Menstrual Blood

From Barbara Walker's Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets From the earliest human cultures, the mysterious magic of creation was thought to reside in the blood women gave forth in apparent harmony with the moon, and which was occasionally retained in the womb to 'coagulate' into a baby. Men regarded this blood with holy dread, as the life essence, inexplicably shed without pain, wholly foreign to male experience. Most words for menstruation also meant such things as incomprehensible, supernatural, sacred, spirit, deity. Like the Latin sacred, old Arabian words for 'pure' and 'impure' both applied to menstrual blood and to that only. he Maoris stated explicitly that human souls are made of menstrual blood, which when retained in the womb 'assumes human form and grows into a man.' Africans said menstrual blood is 'congealed to fashion a man'. Aristotle said the same! human life is made of 'coagulum' of menstrual blood. "liny called menstrual blood the 'material substance of generation', capable of forming 'a curd, which afterwards in process of time #uickeneth and groweth to the form of a body.' his primitive notion of the prenatal function of menstrual blood was still taught in $uropean medical schools up to the %&th century. 'asic ideas about menstrual blood came from the (indu theory that as the )reat Mother creates, her substances become thickened and forms a curd or clot* solid matter is produced as a 'crust'. his was the way she gave birth to the cosmos, and women employ the same method on a smaller scale. According to +austinius, 'the fruit in the womb is nourished by the mother's blood.... he menstruum does not fail the fruit for nourishment, till it at the proper time comes to the light of the day.' ,ndians of -outh America said all mankind was made of 'moon blood' in the beginning. he same idea prevailed in ancient Mesopotamia, where the )reat )oddess .inhursag made mankind out of clay and infused with her /blood of life./ 0nder her alternate name of Mammetun or Aruru the )reat, the "otter, she taught women to form clay dolls and smear them with menstrual blood as a conception1 charm, a piece of magic that underlay the name of Adam, from the feminine adamah, meaning /bloody clay,/ though scholars more delicately translated it /red earth./ he 'ible's story of Adam was lifted from an older female1oriented creation myth recounting the creation of man from clay and moonblood. -o was the 2oran's creation story, which said Allah /made man out of flowing blood/* but in pre1,slamic Arabia, Allah was the )oddess of creation, Al1Lat. he 3omans also had traces of the original creation myth. "lutarch said man was made of earth, but the power that made a human body grow was the moon, source of menstrual blood. he lives of the very gods were dependent on the miraculous power of menstrual blood. ,n )reece it was euphemistically called the /supernatural red wine/ given to the gods by Mother (era in her virgin form, as (ebe. he root myths of (induism reveal the nature of this 'wine'. At one time all gods recogni4ed the supremacy of the )reat Mother, manifesting herself as the spirit of creation 52ali1Maya6. -he 'invited them to bath in the bloody flow of her womb and to drink of it* and the gods, in holy communion, drank of the fountain of life 11 5hic est sanguis meus76 11 and bathed in it, and rose blessed to the heavens'. o this day, clothes allegedly stained with the )8ddess's menstrual blood are greatly pri4ed as healing charms. 9.3. -mith reported that the value of the gum acacia as an amulet /is connected to the idea that it is menstruous blood, i.e., that the tree is a woman./ For religious ceremonies, Australian aborigines painted their sacred stones, churingas, and themselves with red orche, declaring that it was really women's menstrual blood. he esoteric secret of the gods was that their mystical powers of longevity, authority, and creativity came from the same female essence. he .orse god hor for example reached

the magic land of enlightenment and eternal life by bathing in a river filled with the menstrual blood of 'giantesses' 11 that is of the "rimal Matriarchs, /"owerful 8nes/ who governed the elder gods before 8din brought his 'Asians' 5Aesir6 out of the $ast. 8din ac#uired supremacy by stealing and drinking the 'wise blood' from the triple cauldron in the womb of the Mother1$arth, the same riple )oddess known as 2ali1Maya in the southeast Asia. 8din's theft of menstrual magic paralleled that of ,ndra, who stole the ambrosia of immortality in the same way. ,ndian myth called the sacred fluid -oma 11 in )reek, /the body/, because the word's eastern root referred to a mystical substance of the body. -oma was the ob:ect of so much holy dread that its interpretations were many. -oma was produced by the churning of the primal sea 52ali's 'ocean of blood' or sometimes 'sea of milk'6. 8r -oma was secreted by the Moon1;ow. 8r -oma was carried in the 'white pot' 5belly6 of Mohini the $nchantress. 8r the source of -oma was the moon. 8r from -oma all the gods were born. 8r -oma was the secret name of the Mother )oddess and the active part of the 'soul of the world'. -oma was drunk by priests at sacrificial ceremonies and mixed with milk as a healing charm* therefore it was not milk. -oma was especially revered on -omvara, Monday, the day of the moon. ,n an ancient ceremony called -oma1vati, women of Maharastra circumambulated the sacred female1symbolic fig tree whenever the new moon fell on a Monday. -ome myths claimed the )oddess under her name of Lakshmi, /Fortune/ or /-overeignty/, gave -oma to ,ndra to make him king of the gods. (is wisdom, power, and curiously feminine capacity for pregnancy, came from Lakshmi's mystic drink, 'of which none tastes who dwells on earth.' 8n drinking it straight from the )oddess, ,ndra became like her, the Mount of "aradise with its four rivers, /many1hued/ like the )oddess's rainbow veils, rich in cattle and fruiting vegetation. he )oddess's blood became his wisdom. -imilarly, )reeks believed the wisdom of men or god was centered in his blood, the soul1stuff given by his mother. $gyptian pharaohs became divine by ingesting 'the blood of ,sis,' a soma1like ambrosia called sa. ,ts hieroglyphic sign was the same as the sign of the vulva, a yonic loop like the one on the ankh or ;ross of Life. "ainted red, this loop signified the female genital and the )ate of (eaven. Amulets buried with the dead specifically prayed ,sis to deify the deceased with her magic blood. A special amulet called the :et represented ,sis's vulva and was formed of red substance 1 :asper, carnelian, red porcelain, red glass, or red wood. his amulet was said to carry the redeeming power of the blood of ,sis. he same elixir of immortality received the name of amrita in "ersia. -ometimes it was called the Milk of the Mother )oddess, sometimes a fermented drink, sometimes sacred blood. Always it was associated with the moon. /+ew and rain becoming vegetable sap, sap becoming the milk of the cow, and the milk then becoming converted into blood* 11 Amrita, water, sap, milk, and blood represent but differing states of the one elixir. he vessel or cup of this immortal fluid is the moon./ ;eltic kings became gods by drinking the 'red mead' dispensed by the Fairy <ueen, Mab, whose name was formerly Medhbh or /mead./ hus she gave a drink of herself. Lakshmi. A ;eltic name of this fluid was dergflaith, meaning either /red ale/ or /red sovereignty./ ,n ;eltic 'ritain, to be stained with red meant to be chosen by the )oddess as king. ;eltic ruadh meant both /red/ and /royal./ he same blood color implied apotheosis after death. he pagan paradise or Fairyland was at the uterine center of the earth, site of the magic Fountain of Life. An old manuscript in the 'ritish Museum said the dying 1and 1resurrected "hoenix lives there forever. he central (oly Mountain or mons veneris contains both male and female symbols! the ree of Life and

the Fountain of $ternal =outh, the latter obviously menstrual, as it was said to overflow once every lunar month. Medieval churchmen insisted that the communion wine drunk by witches was menstrual blood, and they may have been right. he famous wi4ard homas 3hymer :oined a witch cult under the tutelage of the Fairy <ueen, who told him she had /a bottle of claret wine here in her lap,/ and invited him to lay his head in her lap. ;laret was the traditional drink of the kings and also a synonym for blood* its name literally meant 'enlightenment.' here was a saying, /the man in the moon drinks claret,/ connected with the idea that the wine represented lunar blood. Medieval romance and the courtly1love movement, later related to the witch cults, were strongly influenced by the antric tradition, in which menstrual blood was indeed the wine of poets and sages. ,t is still specified in the Left (and 3ite of antra that the priestess impersonating the goddess must be menstruating, and after contact with her a man may perform rites that will make him /a great poet, a Lord of the 9orld/ who travels on elephant1back like a ra:ah. ,n ancient societies both east and west, menstrual blood carried the spirit of sovereign authority because it was the medium of transmission of the life of clan or tribe. Among the Ashanti, girl children are still more pri4ed than boys because a girl is the carrier of /blood/ 5mogya6. he concept is also clearly defined in ,ndia, where menstrual blood is known as the 2ula flower or 2ula nectar, which has an intimate connection with the life of the family. 9hen a girl first menstruates she is said to have 'borne the flower'. he corresponding $nglish word flower has the significant literal meaning of 'that which flows'. he 'ible also calls menstrual blood the flower 5Leviticus %>!?@6, precursor of the fruit of the womb 5a child6. As any flower mysteriously contained its future fruit, so uterine blood was the moon1flower supposed to contain the soul of future generations. his was a central idea in the matrilineal concept of the clan. he ;hinese religion of ao, /the 9ay/, taught antric doctrines later supplanted by patriarchial1ascetic ;onfucianism. aoists said a man could become immortal 5or at least long1lived6 by absorbing menstrual blood, called red yin :uice, from a woman's Mysterious )ateway, otherwise known as the )rotto of the 9hite iger, symbol of life1giving female energy. ;hinese sages called this red :uice the essence of Mother $arth, the yin principal that gives life to all things. hey claimed the =ellow $mperor became a god by absorbing the yin :uice of twelve hundred women. A ;hinese myth said the Moon1goddess ;hang18, who controlled menstruation, was offended by male :ealousy of her powers. -he left her husband, who #uarreled with her because she had all the elixir of immortality, and he had none, and was resentful. -he turned her back on him and went to live in the moon forever, in much the same way Lilith left Adam to live at the '3ed -ea'. ;hang18 forbade men to attend ;hinese moon festivals, which were afterward celebrated by women only, at the full moon of the autumnal e#uinox. he (ebrew word for blood, dam, means 'mother' or 'woman' in other ,ndo1$uropean languages 5e,g. dam, damsel, madam, la dama, dame6 and also /the curse/ 5damn6. he -umaeriean )reat Mother represented maternal blood and bore names like +am1kina, +amgalnunna. From her belly flowed the four rivrres of "aradise, sometimes called rivers of blood which is the 'life' of all flesh. (er firstborn child, the savior, was +amu, a 'child of the blood./ +amos or 'mother1blood/ was the word for /the people' in matriarchal Mycenae. Another common ancient symbol of the blood1river of life was the red carpet, traditionally trod by scared kings, heros, and brides. aoist ;hina considered red a scared color associated with women, blood, sexual potency, and creative power. 9hite was the color of men, semen, negitive influences, passivity, and death. his was the basic antric ,dea of male and female essences! the male principal is

seen as 'passive' and '#uiescent'* the female principal as 'active' and 'creative', the reverse of later patriarchal views. Female blood color alone was often considered a potent magic charm. he Maori rendered anything sacred by coloring it red, and calling the red color menstrual blood. Andaman ,slanders thought blood1red paint a powerful medicine, and painted sick people red all over in an effort to curethem. (ottentots addressed their Mother )oddess as one /who has painted thy body red/* she was divine because she never dropped or wasted menstrual blood. -ome African tribes believed that menstrual blood alone, kept in a covered pot for none months, had the power to turn itself into a baby. $aster eggs, classic womb1symbols of the )oddess $ostre, 9ere traditionally colored red and laid on graves to strengthen the dead. his habit, common in )reece and southern 3ussia, might be traced all the way back to "aleolithic graves and funeral furnishing reddened with ochre, for a closer resemblance to the $arth MotherAs womb from which the dead could be /born again./ Ancient tombs everywhere have shown the bones of the dead covered with red ochre. -ometimes everything in the tomb, including the walls, had the red color. B.+. $vans described a well tombon Malta filled reddened bones, which struck fear into the workmen who insisted the bones were covered with /fresh blood./ A born1again ceremony from Australia showed that the Aborgines linked rebirth with the blood of the womb. he chant performed at Ankota, the /vulva of the earth,/ emphasi4ed the redness surrounding the worshipper! /A straight track is gaping open before me. An underground hollow is gaping before me. A cavernous pathway is gaping before me. An underground pathway is gaping before me. 3ed , am like the heart of a flame of fire. 3ed, too, is the hollow in which , am resting./ ,mages like these help explain why some of the oldest mages of the goddess, like 2urukulla in the east and her counterpart ;ybele in the west, were associated with both caverns and redness. )reek mystics were /born again/ out of the river -tyx, otherwise known as Alpha, /the 'eginning./ his river wound seven times through the earthAs interior and emerged at a yonic shrine near the city of ;litor 5)reek kleitoris6 sacred to the )reat Mother. -tyx was the blood1stream from the earthAs vagina* its waters were credited with the same dread powers as menstrual blood. 8lympian gods swore their absolutely binding oaths by the waters of -tyx, as men on earth swore by the blood of their mothers. -ymbolic death and rebirth were linked with baptism in the waters of -tyx, as in many other sacred rivers the world over. Besus himself was bapti4ed in "alestineAs version of the -tyx, the river Bordan. 9hen a man bathed seven times in this river, /his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child/ 5? 2ings >!%@6. ,n )reek tradition the :ourney to the land of death meant crossing the -tyx* in Budeo1;hristian tradition it was crossing the Bordan. he was the same /river of blood! crossed by homas 3hymer on his way to Fairyland. antric worship of menstrual blood penetrated the )reco13oman world before the ;hristian era and was well established in the )nostic period. his worship provided the agape 1/love1 feast/ or /spiritual marriage/ 1practiced by )nostic ;hristians like the 8phites. Another name for the agape was synesaktism, /the 9ay of -haktism,/ meaning antric yoni1 worship.>? -ynesaktism was declared a heresy before the Cth century A.+.>D -ubse#uently the /love1feast/ disappeared, and women were forbidden direct participation in ;hristian worship, according to -t. "aulAs rule 5% imothy ?!%%1%?6. $piphanius described the agape practiced by 8phite ;hristians, while making it clear that these heretical sexual activities filled him with horror! / heir women they share in common* and when anyone arrives who might be alien to their doctrine, the men and women have a sign by which they make themselves known to each other. 9hen they extend their hands, apparently in greeting, they tickle the otherAs palm in a certain way and so discover whether the new arrival belongs to their cult. E (usbands separate from their wives, and a man will say to his own spouse, /Arise and

celebrate the love feast 5agape6 with thy brother./ And the wretches mingle with each otherEafter they have consorted together in a passionate debauchE he woman and the man take the manAs e:aculation into their hands, stand upEoffering to the Father, the "rimal 'eing of All .ature, what is on their hands, with the words, /9e bring to hee this oblation, which is the very 'ody of ;hrist./ E hey consume it, take housel of their shame and say! / his is the 'ody of ;hrist, the "aschal -acrifice through which our bodies suffer and are forced to confess to the sufferings of ;hrist./ And when the woman is in her period, they do likewise with her menstruation. he unclean flow of blood, which they garner, they take up in the same way and eat together. And that, they say, is ;hristAs 'lood. For when they read in 3evelation, /, saw the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month/ 53ev. ??!?6, they interpret this as an allusion to the monthly incidence of the female period./ he meaning of this 8phite sacrament to its practitioners is easily recovered from antric parallels. $ating the living substances of reproduction was considered more /spiritual/ than eating the dead body of the god, even in the transmuted form of bread and wine, though the color symbolism was the same! 9hen the semen, made molten by the fire of great passion, falls into the lotus of the FmotherG and mixes with her red element, he achieves F the conventional mandala of the thought of enlightenment.G he resultant mixture is tasted by the united Ffather1motherG 5=ab1=um6, and when it reaches the throat they can generate concretely a special blissEthe bodichitta1the drop resulting from union of semen and menstrual blood1is transferred to the yogiE his empowers his corresponding mystic veins and centers to accomplish the 'uddhaAs function of speech. he term Fsecret initiationG comes from the tasting of the secret substance. >> ,n the occult language of the antras, two ingredients of the )reat 3ite were sukra, semen, and rakta, menstrual blood. he officiating priestess had to be menstruous so her lunar energies were at flood tide.>H -he embodied the power of rakta, sometimes rendered rukh or ru#, cognate with the (ebrew ruach, Fspirit,G and the Arabic ruh, which meant both FspiritG and Fred color.G hroughout all antric and related faiths, the merging of female red and male white was Fa profoundly important symbolic con:unction.G>C he -ufis, who practiced their own brand of antrism, said ruh was female and red. ,ts male counterpart sirr, Fconsciousness,G was white. 3ed and white colors alternated in the -ufi halka or magic circle, corresponding to the antric chakra and called Fthe basic unit and very heart of active -ufism.G he Arab rosary of alternating red and white beads had the same meaning! men and women coupled around the circle, as in most $uropean folk dances.>& 3ed and white were the colors worn by alternating female1and1male dancers in the witchesA Ffairy ringG of pagan ,reland, where the )oddess was worshipped under the same name as the antric earth mother, ara.>I 9ith men and women alternating as in a antric chakra, the dance moved counterclockwise or moonwise, as nearly all circle dances still do. 3ed and white colors Frepresented the fairy world.GHJ he rites were often governed by old women, due to the ancient belief that post1 menopausal women were the wisest of mortals because the permanently retained their Fwise blood.G ,n the %Cth century A.+. ;hristian writers still insisted that old women were filled with magic power because their menstrual blood remained in their veins.H% his was the real reason why old women were constantly persecuted for witchcraft. he same Fmagic bloodG that made them leaders in the ancient clan system made them ob:ects of fear under the new patriarchal faith. 'ecause menstrual blood occupied a central position in matriarchal theologies, and was already sacer1holy1dreadful1patriarchal1ascetic thinkers showed almost hysterical fear of it. he Laws of Manu said if a man even approached a menstruating woman he would lose his

wisdom, energy, sight, strength, and vitality. he almud said that if a menstruating woman walked between two men, one of the men would surely die.H? 'rahmans ruled that a man who lay with a menstruating woman must suffer a punishment one1#uarter as severe as the punishment for 'rahmanicide, which was the worst crime a 'rahman could imagine. Kedic myths were designed to support the law, such as the myth that Kishnu dared copulate with the )oddess $arth while she was menstruating, which caused her to give birth to monsters who nearly destroyed the world.HD his was patriarchal propaganda against the antric Maharutti 5F)reat 3iteG6, in which menstrual blood was the essential ingredient. ,n 2aliAs cave1temple, her image spouted the blood of sacrifices from its vaginal orifice to bathe -hivaAs holy phallus while the two deities formed the lingam1yoni, and worshippers followed suit, in an orgy designed to support the cosmic life1force generated by union of male and female, white and red.H@ ,n this )reat 3ite, -hiva became the Anointed 8ne, as were his many Middle1$astern counterparts. he )reek translation of Anointed 8ne was ;hristos. "ersian patriarchs followed the 'rahman lead in maintaining that menstruous women must be avoided like poison. hey belonged to the devil* they were forbidden to look at the sun, to sit in water, to speak to a man, or to behold an altar fire.H> he glance of a menstruous woman was feared like the glance of the )orgon. Loroastrians held that any man who lay with a menstruating woman would beget a demon, and would be punished in hell by having filth poured into his mouth.HH "ersian religion incorporated the common primitive belief that the first onset of menses must be caused by copulation with a supernatural snake. "eople not yet aware of fatherhood have supposed the same snake renders each woman fertile and helps her conceive children.HC -ome such belief prevailed in Minoan ;rete, where women and snakes were sacred but men were not. ube1shaped ;retan vessels for pouring oblations represented a vagina, with a serpent crawling inside.H& Ancient languages gave the serpent the same name as $ve, a name meaning FLifeG* and the most ancient myths made the primal couple not a )oddess and a )od, but a )oddess and a -erpent.HI he )oddessAs womb was a garden of paradise in which the serpent lived. "hrygian 8phiogeneis, F-nake1born "eople,G said their first male ancestor was the )reat -erpent who dwelt in the garden of paradise.CJ "aradise was a name of the )oddess1as1 Kirgin, identified with Mother (era 5$arth6, whose virgin form was (ebe, a )reek spelling of $ve. Kirgin (era parthenogenetically conceived the oracular serpent "ython, of the F9omb1 temple,G +elphi.C% -nakes living in the womb of Mother $arth were supposed to possess all the wisdom, being in contact with the Fwise bloodG of the world. 8ne of the secrets shared by the primordial woman and her serpent was the secret of menstruation. "ersians claimed menstruation was brought into the world by the first mother, whom they called Bahi the 9hore, a Lilith1like defier of the (eavenly Father. -he began to menstruate for the first time after coupling with Ahriman, the )reat -erpent. Afterward, she seduced Fthe first righteous man,G who had previously lived alone in the garden of paradise with only the divine sacrificial bull for company. (e knew nothing of sex until Bahi taught him.C? he Bews borrowed many details from these "ersian myths. 3abbinical tradition said $ve began to menstruate only after she had copulated with the serpent in $den, and Adam was ignorant of sex until $ve taught him.CD ,t was widely believed that $veAs firstborn son ;ain was not begotten by Adam but by the serpent.C@ 'eliefs connecting serpents with pregnancy and menstruation appeared throughout $urope for many centuries. 0p to modern times, )erman peasants still held that women could be impregnated by snakes.C> 9hether initiated by a serpent or not, menstrual bleeding inspired deadly fear among both "ersians and Bewish patriarchs 5Leviticus %>6. 3achel successfully stole her fatherAs teraphim 5household gods6 by hiding them under a camel saddle and sitting on it, telling her

father she was menstruating so he dared not approach her 5)enesis D%6. o this day, orthodox Bews refuse to shake hands with a woman because she might be menstruating. Bews also adopted a rule apparently laid down by (esiod, that a man must never wash in the same water previously used by a woman, lest it might contain a trace of menstrual blood.CH here were many similar taboos. he ancient worldAs most dreaded poison was the Fmoon1 dewG collected by hessalian witches, said to be a girlAs first menstrual blood shed during an eclipse of the moon.CC "liny said a menstruous womanAs touch could blast the fruits of the field, sour wine, cloud mirrors, rust iron, and blunt the edges of knives.C& ,f a menstruous woman so much as laid a finger on a beehive, the bees would fly away and never return.CI ,f a man lay with a menstruous woman during an eclipse, he would soon fall sick and die.&J ;hristians inherited all the ancient patriarchsA superstitious horrors. -t. Berome wrote! F.othing is so unclean as a woman in her periods* what she touches she causes to become unclean.G "enitential regulations laid down in the Cth century by heodore, 'ishop of ;anterbury, forbade menstruating women to take communion or even enter a church. At the French -ynod of Meaux, menstruous women were specifically forbidden to come to church. From the &th to the %%th centuries, many church laws denied menstruating women any access to church buildings. As late as %H&@ it was still ordered that women in their FfluxesG must remain outside the church door.&% ,n %?I& the -ynod of 9Mr4burg commanded men not to approach a menstruating woman.&? he superstition came down to the ?Jth century, when a -cottish medical text #uoted an old rhyme to the effect that menstrual blood could destroy the entire world! 8h7 Menstruating woman, thouArt a fiend From which all nature should be closely screened.&D ;hristian women were commanded to despise the FuncleannessG of their own bodies, as in the 3ule of Anchoresses! FArt thou not formed of foul slimeN Art thou not always full of uncleannessNG&@ Medical authorities of the %Hth century were still repeating the old belief that Fdemons were produced from menstrual flux.G&> 8ne of the FdemonsG born of menstrual blood was the legendary basilisk with its poisonous glance.&H he legend evidently arose from the classic myth of the )orgon with her serpent1hair and wise blood, petrifying men with her glance. he )orgon and the red cross of menstrual blood once marked the most potent taboos.&C he very word taboo, from "olynesian tupua, Fsacred, magical,G applied specifically to menstrual blood.&& Bust as primitives attributed beneficial powers to menstrual blood along with its fearfulness, so medieval peasants thought it could heal, nourish, and fertili4e.&I -ome believed a menstruating woman could protect a crop by walking around the field, or exposing her genitals in it.IJ "easant women carried seed to the fields in rags stained with their menstrual blood! a continuation of the custom of $leusinan fertility1priestesses.I% $ven doctors thought menstrual blood could cure leprosy, or act as a powerful aphrodisiac. Madame de Montespan used it to encourage the ardor of her royal lover, Louis O,K.I? )ypsies said a woman could win any manAs love with a potion of her own menstrual blood.ID As the former medium of reincarnation, menstrual blood was sometimes called a remedy for death itself. ,n the tale of ;hilde 3oland, the elven1king roused men from the magic sleep of death with a Fbright red li#uor.GI@ $arly romances associated this universal heal1 all with Fthe blood of a noble virgin,G as a wise1woman revealed to )alahad.I> he same belief impelled Louis O, to try to stave off death by drinking young girls blood. Kictorian superstition taught that a child conceived during a menstrual period would be born with a caul, and would have occult powers.IH .ineteenth1century doctors inherited their predecessorsA notions of witchcraft and evil, and so maintained that menstruating

women are not healthy* copulation with them could infect a man with urethritis or gonorrhea. +r. Augustus )ardner said venereal diseases were usually communicated from women to men, not vice versa.IC -peaking of savagesA menstrual taboos, anthropologists described the women as Fout of order,G Fsuffering from monthly illness,G or Fstricken with the malady common to their sex.GI& A doctor wrote even in the present century! F9e cannot too emphatically urge the importance of regarding these monthly returns as periods of ill health, as days when the ordinary occupations are to be suspended or modified.GII At the present time :ust as in the Middle Ages, the ;atholic church still considers itself on firm theological ground by advancing, as an argument against ordination of women, the notion that a menstruating priestess would FpolluteG the altar. his would not preclude ordination of post1menopausal women, but different excuses are found for those. he holy Fblood of lifeG used to be feminine and real* now it is masculine and symbolic.

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