In ancient times, when the clan respected the maiden, mother and wise elder woman trilogy, women at regular intervals gathered in a separate space within the community to encourage, support and teach one another. Young girls who had yet to bleed and older women who had ceased bleeding would stay for days with menstruating women so that physical, spiritual and emotional knowledge could be shared and learned. The tradition of women helping each other through menopause broke down during the massive, community sanctioned torture and murder of nine million women during the Inquisition. Today, we have a new climate for women who are coming of age. Never in our patriarchal society have so many political free and economically independent women begun entering the menopausal years.
Women are now too educated and financially competent to accept the old definitions of menopause.
A summary of those definitions describes menopause as the deficiency disease of an old, depleted woman with a failed uterus who is about to lose her sexuality and her mind. Cher, Jane Fonda and Elizabeth Taylor are a few well known mature women who still have vibrant life juices flowing. Most of us now have friends and family as well as our own lives to show us that living is rich and full well beyond the Barbie stage. Women are beginning to realize that menopause is more than a physical change. It is a rite of passage that holds deep meaning.