The Connection Between Your Cycle and the Moon
From the editors
Your body follows something older than calendars and apps. Before artificial light, women's cycles synced with the moon—and they still respond to it, whether you're aware or not.
Your menstrual cycle and the lunar cycle are both approximately 29.5 days long. This isn't coincidence. Before artificial light disrupted natural rhythms, women's cycles aligned more closely with specific moon phases—menstruating with the new moon, ovulating with the full. While modern life has weakened this synchronization, your body still responds to lunar patterns.
The four phases of your menstrual cycle mirror the four moon phases: menstruation reflects the introspective new moon, the follicular phase mirrors the waxing moon's rebirth, ovulation aligns with the full moon's peak energy, and the luteal phase follows the waning moon's descent.
Understanding when you bleed in relation to the moon doesn't regulate your cycle or fix painful periods. But it changes how you see what's happening. Your body isn't malfunctioning—it's following something ancient.
What We Lost
Before electric lights, women lived by moonlight that waxed and waned throughout the month. Light exposure—both solar and lunar—regulates the body's many cycles. Sleep follows the sun. Menstruation follows the moon.
Research shows that women with cycles longer than 27 days do synchronize with the moon's light and gravitational patterns. But artificial light disrupts this. One study found that "with exposure to artificial nocturnal light, menstrual cycles shortened and lost this synchrony."
The same rhythms that cause ocean tides to ebb and flow govern the monthly rise and fall of your blood. This is biology. Industrial living interrupted it.
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What Bodies Have Always Known
Cultures across the world have long understood menstruation as moon time. Among many Indigenous North American traditions including the Ojibwe and Yurok, menstruation is known as moon time—a recognition of the sacred connection between women's cycles and Grandmother Moon.
Throughout Central and West Africa, traditions hold this same understanding. Among the Mbuti people, a girl who begins menstruating is said to be "blessed by the moon." Within Ayurveda, blood is governed by Chandra, the moon itself.
Dr. Cindy Gaudet writes: "In Indigenous culture, the Moon is known as Grandmother Moon and is connected to women's sacredness, as well as to the roles and responsibilities that come with being a woman. Grandmother Moon also governs the waters inside women. Once every twenty-eight days, the fullness of the Grandmother Moon illuminates the night sky. This also is when the spirit of the moon dances within woman. Every twenty-eight days, her vibrant red blood flows to nourish the earth mother."
Your cycle isn't separate from nature. It IS nature—following the same pattern that moves tides, grows and releases leaves, guides animals to hibernate and emerge.
The Four Phases
The lunar cycle runs 29.5 days from new moon to new moon. The average menstrual cycle? Also 29.5 days.
And the four phases mirror each other:
Menstruation mirrors the new moon. The slow, internal darkness. Your body pulls you inward toward rest and renewal.
The follicular phase mirrors the waxing moon. Energy returns. Rebirth begins. Growth starts again.
Ovulation mirrors the full moon. Peak brightness and visibility. Creative and social energy at their highest.
The luteal phase mirrors the waning moon. The descent. Slowing down. Releasing what no longer serves.
Your body works this way—following ancient rhythms that predate calendars and apps.
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When Your Cycle Meets the Moon
If you track your cycle, start noticing which moon phase you're in when you bleed. Over time, patterns emerge.
When your cycle syncs with the moon—bleeding during the new moon, ovulating during the full—those energies amplify each other. Menstruation during the new moon can feel deeply introspective, pulling you toward stillness. Both cycles moving in the same direction, calling you underground.
But if they don't match? Different energy emerges.
Bleeding during the waxing moon might amplify growth and rebirth. Your period becomes a threshold into something new rather than just an ending.
Bleeding during the full moon can feel more energized, alchemical, creative. The inward pull of menstruation meets the outward energy of fullness. Some women describe this as intensely emotional or surprisingly generative—the blood holding potential rather than just release.
Bleeding during the waning moon amplifies surrender. Both cycles descending together. A powerful time to let patterns die or focus healing intention.
There's no ideal alignment. Just information about what energy is available to work with during your bleed.
Your Body Is Ancient
Maybe you bleed with the new moon every single month and it feels like going underground—natural, expected, aligned.
Maybe your period arrives with the full moon and feels wildly creative or impossibly heavy, and now you know why.
Maybe your cycle moves through all the moon phases over the course of a year, never quite syncing, and that tells you something too.
Tracking this doesn't require apps or protocols. Just awareness. When you bleed, notice the moon. Write it down if you want. See what patterns emerge over months.
The point isn't to force synchronization or fix misalignment. The point is to stop seeing your period as something happening TO you and start seeing it as something you're part of. A rhythm older than industrial schedules. A pattern your body has never forgotten, even when modern life insists you should.
Understanding moon time won't make your period painless or your cycle regular. You still live under artificial lights. The world still doesn't stop during menstruation.
But it changes the story.
Not "why is my body doing this?" but "what is my body following?"
Your body isn't wrong. It's ancient. And when you bleed—whether with the new moon or the full moon or anywhere in between—you're connected to something that predates everything you've been taught about optimization and control.
This is moon time. And you've always been part of it.
This piece was adapted from content originally published in Moobeam by Sabrina, a women’s health platform created by soulstice co-founder and chief editor Sabrina Rose. You can learn more here.
This post is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. If you’re experiencing sudden or irregular menstrual concerns, or have any concerns about your reproductive health, it’s best to consult your doctor or a trusted healthcare professional.
