Our society is not speaking enough of feminine eldership — if at all.
Old is a word we don’t like, especially if it refers to women. Just look at the advertising. You absolutely must buy this new treatment or supplement to have youthful glowing skin! Youthful body! To look young! Younger than your age! Young, young, young. What’s the point of being old anyway?
But my ancestors — and yours — valued the wisdom of their elders. Especially women elders. Feminine eldership was a rite of passage, just like puberty and motherhood.
Ancestral Traditions of Feminine Eldership
In my own Baltic tradition, only mothers could be community elders. Having given birth was a prerequisite for teaching and initiating others. The idea behind this is that entry into motherhood was fraught with dangers. One could die giving birth. The birthing process itself happened in the liminal space of a bathhouse, where spirits come and go freely. An elder had to have faced death and danger to be able to guide others into being who they truly are.
And when a woman’s reproductive age was nearing its end, the signs of approaching menopause were the signs of being initiated into full feminine power. No longer needing to think of raising her own children (or to please a man!), a woman was now free to teach others. To share her wisdom.
Provided, of course, that this wisdom was appreciated.
Perimenopause as an Initiation into Eldership
In societies where a woman’s worth is defined solely by her looks and sexual appeal, perimenopause is a dreaded word. The children are grown, the body is sagging, the looks are fading, and what used to work on people before doesn’t anymore. Lack of substance becomes, sadly, all too visible.
But feminine eldership does not have to be pretty. Appealing. Always caring, loving, pampering. Feminine eldership is the spirit of the enchantress, initiatrix, with perhaps some of that no-nonsense French dominatrix vibe. Feminine eldership is about power.
In the podcast episode at the top of this page, I talk with women’s health practitioner and midwife Alison Lorne. We explore perimenopause as a sacred rite of passage. As an initiation into deeper embodiment. We talk about:
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- how women are called to make home in their bodies fully, completely and unapologetically at perimenopause;
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- ancestral healing and the power of reconnection;
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- the Womb as a quantum reality that reaches out into the past and the future;
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- the wisdom of our nervous system
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- the power to be who we truly are, without denying parts of ourselves.
Embodiment — rather than transcendence — is the feminine path of eldership.
About Allison Lorne
Allison Lorne is a Nurse Midwife, Women’s Health Coach and Spiritual Teacher living in Atascadero, CA. She guides women in perimenopause who want to celebrate this access point to greater embodiment.
With 25 years of experience in women’s health and lifelong spiritual study, Allison brings a holistic approach to her care which combines evidence based medicine, somatic processing and intuitive energy healing. Her 3 month coaching program The Perimenopause Portal is an immersive experience based on somatic practices to cultivate your spiritual gifts. To learn more, visit her website, healwithallison.com and download the 15 minute Somatic Ritual to Alchemize Feminine Rage.
