The Moon and the Female Connection
The moon has always been the primary symbol for female energy. Think of the goddess Diana, the goddess of the moon, and the hunt. Its cycle around the earth takes approximately 29 and a half days, which is intimately linked to the average woman's menstrual cycle, which is about 28 days. Curiously, another name for menstruation is "moon time."
The monthly cycles of women correlate closely with the cycles of the moon. Just like the moon's phases, a woman's menstrual cycle can also be understood and experienced in phases. Women have associated the full moon with increases in estrogen leading to ovulation or maximum fertility. While the waning half of the cycle, the dark of the moon, is associated with menstruation.
The phase between the end of the period and ovulation can be classified as more outgoing and action-oriented. While the phase between ovulation and bleeding is far more quiet, introspective, meditative, sensitive and intuitive.
Even the association with menstruation, month and moon is present in our language. Menstruation comes from the Latin word menses which means the menstrual flow, but it is also the plural form of the word mensis which means month. Furthermore, the Greek word for moon is mene.
In myth, the moon is a primary female archetype traveling the great round of Birth, Maturation, Death and Rebirth each month. Living creatures - plants, animals, humans - are fundamentally cyclic creatures that are born, grow, mature, and die.
It has been proven in past experiments that women with irregular menstrual cycles have become more regular by sleeping with a soft light in their rooms (to stand for the light of a full moon) during the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth days of their cycle. After a few months, their cycles regulate. This is called the Dewan effect, which effectively shows the connection between light and the menstrual cycle.
Could this also somehow explain the old tradition in which women went out and talked to the moon when they were having difficulties with their "moon times"?