Menopause
Weaving the great awakening . . .
As humans we are beginning to re-member and recognise Menopause as a rite of passage, as a time of great awakening and as a deep initiation into Elderhood.
Like an Acorn goes through the initiatory process to become an Oak tree, we too go through an initiation to become an Elder…
In the Acorns awakening, a shoot emerges and grows upwards, leaving the holding of the Acorn, it pushes up through the soil above at same time as it sends down roots to connect in to the mycelial networks below. It journeys through layers of earth, around rocks, through heavy clay. It must survive frosts, floods, or scorching dry heat waves.
Initiation is never without challenge and letting go. Just as each Acorn encounters unique obstacles as it grows into being, so too do we as menopausal humans. The challenges we meet are shaped by the societal and cultural systems of oppression that govern us, as well as by the lives we have each experienced and live.
Yet just as the shoot knows instinctively which way to travel to reach the sunlight, we as humans also know, deep in our bodies, the way of awakening through menopause. Our bodies know the path. They may call to us for deeper listening, for loving care, for longer rest, for clearer trust, and for greater boundaries to truly tend to our needs.
During Menopause, the years of menstruating, the years of practicing who we are to be-come, are coming to a close. We are transitioning from the holding and anchoring of our inner cycle and into the holding of the wider cycles of Life. It is a journey of being called to stand in the truest expression of ourselves, wholly embodying the unique gift of who we are each here to be.
Our cultures do not yet all serve us wholly through this powerful initiation, instead often seeing Menopausal experiences as symptoms to be fixed. I believe Menopause does not need fixing. I believe it needs acknowledging, honouring, and those journeying it, supporting.
And so I weave to honour this journey in you.
I weave to create a holding for this initiation.
I weave to reclaim all the selkie skins lost through the lives lived.
I weave in gratitude and in service of Wise Elders and Good Ancestors for the future children of all Be-ings yet to come.
Weaving for Menopause
Weaving is my way of honouring and holding you through this great initiation. Each thread is spun, dyed, and woven with intention, an act of remembrance, of cocooning and trust.
These woven skins offer a place of rest along the path, a second skin to wrap yourself in as you shed what no longer serves and return to your core. They are Selkie skins, spun to honour what has been lost and is being reclaimed, woven to remember who you truly are and carry you through the rite of be-coming.
Offerings
Menopausal Medicine Weaves
Commission a unique shawl, woven as a second skin for your menopause journey.
Dyed with the medicine of plants and trees
Spun and woven in ritual
Created as an offering of holding, warmth, and remembrance
Each weave is a cocoon, spun with your intention, to honour this transformation and wrap you in love.
Menopausal Medicine Weaves are created to offer you holding through this initiatory process. They are a place to return to for moments of rest and pause along the path, a cocoon to re-find trust in the process, and a remembrance of who you are and who you are becoming.
They hold the threads of your life lived, and the memory of the seed of who you are. They are the weaving of your Menarchal self into maturity. Your weave is here as a second skin to hold you in mature relationship with life, throughout the shedding of layers that no longer serve you, returning you to your core, and inviting you to be-come.
These shawls are like Selkie skins, spun and woven to honour the journey and to reclaim that which was once lost to us through the life lived. Each one is created as a commission piece, working with the intention you share with me, to wrap yourself in love, in warmth, in honour, and to offer holding through this time of great transformation.
I create natural dyes by working with wild kin who offer their medicine in colour to your weave. The yarn for your piece I spin on a wheel as ritual. It is a process of supporting you in calling your intention for this time of Becoming into Be-ing.
Weaving the Selkie Skin
A six-month, in-person journey to weave your own medicine shawl.
This is a deep apprenticeship with Cauldron, Spindle, and Loom. Over six months you are guided to create your own Selkie Skin — a shawl of belonging, a second skin to honour the threshold you are crossing.
For many, this shawl is woven to hold the transformation of menopause. It can also honour other rites of passage: the memory of your menarche, the initiation of matrescence, the welcome of elderhood, the grief and reverence of death. Each weave becomes a living witness to the journey you are on.
During our time together you will learn the ancestral crafts of natural dyeing, spinning, and weaving. You will work with plants and trees who make themselves known to you, blending their colours and medicines into your yarn. You will spin fibre into thread, warp the loom, and weave your shawl, held within ceremony, ritual, and gentle guidance.
This is a ceremonial process of remembrance. Each step honours your body, your ancestors, and the animate earth that holds us all. Month by month, as the threads gather on your loom, so too does the story of your becoming.