My First Period Story
Every woman has a first period story. Like many young girls transitioning into womanhood, the idea of menstruation seemed daunting and infinitely mystifying to me. Luckily, however, I was blessed with a wise and wonderful mother who had adeptly embraced and explored her own sacred femininity.
When I was twelve years old my mom gave me a “first period kit” from a big brand company. It was essentially a glorified box of lite tampons with a little leaflet about the logistics of inserting a tampon—chock full of soulless, clinical information. It would sit in my closet for three years before I started my period. Nevertheless, it meant the world to me. I coveted this silly box as a token of my future womanhood. I anticipated the moment I could open it—the moment I would become a woman.
When I finally started, my mother knew exactly what to say. She congratulated me and hugged me as she told wild and wonderful tales of what it meant to be a woman. She explained that I was a cosmic being, full of magic and light and that my body was preparing each month for the possibility of producing a miracle. I was a sacred container for life, tethered to the waxing and waning of the moon. She said that like the moon I would go through phases of darkness and light; my emotions would ebb and flow like the tides but these feelings were natural. She spoke of how in certain Native American and Aboriginal traditions women would gather in a Moon Lodge during the heaviest days of their period; it was a special time when women were relieved of their domestic duties and would leave their homes to join in sacred commune with other women. My mother held a special gathering for me with important women I looked up to. The group of women joined hands around me: I was anointed with oils, adorned with jewelry, and blessed with wishes for a joyful and abundant womanhood.
Recently I've been asking women about their first period stories. I am astounded how often I hear women describing their first menstruation by saying “I had no idea what was happening to me," “or “I was so terrified; I thought I was dying.”
A womb is something to be honored; cherished; yet we fill it with IUDs and artificial plastics, hormones, and chemicals. We get messages from our male-dominant society and from advertising that a period is something for us to “take care of quietly.” We are told we need discreet packaging. We need chemically scented tampons—because it is not OK to look or smell like a natural woman. We are entering a paradigm shift where more women are rising to power politically. More women than ever are business owners, lawmakers, public speakers, doers, nurturers, and also mothers. I believe it is our collective responsibility to ensure the next generation of women know their power and use it responsibly. This starts with the sacred Rite of Passage into Womanhood: menarche.
I recently returned from a Vision Quest in the Inyo Mountains where I fasted for three days and camped solo in the desert. I spent time deeply considering what it meant to be a woman on this planet and the innate responsibility to nurture the collective— for the greater good of our planet and our people.
I considered this box—this box of tampons that sat in my closet for years—and that’s when the idea for Lunar Wild came to me. I wondered to myself, “Is there a box out there specifically for young women that contains mindful menstruation products and sacred literature about becoming woman? Are young women being taught self-care, intuitiveness, and how to celebrate their bodies and natural cycles? That’s when Lunar Wild was born: a company dedicated to the education and re-education of women regarding the sacred alchemy of womanhood.
Hallie Mazurkiewicz, Founder of Lunar Wild