Menstrual Magic for Uterus-Owners of All Genders was originally published to The Balancing Path column on Patheos Pagan, on August 25, 2020. It is presented here with some edits from the original.

If your body includes a uterus that produces a period, you can perform menstrual magic.  It is an incredibly powerful component in spellwork, which can be used for a wide variety of purposes, including baneful magic, banishing and warding, manifestation and prosperity magic, connecting with divine feminine, and affirmation of female, male, or nonbinary gender.

I will be writing about menstrual blood, so if that makes you squeamish, you might want to stop reading now.

As always, my advice is offered as guidelines, and you are welcome to modify and adapt any part of it to best suit your practice and your intent.  Menstruation is deeply personal, and magic based on it is going to be correspondingly personal.

Menstruation and Lunar and Solar Energy

You have most likely heard that the root word for menses means month, and is so named because a typical menstrual cycle is about the same span of time as one full cycle of the moon.  However, there is individual variation, and typical human menstrual cycles can be anywhere from 21 days to 35 days.

My cycle averages about 26 days, but it is also affected by the solar cycle.  It tends to fall near the new moon in the summer, the third quarter in the fall, full moon in the winter, and fourth quarter in the spring.  This is reversed from the pattern I experienced before witnessing a full solar eclipse, before which it was new moon in the winter, and so on.  I experience shorter or longer cycles as needed for my menses to fall near the seasonal moon phase.

Some people will experience their cycle at the same phase of the moon throughout the year, or it may cycle without regard for lunar or solar cycles.  Some people do not have periods which occur on a predictable or regular basis.  A lot of people have cycles which are regulated by birth control hormones.  Each kind of cycle can affect the particular energies of your particular cycle, especially if you typically incorporate moon phase energy into your spellwork.

Your period is going to happen when it happens.  If you want to do menstrual magic, you are stuck doing it during your period.  Depending upon how heavy your period is and how long it lasts, you may be able to fudge the timing by two to six days, but you will still be limited in what moon phase you can work under.  Depending upon the circumstances and how regular your cycle is (especially if you are on birth control), you may be able to plan well in advance so you do the working during your period during the preferred moon phase, but that will not work for everyone or all situations.

Try to be flexible about moon phase.  If possible, frame your intent in a way that works with the lunar energies you have available to you, or you can ignore the moon phase entirely and just do your working.  Working with the moon can add another component to your spell, but there is no inherent drawback if you omit that potential component.

Alternatively, you can focus on solar energies.  Even though menstruation is more strongly associated with the moon, it is affected by the sun, as well as being sympathetic with any regularly occurring natural cycles.  Since solar phases last longer than one menstrual cycle, you can more accurately time your working so that it happens during the time of year when the sun’s energy is most in line with your intent.  You can predict the energies by associations with the sabbats, especially if you see the sabbats as seasons and not just single dates.  You can also focus on the cycle of the sun as full (summer solstice), waning (fall), new (winter solstice), and waxing (spring).

The Magical Properties of the Menstrual Cycle

If you own a normally functioning uterus, you are in possession of your very own waxing/waning cycle that you carry with you at all times.  This cycle occurs because of the fluctuation of hormones within your body, and can be used as a correspondence for spellwork in a manner similar to tracking moon cycles.  I do not want to take the time to get into the biological specifics, but it is a good thing to understand for your health, so if you have not done so I recommend reading up on the physical process.

Those who are on hormones that physically manifest a menstrual cycle can also take advantage of these properties, even if they do not have a uterus or otherwise do not produce menstrual blood.*

New Menses

The menstrual cycle starts with your period.  The “new” phase of the cycle will start the day or two before your period, and continue for a day or three into your period.  This is the messiest, and also possibly a moody or crampy part of your cycle, but that is because the old is being flushed to make way for a fresh start.  Lunar new moons are blessedly calm and tranquil resting points, almost like the world is holding its breath for a moment.  Menstrual new energy can feel like the divine feminine decided to explode out and depart in a huff.

Waxing Menses

As your period stops, your body is already working to build a new uterine lining and is preparing to release an egg from the ovaries.  All of the work is going into preparation, just in case this month is the month you get pregnant.

Full Menses

Approximately half-way into your cycle, your body releases the egg and it travels into the uterus.  This is the moment of fulfillment, when things have the potential to happen.  If you are tracking your fertile window (I have no intention of getting pregnant, but I track it for health and spiritual reasons), that window is your when your menses is in the “full” phase.

Waning Menses

If you do not get pregnant, the remainder of your cycle is the waning phase.  In this phase, your hormone balance shifts in preparation to flush the unused uterine lining, so the cycle can begin anew.  This is also the part of the cycle when some people experience PMS, due to the shift in hormone balance.  If you are among those who experience PMS, you probably do not need me to tell you how your personal energy shifts during the waning part of your cycle.

The Magical Properties of Menstrual Blood

Menstrual blood is completely unlike the blood in your veins that pumps through your heart, lungs, and circulatory system.  It is the inner lining of the uterus, which is packed with nutrients that a fetus needs in order to develop into a baby.  It is also designed to sit stationary in the uterus, and only becomes (mostly) liquid during your period so it can be flushed out of the body.  In other words, one of the components of your uterine lining is blood, but it is profoundly different in composition and purpose.

Menstrual blood is literally the unused fertile ground upon which new life can be created.  As sympathetic links go, there is little to compare to the potential for entirely new growth and boundless prosperity and possibilities.  It has not been used (virginal in the non-creepy sense of the word), so it is available to add metaphorical fertility to just about any manifestation, or new endeavor or project you want to embark upon. It can even be used for some forms of blessing magic.

Menstrual blood is also being cast out by the body.  It failed to fulfill its purpose, and now it is no longer needed.  This makes it profoundly powerful for banishing and warding, or for some forms of baneful magic.

If you get creative, you can even craft spellwork which takes advantage of both the fertile and banishing aspects of menstrual blood.  Both are always present, but as a witch you can choose to focus more closely on the one that is of the greatest help for your working.

Collecting Menstrual Blood for Menstrual Magic

Be prepared to gather the blood as part of your spell, and finish the spell as soon as possible after the collection.  Very quickly after leaving the body, menstrual blood starts to sour, die, and grow bacteria.  It is extremely unsanitary to leave it laying around, and these changes are likely to harm most kinds of spellwork.  Fresh is best for reasons both magical and mundane.

I am not going to lie to you.  This is messy, even if you are using a menstrual cup instead of pads or tampons.  A menstrual cup is almost essential if you need more than just a few drops or a smear of blood, such as when you want to use it to fertilize plants.  It will also take practice to learn how to remove the cup without spilling most or all of the blood, or you may want to do this over a largish bowl to catch whatever spills.

For most spellwork you will need very little menstrual blood.  In most cases it can be collected using a clean hand, simply by reaching down there while focusing on your intent, and immediately wiping it onto whatever object you are anointing for your spell.  Candles and offering bowls are probably the most convenient objects to use.  However, you can use anything that feels right for your working and can be safely cleaned and sanitized after being anointed with bodily fluids.  A porous wooden wand, for example, would potentially never again be clean or sanitary.

You can also collect menstrual blood by squeezing it out of your pad or tampon, but the blood starts to sour very soon after it leaves the body.  That sour death of the menstrual blood will affect the magic you are creating, so make sure you want that energy before doing it this way.

Please do not directly gather your menstrual blood using dirty hands or objects which are not specifically made to go there.  You do not want to get an infection down there, or accidentally poison yourself.  Yes, even crystals and stones can make you sick if you put them there.  Paints, resins, varnishes, alloys, and more are all potentially dangerous.  It is not worth the risk to your health, so use your hand to transfer the blood from your vagina to the object.

Depending upon the specific working, it can also be good to do ritual bathing before you collect the blood.  This way not only are your hands clean, but so is the rest of you, physically and spiritually.  You can even do ritual bathing in a shower instead of a bathtub.  The most important part is intent and focus, and you can still place crystals, stones, herbs, and other aromatherapy items in your shower area, as long as you make sure they are protected from going down the drain during the shower.

Using Menstrual Magic to Connect to the Divine Feminine

You do not need to be female to connect to divine feminine.  In fact, all of us, as humans, contain within us a connection to all genders of divinity, in all their infinite variety.  Those forms of divinity which are closest to our personal genders will usually be the most easily accessed and understood, but I believe it is worthwhile to explore all forms of gendered divinity.

If your gender is not female, connecting with the divine feminine from the perspective of your true gender is a potential avenue to make peace with femininity in your body.  I am sure it will not work for everyone, but if it sounds interesting to you, give it a try.

If you wish to use your menstrual blood as a direct connection, I recommend anointing a candle with it while focusing on your intent to access your connection to the divine feminine.  Place the candle in front of you or on your altar, and meditate or engage in a ritual to celebrate the divine feminine.

You can also simply use the existence of your period or your cycle as a sympathetic link.  Focus in on your knowledge of where you are in your cycle, and how that can manifest the divine feminine.  Proceed with your meditation or ritual while maintaining an awareness of your cycle.

If you are meditating, focus on better understanding the divine feminine, or on better understanding how the divine feminine manifests itself in your life both positively and negatively.  Through understanding, seek to celebrate the benefits, and work to make peace with the drawbacks.  Through greater understanding, your connection to the divine will naturally grow stronger.

Using Menstrual Magic to Affirm Male or Nonbinary Gender

The exercises listed below will not work for all people, but they are an option.  If one or more of them makes sense to you, give them a try, but please do not do any exercises that will cause you dysphoria.*

Your period is the time of the month when it is impossible to ignore female sexual organs, but that is because your body is shedding the biological purpose for that equipment – baby making.  When your uterus sloughs and makes its existence undeniable, it is also at its least feminine.  It is literally getting rid of all the stuff it had built up to support a fetus, and it has not yet begun building anew.

Another approach is to dismiss menses as a purely female thing, and instead claim it as a part of your true gender.  You are your gender, regardless of what society assigned you to be.  Your body is also yours, regardless of restrictions society tries to put upon it.  If you are not a woman, and your body is yours, then your body is not a woman’s body.  It already is your true gender, because you are your true gender, all of you, down to every single cell in your body.

You may or may not want to physically modify your body to better suit your ideal, which is a perfectly normal thing to do even for cis-gendered people.  Lots of people get tattoos, piercings, plastic surgery, dye their hair, and so one.  The end result is more pleasing to them, but their bodies before those modifications were still theirs, wholly and completely.  The same is true for you. Yeet your uterus if you please, or keep it if you want to.  If you are a man with a period, you are a man with a male menstrual cycle, plain and simple.  Pay the biological essentialists no mind.  They do not know what they are talking about anyway, as biological sex is far more complex than XX female and XY male.

When you gather the menstrual blood, there are two potential foci I see.  If there is a different focus that makes sense to you, by all means use that focus.  I have no doubt there are far more ways to approach this than just the options I am thinking of right now.

The first option is to focus on how the femininity of your body does not define you.  Even that femininity has its limits, and now, as you gather this blood, it has its least impact on your hormones.  You still have femininity, as all humans do, but it does not define you, even when it is at its most intrusive.

The second option is to focus on how the fact that you have a menses does not define your gender.  Your body is yours, and thus it is your non-female gender.  That means your menses is an aspect of your non-female gender.  Own it, as part of your unique and personal experience of gender.

From there, you can take several different approaches to your anointing.  I recommend a candle, a piece of charcoal, or a chalice, but if something else makes sense for you, feel free to do that instead.

The candle can be burned while meditating or conducting a ritual.  The dominance of physical femininity burns away along with the candle.  The charcoal will need to be lit, again burning away the dominance of physical femininity.  Burn an incense or herbs which are conducive to your intent.  The chalice can be used as a centerpiece for your meditation or ritual, and then ritually poured out.  You can send it down the drain, pour it outside, or feed it to a plant after you are done.

Using Menstrual Magic for Manifestation or Prosperity

Make certain you have a clear idea of exactly what you want to manifest, or in what ways you are seeking prosperity.  The more focused (and attainable) your goal, the more likely your magic is to succeed.  Also, be sure to take real-world steps to help you reach your goal.  You cannot get a new job if you do not apply, attend interviews, and see the process through.  You will never become a published author if you do not finish your book and submit it to publishers.  You cannot win the lottery if you do not buy a ticket.

Gather your menstrual blood while focusing on the fact that this virginal blood is rich with pure, unlimited potential.  It is the embodiment of all that a human life can be, and you are applying that potential towards your specific intent.

Exactly how you craft your complete spell or ritual is going to depend upon your intent, your practice, and your circumstances.

You can anoint a candle as the focus for your spell.  Proceed as you would for any candle-based magic.

You can anoint a piece of charcoal and let the smoke of the incense carry your intent.  Proceed as you would for any incense-based magic.

You can draw a sigil using your menstrual blood.

You can anoint clean water in a chalice or bowl, or place the straight blood it in a bowl.  Put it on your altar while you empower it with your intent, and then pour it on your garden or on a plant.  Perennial flowering plants like roses are especially good to use when you expect the spell to take time, or you want it to last for the long haul.  The health and vibrancy of the plant can become a metaphor for the manifestation and prosperity you seek.

Using Menstrual Magic for Banishing

Before you start, have a clear intent for what you wish to banish forever from your life.  If there is any real-world action you can take to create or reinforce the banishing, do that as well.

When you gather the menstrual blood, focus on the blood as waste, cast off from the body because it is no longer needed.  New things will grow later.  The old is of no further use.  Associate that removal with the thing you wish to banish.

Anoint and proceed with your spellwork.

Using Menstrual Magic for Warding

Before you start, have a clear intent for what you wish to ward, and the exact parameters of the ward, including any hexes or curses that should befall anyone who violates the ward.

Gather the menstrual blood while focusing on the uterine lining material as a safe cocoon for a growing fetus.  It is designed to provide nourishment, connection to the pregnant parent, and cushioned protection from the world outside.

A candle, charcoal, or chalice are all options.

If you will be anointing physical objects to hang as permanent wards, anoint them with a small amount of menstrual blood, and allow it to dry completely.  If the object is a piece of jewelry, you may want to clean it after finishing your enchantment, let the dried blood naturally rub off, or lacquer it to seal in the blood (nail polish works if you have nothing else suitable, but it eventually rubs off).  If it is a locket or other closing piece of jewelry, I recommend putting a drop or two of your blood inside the jewelry where it will be protected from wear.

Using Menses for Baneful Magic

Menstrual blood can be an incredibly powerful ingredient in baneful magic.  I specifically do not recommend figuring out who or what you can curse just to have an excuse to use your menstrual blood in this manner.  Instead, be aware that this powerful ingredient is available should a circumstance arise where you feel the need to conduct baneful magic.

Take some time to consider exactly how the energies of menstruation and menstrual blood can correspond to your needs, and in what way they would best be used.  If you cannot figure out those details on your own, you are probably better off not involving your menses in your curse.  It does add an extremely personal element to the working.

Love Magic

I am including this section only because I know a lot of readers will feel let down if I do not at least mention this use.  It is, after all, the use that most people think of when they hear about menstrual magic.

Any time I have seen menstrual magic mentioned in social media, there is bound to be at least one person who feels the need to mention that menstrual blood can be secretly cooked into a meal for a significant other to prevent them from leaving the relationship.

First of all, EWW!  If you have an STI, that is in your menstrual blood, along with any other bacteria that has been growing since it left your body.  It is unsanitary, and can be argued to border on cannibalism.  Slipping it into someone’s food is as bad as sneaking any other bodily fluid into food items, and it is not a loving thing to do.  Usually this is reserved for particularly rude customers at restaurants – you know, people you hate and hope to never see again because they are so awful.

Second of all, this is exactly the kind of “love spell” that gives love spells a bad name.  That is because it is focused on control, domination, and abuse, rather than actual love.  If you were not already aware, love is a two-way street, and a healthy relationship is impossible unless it is built on a foundation of friendship, honesty, and consent.  Using magic or mundane manipulation to force someone to stay in a relationship against their will is toxic, abusive, and an egregious violation of consent.

Do not do this!  Do not be that asshole!

If you want to use your menstrual blood for healthy love spells, frame your intent such that it focuses on you finding the right partner who can happily share your life with you.  Do not focus it on a particular individual unless you have that individual’s explicit consent, such as when both (or all) of you wish to strengthen your relationship.  Instead, craft your love spell as though you were doing a manifestation spell, because you are seeking to manifest a healthy, loving relationship in your life.

The Sky is the Limit

Menstrual blood is a deeply personal and incredibly powerful, with various strong, diverse aspects to its energy.  The scenarios I have described here are just a tiny cross section of what can be done.  If you are crafting a new spell for yourself, and wonder if your menses can be used to empower your spell, it probably can.  Follow your intuition, and embrace your personal power.

This is a sigil for gender diversity, acceptance, and inclusion in pagan and magical spaces, community, rituals, and workings.

This has been magically charged with intent for:

• learning
• welcoming
• community
• crossroads and bridges
• inclusion and full acceptance
• open to other perspectives
• wards against hate and bigotry

You can read more about the sigil on its own page, including what it means, suggestions for how to use it, details about its creation and the specific symbology used, and download high resolution image files.

Significant Edits:

6/4/2021 – Added the text “Those who are on hormones that physically manifest a menstrual cycle can also take advantage of these properties, even if they do not have a uterus or otherwise do not produce menstrual blood.”

6/4/2021 – Rearranged some text in the section “Using Menstrual Magic to Affirm Male or Nonbinary Gender”. Heavily modified the text of a paragraph and moved it to the top of the section. The new text reads, “The exercises listed below will not work for all people, but they are an option.  If one or more of them makes sense to you, give them a try, but please do not do any exercises that will cause you dysphoria.”