The Moon Cycles

This section is something I thought could be useful for women. These are not Master Samael’s words, except where his words are quoted and named.

The moon is not the only tide a woman lives with. Her body has one of its own, roughly a month long, and it moves her energy, her moods and her desire in a pattern that tends to repeat. Knowing that pattern explains a lot: the days when the energy runs high and the urges push hard, and the days when everything feels heavy and you are sure you are getting nowhere in the work.

Knowing it doesn’t make those days go away. It means they stop catching you by surprise.

The moon and the cycle

In his words

The Moon controls the whole mechanism of Nature. The Moon acts upon the incorporeal and inorganic liquids and also upon the liquids which are incorporated into organic matter. The Moon controls the growth of plants; it exercises influence upon the sexual fluids. The Moon regulates the menstrual flux of women. The Moon governs the conception of all creatures, etc.

The Solar Bodies, 1968 · chapter 17, The Moon

It is known that the ovaries emit an ovum every twenty-eight days in accordance with the lunar cycle.

The Solar Bodies, 1968 · chapter 20, The Sexual Glands

When this ovum is deposited in the corresponding region, the woman really and truly—we could say, intensively—feels the sexual impulse.

Lecture to the 1st Meeting with Gnostic Women, Mexico, November 1976 · in Woman’s Holy Predestination

The four stages

The days below are for a 28-day cycle, counting the first day of your period as day one. Anything from about 21 to 35 days is normal; if yours is longer or shorter, the stages stretch or shrink with it, mostly in the first half.

Please noteThe “for the work” lines here, and the ones the calculator gives you, are all recommendations. Take what helps you.

• The periodMenstruation · about days 1 to 5

  The body lets go of the month’s lining and the hormones are at their lowest. Energy is often low, the body asks for warmth and rest, and there may be cramps and tiredness. Many women feel more inward and quiet, sometimes unusually clear.

  For the workA time to rest the body, pray, and keep the inner work simple: watching yourself, reviewing the day. Resting is not falling behind.

• The risingFollicular · about days 6 to 11

  Oestrogen climbs as an egg ripens. Energy, mood, focus and confidence usually lift day by day. You may feel lighter, more sociable, more able.

  For the workGood days to begin something: a new discipline, a longer sitting. The energy is building, so pray each day and make transmutation daily now, before the peak arrives.

• The peakOvulation · about days 12 to 16

  Oestrogen reaches its height, with a small rise in testosterone, and the egg is released. For many women this is when sexual desire is strongest, and when they feel most outgoing and attractive.

  For the workThe aim is to stay awake every day, and these are the days when the pull on the energy is strongest, so they ask for extra care: more prayer, more transmutation, more care over what you look at and listen to, and less wandering into situations you know are risky.

• The settlingLuteal · about day 17 to the next period

  Progesterone rises and the body turns calmer and heavier. In the last four to seven days both hormones fall, and many women feel tired, tender, irritable, tearful or low, crave food and sleep badly. For some, desire rises again just before the period.

  For the workThis is often where the “I’m failing” feeling lands. Check the date. If the same heaviness comes on the same days every month, it is the body’s chemistry, not a verdict on you. Observe it without identifying with it, pray, and keep the practice small and steady.

In his words

It’s in no way advisable for the woman to transmute her creative energies during the time of menstruation. We must take into account that it’s a very delicate process since certain substances could ascend to the brain and cause very serious damage.

His answer to a question from Gnostic women, from Feminine Enigma (1974) · in Woman’s Holy Predestination

It is also urgent to know that one should never force one’s spouse to practice the Maithuna when she is sick or when she is menstruating, or in the state of pregnancy, because it is a crime.

Esoteric Treatise of Hermetic Astrology, 1967 · chapter 8, Scorpio

Working out your resistance

In our wordsYou are always living two tides at once. The moon’s: as the teachings above show, she gathers strength as she grows towards full, and many feel the energy rise with her. And your own, which moves through the four stages. When your peak days fall on a growing or full moon, the two pressures stack, and it helps to know those days are coming. When your settling days fall on a waning or new moon, the heaviness can stack too.

Mark those days ahead of time. Then, when they come, you can say “ah, it’s that time” instead of “I’m hopeless”, and meet them with prayer and the right practice rather than with surprise.

In his words

To become free of the Lunar Influence is something frightfully difficult; yet, it is indispensable in order to achieve liberation.

The Solar Bodies, 1968 · chapter 17, The Moon

Practise this

PrayersThe Fire: transmuting the creative energyReviewing the day