The Unbroken Circle of Woman.
The Soul Lives in the Moon of Eternity
“What’s for you—won’t go past you.” —An Irish Saying
Hello. Welcome to the Salty Crone musings. I’m glad you are here. ✨ Thank you for reading. I invite you to like, comment, or share. 💜 I appreciate you and remind you that slowing down—relaxing out of productivity is not a pathology. We are meant to flow with the seasons—can you feel this?
🌙 This past new moon, a precious circle of women gathered to connect, ground, and deepen in the practice of feminine soul renewal. Stories were shared, seeds planted, and compost cultivated. The call to pause, slow down, linger, and soak up the generous nakedness of winter continues. I offer you a reflection on the unbroken circle of woman—with resources.
When women gather in a circle, it is especially powerful. Women’s bodies hold key secrets within the medicine wheel rituals. She embodies the cycles of menstruation, fertility, and menopause. Whether pre-, post- or in the fullest expression of her bleed, she brings the energetics of the moon. Her body mirrors the cyclical nature of who she is—an intrinsic and whole dimension of Mother Nature.
In Native American traditions, their medicine wheel represents the cycles of life, the four directions, the interconnectedness of all beings, and the stages of a woman’s life. It aligns with the natural rhythms of Mother Earth and life: birth, growth, death, and rebirth.
If you draw a circle and divide it into four quadrants and label the lines North, East, South, and West, you begin to see a woman’s life as a circle. Each quadrant reveals a stage of her life.
• North to East represents birth to puberty (ages one to thirteen). She learns, imagines, plays, and begins to interact with humans and life (new moon).
• East to South marks her first menstrual bleed. This is a season of developing advanced social skills, intimate engagements, and giving birth to children or creative projects (full moon).
• South to West is a time of ripeness and maturation. Here, she harvests beyond personal concerns to a wider field of becoming (waning moon). Indigenous traditions often see this as a time to study medicine, mentor others, and cultivate mastery.
• West to North is a time of reflection, rest, and integration. She discovers herself as a profound mystery, in a sacred state, open, and porous to energies from the nonphysical world that permeate her consciousness and body. As a crone, she owns her hard-won wisdom from decades of lived experience, increasing her power, and rendering her life with deep meaning. She is a dangerous old woman in the highest regard (dark moon).
Each dimension flows in and out of each other. There are no closed or sealed frontiers between these stages or a hierarchy delineating a beginning or end. She is a circle, time is an inclusive, all-embracing spiral, allowing us to move backward and forward through countless initiations of birth, growth, death, and rebirth.
In the same way, the year is a circle. Winter season gives way to spring; summer grows out of spring, and autumn falls into winter. The circle of time is never broken. Out of darkness comes the dawn, strengthening toward noon, softening into evening, and returning to night again.
In the over-culture, we appear to live in linear time—but do we really?
Patriarchal religious dogmas offer a disembodied, transcendent perspective that estranges our humanity from psychic soul development. A woman’s body mirrors the rhythms of the Earth, moon, and cosmos—like a concentric flowering of circles. I feel these cycles as fundamental to the language of our soul, encircling the stages of life as undivided and connecting our deep womb to eternal soul wisdom. This connection is the mother lode of collective balance between darkness and light; inner and outer; above and underground—the tension of opposites—an all-inclusive wholeness. This is the best I can do with words.
The circle brings perspective to the mystery of embodied relationship with Earth—as soul-womb. When women gather in a sacred medicine hoop—the potency of their wombs and psychic life energies increases creativity. Direct knowledge of our moon cycles anchor us more strongly in the womb of our Great Mother. By attuning to the natural rhythms of waxing, full, waning, and rest, a woman becomes both a compass and a tuning fork, harmonizing within herself and radiating balance to the world around her.
This does not mean she is untouched by predatory injuries, fractures, betrayals, or the loss of innocence, deep pain, and sadness of all kinds at any stage of her life. It means that within the potency of the circle of life—the medicine hoop—she can receive revivification of her feminine soul-body.
Men’s physiology aligns with spiritual practices designed for their rhythms, but women’s bodies work differently. As a long-time student of theology and non-dual teachings, I know firsthand how women have historically been coerced into adopting male-centered spiritual models that fail to honor or teach us to slow down and listen to our natural cycles. Yet, as we decolonize our bodies and patriarchal structures crumble, linear time vanishes, and moon time—body-soul time—reclaims its rightful place at the center. Through this recovery, we reconnect with the feminine in all bodies.
Our time suffers from great amnesia of the feminine soul.
I’m suggesting a forgetting or erasure of something essential. An overculture that breeds disconnection from the womb of the feminine soul, which nurtures the ground of our cyclical nature, where intuition, compassion, creativity, receptivity, interconnectedness, and deep care for life are rebirthed. These qualities have been overshadowed by consumer-driven systems that disrupt rest and balance both individually and collectively, fracturing our relationship with ourselves and the Earth.
Cultural amnesia marginalizes feminine archetypes in myths, history, and spiritual practices. The wise crone, the nurturing mother, the virgin forest (a woman whole unto herself), and the maiden are overshadowed—or worse, weaponized—by narratives of conquest, logic, and dominance.
Societal roles that value care, connection, intuition, equality, diversity, and the Earth as sacred are forgotten. We know that the restoration of balance between masculine and feminine energies in all people is urgent. Feminine soul consciousness is not a luxury—it is a necessity. It is what heals, nurtures, and creates harmony. It is what makes us an unbroken circle.
Does reflecting on the sacred hoop—woman as the circle of life—offer you a renewed lens to navigate a rapidly changing world?
It does for me. When I listen to stories shared in circles or around my home hearth, I savor the felt sense of no beginning or end. My dreams reveal soul archetypes living in the moon of eternity, guiding me to meet life with slow tenderness in liminal spaces where mystery and meaning reside.
Life reminds us that our physical time is finite.
How do you cultivate circles that align with your values and desires—enriching each stage of your life?
Do you have a circle for rest, renewal, reflection, and connection with others? A space to honor the cyclical nature of your body, your rhythms, and your soul?
Some of you know my call to connect more deeply with my Celtic roots—the feminine spiral of Anam Ċara1. I plan to circle back to these ancient stories and share more soon.
I leave you with a translation from Paula Gunn Allen of an ancient Keres song:
“I add my breath to your breath,
That our days may be long on the Earth.
That the days of our people may be long.
That we may be one person.
That we may find our roads together.
May our mother bless you with life.
May our Life Paths be fulfilled.”23
What resonates most with you about this essay?
I’d love to hear how you’re feeling/thinking/exploring or embodying the whole of you! 🌙✨
with love,
Prajna O’Hara, The Salty Crone
Leave a heart 💚 comment. Circle a while, for you are an infinite and wise soul.
Anam Ċara is a Galic term: Anam means soul; Ċara means friend. "soul friend." It originates from Celtic spirituality and refers to a deep, spiritual connection between two people. An Anam Ċara is someone who offers understanding, support, and a safe space for your soul’s expression and growth. An excellent resource and soul friend: John O’Donohue, Anam Ċara, A Book of Celtic Wisdom.
Bonnie J. Horrigan, Red Moon Passage: The Power and Wisdom of Menopause. Part Five, Interview with Paula Gunn Allen. The entire book is an excellent resource.
Paula Gunn Allen, The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions. This book is a wonderful resource and reference to support this unfoldment.
If you missed
Tender Solitude
If you’ve woken early, just before the dawn breaks, you may have noticed how the darkest time of the night is immediately before dawn.
Tender Solitude, It is a wonderful reminder to Linger.
Dear Rebecca, thank you so much for sharing. I appreciate you and would love to hear your reflections in the comments, if you like!
I just loved this. As a woman who is also extremely passionate about restoring the balance of the masculine and feminine on the earth, this was incredibly cathartic, inspiring and settling to me.
Lately my best cyclical work is following the triggers into dysregulation of my nervous system. Sometimes the scientific can seem at odds with the philosophical or spiritual focus of masculine-feminine balance, yet I find that focusing on this internal system of calm or activation keeps me more attuned to myself and to nature outside of me. I get more present in a reliable way. I build capacity to be with what is.
Anyway, hope that adds value. Loved the article! I love hearing my own internal desires and strivings echoed and mirrored in another woman out there! It’s calming and comforting that I’m not the only one, when I come from a culture that is so patriarchal (super Christianity ). Thanks again. Would love to collaborate at any time. I’m not quite Crone yet but feeling the transition start as I just had my last baby 18 months ago. 🥰