Moonlodges and Mandalas

I blogged a few posts ago about a Sacred Woman workshop offered by the yoga sanctuary and I'm not sure if I mentioned anything about it afterwards?  The workshop itself was great, the afternoon was lovely, if not really what I was expecting.  I decided that I probably wouldn't get much out of the ongoing course, but that I would really like to explore yoga some more (Yoga starts next Thursday and I can't wait!). 

Lucy and I came away from the afternoon full of inspiration and with Holly, we got together for a moonlodge or red tent type evening.

Its hard to describe what a Moonlodge is, because all of my experiances have been led by the same group of people in the past.  I enjoyed this description "The Moon Lodge is the place of women, where women gather during their menstrual time to be at-one with each other and the changes ocurring in their bodies. Long ago, during this special time of moon cycles, women were removed from duties of family and allowed to retreat to the Moon Lodge to enyoy the company of their Sisters.

Traditionally, the Moontime is the sacred time of woman when she is honored as a Mother of the Creative Force. During this time she is allowed to release the old energy her body has carried and prepare for reconnection to the Earth Mother's fertility that she will carry in the next Moon or month. Our Ancestors understood the importance of allowing each woman to have her Sacred Space during this time of reconnection, because women were the carriers of abundance and fertility.

As Grandmother Moon is the weaver of tides ( the water or blood of our Earth Mother) so a woman's cycles follow the rhythm of that weaving. When women live together in a common space, their bodies begin to regulate their menses and all will eventually have their Moontime concurrently. This natural rhythm is one of the bonds of Sisterhood.

Women honor their sacred path when they acknowledge the intuitive knowing inherent in their receptive nature. In trusting the cycles of their bodies and allowing the feelings to emerge within them, women have been Seers and Oracles for their tribes for centuries."
taken from http://www.moonsurfing.com/moonlodge.html

I suppose essentially it is a meeting of women who have come together to just be.  What they do or share during a Moonlodge is up to them.  The details of our first moonlodge I shall leave sacred, however I am keen to share the mandala we made.

A mandala, according to the Collins dictionary is

mandala (ˈmændələ, mænˈdɑːlə)
— n
1.	Hindu & Buddhist art any of various designs symbolizing the universe, usually circular
2.	psychol such a symbol expressing a person's striving for unity of the self
[Sanskrit: circle] I like to think of them as sacred art.  I specifically chose to make the formation of ours mindless, and so therefore relaxing, and the resulting art was not the point - using edible and natural objects to create art doesn't lend itself to anything that will last.  There is a great description here 'creating them is a meditation and leaving them signifies the beauty and impermenance of life.' Anyway!!  I am quite sure I over thought the process, and when Lucy and Holly read this entry they will be like 'what?!'  Either way, I was delighted with the results and have many ideas for making them in my Sacred Space outside..  Enjoy!