🕯️ How Other Cultures View Menopause

In modern Western culture, menopause is often pathologised—treated as something to be managed, silenced, or "cured". But in other parts of the world, menopause is revered:

• In Indigenous cultures, the post-menopausal woman often becomes the wisdom keeper, the one who holds the stories of the land and the people. With her blood no longer tied to physical fertility, her energy is now available for spiritual fertility—vision, healing, guidance.

• In Japanese culture, there is no equivalent word for "hot flush"—the transition is referred to as konenki, which loosely translates to “renewal years” or “energy change,” and is regarded as a natural part of the life cycle.

• In African traditions, post-menopausal women are sometimes initiated into spiritual leadership, becoming elder matriarchs who are trusted to carry the voice of ancestors.

• In Celtic wisdom, the Crone archetype is the wise wild woman—she who sees through illusion, who has died many ego-deaths and now leads others home.

What if menopause isn’t the end of something—but the beginning of your truest, most spiritually aligned self?

🌊 Emotional Intensity as a Sacred Portal

Emotion in menopause can feel intense, even volcanic. Rage. Sadness. Sudden vulnerability. But what if these aren’t just "symptoms"—what if they’re initiations?

According to Bessel van der Kolk, the body keeps the score of everything we’ve experienced. In menopause, the body's threshold for holding unprocessed emotion lowers—and the unspoken finally rises.

Gabor Maté says that illness arises when we say yes when we mean no, when we suppress our truth for acceptance. Midlife and menopause are the body's way of rebalancing that equation. Suddenly, your “no” becomes louder. The cost of self-betrayal becomes higher. And what’s been ignored now insists on being felt.

This emotional intensity is not weakness. It is your soul's intelligence, guiding you toward integration.

🌿 Louise Hay, the Wise Woman Within, and the Language of the Body

Louise Hay taught that the body is always speaking. That physical symptoms are expressions of unresolved beliefs or emotional suppression. For example:

• Hot flushes → Repressed anger. Fear of letting go.

• Weight gain → Protection. Holding emotional burdens.

• Sleep issues → Inability to trust. Fear of surrender.

She offered affirmations not as magical thinking, but as energetic reprogramming—ways of speaking to the body with love, so the body no longer has to scream to be heard.

“I listen with love to my body’s messages.” – Louise Hay

💬 Affirmations as Sacred Spellwork

Affirmations are not just fluffy quotes—they’re energetic codes.
But they must resonate. You can’t force an affirmation like a mantra. It must land in your body. If it doesn’t, no amount of repetition will create change.

Instead of “I am radiant and confident,”
try “I’m learning to feel safe in my power.”

Instead of “I love and accept myself,”
try “I’m open to the possibility of liking myself.”

✨ Start with what’s honest. Then grow from there.

🔥 The Sacred Role of Rage and Irritability

Rage and irritability are two of the most common emotional visitors during menopause—and often the most shamed.

But what if rage isn’t the problem?
What if it’s a form of intelligence?

In the Wise Woman Tradition, rage is not seen as hysteria—it’s seen as clarity. A sign that your boundaries have been crossed. That you’ve tolerated too much for too long. That your soul is asking you to reclaim your space, your truth, your time.

Irritability often surfaces when you’ve been overriding your needs—saying yes when you meant no, silencing yourself to keep the peace, over-functioning while under-supported. It isn’t weakness. It’s the nervous system raising its voice after decades of whispering.

According to Gabor Maté, chronic people-pleasing and emotional suppression are key contributors to illness. The menopausal years often bring these patterns to the surface—not to shame you, but to liberate you. Rage is your body’s way of saying: “Enough.”

Barbara O’Neill reminds us that when we don’t have the space or nourishment to process emotion, it builds in the system. Magnesium, sleep, movement, and space to feel what’s true can make the difference between explosive reactions and empowered responses.

This phase of life invites you to stop abandoning yourself.
To listen to the parts of you that are angry, fed up, overstimulated, and ready to change.

Your rage is not too much.
It’s medicine.
When honoured, it becomes a fire that burns away the falsehoods and clears the way for your next becoming

✍🏼 Journaling Prompts for Rage & Irritability

These prompts are designed to help you connect with the root of your rage—not to judge it or shrink it, but to listen to it as sacred truth.

Journal with no censorship, letting the words come from the body, not the head:

1. Where in my life am I tolerating something that no longer serves me?

2. What boundaries have I been afraid to set? What would it feel like to finally set them?

3. What is my rage protecting? What has it been trying to show me?

4. If my anger could speak freely without consequence, what would it say?

5. What would it look like to honour my rage instead of managing it?

6. Where do I feel this emotion in my body? Can I breathe into that place with softness and curiosity?

7. Who told me that anger was unsafe or unladylike? Am I ready to let that go?

✨ Optional pairing: Use Lepidolite, Black Tourmaline, or Carnelian while journaling. Hold the crystal, place it on the body, or set it nearby.

🔥 Ritual for Releasing Rage (Fire or Water Element)

This is a powerful way to move rage through the body. You are invited to choose fire or water, depending on what feels right for your emotional state.

🔥 The Fire Ritual – “Burning What No Longer Serves”

You’ll need:

• A candle or fire-safe bowl with matches

• A pen and paper

• Optional: a piece of Carnelian or Black Obsidian

Steps:

1. Take a few deep breaths and set the intention: “I am ready to hear the truth behind my rage.”

2. Write freely on the page: what you’re angry about, what feels unfair, what you’re no longer willing to carry. No edits. No shame.

3. When you feel complete, read it aloud (if safe to do so), then burn the paper. As it burns, say:
   “I release this from my body. I no longer need to hold it. I honour my fire.”

4. Close your eyes, place your hand on your heart or womb, and say a simple affirmation like:
   “I am safe to feel. I am safe to express. I am safe to transform.”

💧 The Water Ritual – “Soothing the Nervous System After the Storm”

You’ll need:

• A bath, foot soak, or bowl of warm water

• Rose petals, sea salt, or a calming essential oil

• A piece of Rose Quartz or Moonstone

Steps:

1. As you soak, speak aloud or whisper the emotions you’ve been holding. Let the water witness you.

2. Say: “I let this go into the water. I trust the tides of my emotions. I no longer have to hold it alone.”

3. Rest, float, breathe. Let your body absorb softness.

🌑 Menopause as Spiritual Initiation & Soul Awakening

Inspired by the work of Jane Hardwicke Collings

Menopause is not a decline. It is not a drying up or a fading away.

It is an initiation. A spiritual, emotional, and energetic rite of passage—just as powerful and life-defining as menarche (your first bleed) or the birth of a child. And in many ways, it is the culmination of every cycle your body has moved through.

Jane Hardwicke Collings describes menopause as the time of Sagescence—the sacred life phase that follows maidenhood and motherhood. It is the descent into the cauldron of transformation, and the emergence as the Wise Woman, the Crone, the Elder. Not in the way patriarchal culture tells us—with invisibility and irrelevance—but in the ancient, timeless way: with power, clarity, and fierce truth.

“Menopause is your graduation. It is the reward for everything you have learned and survived. It is the time when you stop abandoning yourself and start living by your own compass.” – Jane Hardwicke Collings

She teaches that menopause reflects how you’ve lived:

• If you’ve silenced your truth, it will now roar.

• If you’ve over-given, your body will demand rest.

• If you’ve neglected your emotional body, it will rise up to be witnessed.

It’s not personal. It’s initiation medicine.

🕯️ From Shadow to Sovereignty

In the absence of a cultural container, we often misunderstand the spiritual power of menopause. We call the rage ‘hormonal.’ We dismiss the grief as irrational. We fear the letting go.

But what if these aren't symptoms to fix—but messages to decode?

Jane invites us to see every hot flush, every wave of grief, every unpredictable mood as part of the alchemical fire—burning away what is no longer aligned, outdated, or untrue. This fire is sacred. It is your inner forge—refining you into something new.

This time in your life is not just about hormones; it’s about soul retrieval.

🌀 A Descent and a Return

Menopause mirrors the great feminine myth of descent—like Inanna into the underworld, or Persephone’s journey into shadow. It is a time to strip back roles, masks, and illusions, and meet yourself in the dark. It is a death of what you’ve been conditioned to be—and a return to what you truly are.

But this descent is not the end. As Jane teaches, it is the preparation for your re-emergence—as a woman who is no longer available for the systems, relationships, or behaviours that drain her.
A woman who can speak truth without apology.
A woman who becomes a lighthouse, not a mirror.

This is the birth of your inner Sage. Seer. Wild Elder.

✨ You Are Becoming the Wise One

This isn't a time to shrink—it’s a time to expand into your wholeness.
Menopause is not the end of your story—it’s the chapter where you finally begin to write it for yourself.

Your body knows.
Your spirit is waiting.
And every emotion you feel—rage, grief, power, peace—is part of your initiation.

This is not a hormonal malfunction.
It is spiritual evolution.

“From menstruation to menopause, your life is one long initiation. The question is not, ‘What will I lose?’ but, ‘What am I finally free to become?’” – Inspired by Jane Hardwicke Collings

Archetypes, Shadow Work & Soul Reclamation
Inspired by Jungian psychology and the deep inner initiation of menopause

🧠 What Jung Teaches Us About Menopause

Carl Jung believed that the first half of life is about building identity:
🏛️ Creating structure, family, careers, roles, attachments.

But the second half of life—which often begins with menopause—is about soul retrieval.

🌑 “We cannot live the afternoon of life according to the program of life’s morning.”
– Carl Jung

In other words: what worked before will no longer serve.
The call now is inward. Deeper.
More honest. More raw. More true.

🔥 The Archetypal Shift

In Jungian psychology, menopause marks the emergence of the Crone archetype—not as an old, cast-off woman, but as a Wise Woman, a truth-teller, a soul guide.

This is the time when the Mother archetype begins to loosen her grip—and what often arises in that space is:

• Grief for who we were

• Rage over what was never expressed

• Freedom from people-pleasing

• Fierce truth that can no longer be contained

• A yearning for meaning, depth, soul

🧙‍♀️ Menopause as a Jungian Initiation

Many women experience what Jung called the midlife transition—a psychological and spiritual death/rebirth where the ego dissolves, and the Self begins to emerge.

This is not a crisis.
It is an initiation.

🌀 “The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.”
– Carl Jung

Microdosing can soften the resistance to this transition.
It can help you:

• Sit with the shadow that emerges

• Reclaim lost parts of yourself

• Grieve what’s no longer meant to be

• Anchor into your deep, intuitive knowing

Microdosing isn’t a way to go back—it’s a way to go through.

🧘‍♀️ Shadow Work in Menopause

The shadow holds:

• Resentment that’s been buried

• Desires you were told weren’t “appropriate”

• Power you once gave away

• Aspects of yourself you had to abandon to be loved or accepted

Microdosing invites these parts to come forward—not to be fixed, but to be felt and integrated.

🌿 “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
– Carl Jung

The medicine, paired with somatic awareness, helps you meet the shadow with compassion rather than fear.

🔥 Final Words

In many ways, menopause is the return of the inner mystic.

This is where you stop living for others’ expectations and start living from your soul.

Jung’s work reminds us that this chapter is not about decline—but about deep remembering.

You are not losing yourself—you are becoming yourself.

Microdosing simply walks beside you as you come home.

💗 Practices to Support Emotional Integration

During this time, emotions are not just psychological—they are somatic, spiritual, and ancestral. Let them move. Let them teach.

Here are ways to honour them:

• Microdosing + Journaling – What emotion is present today? What does it need from me?

• Somatic Check-ins – Where am I holding this? Can I meet it with breath and presence?

• Crystals like Lepidolite (emotional balance), Rose Quartz (self-love), and Moonstone (hormonal wisdom)

• Herbs like Tulsi, Oatstraw, and Rose for nervous system softness

• Ritual – Light a candle and speak your truth aloud. No censoring. No fixing.

🪷 Reclaiming Your Power

This is not a breakdown—it’s a becoming.
The Wise Woman archetype is rising within you—not to apologise for who she is, but to stand tall in her truth.

Affirm your worth.
Let your emotions be sacred.
Let this transition be a spiritual remembering—not just a hormonal shift.

You are not broken. You are burning away what no longer belongs. And from that fire, something ancient and powerful will rise.