BENGALURU: Every new moon, a group of women meet in the city performing rituals towards finding their “wild” selves. The circle then holds space to reflect on their experience throughout the process. The new moon circles found their origin in Bengaluru in 2014 in Rekha Kurup's 1 BHK apartment in Vijaynagar. She had just returned to the city following an MA in Women's Spirituality, in California. “The first attendees in Bengaluru were a group of women from my building,” she says.
New moon represents the dark and wild power of the sacred feminine that are deeply suppressed and condemned in women due to various social-cultural-religious circumstances, she adds. “The circles provide women the opportunity to share, reflect, express and hold space for these aspects of their own power,” she says.
Is there a scientific reason behind holding these circles only on new moon? “Scientific research has documented that the moon rules the flow of fluids — ocean tides as well as individual body fluids — and affects the unconscious mind and dreams,” she says.
The 43-year-old started these circles to reclaim that power and create a space for women to speak about things they would usually never speak or express, and to reclaim the dark and wild side.
The Powerful Circle
Rekha deeply believes in the power of a circle. “From ancient times, women around the world have come together and sat in circles, engaged in rituals, used the power of their intention and intuition,” she says.
Rekha has been part of women's circles with indigenous women shamans, indigenous grandmothers, and the foremothers of the women's spirituality movement in California.
Around 20 city women gather around to form a circle under Rekha's guidance every new moon. She encourages women and girls from the age of eight to come to these sisterhood circles.
The founder of She Stands Tall Project has organised 15 such circles in Bengaluru, other than the ones in Delhi and Chennai. Each new moon circle has a theme based on the season and the nature's cycle. “There is an intentional opening of the circle through an invocation ritual followed by a introduction and reflection by every woman,” says Rekha.
Following this, there is a group engagement through a form of creative expression which is a combination of meditation or guided imagery, movement, singing, ritual, body work and more connected to the theme of the day. Then the circle is closed with reflection and sharing. Several of these women are regulars to the circle. They have been part of the various offerings of the She Stands Tall Project including the 21-week long Shaktiship journey that starts August and ends in December every year. “In fact, the circle has been increasing as regulars keep bringing new sisters with them,” says Rekha.
Community of Sisterhood
A woman comes to these circles to seek a community space of sisterhood or when she has had a catastrophic life awakening experience, or when she is seeking spirituality, or when she is seeking a deeper connection with her body and sexuality, she adds.
Every woman is heard, seen and held in this circle.
Over the years, the facilitator has observed a deep bond that has developed, which extends outside the circle in day to day life. “In the last circle, one of the women (a mother) who was attending for the first time almost cried because she saw her high school teacher after nearly 12-14 years in the circle,” narrates Rekha. Apparently, the woman has been thinking about her teacher from a long time and was hoping to track and meet her someday. “The teacher has her own story of how she had to travel two to three hours to get to the circle that day and something just kept pulling her to go in spite of all the obstacles she had,” says Rekha.
‘Learnt to Live’
Sridevi Padmanabhan, a regular at the circles says that she has learnt to respect her body more after attending these sessions. “I used to live a fast-paced life, but now I pay attention to my menstrual cycle, listen to my body and have stopped over-working,” says the 36-year-old freelance communication consultant.
Whenever Sridevi realises that her body is tired, she says no to work and respects her need for rest. “I have learnt to live with the (body's) rhythm instead of restricting it,” she says.
Bleed with the Moon
In most indigenous cultures around the world from ancient times, women retreated to bleed around the New Moon, and were ready to consummate on Full Moon, says Rekha. Several articles online support women to synchronise their menstrual cycles with the Moon. A quick search on the Internet will lead you to blog posts from women who have succeeded in aligning their cycles with the Moon. Rekha is also leading a menstrual synchrony project with women that tracks this journey.