The Blood Codes: Why Menstruation Was Once a Spell
By Lucille Alabaster
They made you ashamed of it.
They taught you to hide it, plug it, sanitize it.
But once—long before tampons and pharmaceutical hush—the blood that flowed from between a woman’s thighs was considered holy.
Menstrual blood wasn’t a curse. It was a code.
In the temples of Isis, in the shadowed caves of Paleolithic priestesses, in the red tents of nomadic seer-women—this blood was collected, painted, poured, and invoked. Not as waste, but as offering.
The Womb as Portal
Before calendars, women bled in rhythm with the moon. The first form of timekeeping wasn’t a sundial—it was the womb. Menstrual cycles were cosmic clocks, syncing with the tides, the stars, and the Earth’s pulse. Those who bled on the new moon were said to be witches. Those who bled on the full moon were said to be healers.
The ancients believed that this blood carried memory—not of the self, but of the species. It was the red river that flowed from mother to daughter, womb to world, generation to grave.
And they were right.
Blood as Spell
Menstrual blood was used in:
• Love spells and binding rituals
• Anointing tools and talismans
• Healing rites for reproductive or spiritual dis-ease
• Pacts with goddesses, ancestors, and spirits of the land
Even today, hoodoo and folk magic traditions whisper of the red thread. A drop in a man’s coffee. A smear beneath the tongue. A sigil drawn in secret. The blood binds. The blood speaks.
Why They Tried to Silence It
Because it could not be controlled.
Because it was the one thing the Church could not take from us.
Because it made women oracles, not objects.
Because it proved that creation did not begin with man.
They called it “unclean.”
They called us “hysterical.”
But what they feared was not mess.
It was power.
Reclaiming the Spell
If you bleed, honor it.
If you no longer bleed, remember it.
If you never have, know that the wisdom is still in your bones.
You can:
• Offer your blood to the Earth in ritual
• Use it to charge sigils or bind spells
• Speak to your womb, your ancestors, your shadow self
• Create a Moon Book, where each cycle’s insights are recorded like prophecies
The blood is not a curse. It is a map.
And when read with reverence, it leads to something the patriarchy hoped you’d never find:
Yourself.
