Ovulatory phase / inner summer

Including notes on the ovulatory phase and menstruality concepts surrounding cycle days 13 - 20.

Ovulation itself isn’t a phase but an event, which occurs on different days for different people, as well as from cycle to cycle. Ovulation can quickly be overlooked, but it’s actually the grand event around which the whole cycle is orchestrated.

Ovulatory phase in this context refers to the window of time in which we are fertile. In the traditional Chinese medicine, it is related to two different elements. The element of fire is for the days leading up to ovulation, when estrogen and our fertility are peaking 🔥. Fire is connected with the emotions of joy and aggression. Then there is the element of earth representing the days after ovulation, as the egg releases progesterone (the calming hormone), which grounds us back to our body🙏. The element of earth is connected with the emotions of empathy and worry. I adore the duality of the emotions connected to these days, as I found that ovulation has both a light and a shadowy side.

This phase on the wheel of the year would be represented by the extraverted, productive, celebratory summer, and the time in plant life where everything is blooming 🌻. Ovulation is depicted as the time of full moon. In terms of human life, it represents the time when our mindset transforms from “me” to “we”, whether we decide to become a parent, we take on more responsibility for our community (such as taking care of ageing parents) or reach a point in our career when our material needs have been met and we can focus more on giving back (picking a cause, mentoring others). Generally speaking it lasts until menopause.

It’s represented by the archetype of the Mother as well as the Queen, two figures in the position of agency over the lives of themselves and their community 👑. It correlates to the early afternoon, which is the lightest and most awake part of the day. In pregnancy, this would be a 2nd trimester.

CD 13: Sex-ed refresher

Conception can only occur in the presence of an egg, which is released at ovulation and hanging around for up to 48 hours. In addition, sperm can survive in the body for up to 5 days if conditions are right (i.e. cervical fluid keeping it alive), which means that we are fertile roughly 7 days each cycle.

The way hormonal birth control works is that it prevents ovulation and thus shuts down the whole cycle (and the bleed that follows isn't period but withdrawal). It can be an effective and empowering way to prevent pregnancy. It does unfortunately also have side effects and ovulation itself is important for health whether you are avoiding pregnancy or not.

"Ovulation, and therefore menstruation, plays an important role in safeguarding our health for decades to come and protecting us from osteoporosis, heart disease, breast disease, and dementia. Every ovulation and cycle puts protective benefits into your health “bank account” for the years when you stop having a cycle." (In the Flo, Alissa Vitti)

If you pay attention and educate yourself, you can notice when your body is preparing for ovulation and afterwards confirm that ovulation has occurred. I find it very empowering to have that body literacy and understand what's going on.

CD 14: Ovulation & cyclicality

In most regular cycles, ovulation occurs sometimes between cycle day 12 and 21, and menstruation follows most commonly 10-16 days afterwards. The Red School teaches that, energetically, both of these two (at first sight very different) events have the power of presence, just of the opposite kind: at ovulation, the attention is directed outwards and at menstruation inwards 🧐.

The two events are the pinpoints of the whole cycle, with other cycle days lying somewhere on the transitional axis between them. Basically from menstruation to ovulation the energy is rising and opening (this axis is also called via positiva), and from ovulation back to menstruation the energy is declining and turning inwards (via negativa).

It's probably obvious, but this quality is what gives cycles their sense of cyclicality 💫. All these transitional days between the two events, with the rising and opening VS. declining and closing is what makes the cycle feel like a wheel that's constantly turning, instead of a line that's going from the point A of ovulation to the point B of menstruation. 

CD 15: Ovulation & pleasure

Ovulation generally means peak vitality, activity, sociability and confidence 💃. It's easy to mistake growing ovulatory energy for productivity or to take care of everyone else in your life 💁‍♀️ - women are conditioned to be selfless, modest, people pleasing caregivers after all! It's a good idea to keep some of this blooming energy for yourself though... Like summer solstice, ovulation is about presence and celebration of the bounty (hah!), and I usually feel this time needs an extra dose of pleasure, beauty and nurturing, if I don't want to get all PMS-y a week after.🙅‍♀️

CD 16: Ovulation & the moon cycle

Menstrual cycle is often called moon cycle because it mirrors that of the moon. There is lots of folklore around it, including the so called white moon and red moon cycle.

The white moon cycle is most common and is linked to bleeding on the new moon and ovulating with the full moon. As the full moon is considered to be the earth's most fertile time too, such cycles are connected to motherhood and nurturing. 🌝 The red moon cycle on the other hand, is linked to bleeding on the full moon and ovulating on the new moon. This flipped energy used to belong to folks in the ancient times, who were healers of the community, and is linked to self-actualisation, creativity and leadership. 🌚

There's a theory that before artificial lightning, all of our menstrual cycles would fall under one or the other moon cycle, however there's no scientific research behind it. I personally recognise that it's not uncommon for biological processes to mirror one another and don't feel the need to sync with the moon cycle 🤷‍♀️. At the same time I tend to bleed on the full moon anyway, and I always enjoy the storytelling around natural processes that helps us understand ourselves better 😏. The moon is to be found in all of the worlds folklore, and we can keep it if we like to be reminded of our place in the family of wild things.

CD 17: Ovulation, self-care & astrology

Menstruations gets a rep of being high maintenance, but I personally find ovulation to be pretty demanding too. The energy can be overwhelming and contrary to popular belief I cannot cram in just about anything at this time. Ovulatory time, like any, needs rest and relaxation, but that can look quite different and less obvious than as at menstruation, its polar opposite. I actually find lots of inspiration for what would be relaxing for me by looking at my natal chart! 💫

My astro moon (represent. emotional life / the feminine aspect) is in Taurus / ruled by Venus, which reminds me to indulge in simplicity, beauty and quality, and find rest through my senses 🍲 There's lots of Saturn in my chart causing tension, which is, oddly, relieved by discipline - my tiny hobbies lately have been making my own planner and documenting my wardrobe, all very satisfying to me ✍. And of course my Gemini sun (the outward persona / the masculine aspect), making way for reading, learning, communicating, playing Scrabble and all the airy sports activities, from hiking to biking to cross country skiing, etc.

One could divide the cycle into the outwardly / masculine time (preovulatory, ovulation= your sun), and the inwardly / feminine time (luteal, menstruation= your moon) to approach your hobbies and self care practices with some cyclicality.

CD 18: The Mother & the Queen archetype

The Mother and the Queen are the archetypes of the ovulatory phase. Both two figures are similar in the way that they are in the position of agency over the lives of themselves and their community.

They have this quality of sovereignty, which is more than just confidence, but a sense of agency in life.

The vibe of this part of the cycle is to not wait for anything to come to you but actively create something out of nothing, the opposite of surrender which is present towards menstruation and beyond. I often hear the question of "should you chase something or should you surrender to what comes to you" and I think it should be both (but at different contexts or points of time), as it's represented in the cycle.

Can you find the balance of both pursuing what you want and actively creating things VS. surrendering to what is in your cycle?

CD 19: The burden of fertility

Even though all genders are potentially fertile and have to take responsibility for that, as a uterus owner that can carry and birth humans, it's a topic you just cannot gloss over. Fertility is something you are constantly faced with, whether you like it or not - be it you are desperately trying to prevent pregnancy, trying to conceive or anything in between. The shadow side of fertility is, that regardless of your life choices and even if those are joyfully made -  at one point or another it carries some grief.

There is of course grief of struggling to conceive, but there's also grief of living your maiden life behind with motherhood, grief of longing for pregnancy but not having a life situation for it, gief of deciding that your family is completed, grief of happily choosing to be child free but still acknowledging some of the losses that come with that… And even if family planning isn't something you are concerned with at all, there can still be grief that your friendships or other relationships are changing in the face of different life choices.

To those with uteruses, we're given a definite amount of eggs and in a certain phase of life there comes a striking awareness that our fertility is finite, and you'll have to make life altering decisions.

If you are tracking your ovulation signs to prevent or achieve pregnancy, there can be joy and relief, or hope and fear when confirming ovulation. But regardless of whether you pay attention or not, this part of the cycle has some big energy, and can bring up various themes like struggling with visibility, sexuality, societal expectations, the Mother archetype, the overwhelm of an already busy life (especially for mums with your kids), a sense of disconnection, as well as signs of disfunction such as delayed ovulation, anovulatory cycles, discomfort, bloating, fatigue and more.

Sometimes this part of the cycle is talked about only as positive, just as bleeding can be seen as only negative, but there's both shadow and light in each cyclical phase and there is comfort (at least I believe so!) in acknowledging that dual nature of everything.

CD 20: On female lineage

There's a part of you that has existed inside your grandmothers womb.

Female fetuses are born with all the eggs we will ever have and they are developed even before we are born, when we are still in our mothers womb. Which also means that when your maternal grandmother had carried your mother in her womb, she has already developed an egg which will later be fertilised and grown into you.

You have had a connection with your maternal grandmother for a long time. Makes me think of how much influence your lineage and the environment they lived in has on us!