Free Self-Care eBooklet
MoonLodge Bootcamp
For Women Deepening Their Dance With The Moon
By Jennifer Costa, Herbalist, Teacher, BS, RN, CST, and Founder of
ElderMoon School of Herbal Medicine and Earth Awareness
www.jennifercosta.net
So glad you are here and just downloaded this gift for yourself!
So who is circling with the moon for?
- Women who know they are being called to a new way of being.
- Women who are grandmothers, mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts, neighbors, or friends.
- Women who have been a young girls.
- Women who want to create a loving relationship with their monthly menstrual cycle.
- Women who are uncomfortable or in pain during their menstrual week and are wanting some natural relief.
- Women who just have a difficult cycles and a difficult time relating to their cycle.
- Women who want to start right where they are just by understanding their innate rhythms with the moon.
- Women who have no cycle, and should, and are perplexed on how or where to begin.
- Women who are already on their path and choose to deepen embodying their sacred femininity.
- Women who want to open up to the intuitive flow that is available during our bleeding week.
- Women who are just beginning this journey and want to know the mysterious gifts of their menstrual cycle.
- Woman who want to add ritual to their life as they cycle with the moon.
- Woman who embrace and seek purpose around the mother wound.
- Woman who seek spiritual guidance.
- Women who want to experience the bliss and spiritual benefits of cycling consciously with the moon.
- Women who want to know more but think they don’t have time for self-care during their bleeding week.
- Women who want to connect with other woman and circle as women do.
- Women who want to anchor in a new way of treating yourself while you bleed
If you can answer 'yes' to just one of these statements, then circling with woman
who circle with the Moon is for you. We women circle and cycle with the Moon
even when we are unaware. Let’s make a choice, together, to be aware and
receive the gifts which move both ways.
Did you know you can realign your menstrual cycle to synchronize with the
moon? By doing so you enter into a unique relationship with the Moon. We
begin with your relationship to your menstrual cycle. This practice can reveal
profound lessons so perfectly tailored to you and what you need in each
moment. It involves pleasure and rest and receiving and releasing. It is easier
than you think.
Did you know that you can be a menopausal or post-menopausal women and
begin practicing cycling with the Moon? You just have to have been a young girl
at one time....
So you are a woman committed to the practice of self-care and embracing the phases of your
internal cycles as part of immaculate self-care. Connecting to your inner cycles as well as the external
cycles in the form of seasonal phases or moon phases is easier than you think and beginning now is
the best time! Connecting this way is a natural rhythm that your body already strives to be
synchronized with even if you are not aware of it. When we flow in life with a mindfulness of the
Moon, we are the most powerful we can be. A spiritual window opens as our bodies open to release.
During our feminine cycles we’re touched by the miraculous tides and forces of life, death, creation,
and the unavoidable destruction that makes way for the new.
As our bodies renew themselves, we’re given the blessing and opportunity to also begin again
anew. As we prepare to renew ourselves, there’s a fire within and the purpose is to purify. We can
feel that heat in our body and soul. We get ‘red hot’ before and during our Moon Time. Our body
uses this brilliant design to release from the blood that which is no longer needed that has
been filtered through what some call the second heart of woman, your uterus, your womb. This
organ swells during the premenstrual phase as it prepares to filter and release rich life-giving blood.
If you think your menstrual blood is disgusting then I would ask you "why?”. With the next
response, I would also ask you again, "Why?". We would continue with each "Why?" as we dig to
the root of where you learned this way of thinking. You did not enter the world thinking this way.
You learned it and it's very potent to look at what we've learned in order to discern whether it is
supportive of who we really are now.
So, how can we honor this cycle when we are expected to go on with life as usual? The message has
been plug it up, take a pain killer, smile, look pretty, and go to work with what you are supposed to
do. So there we are, throbbing all over and attempting to do what we were taught is "appropriate".
But it's more than eat chocolate and treat everyone like "shit" because it's not working for you.
Thankfully many woman are walking far away from this…. And I do not mean the chocolate! There
are reasons why chocolate, or cocoa, walks alongside humans and that is another story so very
rich…. I mean treating all like garbage because you don’t know that you need to retreat. When we
honor this process there is no more mistreatment. However, many don't have a place to go to honor
this process. Even with my organizing gatherings here, and there is massive global organizing as well
if you look into it, the timing still may be out of synchronicity with your cycle. So then what? I
say, create it for yourself first.
You don’t need to have a physical place to go in order to separate yourself from that which does
not serve your process of purification and renewal. However, it helps. Thankfully these ancient
practices are resurfacing. While I connect with all the particulars to circling us women, here are four
simple steps to get you started today! You can do this sister. I know you can.
So, remember, you don't have to wait to get started or go anywhere. You can create MoonLodge
space for you first right where you are with a little re-organizing. You will be amazed at how you can
pull all you need from what you have already and maybe want to gather a few extra lovely things just
because you are worth it and this is the best therapy ever…. because it’s inside of you and has been
there all along! You are just letting it flow to your outer world from within the way it was always
designed. Does this make sense? I think you can feel it in your bones. That yes response. Our
grandmothers planted seeds in our bones long ago because they knew we would get lost and have to
find our way back. Now is the time.
Here are four simple steps to get you started today:
1. Make your commitment by making space, having tea, and wearing something beautiful.
2. Educating means radiating.
3. Separate from your daily responsibilities and be with yourself.
4. Reduce Socializing so you can focus inward..
Can I explain for you?
1. Making Space. This Solidifies Your Commitment to Yourself
I now have a small room I retreat to draped with deep reds, fuchsias, and burgundy fabrics with a
nesting place to nap and dream, an altar, and shelves of items I use to create what I'm drawn to
create. It all started with a comfy chair, a red scarf wrapped around me and a favorite mug with my
favorite tea. Next I found access to use a gorgeous Finnish sauna. When I feel the first "grinding my
teeth" moment over something so regular (you know that moment too... that's the moment your
inner dragon is rearing her head and getting ready to make space for you, right?), then I breathe and
plan to make space. I make a special tea blend, get in my chair and read or write to help discharge a
little. I also go out to my garden which for me is a living, breathing sanctuary that eases me instantly.
Now you can find me in my moon lodge room painting or something - or I go to the sauna extra
hydrated and visualize it womb-like with the lights out and encourage release through the skin.
Please do NOT sauna while bleeding as it is contraindicated at that time. Before or after is fine and
also not necessary. I just love it. Find what you love. Spiritual bathing, walks in nature, naps with hot
water bottles, tear jerking movies to let the tears flow... trust you will know what you need and
honor it.
Have Tea…
Yes, because I'm an herbalist, I always turn to the plants for help. There are a few that stand out and
getting just one box of tea bags to start is all you need. I love red raspberry leaf and we are working
on our third decade together. I steep my tea at least 1 hour and attribute the fact that the four men
in my house are well and thriving, along with me, to her gentle power. I am not joking either! Get to
know her taste and smell. She will pull you through when you are at your wits-end and fantasizing
about wielding a sword and getting Kali-like. I have a MoonLodge Brew now that I make for myself.
Lean on the plants. They know we need them anyway and they give so abundantly as food,
medicine, clothing and so much more. We cannot live without them yet they can surely do just fine
without us. Find a tea just for your time that you LOVE!
So which tea cup or mug would you save for that time of the month when you dive deep with the
Moon? Find one you love and keep it with your special tea poised and ready to serve you with
beauty. These seemingly small gestures are a way to ceremonially bring in deeper meaning for what
you are a part of. Remember even if you are not bleeding you still cycle with the moon. (I love the
one that looks like lava spilling over! Upper right.)
Wear
Something
Beautiful…
Never give up on
beauty. I wear a red seed
bracelet at the moment I
recognize my retreat
time, made by women
from the village of one
of my teachers from
Ecuador where these
practices are still intact.
When this bracelet goes
on, (yes, at the first
teeth-grinding moment)
I have
already retrieved it from it's beautiful holding box and smudge it off with sage smoke or essential oil
smudging spra y. My family knows this now and it helps them to soften with understanding as to
why I'm edgy or teary or distant as I prepare to retreat. We have evolved to this. It takes time. I
might go get well-made chocolate. A little is all you need when the quality is high. We will talk about
the human-cocoa connection Ecuadorian-style one day and why it is so necessary to honor Cocoa in
her purest forms. I also have a few richly colored clothing items I wear at this time, red
shoes, fuchsia shirts or skirts, burgundy or pink colors. Make it fun and feel beautiful. So, start
attracting these few items. A gorgeous piece of jewelry, special red underwear, red soft sheets for
your bed or a gorgeous scarf as you sit in your chair nesting. I have a long red linen flowing skirt I
wear as I lounge around at home on my bleed time and I have a jiggling anklet I wear too for the
sounds remind me to walk slowly a and listen for beauty. These few items help to remind you more
frequently of what is going on deep inside of you and that it's linked to beauty and power.
2. Educating Means Radiating
If you live with someone who you share responsibilities with, educate them by sharing what you are
learning. Tell your significant other that you’re at your most powerful during this time just before
and during your Moon Time and you are learning how to honor this. You are not asking permission.
Remind them of what it’s like when the power of your Moon Time is not respected and harnessed
by you. We become dragon-like spitting fire and yelling and crying and fighting, right?! Well, that's
what has worked to get alone time thus far and it's a global phenomenon as we women cope with
not getting what we need but still make sure we get what we need anyway. Let's turn that power
around and never diminish it's intensity. The world needs us strong. I promise you that creating
space from a nurturing perspective is not "selfish" and is a better way for all.
Again, please remember if you are a woman who used to bleed, you still definitely cycle with the
moon. If you have trouble feeling your cyclic nature with her then start with the Dark Moon (1-2
days before the New Moon) and make this your deep dive time in your Moonlodge for a few days.
As you settle into this each month with practice, you will start to notice her subtle way of pulling
you deep as the time nears. Oh yes, and sometimes she is not so subtle. You will know that too!
Mark your calendar and just begin.
So, set up a clear agreement about which responsibilities you can release for a few days to focus on
your inner process. Remind them that you need to honor your cycle in order to be feminine and that
you will have more to give when you give to yourself during this time for rejuvenation. Doing it will
teach more deeply than talking about it too. You are not asking permission here. You are caring for
you. Those of you with children, these are powerful teachings. I have 3 sons and I want each to
honor the women in their lives by understanding this natural cycle of being a woman. Those of you
with daughters want the same from the men they may eventually share their lives with and surely
want your daughters to understand and honor themselves first. It really does not matter what kind
of creative relationship you enter, for today there are many. It starts with how you relate to and
honor yourself first. Then all else radiates out to the world around you.
3. Separate from your daily responsibilities and be with yourself.
So you have prepared the
ground for retreat and now the
time comes to put it into action.
Consider taking a whole or half
day off from work if your
hardest bleeding day falls on a
work day. Get a massage, plan a
longer lunch break or go for a
quiet walk in nature. If you’re a
full time mama, consider setting
up a little extra childcare so you
can relax and do some
journaling, visit a
creative practice you used to do
or explore new ones like
painting, collage, pottery,
knitting, sewing, beading, working with leather.... It's for you and feeds your inner hard-wiring to
CREATE. That's what we do as women. I used to swap children with another mom on our hardest
day and we would make dinner for each other too. What a gift! You need quiet time. Consider a
bath in the middle of the day, going to bed earlier than usual, filling the hot water bottle, placing it
over your womb and napping while drawing the heat inward. Dream more. Journal more. Don't
journal? Maybe you could start...it's just for you. I love art journaling with color, paints, collage and a
sort of secret code for myself that only I can follow where I put my deepest thoughts and feelings. I
also study the Moon and why and how she affects me and I chart my cycle on a moon calendar so I
can track trends that get worse or improve. Following this allows me to course correct as I need at
these times. Fall in love with the Moon’s ways. She will be your greatest teacher through this time.
4. Reduce socializing so you can focus inward.
This is a big one for me. I
avoid being in public my
first day or two and will go
to great lengths to honor
this. I have declined social
offers, changed already made
plans and called out of work
for personal healing time.
You can creatively do this
without broadcasting you are
bleeding OR broadcast you
are bleeding if that suits you
too. Your women friends will totally understand and if not.... you might consider attracting some
new woman around you. Actually you naturally will attract healthier women around you if
you start these 4 self-care MoonLodge steps. Sad but true, sometimes woman can be the hardest
on woman as we turn this mess around. Thankfully change is here.
Elder Flower and Lemon Tea
Add 3-4 slices of fresh lemon to a tea pot
with 1-2 tsp dried Elder Flower. Add 8-12
oz not quite boiled water, cover and steep 15
minutes. Sip sweetened with a touch of
honey. Ahhhh…..
Journey to your Inner Wise
One….
Take time to reflect on the cycle that is
ending for you as your blood leaves your
body. Contemplate what you wish to
invoke in this next cycle and dedicate your
precious egg, which will not become a
child, to something else you are creating
in your life. What are you creating in the
world? Give yourself quiet time so that
you can reap the magic of your cycle.
Eggs have a rich story through time
steeped in symbolism. Research this.
Do you know how to journey? How to
enter your inner landscape and navigate to
your Inner Wise One? What does she
look like? She lives in your womb and she has so many answers to questions you may not have
thought of yet. Your imagination is the key. Much of my training as an herbalist is based on the
ability to journey to the plants and animals and stones and elements. Any aspect of nature. I was
introduced to this skill more than 25 years ago. It is not for everyone, I am told by some, but it is for
most I am finding as time goes on.
People who study the plants with me will be learning this skill and I am to the point where I will
make sure you know this so you can decide if I am the right fit for you as a teacher. If you need help
with journeying, feel free to contact me. Joining our MoonLodge group will help you with this as
well. Any book by Sandra Ingerman on the subject will be the best resource if you want to learn on
your own.
Monthly Journaling Ideas:
What messages did my mother and the
women of my family give me about
being a woman?
What messages am I offering my
daughter, or son, about being a woman?
What legacy would I like to pass-on to
today's girls?
How do I feel about menstrual blood?
How was I received by my women when
I first started to bleed?
How would my life be different today if I
knew I had a MoonLodge or Red Tent to
go to each month?
What am I releasing with my blood?
How do I feel about this?
What would I like to dedicate my next
egg to that is creating beauty and power
for me in my life?
What steps do I take to begin to walk
towards this?
What am I birthing?
What is dying?
What am I resurrecting?
What soul dream have I neglected?
When I think about my body, I feel…?
What is the Moon doing right now and
how can I connect with her today?
Do I have an argument with a loved one
that I need to re-visit and release?
Resurrected Goddess…
Found on the bottom of the sea in the
Mediterranean and resurrected nearly 2
years ago! Know that she is also rising
within you from similar dark deep
watery depths. How you honor the
feminine is up to you. Choose what
excites you and brings the feeling of
awe, that reverent pause that makes you
know, deep inside, that you are not
alone and so very watched over and
loved. Use this to find your circle of
women. Seek without much effort for
that is her way. Path of least resistance.
Know you will draw to you what you
need and desire just by doing nothing
and breathing deeply and trusting you deserve.
Dark to New Moon ….
The deep North of your cycle where
you sit with death, bleed and glean the
wisdom of your cycle while preparing
to emerge in spring renewed. Has
anyone taught you these directions in
the wheel of life and the cycles within
the cycles that rule your life? Knowing
these teachings makes life so much
more pleasurable. Come to the
MoonLodge and let’s talk.You do not
have to be a bleeding woman either. All
are welcomed.
One Final Gift!
Do you know
how to Moon
Gaze?
This is an ancient
practice taught through
my Druid training but is
owned by no one.
Starring at the Moon.
(giggle… as if we need to
be taught, right?) This
simple practice of gazing
at the moon for 15
minute intervals when
you can stimulates
neurological pathways through your eyes that go deep into your brain. Done regularly, will stimulate
your endocrine system deep in your brain to begin translating these neurological impulses into
chemicals that can travel in your blood. Hormones! These smoothed out hormonal pathways will in
turn begin the process of synchronizing your cycle and you with the Moon as you menstruate. This
eases menstruation in every way. Enjoy this without glasses on. Never stare at an eclipse either. The
moon’s light is safe and needed by our body’s. Modern living has changed the functioning of this
system but we have not lost the system. We can re-kindle proper function with some simple acts as
Moon gazing. Some also call it Moon sipping.
Let me tell you a little story about Moon Gazing?
When I first learned of this in the early 1990s I had to try. I was just starting to chart my cycle and it
was opposite the moon so I bleed on the full moon. Each clear night I placed a sand chair outside
where I lived and sat outside for 1-2 hours and starred at the Moon. I imagined her light swirling
through my eyes and around my brain and down my body to swirl around my heart and my ovaries
and my womb and down my
legs into the earth. It is so
pleasant and relaxing to drink
her in this way. At the time, I
lived in a condo complex in a
city and received quite a few
strange looks and for the
occasional female neighbor
who knew me even a little and
mustered the courage to ask
me what I was doing…. I
would tell her and she would
continue with the strange look and say “Interesting” or “Oh” and leave. I tend to move to not
caring what people think quickly and you have to in order to do this the way I did at the time I did.
My poor ex-husband was just beside himself with me. Oh well. A woman must do what a woman
must do and follow the Moon! And there are partners for us that love this!!
Change began fast and in 4 cycles I was bleeding on the New Moon and ovulating at the full moon,
there about for it’s more a dance than an exact science. My “PMS” dimmed as I listened and made
changes and course corrected to follow my rhythm through self-care. So I offer this to you. Moon
gaze in all her phases and chart your cycle and journal plus follow these 4 steps and you will see
drastic things happen. Then,
share with me your story! I love
stories! It is by far the very best
way to learn…. By story telling
you actually process with a more
effective part of your brain that
can lay down memory better. So
share your story. Share in circle
and with the Divine.
So You Got This?
Here are more ideas for
deepening your practice
sweet sister….
~Track your cycle. None of this
will really make the deep change
for you without making a calendar
to track your cycle. Google a moon
calendar and obtain or make one
for each month. Mark when you
feel that signal to retreat – I put
three little circles on the days I am
not bleeding but wish I was! I color
the whole day red when I am
bleeding. Make a system of codes
that is your personal way for you.
Keep them in a gorgeous folder
you dedicated for this practice on
your altar.
~Make note of when your energy drops, when you feel argumentative and edgy, when you need
more sleep or have a burst of nesting energy. I progress through these on week 3-4 right before I
bleed and knowing this, charting this and seeing my patterns helps me do things for myself like
prepare a bath with petals from 1 rose I buy myself, or get a massage, or eat great chocolate and tea
together, or go to bed early, make a soup I crave or re-do my altar space and write about what I’m
releasing with this blood or connect with one goddess to see me through this bleed and renewal.
~Start an intuitive painting practice for you and the Divine, inspired by the Divine. Make space,
design a studio for yourself and sign up for an on-line class that excites you. Then gather supplies
even if you take you a few months to do so.
~Research cloth menstrual products. Buy
some. Start with a commitment to buying 1-2
pads / month until you have a nice supply for
yourself. Make your own from old flannel
sheets; there are lots of pattern design ideas
on-line. Begin committing to using them
whenever you can or forever. Gift your blood
to the Earth directly. I keep an enamel camp
pot with a lid under my sink filled with cold
water and soak my pads before washing and
empty this daily to the garden or sacred sot or
tree. It is the riches blood on Earth. It grows
our babies.
~Do an Earth Art project! LOVE!
~ Study Belly Dance. Nothing gets you more
in touch with your womb than mindful shakes
and shimmies to gorgeous music with gorgeous dress and bare feet! This was a dance FOR women.
~Research Diva Cups. Women who use these absolutely love them for they ease clot production
and heavy bleeding issues. Research blood rituals and design one to honor your blood going back to
the Earth.
~Bleed directly on the Earth in a private place for a few hours or more. The convenience of long
flowing skirts are many!
~Set up a tent or a bed on your porch, or a sleep spot right on the Earth and commit to sleeping
outside with the Moon. Moon gaze too! There is no better way to reset your body’s inner clock deep
in your brain than getting unplugged and being in Nature. A must for insomniacs and science is
starting to prove the healing benefits of this re-set to nature.
~Study Fire. This is the fuel of the week leading into your bleed. We heat up on all levels and this
drives the filter of the blood system through your womb. We heat up on physical, emotional and
psychic levels and if we do not tend to this fire and give ourselves what we need, we can get scorch!
We will scorch those around us too! Commit to studying the element of fire at this time as you
prepare to retreat. Chart your cycle as a developing practice so you can see trends. I live with wood
heat and have for over 20 years and know fire well and still I must visit fire for new lessons as a
woman.
~Plan a Spiritual Bath for yourself. I have a shoe box in my red tent room that I collaged all over
with gorgeous words and images and it hold my sacred bathing plants that have come to me for my
spiritual bathing times. I also have a similar box for my candles and holder and flower essences and
essential oils. This way I can craft my own bath intuitively when moved to. It’s such a joy and these
supplies all live near in few gorgeous boxes. Design what works for you. Buy a sugar scrub and a
candle and maybe that is all you need or desire. Perfect. You way is the best way.
~And finally, help a sister if you can. You know that look when a woman is struggling. It is always in
her eyes. We cannot find it there. Respond if you can and offer support. Drop off a dinner or rub
her feet or slip a well-made bar of chocolate in her purse or a small batch of bath salts in her hand.
Spread the love to your sisters. It takes so little to reach a sister’s heart like this.
So beautiful one, there you have it.
Some easy steps to just get started because starting is the hardest part. As you develop your space
and practice, think about joining a group of women where you can connect and share. Start a group
yourself if you like because you know you are a shaker and mover! When you're ready. You will
know. Join me in the MoonLodge too to get more ideas or just listen and experience women
nurturing each other. Know that I am walking with you, as a woman like you, finding her way. Much
love to you, Jen