Speaker 0
Into the wild, I'm going into the wild, I am. It's been a wild freedom child, since I left my roots back home. Into the wild I'm good. Into the wild I am. It's been a while, freedom child, since I left my roots back home.
Speaker 1
Welcome to the Free Birth Society podcast. This is a radical space for women who are ready to celebrate their autonomous choices in birth, motherhood, and beyond. Together, we'll learn about wild birth through personal narrative, we'll explore the politics of birth, and we'll analyze everything that relates to our lives as women from a feminist perspective. Here's your host, Emilee Saldaya.
Speaker 0
It's been a wild freedom since I've left my roots back home.
Speaker 2
Welcome to the show, women. We've got a super special and inspirational episode for you today. I have my creative partners and wise women leaders of the Blood Mysteries School, Kristen and Nancy, back on the show because we are celebrating the doors officially being open for twenty twenty four. This is our third year, and our Blood Mysteries program is better than ever with deeper dives into some of the most important topics related to womanhood, supporting healthy cycles, teaching sovereign, fertility, honoring the sacred monarch, working with young girls, tending to women in the portal of menopause. If you are at all curious about becoming a real wise woman for your community, of serving women as a sovereign cycle coach, the Blood Mystery School welcomes you into our sacred sixteen week container. Space is quite limited and every year it sells out. This program is an intensive medicine wheel that you yourself will be walking through and will ask you to do some really big, very real healing so that you can learn to be more available for the women and girls in your community. Healed women heal women. You feel me? It's time to become the initiation facilitator that our world needs, that our daughters require, and that women are truly aching for. If that's you, head to our website and sign up today. Blood mystery school dot com. We begin February twenty first, and it is the only round this year. Okay. So today, Kristen, Nancy, and I, we get into it. We have a very candid conversation all about our blood mysteries, initiations as girls and women, and how the majority of us are conditioned into each of these rites of passage with shame, mistrust, disrespect, and how that then grooms us for medicalized pregnancies, highly managed traumatic births, and a pharmaceutically dependent menopause. Honoring your blood mysteries acts as a way to disrupt this cycle and reorient yourself to the path of true embodiment by relearning the foundational wisdom of our bodies. Both Kristen and Nancy speak about what being a modern day priestess really looks like in their everyday mundane lives, including all the unique places they put their menstrual blood. They both beautifully articulate the critical knowledge of the blood mysteries for women to truly thrive and come back to our essence of self love where it's all possible. Let's break these toxic cycles, women. Our blood is our power. Enjoy this episode. Get inspired, and then go grab your spot in the Blood Mystery School taught by Nancy and Kristen. Enjoy. Hello, women.
Speaker 3
Hi there.
Speaker 2
Hello, my beauty my beauty priestesses. Okay. I'm excited for this conversation today. The big announcement that we have is that in this episode being released today, that your program, the Blood Mystery School, is officially open for enrollment for the one time of twenty twenty four. And so we are gathering today to talk about a fun aspect of the blood mysteries and and what you both do with women, which which we're gonna frame it as conscious initiations or proper initiations as a pathway to what's it would it be called priestesshood? Yeah. Okay. It sounded a little weird in my head before I said it. And, yeah, I wanna get into what does it even mean after you've been properly initiated? What does it look like in both of your lives to live in your everyday normal lives as embodied priestesses? And that this this isn't about some, you know, far out there concept that that, you know, you women listening, like, can't access. This is, gonna be really a a very tangible conversation today, yeah, with lots of goodies. So welcome to you both.
Speaker 4
Yeah. The modern day priestess. Yes.
Speaker 3
Mhmm.
Speaker 2
So maybe we having
Speaker 3
us, Emilee. Mhmm. Thanks for having us, Emilee.
Speaker 2
Yeah. I'm really excited about the school this year. You know, we've we've tweaked it a lot and really honed in on just, like, the magic of what this program is bringing forth, and there's nothing there's literally nothing like it out there that I'm aware of today, and and we'll talk about this more at the end. But this combination that I wanna make sure you guys have time to flesh out today, this combination of going through the sixteen week container with you where you emerge a cycle coach, which is so cool and needed, and then you also emerge as this, women's initiation facilitator of the blood mysteries. Right? And, like, imagine a world eventually
Speaker 4
where we
Speaker 2
have thousands and thousands and thousands of graduates all over the planet walking with this wisdom and and with this guidance from you both. So I love this program, and I'm really excited to launch it again.
Speaker 4
Me too.
Speaker 2
So let's get into maybe first the the the bullshit initiations. Let's talk about the problemo going on out there in the world. Why don't you just kinda take that? And what what do we what do we wanna frame, you know, and connect women to before we get into the the juiciness?
Speaker 3
I can start, Nancy, if that's okay. Yeah. So I think a lot of us came into womanhood, and by that, I mean, like, starting our cycles. So our first bleed, which is called Menarche. A lot of us came into that really in a in an uncontained way, we could say, or in a way that was not we were not reflected back to we were not held in in our power. We were not even taught some of the most basic basic things about our cycles. Like, you can't get pregnant every day of your cycle, or this is how you should take care of your body. These are the types of products you should use or shouldn't use. These are the types of foods that are gonna help your body to feel its best, like, depending on where you're at in your cycle. So a lot of us just didn't receive any of that. Some some of us might have received, like, a very basic, maybe a gift or some type of appreciation, but very few of us were held in a community of wise women who are maybe giving us feedback or wisdom for our path forward and really showing us that this is actually, like, a really powerful part of your life and your identity, and it's how you can orient your life to live from an authentic place, from an embodied place, and let it inform the decisions that you make in your life. So instead of that, we're often just given, like, okay. Here's the tampon. Maybe here's how you use it, or, you know, you just need to keep going with your life as it is. This is just something you have to deal with. It's kind of like this, there's a big disconnect. And I think from that place, a lot of women lose trust in their own inner voice or their own intuition, and they're kind of cut off from that from a very young age. And, of course, in a way, we could say it's manufactured that way. Right? It's like that keeps the system intact. That keeps us making choices about our bodies, about our birthing processes as the years go on. So whether that looks like, oh, I have a problem with my period. I'm just gonna opt for an IUD or hormonal contraceptives even though
Speaker 2
hysterectomy. Or,
Speaker 3
yeah, or getting a hysterectomy at at a young age or anytime. So it's just like it creates this real sense of lack of trust, disconnection, and it doesn't really situate us in our lives. It doesn't really orient us to what is happening in our bodies and what's happening around us.
Speaker 4
Mhmm. Yeah. I just wanna touch on that that very last piece that you said about situating. That's something that I've talked to my daughter about so much, just this the importance of having a north star to orient to. Especially when you're in those adolescent years, there is so much. And nowadays, oh, man. It is a sea of just things trying to get your attention and basically steal your life essence from you, if I can be really frank. And so to be able to have your cycle as at least part of your north star, and there can be other things in there too, But as this map to orient yourself to, if somebody actually just teaches you even just the basics of how to do that, it's a such a huge game changer. Because like you said, that young girl goes on to trust her intuition, to trust that guiding light within the voice from her womb. That's something that I'm always working with my teenage daughter on. Like, what is the voice saying? You know? And she's really learning to tune into that, and she's just fifteen.
Speaker 2
Like, what will she say?
Speaker 4
I mean, she'll just be like, I feel this, but I'm not so sure. And I'm like, okay. Close your eyes. Let's let's really feel it. Like, deep deep down. You know? Maybe I'll touch her womb, and she's like, okay. Yeah. It's a no. Or, yep. It's a yes. You know? Stuff like that. It can be about anything, but it's like she's getting and I've also been working with her on developing the what I call, like, the womb voice. So that very connected throat center that's connected to the womb, that's connected to the heart. So you're learning to bring that power up and actually say what you want. And I can say that I noticed a huge difference in her after she got her first period. And we did obviously a whole beautiful initiation kind of experience. She really began to speak out more how she actually feels, what she actual even if it's a little scary, she's still doing it. And so I think that's, one of just one of the thousands of benefits of following this path of initiation, which is the natural path, which was the was the path that used to exist for all of us. You know?
Speaker 2
Right. Like, the design, the spiritual design is self love. Mhmm. The spiritual design is embodiment. Right? And when women get their blood or girls, as you guys are are saying I mean, really, the the initiation process for most of us through that rite of passage if is shame, self loathing, fracture, hiding, secrecy, and confusion. Right? Like, what you spoke to, Kristen, about the the, like, thinking you can get pregnant at any time that we're just, like, ticking time bombs. I I remember learning about FAM when I was seventeen, eighteen and just being mind blown that, a, no one taught me this, and, b, that it was actually, like, incredibly simple and that it's this it's, like, kept under lock and key. You know? Like, also, I was thinking when you guys were talking that no one told me the length of time the tampon should come out in. You know? Like, I had to read that on the box and was like, if you don't want TSS, take it in and out within twelve hours. I'm like, what is that? Like, Like, no one even said the basics.
Speaker 4
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2
And just imagine this this world. I mean, Nancy, you're doing it. You know, our daughters are still are still quite little, Kristen and I. But imagine this community, this world, this vision where children, where girls are just, like, properly oriented and properly adjusted. But one of the big things I think we need to get across is that doesn't happen if you, the mother, aren't properly oriented and aren't properly adjusted, which is where our school comes in and where both of your work individually and together comes in. Like, you can't you can't skip yourself and think you're gonna rewrite all this shit with your daughter. It just Right. It's not gonna happen. It's not
Speaker 3
gonna happen.
Speaker 4
Yeah. It's not possible. Honestly, what's on my mind because it's just so relevant for the age of my daughter is and I've just been noticing it now, and I'm like, oh, right. This is how the rest of the world does it. Oh, she's that age? Oh, she's gonna have start having sex soon maybe? Birth control time.
Speaker 2
Mhmm.
Speaker 4
Without even a question.
Speaker 2
Also, who is saying that to you? That is, like, a very personal comment. My god.
Speaker 4
It's, like, out there. You know?
Speaker 3
It is out there. It's, like, totally I forget about it, but it's like, oh, yeah. This is just the norm. It's like a step of of female empowerment, we can say.
Speaker 2
It's just responsibility as the mother.
Speaker 3
Yeah. Of, like, you need to offer your child birth control. No. You do not. Like, you need to responsibly show her and teach her about her fertility as as her own power and invite her into taking responsibility for that.
Speaker 2
Which, again, cannot and will not occur if you, the mother, haven't done it. If you, the mother, don't know what the hell to say because you aren't living that message, it's not gonna work. I I remember my thermostat setting was so low as a young woman that I remember when my mom came to me with my first real boyfriend around fifteen, sixteen and was like, are you gonna have sex? And I was like, yeah. And and and then she was like, so let's put you on the pill. And I was like, okay. And I remember thinking that was so cool that she didn't try to talk me out of it and that she was like, I accept you, and here's what we do next. Mhmm. Like, what a low thermostat.
Speaker 4
Right. That is yeah. For my
Speaker 2
poor mom, she didn't know. Of course.
Speaker 4
Yeah. Of course. Of course. Yeah.
Speaker 2
And then just just so that the the string is connected, you know, for for you women listening, so, of course, Menark is this this really first big blood mystery in our lives. And then we will move into having sex, and then we will move into at some point, most women will have pregnancies and will birth. And so, you know, to put it really simply, if you were to zoom out and look at these markers in a woman's life, the the initiation that you go through in your first blood mystery sets the tone for that next phase of your life. Right? Whatever messages you are taught through your parents, your household, your society, is basically grooming you for how to be, to be accepted into your household, into your society in that next phase. And then on it goes into the next one, into the next one. So these kind of they're almost so obvious. It can be almost hard to see at first. There's this, through line
Speaker 4
Mhmm.
Speaker 2
In mainstream culture, you know, the world over, which is, blood is gross, blood is shame, shut up about it, hide it, and then we move into, you know, as soon as you start see having your blood, though you don't talk about it, you also, for the Western world, start seeing a gynecologist who probes you and scrapes you and does, you know, god knows what to you as a young girl. So you're going in to a doctor and spreading your legs and and, you know, being taught that the next phase is to submit to a physician that you don't know. You don't really understand what the heck they're doing. And there's quite a bit of fear. There's quite a bit of of discomfort. And and we know how, just notoriously disgusting doctors are with their bedside manner. I mean, I know so many horrific stories of young girls with their doctors having this first gyno appointment, and then that grooms you into the next phase. Right? So then you're perfectly set up for obstetrical birth trauma, for more fracture, for more all the stuff, you know, you women hear on this podcast of of what happens when women don't yet understand their power. They don't, yet know anything about choice and self responsibility, and they're just in the tide, that's set up for them, which is the gynecological obstetrical trauma tide. Right? And so then it moves you into your births. Now you have daughters, and now those daughters are set up for the same thing. And unless we are really consciously interrupting that, it will not be interrupted. Mhmm.
Speaker 3
Right. We have to disrupt it. We have to, like, disrupt at some point along the trajectory. And it doesn't matter. If you're listening and you're like, oh, I already have a daughter, and I some of these things happen to me, It can stop with you right now. Like, you can make a change in any moment. So it's not about, like, that you have to have had this proper initiation. There's always a space to reclaim that and start to make those repairs. And that's, like, really what we're getting at is that we do have to disrupt it at some point and say, like, this shit stops with me. Like, I'm done. And then find a new path forward that is one of integrity and embodiment. And that is, like, the very subtle but such effective, I feel like, of the medical paradigm that sort of penetrates and sort of is part of mainstream culture is that like you were saying, Emilee, it's like our our blood is shameful. It needs to be hidden. Our bodies are broken. They're they're somehow different because we have these hormonal rhythms, and it just leads down leads you down this path of trusting another authority over your own inner authority.
Speaker 2
And it's not even real trust. It's like you don't even know what trust even is. It's like outsourcing.
Speaker 4
Yeah. It's just like a default Totally. Program.
Speaker 2
It's so sad. But I appreciate the reminder for anyone stressing out listening to this that it literally just can change. It really actually can, and and that's, you know, one of the many reasons that the Blood Mystery School has been so powerful for so many women because it is this container of of proper initiation. And like I said at the very beginning, none of this is, like, crazy. None of this is out of reach. This is about gathering with women, having proper guides, practicing ceremony, choosing a different mantra, you know, mantra, choosing a different script, trying something different. You know, if you if you, have a lot of negative thoughts when your blood comes, you can just choose to say something different when your blood comes. You know, you can just choose to do that. It's simple. And I think for many people who are really stuck in their own scripts, it can feel really out of reach. So that's part of what I wanna get across today with with you both when we shift more into conscious initiations and and this idea of priestesshood in your mundane life. You know, we will, in a in a little bit, touch on what are these, like, simple day to day touch points that women can
Speaker 3
integrate. Mhmm.
Speaker 2
Anything else to flush out about the bullshit initiations that groom you for fracture and self loathing?
Speaker 4
I mean, we didn't touch on the last blood mystery, which is, well, I guess before death is, menopause. You know? Very menopause and menopause. And I'm thankful that it's being talked about a little bit more a little bit more than it was maybe even a few years ago, but it's still this very shadowy realm that most women don't even wanna touch. Mhmm. And, you know, I try not to even look at what's happening out there in the in the mainstream because I'm just so far removed from it now, but it's really insane. Like, I think the statistics are just nuts. Like, when you're starting to go through perimenopause and things are shifting, you'll go to your doctor, and you'll start talking about things, and they'll put you on an antidepressant. Mhmm. You know? Literally. That's, like, happening, like, one in a few women.
Speaker 2
Of course.
Speaker 4
Yeah. I mean,
Speaker 2
it's drugs and then hysterectomy.
Speaker 3
Yeah. Drugs and surgery.
Speaker 2
Exactly. Just like in birth.
Speaker 4
Right. Yeah. Exactly. So it's just the same thing that repeats itself.
Speaker 2
I do think that I mean, this is very hopeful, but I feel like when our generation moves into menopause, it's gonna kinda blow up in the like, we're all in our childbearing years, so that's, like, what we're putting out. And then we're not gonna be but we're still gonna be putting all this out.
Speaker 4
Right. I know. I thought about that time that yeah. I thought that exact thought. I think that's gonna be really exciting. But we did add a a a menopause kinda interview mini interview series to the school, and it was so beautiful, to hear those women speak about how that for for for the one that I interviewed at least was the most powerful initiation of them all. And, you know, she chose to obviously go through it very naturally, and that's so rare. That's so, so, so rare. Yeah. Because
Speaker 3
It is.
Speaker 4
So and she spoke a lot to, like yeah. Because most women are like, well, I have something that I need to fix now. I need to fix it. I need to fix it. I need to fix it. Even if you're using herbs, are you going about it from that perspective of, like, I need to fix something? Or is it like, okay. This is gonna be my ally, this herbal ally that's gonna walk with me
Speaker 2
as I make what's here for me to know. Yeah.
Speaker 4
Yeah. And just deepen into my power. And that's what the whole priesthood is about, being in your power in this world. Simple. Being aligned with your true essence. And I really see the blood mysteries as a spiral path that we walk. Every time we cycle, we get closer and closer to that essence. Every time we go through another initiation, we get closer to that essence. The design is that we come out on the other side even healthier, even stronger, more resourced, more of who we really are.
Speaker 2
God. It's so counter to what our programming is that, like, you just get, like, haggard and just, like, stripped down and that the only attractive thing is, like, a twenty year old hairless shaved child girl, you know, and that we're just all, like, disgusting. It's so sad, and it's so not true.
Speaker 4
I know.
Speaker 2
Gosh.
Speaker 4
Imagine, though, if our world actually was full of crones who were in their sage hood
Speaker 2
Mhmm.
Speaker 4
And not still clinging to maiden hood.
Speaker 2
God. For real. Yeah. It's pretty pathetic, actually.
Speaker 4
It's mild.
Speaker 2
Yeah. It's sad. It's really sad. Yeah. Okay. So let's talk about some tangible okay. Well, let let me say it again in case this went over anyone's head. So so the blood mysteries are defined as, we could say your own birth coming into the world with your mother and then your first bleed and then sex and then menopause and then some even say, and then did I say birth?
Speaker 4
Yeah. No. You didn't say birth. But it's not being
Speaker 3
for a
Speaker 2
pregnancy birth. And then we could even say, your own exit, you know, out of this plane. And so there's these very obvious, very massive touch points throughout throughout our life. And so, obviously, our, conviction statement is the way that we've all been initiated is total bullshit. It grooms us for disempowerment. And, you know, obviously, you're listening to this podcast because you are on the path of embodiment, and it's really not a not just a buzzword. I I love that word so much. I love that word so much more and more, actually, every month that I think about it because embodiment is self love.
Speaker 4
Mhmm.
Speaker 2
Right? And, like, again, not just a buzzword. Like, is there anything more significant? Is there anything more, like, when when you learn to love yourself, everything becomes possible.
Speaker 4
That's right. Yeah.
Speaker 2
You know? Like, you're just, like, in a psychedelic creative
Speaker 4
Mhmm.
Speaker 2
Paradigm.
Speaker 3
Totally.
Speaker 2
And the inner critic and the, you know, the the bullshit in your head and the, you know, the the, like, shitty toxic family members and and all of that that's going on for so many of you. Like, all of that that inner critic, that that nasty, you know, thing in you that thinks bad things about yourself, that shit is not yours. It's literally not you. Anything that is not anything that's happening in your head that isn't orienting towards self love isn't yours Because we that is our essence
Speaker 4
Mhmm. Mhmm.
Speaker 2
In every way. And so, yes, I love this really simple idea of using the blood mysteries to properly orient you to embodiment and self love. It's something that really is actually quite simple in every day. And so maybe let's let's shift into that. Like, what does it look like? Because both of you women have rewritten your blood mysteries. You have done, you know, so much ceremonial work and consciousness work to, really walk the walk of self love and, embodiment and and all of this. And so what does it look like for both of you to live in this priestess state in your everyday mundane life. Nancy's like, I've been waiting for someone to ask me this question literally my whole life. This is your book, Nancy.
Speaker 4
Oh, that's funny. Yeah. For me, like and I've said this before, but I I just love going back to this idea of really reclaiming my time, my relationship with natural time. I believe that I live under a totally faulty calendar that is not aligned with really anything. And so what makes the most sense to me as a woman, especially my cycling years, is to begin to orient myself in terms of my time to the different phases of of the cycle that I'm currently in. And so being a modern day priestess for me, that's, like, the first thing. It's like the reclamation of my time, recognizing that I'm not supposed to be productive every single day and that it's actually to my benefit if I'm not. You know? That's just a really, really basic thing. But that's so basic and so foundational and so deep that most women miss that. And so then comes the, I love myself so much that I'm going to give myself permission to then rest when it's actually appropriate to rest on the days where, yeah, the the production or productivity is naturally low. And in those days, that means I'm, like, dreaming and receiving and cultivating seeds of the next chapter. So rather than getting into, like, every single phase in what I do, I would say that that's kind of the the basic, gist of it. And then within that, I am a ceremonialist. Like, I'm I'm I kinda orient my whole life to that as, like, you know, the the ritual, way of being in life. And I have, through many years of study, cult and cultivating that practice, but also, like, remembering that that's in my bones. And that's what I tried the women in the school. It's like, this really is in your cellular memory. I promise.
Speaker 2
You can just make it up. Yeah.
Speaker 4
It just takes some practice, but, you know, that is a big part of being a the modern day priestess for me is also turning to ritual or ceremony to receive answers. Mhmm. So not going immediately into the mental space, but going into the feeling body. And that's what I I talked about recently in these memes I put out. It's like the initiated woman is dangerous to society because she can feel truth in her body. Mhmm. And she can actually be led by the feeling body, not just the feeling.
Speaker 2
You can't be lied to.
Speaker 4
Exactly. Exactly. So for me, a lot a lot of the day to day kind of practical means that I take time to sit in front of my little altar and actually feel what is appropriate for today, what is really wanting to blossom. You know? And we can get into, like, more specifics, but I just kinda wanna delay.
Speaker 2
Mhmm. I'm thinking about at MRF last year. I was hanging out with Tony Jones, who's the affirmations, you know, artist, and she looked around at the event. And she looked at me and she said, I think I'm gonna go take up some space with some rest.
Speaker 4
And then she
Speaker 2
just went back to the year to take a nap. I was like, love that. They need to do a bit more of that. I was also gonna say that this, on on New Year's Eve, just passed, I took my first and last nap of twenty twenty three because I'm Energizer Bunny, and I took a I was so tired. I was bleeding, And I took a nap, which I literally that was my first and last of the entire year. And in that hour, I slept for, like, fifty minutes. And in that hour and it was pretty edgy for me to do because I I I haven't learned that whole thing you just beautifully described. But I did it, and it felt so luxurious, even, like, gluttonous with my kids awake. And I just, like, left and went into my room and took a nap. And, anyway, three women enrolled in my retreat in the one hour that I was asleep. And I woke up and was like, oh, shit. Okay. This is like the other side. I'm receiving. It was nice.
Speaker 4
Oh, it's so true.
Speaker 3
It's so accurate.
Speaker 4
Yeah. There's so much magnetism in that space that you're really willing
Speaker 2
to do. I get it now. Yeah. What about you, Nance? Or yeah. What about you, Kristen? What does it look like for you?
Speaker 3
I mean, so much of what Nancy said, it's like I feel like for so many women, once they realize that, oh, there is a different way to orient to time, and they start to pay attention to their cycles more and the cycles externally wherever you live or wherever you are in the world. It's like this process of orienting to the external environment of, like, what's going on seasonally where I live, and then what's going on within me. And it's not that these things have to match up or that they always do, but just this orientation process, it's actually just, like, written into our physiology that this creates so much safety in the body Mhmm. At a nervous system level. It's, like, very, very basic. But if we want to receive inspiration or if we want to receive sort of whatever it is that you're calling in, coming from this place of, like, a real felt grounded sense of safety in the body shifts and change changes so much just in your day to day reality. So I think for me, that process also is really about, like I mean, not so much right now where I'm at, but when I first was, like, reclaiming this, it was a lot about just letting my consciousness drop down below the head. Right? Like, how does it feel in my womb space right now? Like, do I have a felt sense of my pelvic tissues?
Speaker 4
How
Speaker 3
does my vagina feel at different points in my cycle? It's like you can actually receive a lot of feedback by just noticing how those tissues feel.
Speaker 2
By acknowledging it at all?
Speaker 3
Yeah. By just, hey. It's here. Like, what's happening? That would be the first thing. But so many women don't even recognize that until there's a sense of pain or constriction or tension. And it's really about, like, welcoming also, the sensations that are good or, like, register as feeling pleasurable for you or whatever that is, even just, like, a sense of feeling more grounded or open, relaxed. And the other one I feel like I have to touch on is nourishment and developing a relationship with nourishment. On the basic level of, like, how you nourish your body through food, but also soul level nourishment. Like, what really enlivens you, and what are you drawn towards? How can you create more of that in your day to day environment, whether that looks like, you know, you go out and you pick fresh flowers once a week during during the times of the year where that makes sense. Where there is like, that brings a level of ritual into your day to day life, and it cultivates beauty, which is another really important aspect of being a priestess is, like, really beautifying your environment and inviting that in. So those, like, nourishment and and beauty, like, yeah, those pieces, I think, are really important.
Speaker 2
It's making me think about that maybe another way of saying all of this is, like, a a conscious choice to shift out of survival mode.
Speaker 4
Yeah.
Speaker 2
Right? Like, I'm thinking about so many women I know and love and and often myself included that's just, like, so addicted to that high functioning cerebral, pretty disassociated from the actual body, you know, up here survival mode. And and and I've spent enough time in it that I can see the fun feedback loop in it for me, and it's not, it's not sustainable. It's not you can't do both. You know? We can't do what you guys are talking about, and that that felt sense within your whole body and and reclaiming time and dropping down out of the mind and all of that. Like, to me, that is that is the choice to not be in survival mode, which is what society grooms us to be in and stay in until we drop dead.
Speaker 4
Exactly. Like that, when you were sharing that, I was actually thinking about being on the deathbed. Like, what are you actually gonna remember, and what are you really gonna cherish? Mhmm. And for me, it really comes down to presence. And presence is about getting out of that survival mode. Yeah. It's about making space, that inner space to connect with something that's just so much deeper than three d reality that we see with our eyes. And it's Well, not
Speaker 2
this idea of, like, doing doing is value.
Speaker 3
Mhmm. Mhmm. Right?
Speaker 2
Like, I definitely can fall for that. That's like like taking, like, days to not be productive. Like, that's crazy. You know?
Speaker 4
Yeah. It's an edge for most women. Mhmm. Requires them to also get out of the kind of individualistic thinking of, like, I'm doing it all myself. It kind of requires you to drop down into community and sisterhood if you really wanna live cyclically. You know? Because it requires you to actually ask for help on certain days. That's something I see so much in my both, like, cyclical teachings, but also my postpartum care that I do. It's like, oh, no. No. No. No. Like, I cannot I cannot possibly rest because that means that means I would have to ask for help.
Speaker 2
Or or that that everything will just fall apart because I would never ask for help. So to rest equals chaos in the house, Kids don't get cared for. Dog doesn't get walked. I see that too where it's like asking for help is not even on the table. Mhmm. So then the cost of self care is everything falls apart.
Speaker 4
That's terrible. There's a lot of programming that that we undo when we begin to really get in touch with our female body.
Speaker 2
I know. It's so sad. It's so intense. But, again, the pathway is quite simple.
Speaker 4
But it's also, like, just so exciting when you do step on that path because you just begin to discover jewels and treasures all the time. And it's like, oh, oh, oh, oh my god. I mean, because it even opens up all the stuff stuff for ancestral healing and lineage healing when you really begin to work with your womb, when you begin to interact with your blood, even be so brave as to touch your blood. To touch it, to examine it, to be like, that ripples back, in time as well to your mother line. You know?
Speaker 2
So what do you do with it? You just, like, make a little painting?
Speaker 4
I have made And
Speaker 2
the little thank you card?
Speaker 4
I do I do I make paintings. I like to put it on my third eye. I like to do masks, like face masks.
Speaker 2
Oh, you, like, go there.
Speaker 4
Yeah.
Speaker 3
Yeah. Me too.
Speaker 2
You Yeah. You do too?
Speaker 3
Yeah. Totally.
Speaker 4
Obviously, like, giving it back to the earth or the plants, the house plants, I always do that because why not? I because I use either cloth pads or period panties or sometimes I'll freebleeder kind of mix
Speaker 2
up those. That's what I'm gonna say. How do you how are you capturing it?
Speaker 4
Yeah. But this is, like, such a common question that we get. Right, Kristine?
Speaker 3
We both get the question.
Speaker 4
Simple, personally, and I think both of us, right, don't really, recommend the tops.
Speaker 3
Yeah. Like, that'd be weird.
Speaker 4
Yeah. You know, obviously, if if you love using a cup and that's your thing, like, it's very easy to catch
Speaker 3
the cup and
Speaker 4
then take it back to the earth. But we use either cloth pads or period panties if we're not free bleeding, because sometimes I like to just go out on the earth and just lift up my screen
Speaker 2
See what happens.
Speaker 4
In my. You know? But you take the panties or the, cloth pads, and you put them in either, like, a bucket
Speaker 2
or a
Speaker 4
jar, and you run water over them, and you wring them out. And then it's so blood and water. It's not just
Speaker 2
You make a little infusion.
Speaker 4
Basically. Yeah. And like
Speaker 2
I know I have a girlfriend who she has trained herself. I mean, maybe you guys can do this. I don't know how to do this yet. But she, like, wakes up, and she can, like, keep her cervix closed and then walk outside and open, and all her blood will come out at once Mhmm. For some period of time and then, like, goes back in. And she can just open and release. I mean, that's very impressive.
Speaker 4
Advanced, for sure.
Speaker 3
Advanced. Advanced. According to
Speaker 2
the DMS program level too.
Speaker 4
I don't know how she does that.
Speaker 2
I can barely I can barely jump on a trampoline. Okay. So you guys do that with your blood. So you really get you get funky with it.
Speaker 4
Yes. And, like, if you're listening, you're like, oh my god. Woah. That's intense. Obviously, you don't have to go to those links. Yeah.
Speaker 3
You don't
Speaker 4
have to do that. But it's been super inspiring in the school to hear from women. Like, we do these graduate calls a year post the school starting, and we're like, how are you? Where are you at? And just some amazing stories have been shared around women actually developing a relationship with their blood and doing these different rituals and just how that's opened up so many areas of their lives and really deepened their self love. Mhmm. Because it's recognizing that, oh, I am this too. I am this. Right.
Speaker 2
Oh my god. I mean, just just healing the cognitive dissonance to to rewrite this as blood is power, blood is blood is nutrients, blood is good. I mean, that is major. So I understand that, like, playing within these different ways helps you create positive pathways. But, like, you put it on your face as a mask? Yes. It has And then you just, like, walk around your house and scare the shit out of your kids.
Speaker 3
Like, what do you mean? Really dry. Like, it's not, like, super red.
Speaker 4
Very subtle, actually. Actually. Yeah.
Speaker 3
You can barely tell.
Speaker 4
You can you can put some menstrual blood in a cup. Now we're really going for it. We're here. We're gonna just go for it. You can put some in a a little bit of water. And if you have dental issues, you can switch with that because it has stem cells.
Speaker 3
Yeah. So menstrual inflammatory tissue.
Speaker 4
Like, insane. It was gonna be a baby. You know? I mean, it had
Speaker 3
the potential to become Fair enough. Fair enough.
Speaker 4
You mean it's life force.
Speaker 2
It's life force. Yeah. Exactly.
Speaker 4
Do you wanna say something more about it, Kristin?
Speaker 3
I was just gonna say now, like, with the with the current research we have around, like, endometrial stem cells, so stem cells are undifferentiated cells. They can become any type of cell, essentially. And so they're actually using endometrial stem cells to treat a variety of things, which is okay. We're not gonna go into that. Like, harvesting of those stem cells is obviously very ethically not okay, But we have access to that every month. We don't need some some technology to do that for us. We just can have those stem cells for a wrinkle on your forehead or or whatever, a a wound healing. I don't know. Whatever you would wanna use it for. But there is, like, a real magic to that that's based in, like, our physiology.
Speaker 4
So I don't know.
Speaker 3
I think that's really interesting.
Speaker 4
Mhmm. Can we talk about that? How we as women are conduits here, and we are really between the heaven and earth. Yeah. And so if we are able to, like, really open our crowns on those days that we are bleeding and receive celestial codes and wisdom. I mean, talk about priesthood. This is like next level priestess. Right? Really connecting with that intentionally, taking that into your body, all of that becoming your blood, and then you offer that blood to the earth, not just to say, I'm gonna throw this into a plant so it grows better. But, like, I'm actually offering this so that humanity evolves into its elevated consciousness that it is truly meant to be. So here's all this information from the stars going through my body and giving back to their I feel the same way about placentas. You know? Mhmm. That kind of burial. There's just so much there. And there's this prophecy I recently did this reel about it, that comes from the Hopi that says, once women start giving their blood back to the earth, men will come home from war. Mhmm. That's like the wrong blood is being shed for the earth.
Speaker 2
Yes. Yeah.
Speaker 4
So for me, that it's there's there's a lot there are a lot of layers here.
Speaker 2
And the wrong mouthwash is being swished.
Speaker 4
Hundred percent because that other stuff is totally killing your microbiome.
Speaker 2
Alright. That's the golden nugget in this episode for me.
Speaker 3
Emilee's gonna try that next cycle. Hang on.
Speaker 2
I mean, shit. I'll do it. I'll give it a go. Both of you really do that?
Speaker 3
I've never tried them with the wash, but I've definitely done, like, the face mask. Oh, yeah. For sure.
Speaker 2
So is it just like you sorry to be graphic. But, like, are you just sticking your fingers in your Yoni and then, like, or are you doing it from the infused water bath? Or
Speaker 4
Oh, I don't do it when I I don't do with the panties and the cloth pads. I do it with this catheter bath. Yeah. Moment where I just I have, like, a designated cup for that, and I'll just when I know that I'm gonna bleed because, obviously, you feel it coming. Mhmm. Yeah. That's the sound.
Speaker 2
Great.
Speaker 4
The voice pain.
Speaker 2
I love it. I love it. Well, women, this is what happens when you get properly initiated.
Speaker 4
But it's so true because and Kristen and I were laughing about this the other day. I'm like, well, now we really do forget just how
Speaker 3
forget. Yeah.
Speaker 4
On the edge, we are because this stuff becomes so normal. It just becomes normal.
Speaker 2
But you know what? You women are happy. You're thriving. You're contented in your marriages and your mothering. Like, you're killing it.
Speaker 4
Yeah.
Speaker 3
So It's true.
Speaker 2
We're on something.
Speaker 4
And I'm and it feels like it's just getting better and better.
Speaker 2
Mhmm.
Speaker 4
Yeah. How life is designed to be.
Speaker 2
Exactly. Yeah. Contrary to everything that we've been that we've been told.
Speaker 3
And we're showing our daughters too and my and my son both my sons. I mean, I have a baby, so he's not really fully there yet. But, like, my six year old, like, he knows, oh, yeah. Mommy's bleeding, and, like, that's the period underwear go in the in the water. And, like, that's just a very normal part of his reality, and my daughter as well. And so they understand, like, when I'm bleeding, there's no baby and etcetera, etcetera. So it's like these things really make a lasting impact when you start to make these changes. It's like you don't even necessarily have to be it's not as active in the teaching because you are embodying it. Right. It's just like a natural progression.
Speaker 2
It's just integrated. Yeah. Which is why you as the listening woman, mother, you have to do all this to walk the walk because your children actually don't really need to be, like, taught as much as it's like an inner inner energetic field. I've I've been thinking about it with Suniye because she's six and two weeks. And, you know, she's, like, asking well, I just got my blood back since, since the baby. And so that's, like, you know, been in our household for the last two months. And yeah. So she's, like, aware of it and has asked some questions recently because the last time I bled was, like, two plus years ago when she was much younger. Anyway and so I was just thinking about it, you know, that she asked these questions and everything I say is, like, it's so incredible. It's it's so exciting to have this back. Like, everything I say is so positive, a, because I genuinely feel that, and, also, I am hyperaware of how what a gift it is to transmit that energy to her. It's just such a gift that I get to be the one in this little girl's life who enthusiastically shares her first ever times of hearing about blood. Like, what a cool thing that I get to be aware of. You know? That's so simple. I'm not, like, giving her all these lessons. I'm just like, every month, you're gonna get it. It's so fun. It's gonna be so great. You know? This is power and whatever I say. I don't even know. And just that it's this this very just chill integrated aspect of her knowing, like you're saying.
Speaker 4
Mhmm.
Speaker 2
So special.
Speaker 4
So true.
Speaker 2
But if I hadn't done the work to choose, it's really not even I don't know if you even say learn. It's kind of the same. But to choose how to properly reinitiate myself, to choose to think positively about my blood, you know, all the stuff. Like, that's the only way this can work. Mhmm. I just really can't stress that enough because I know so many moms who, of course, were improperly initiated. They're very stressed out about having daughters, and they're just they're still really in their own self loathing, and they're still really in their own victimhood about their bodies. Mhmm. And and I think, you know, many women I know that I'm referencing, like, they do have awareness that they wanna do better by by and for and to their daughters, but it's not an outsourced thing. It's not you can't, like, skip over You're the center of your entire household. Like, if you aren't working on yourself, what are you even doing? Mhmm. I'm excited for what you women are gonna do at MRF too. We should we should plug that for women to get excited about. Do you guys wanna say your workshops really quick?
Speaker 3
We're gonna teach, journey through the womb heart, and I'll be leading some teachings around what is the womb heart connection according to Chinese medicine and what does that how does that sort of manifest in our day to day lives. And Nancy is gonna guide us using sound into the womb heart.
Speaker 4
Mhmm.
Speaker 3
And, yeah, I'm really excited about that. It's, like, always so special to be in person, and I'll get to see Nancy again, which is great. She wasn't there last year, but she's coming back, which is very exciting.
Speaker 2
We need to do another cute photo shoot.
Speaker 4
Yeah. Totally. And then we're also gonna be doing a really special ceremony, which is gonna be a monarch reclamation ceremony. And that is just some of the most powerful stuff ever. And even if you've done that before, you can do that over and over, and you will still find out something new about yourself. So you'll be guided to journey back in time, revisit your first bleed. Yeah. It'll be, obviously, just a very beautiful experiential experience among women in person. We'll do some cool. So yeah. Yeah. It's still a better downloading for me, you know, exactly the form it will take. There will definitely be music as well as a part of it or sound or something. So I'm excited.
Speaker 2
Kristen, can you picture that that big tent we had to the left of the stage that we had to, like, replace the dome with because it flooded? Yeah. That one, I'm thinking of grading next to the earth altar and flattening, like, tucked back in Gaya's Grove and having that be your guys' red tent.
Speaker 3
Red tent. I think that's that's gonna be perfect. I'm so excited for the red tent.
Speaker 2
Oh, yeah. So that's the other thing is you'll be the red tent. Yeah. You'll be hosting and tending a new venue.
Speaker 3
So this is still kind of taking form, but we're going to be hosting in the red tent probably on a daily basis, some kind of check-in or tea time or some some offering that where women can come and gather, and we can dive into all of these topics a little bit more that that's going to be really about sharing and witnessing and being together as women. And integrating.
Speaker 2
I just have a feeling that the weather is going to be perfect.
Speaker 4
Nice.
Speaker 3
Okay. We
Speaker 2
had our hot year. We had our mud year. This year is just gonna crush. I can feel it. Full moon on the solstice. Okay. So let's take a little minute here to talk about the Blood Mystery School. As we said at the beginning, we are celebrating its twenty twenty four launch. We run it once a year. We have a huge wait list, so I don't, want any of you to wait because enrollment, as of right now, is open now, and it's only gonna be open for a couple of weeks. So why don't you both maybe take turns of what you bring to it and and why everyone interested in our topic today should come take the program with us?
Speaker 4
Yeah. So I bring the energetic kind of emotional psychospiritual component to the Blood Mystery School and, obviously, the ritual and ceremony as well, both in guiding you in ceremony and guiding you in ritual and also teaching you how to do that with other women. And we move through the seasons of womanhood. So it's a four month program, and each month, I speak to a different archetype, which corresponds to a different season, which corresponds to a different phase of the moon. And not only are you learning about, what's happening for you on this kind of plane cyclically every month if you're in those years, but you're also we're we also really unpack these seasonal changes over the larger life cycle. So we talk about the maiden and the mother and the sorceress and the crone in terms of how she shows up over the span of our life, not just every single month. And a lot happens when we unpack that as well because a lot of realizations come, a lot of lineage healing starts to happen, a lot of like, oh my god. I'm not being in right relationship with this kinda comes up for women. And so you get all these tools of how to actually go through that process, like I talked about, of claiming, time again so that it actually works for you and your cyclical body. And also this kinda equals eye view of, like, oh, this is how this is kind of the arc of my life. You know? And then, obviously, reclaiming, the initiations that weren't yeah. That you don't feel good about. So beginning to rewrite that story. Also, I'll just mention that we have, every Monday, in addition to the classes that we lead and the workshops we lead, we have mentorship Monday, which is a space where women really unravel. They show up. It's like a beautiful women's circle online, and you just have this chance to be heard and seen in whatever you're going through. And a lot of the times as well, women will come up with very specific questions about their cycle and receive mentorship maybe from Kristen more in that way. But so much gets talked about. Like, that is where so much magic happens.
Speaker 2
Juice.
Speaker 4
Mondays. Yeah. So yeah. I'll So Okay.
Speaker 2
So yeah. So you are through the sixteen weeks, re and properly initiating the students and teaching them how to then go out and do that to other women Right. Which is so cool because I know in the RBK school, women are so hungry to learn ceremony and how to bring a spiritual element to the ways that they serve women. And and women can be quite, like, shy about that. You know? If if they're not already in a women's circle, if if they're kinda new, I think a lot of women, like, ache for it and feel very shy and and overcomplicate it, like, you know, in all these these ways that we do when when something's new. And so, yeah, I mean, that's definitely one of the fan favorites of the school is women emerging being like, oh, I know how to do these things with women in my community. I mean, what a yeah. What what women's community doesn't want that and need that?
Speaker 4
And I and I forgot to mention on that note that a big part of my part of the school as well is I bring this whole section on how to guide coming of age girls through the book. So we have a special workbook for them. I have a very in-depth, workshop that I lead about how to actually create a monarch ceremony, a coming of age ceremony as well. So So
Speaker 2
that so that they don't have to be reinitiated.
Speaker 4
Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 2
What about you, Kristen?
Speaker 3
Yeah. So just to add to what Nancy is saying, it's like I'm adding more to the cycle coaching side, you could say, but Nancy and I both agree that to work with your cycle, you also really need to understand this from a psychospiritual point of view. So that's why we work so well together is we both hold the viewpoint that you can't really be in right relationship with your cycle if you're not working with these archetypal energies on a psychospiritual level. So that's such an essential part of the school. What I'm really bringing forward is teaching about the hormonal physiology of each phase of the cycle and how to work with that, whether that's with herbs, nutrition, acupressure. So I'm also weaving in sort of the Chinese medicine point of view and doing that in a very specific way to help women really start to step outside of the lens of pathology and realize that our bodies are sort of an integrated part of the natural world. So Mhmm. If we're stepping outside of the lens of, like, something's wrong, our bodies are somehow broken, then it really reorients to that self love and self trust and allows us to start working with our cycles in a way of, like, oh, isn't that interesting? It's more of a process of inquiry around, oh, this is what my cycle is teaching me. This is what my blood is showing me this month. This might be mean I need to shift in this way or make a course correction in this way. And I think it's so important because we need women who have this knowledge. It's it can seem simple, and and, it's like we need women who know how to heal the most basic cycle challenges and even more complex ones, like endometriosis, for example, or PCOS. So these are things we really go deep into of, like, if you're walking with women and someone in your community has endometriosis, how can you show up to support that woman and not just have her turn to pharmaceuticals or surgery or whatever the thing is? These are really things that women are navigating every day, and we just really need women who are embodied and intelligent around how hormones work. And so through the school, it's like I help women understand how to talk to women about their cycles and then how to help them navigate out of challenges. Like, that's yeah. Obviously, not using birth control or surgery or pain.
Speaker 2
Right. I mean, we have to create an option base that is outside of allopathy. And, know, the RBK, like, phenomenon that's been going on is so exciting and kind of an example of women becoming options for other women to turn to that aren't the system. And this is just a, like, a critical extension of that idea. Because, you know, something we've been talking about is the historically, in kind of the romantic, you know, version of, let's say, a real midwife was womb to tomb.
Speaker 4
Mhmm.
Speaker 2
Right? It wasn't you didn't just show you didn't get you didn't hire someone as a stranger when you were pregnant and then get the baby here and then never see her again. Yeah. Which is, like, midwifery today. That's not what it was, and that's not actually what it is in any integrated place where I know of what I would call authentic midwives. That's just not how it is. You become a hub and a source, for for an entire family, right, for all of the stuff. Mhmm. Anyway, so this school is it's critical. It's absolutely critical. It's something that, like you said, Kristen, we have to have women who know how to hold the wide scope of of experiences because if we don't create more, options I mean, we all see what's happening is not good. They're butchering us. I mean, it's really bad.
Speaker 4
Mhmm.
Speaker 2
It's really bad.
Speaker 4
Yeah.
Speaker 2
So there's your inspirational talk.
Speaker 4
I know.
Speaker 2
It's bad out there, guys.
Speaker 4
I know. I just wanna share this visual that came up for me when we we when you began to speak, Kristen. I just saw this as this beautiful tapestry that we've woven together over these couple of years now that we've had the schools as our third round. And with our both of our teachings, they're so complimentary. And if a woman is coming into the school also to seek her own healing, which is often the case, and then maybe later bring it out into the world, she begins to pull on these different threads. So maybe she's a little bit more drawn to my work, and she begins to pull on the psychospiritual thread, and she sees these physical things start to shift. Or vice versa, maybe she's like, okay. I really wanna work with the herbs in this way and the acupressure. She begins to pull on that physical thread, and something totally shifts in the other realm. Like, they're completely interwoven and not disconnected at all. And I feel like that is also what is so magical and epic about the Blood Mystery School. And just I feel so proud about that aspect of it because it feels so holistic and truly complete.
Speaker 3
Yeah. I agree. And it's what I mean, what I love about it is seeing the women come out of it and what they're doing in their own communities and how it's so unique for everyone as what they bring forward from someone creating herbal formulas or, like, starting an herbal business to someone leading women's circles and starting to teach about the cycle to someone working with women one on one. There's just such a variety of what women choose to integrate and bring forward, and I feel like that's really special.
Speaker 2
Mhmm. Yeah. And women want it. Yeah. Women really want it. It's the same thing that happens with RBK is all these women come to the program and they're like, but how will I find the women? I don't know any women who want this. And it's like,
Speaker 4
they're everywhere. Yeah.
Speaker 2
You just have to let them know, and then they're all like, you know? It's it's really quite quite a thing to see. They really they are everywhere because women are everywhere. And this is, like you said, Nancy, this is our nature.
Speaker 4
Mhmm. Mhmm.
Speaker 2
I'm so stoked you both are coming to MRF this summer. Yeah. I feel so so good to be together again. And like I said, Blood Mystery School is is officially open. It's really exciting. We've been working on it really hard for the last many, many months and just so thrilled to see who who comes to the table to do this work with you both. And there will be all the links in the show notes. But I'll just say it here that it's blood mystery school dot com. Go grab your spot.
Speaker 3
Yes. Yeah. We'd love to have you.
Speaker 2
Alright. Woman, you feel complete?
Speaker 4
I think so. Yeah.
Speaker 2
I hope you enjoyed the show today. You can support this podcast by donating to it on free birth society dot com and leaving an awesome review on whatever platform you listen on. The more reviews, the more visibility the show gets, so let's spread the word of Sovereign Birth. We've always got a lot going on at Free Birth Society, and you can find out about all of it at free birth society dot com, at free birth society on Instagram, and opt in to my newsletter below in the show notes. We offer courses on free birth, authentic midwifery, and the blood mysteries, as well as one on one coaching, in person retreats, and, of course, our annual women's festival. Our exclusive vetted private membership is definitely something to check out if you're looking for a community of wise sisters. Together, we rise. We must speak our stories, claim our lives, and support one another. This is the living revolution, and I am so grateful to be in it with all of you. I'll leave you with our epic Free Birth Society theme song, Wild Woman by Aruba Red.
Speaker 5
I honor you for the wisdom you held, the ancient traditions of plant medicine and womb magic. I feel the spirit of the ancestors as I place my hands upon my belly. This sacred portal will be honored. Eons upon light beams of survival, withstanding the eradication of our power by design. I will not allow the separation of our young to be forced upon me. My sisters will no longer birth in in captivity. The picket line we define from burning our wild women to paralyzing us and drugging our babes. Strapped down in a clinical white bed, drying up the milk from our breasts, keep your needles. My family will never again be doomed to chase those dragons, all your poison. We reject your fear. We choose love. Everything with intention, death, ascension. I will fly and bring her back to the star.
