We all know that the lunar cycle effects our menstrual cycle. Women’s monthly tidings have been guided by the moon since we have been women and the moon has been a moon. In many cultures, this is part of the reason the moon represents the goddess or feminine energy. Women often fall into two categories, full moon or new moon cycles. With the prevalence of hormonal birth control and our disassociation from the natural world, women are less tied to their lunar calendar and more tied to their scheduler on their blackberry. Actually, we can even choose not to have a period at all, forget the moon just don’t forget the pill!

The connection surrounding the moon is not isolated to our cycles. Women are more fertile during certain times of the lunar cycle. Hospitals report higher numbers of women going into labor during full moons, as well as mentally ill people acting up more than normal…hence the phrase lunacy.

Whether or not you have an awareness of your cycle in relation to the moon, I notice that women are often affected by her pull. I know for me, though I am part of the hormonally regulated masses, that when I am off my full moon tenancies, that my body will feel like I am premenstrual during the full moon, even when I am not.

Tonights full moon is a little different. Tonight is the last lunar eclipse for the next three years. If you are on the east coast go outside at about 10:30 and the moon should be orange! Beautiful! Anyway, so beyond this amazing astronomical phenomenon, I have been wondering if an eclipse effects our hormones more than a simple full moon?

In my message boards and among my friends I have noticed a higher number of women complaining about PMS. They are saying that they are more hormonal than normal. I am not in my cycle, but am feeling the effects of PMS. I just chalked it up to my personal lunar sensitivity. But maybe the eclipse effects us. Maybe the eclipse makes us a little more sensitive. I have also been reading about a lot of women talking about spotting around eclipses, longer lasting periods, longer PMS, hormonal cycles feeling like they are lasting for 40 days, etc. Though no one source says this is because of the eclipse, and people are quick to try to explain it away, I believe there is a direct correlation.

I find this connection to be incredible. In a time when we are so often disconnected from the natural world, when people stand up for going green yet central park is the wilderness, when a squirrel is a wild animal, that we can still have an uncontrollable biological connection to nature. Some people think that this is sexist to say that women become more sensitive during PMS and that we are affected by something like the moon. I don’t think it is sexist. I think it is amazing. It shows a deeper connection to the whole. Why is feeling MORE a disadvantage? Though I am not throwing my Midol out the window, I do believe that we should embrace our periods and our connection to nature and other women, it is a universal connection that every woman around the world can understand.

Here is a link to a blog talking about this effect. There are also a lot of comments from women speaking to their experience with menstruation and the moon.

Are you affected?

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February is the worst month of the year by far: February has only 28 days in it, which means that if you rent an apartment, you are paying for three full days you don’t get and it is the host month for Valentine’s Day.

Try to avoid February’s whenever possible.

Valentine’s Day is the one day of the year when unhappily married women don’t envy their Happy Single Friends and their happily single friends are tempted to spend their “shoe money” on a dating service.

VD, a day when even penicillin won’t cure what’s ailing you.

Valentine’s Day is the day when Happy Singles envy something they don’t necessarily even want.

Chorus in the song Valentine’s Day Lament: “What’s wrong with me”.

Chorus in the song I Survived Valentine’s Day: “What was I thinking”.

Valentines Day is like the measles. We all have to go through it and hope we survive. If we don’t scratch the irritation, we’ll have fewer scars. So let’s duck tape mittens to our hands and not scratch.

After all, it may be one “mother” of a long day but it’s only one day.

Suggestions on how to get through it intact: read on

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Well today is the day of love. The western worlds celebration of a martyred saint through the giving of flowers and chocolates and stupid heart shaped stuffed creatures. Though there is nothing loving or romantic about St. Valentine the tradition of love seems to have been carried through the years. Possibly it was a a throwback to the Greco-roman celebration of Gamelian, which was a month long celebration of the marriage of Zeus and Hera. But despite potential polytheistic origins, we can mainly attribute our celebration of Valentines Day to Chaucer.

The first recorded association of Valentine’s Day with romantic love is in Parlement of Foules (1382) by Geoffrey Chaucer:[5]

‘For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese [choose] his make [mate].’

This poem was written to honor the first anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia. source

Following Chaucer’s newly created tradition of courtly love developed a true “high court of love”

Using the language of the law courts for the rituals of courtly love, a “High Court of Love” was established in Paris on Valentine’s Day in 1400. The court dealt with love contracts, betrayals, and violence against women. Judges were selected by women on the basis of a poetry reading. source

It is a comfort to think that within the celebration of love there is a protection of women and relationships.

In 1969 the Roman Church took Valentines Day off their saints calendar. Though St. Valentine was buried on the 14th of February, they could find no other reason. The official reason was:

“Though the memorial of Saint Valentine is ancient, it is left to particular calendars, since, apart from his name, nothing is known of Saint Valentine except that he was buried on the Via Flaminia on 14 February.” - alendarium Romanum ex Decreto Sacrosancti Œcumenici Concilii Vaticani II Instauratum Auctoritate Pauli PP. VI Promulgatum (Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, MCMLXIX), p. 117″

However, it was in the mid 1800’s when the tradition, as we know it today, was started.

The reinvention of Saint Valentine’s Day in the 1840s has been traced by Leigh Eric Schmidt. In the United States, the first mass-produced valentines of embossed paper lace were produced and sold shortly after 1847 by Esther Howland of Worcester, Massachusetts. Her father operated a large book and stationery store, but Howard took her inspiration from an English valentine she had received, so clearly the practice of sending Valentine’s cards had existed in England before it became popular in North America. The English practice of sending Valentine’s cards appears in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Mr. Harrison’s Confessions (published 1851). Since 2001, the Greeting Card Association has been giving an annual “Esther Howland Award for a Greeting Card Visionary.”

Thanks to Esther, Valentines has become the second largest card sending holiday of the year, leading to revenues exceeding $1 billion dollars. It is also estimated that 85% of the senders are women. Isn’t today the day that men are supposed to romance women? That seems to be more of an urban legend, at least according to the Greeting Card statistics.

Valentines Day is also known as Singles Awareness Day (SAD). This is a day where singles get together and celebrate and commiserate being single. They often wish one another “Happy SAD!” It is also a rejection of the “commercialization” of Valentines day.

So if you are celebrating Valentines day or wishing someone Happy Sad, if you participate, make people feel good about what they have instead of bad about what they don’t. It is a day of love, not I’m in a relationship now let me shove it in your single face and make you feel bad.

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