for a start—and we are not linear or binary. We are seasonal beings, constantly becoming. Listen to your body! Know where you are and if you’re on a bridge. Learn about the hormones moving through you. Know which messengers are galloping through your blood from your brain to your womb or from your ovaries to your brain and what they mean to your mood, your hunger, your skin, even the way you choose your clothes! Know when you are waxing and that your summer (cervical) mucus is just as much a part of your cycle as your winter, waning, blood flow. Know which life season you are in or which one you are becoming. And know that each is as valuable and has as much purpose and weight as the other. Read, talk to each other, learn about your bodies and cycles and seasons. Don’t leave it up to schools or governments or doctors to tell you.