The Moon Hut Project

Welcome!

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Have you ever seen menstruation as a gift, or has it seemed more like a curse?

What if every woman’s first period were an occasion for celebration, welcoming her to a community of wise, loving, vibrant women? What if transitions in her life like motherhood and menopause were met with the support, guidance, and acknowledgement appropriate to the sacred initiations that they are? What if every woman’s period afforded her the time and space outside of the pressures of everyday life to fully receive its blessing? What if every woman’s period were a blessing to the earth as well, instead of adding more disposable waste to the trash heap?

The Moon Hut Project proposes to address these questions. We believe a woman’s moon time is a time of power; a time of creativity and regeneration. Modern society isn’t set up to support or honor the rhythms of a woman’s body, soul, and spirit. As modern women, however, many of us are required to engage in the public sphere much more than in any other era. To do so, women often make choices that are not healthy for themselves or for the planet. We vow to do what we are able to bring these problems to the light of consciousness and to help support women in making better choices for themselves, and ultimately for the world.

Mission Statement

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The Moon Hut Project strives to empower and connect women by promoting women's health throughout the cycles and phases of womanhood, including menarche, menstruation, motherhood, and menopause.

The Red Tent Vision

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The Moon Hut Project (TMHP) is a voluntary women's health organization. We believe women's health is inseparable from our relationships on all levels, and therefore includes physical, mental, emotional, interpersonal, intercultural, ecological, and spiritual health and wellbeing. In service to this understanding of women’s health, we include the following clauses in our mission.

I. TMHP is dedicated to fostering the Red Tent: a safe, sacred space for women of all ages to build community; to support, mentor, and celebrate one another; to connect with authentic rites of passage and initiation; and to explore and honor our innate feminine wisdom.

II. TMHP’s work to realize the Red Tent vision will take place in four spheres: A) in our home office in Eugene, Oregon; B) on the road in our Red Tent Village; C) on the web, both on our home page, and on our women's community forum website, Your Moon Hut Project; and D) in our future self-published newsletter/zine, The Moon Hut Project. *

III. TMHP aims to foster education, information distribution, and heartfelt exchange within the local and global women’s communities about the four M’s (menarche, menstruation, motherhood, and menopause) and about healthy, environmentally sound, and sustainable menstruation practices.

IV. TMHP will partner with indigenous sources of wisdom and women’s traditions wherever possible, and will seek to preserve the continuance of these valuable forms of knowledge from around the world.

V. TMHP will work to empower women to recreate the Red Tent in their own communities.

VI. TMHP is inclusive of all women, and strives to operate according to the values of the talking circle, where every voice is of equal importance, respect is given and received by all, and compassion and wisdom are in balance.

*A. Our home office (HQ) is envisioned as a headquarters for the nonprofit logistical side of things and as a Red Tent drop-in space for women in our community. The HQ will house reference materials relevant to the mission of TMHP and may provide a library of resources for women. It may also serve as a home for educational workshops and community celebrations.

B. The Red Tent Village will travel to festivals and women’s gatherings whenever possible to provide outreach and experiential education opportunities to women around the United States. Festivals provide a venue where many people can be reached, and there is often greater openness to trying new ways of being at such events. (We also think it would simply be a nice thing just to offer a safe, quiet, comfortable, and hygienic refuge for women who are menstruating in this situation.)

C. The TMHP Home website (here) expresses the vision and goals of TMHP. This is where to check to find out what's new, what's needed, and (in the future) to find resources and related organizations listed online. Our community forum website, Your Moon Hut Project, is an online virtual Red Tent space where women from anywhere in the world could potentially contribute to the vision, or gather inspiration and wisdom to start their own Red Tent initiative.

D. The Moon Hut Project zine is envisioned as a newsletter for the organization, and as an independent publishing venue for women's and girls' art and creative writing.

Present Tasks

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Click this link for a current version of our Wish List.

We have started putting together a Red Tent Village, complete with sumptuous decor and nurturing goodies for women who are on their moon time, and we plan to bring it to various women’s gatherings and festivals this summer, 2011. Check the Events page for current schedule information. The main Red Tent will be a safe, sacred space for menstruating women to relax and receive the blessings of their spirits. Staff and volunteers need to be mustered to serve these women, for childcare, set up, clean up, and logistical support. We hope to also have a community tent, where red tent staff, non-menstruating women and girls, and those who love and honor women can gather in the spirit of support and respectful exchange. Information about healthy, sustainable menstruation choices will be available at this tent. Eco-friendly menstruation products would ideally be available as well.

The Moon Hut Project is now incorporated as a nonprofit voluntary women's health organization! The next step in the government paperwork department will be filing form 1023 with the IRS to make our 501(c)(3) tax exempt status official. Any helpful advice on that front would be very welcome. Ideally, we would consult with a nonprofit law professional before filing.

The community-building task is always on the table. For our mission to succeed, we need to network and reach out to as many women as possible. Healthy community is necessary to maintain individual women's health, and a truly healthy community holds a place for each individual. So please spread the word. Our Related Links page provides a list of relevant groups and services. Please let us know if you have ideas for more woman-empowering links. There are some exciting things happening in the Red Tent movement, including local groups meeting in some areas.

Contribute your voice! Women are encouraged to join our community networking website, Your Moon Hut Project, to share ideas and stories, discuss women's issues, or spread the word about your own woman-empowering services. We also invite you to complete and return our TMHP Women's Survey to help us define the need for our services in the future. Both men and women are invited to contact us with comments or questions, and to join our email list and/or Facebook group.

Eventually, we plan to have a home office that will serve both as HQ for TMHP and as a Red Tent in our community. We have started collecting information and resources for a women's health reference library. Please let us know if you have suggestions or items to donate.

If you are interested in being involved with any part of this project, including forming the vision in these early planning and development stages, please contact us! Financial support is also welcome; we hope to be set up to process credit card donations soon. Please send enquiries to themoonhutproject(at)gmail(dott)com and we will get back to you.

New Moon Gatherings

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Please see our Events page for information and dates of New Moon and Full Moon Gatherings.

The Moon Hut Project Red Tent Temple gatherings are held in conjunction with the Red Tent Temple Movement, started by ALisa Starkweather, which includes women’s groups in many parts of the world, all coming together on or around the new moon each month to allow for stillness, quiet togetherness, and reverence in women’s lives. Currently The Moon Hut Project Red Tent Temple gatherings are being held in Eugene, Oregon. Please refer to Alisa's website for other Red Tent Temple locations.

A quote from ALisa’s website: “The Red Tent Temple Movement is a way for women to take our inner momentum, that feeling like the time is now and come forward with everything we are as women and give us a place to incubate, dream, slow down, and not have an agenda or plan. And simutaneously much is waiting for us in this not knowing place, but we need to make time for the empty space. It is also not only empty space but woman space where we can share stories, laughter, songs, food and honor our unique cycles that we experience each month in our bleeding time and in our going through perimenopause and menopause.”

Feminine Hygiene Links

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This is a complex topic! Check back here for more. For now, here are some URL's to sites you might find helpful and informative:

Overview:

http://www.labyrinth.net.au/~obsidian/clothpads/

Cloth pads:

Informative introductory article: http://clothpads.wikidot.com/whatis

List of sellers in USA and Canada: http://clothpads.wikidot.com/usa

Party in my Pants (USA): https://www.partypantspads.com/

Menstrual cups:

The Keeper® & Moon Cup® by Keeper (USA): http://keeper.com/

Instead ®SoftCup® (USA): http://www.softcup.com/

The DivaCup™ (Canada): http://www.divacup.com/

Mooncup® UK (UK): http://www.mooncup.co.uk/

Lunette™ (Finland): http://www.lunette.fi/english_index.html

Sea Sponge Tampons:

Introductory article: http://www.allnaturalmamas.com/sea_sponge_tampons.asp

Sea Pearls™ (USA): http://www.jadeandpearl.com

Sorella Luna (USA): http://sorella-luna.com

Natural Bath and Body Shop (USA): http://www.naturalbathandbodyshop.com

Sea Pearls (UK): http://www.seapearls.co.uk/

Free bleeding discussions:

http://www.myvag.net/blood/free/

Free Bleeding Historical article:

http://www.mum.org/pastgerm.htm

Support/Discussion Sites:

http://community.livejournal.com/cloth_pads/

http://community.livejournal.com/menstrual_cups/

Disclaimer

Grandmother Spider's Blood Teaching

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The following is an excerpt from Amber's TMHP Blog:

My relationship with my moon time changed dramatically one day a few years ago. I was one of those people who came to expect terrible cramps as an inevitable part of the first day of my period, sometimes two days. Since I was trying to avoid taking synthetic pain medication, I would spend the day curled up in fetal position in bed if I could afford to, drinking herb tea and cuddling the hot water bottle. But more often I would have to brave the public world while enduring this constant, sharp, gnawing pain in my middle. It was beyond distracting, and once in a while I would have to stop everything, double over, and just breathe. It felt like the pain extended to my lower back and sometimes into my upper back and thighs or my whole body, like a dull ache that comes with the flu.

On this particular day, I was able to stay home, so I was anticipating another day of tossing and turning in bed, unable to get comfortable. It’s no fun, but it’s better than going out. Then sometime in the middle of the worst of it, I decided to stop fighting it; I committed myself to just lie there and feel it, all of it. I welcomed every ounce of my pain into my body, trying to see how fully conscious and aware I could remain. I imagined the line of all my women ancestors, all of their collective female wisdom flowing into and through me with this holy bleeding, and I formed my thoughts into the words, “Grandmother, I am here. Please lend me your teachings.” I lay there on my back, as still as I could, and received the pain. I let it become me.

A strange thing happened after a short time. I felt, or imagined I felt, a tickling sensation like something small crawling slowly up my ankle. In my mind’s eye I saw a black widow spider, though I knew this was highly unlikely. Still, the image was vivid and frightening. My resolve to lie still was severely tested as it made realistic progress up my leg. It seemed like hours that I lay there sweating, distracted from fully feeling my pain by this mirage of a deadly but beautiful creature crawling on my body. I figured whatever happened, it must be part of the teaching, and so I must endure it. I breathed and opened my heart the best I could manage. Welcome, I thought. Welcome.

Then suddenly it changed, like an eruption of honey-colored light flowing up and out from the core of my being, thick and sweet. I relaxed. My intellect was overpowered, and let go for once. The pain was gone, completely. So was the spider. After a while I got up: no pain, just the familiar watery feeling in my head and limbs, and the heavy gravitational pull of my belly to the earth. I enjoyed experiencing these feelings, as if for the first time, without the cramps. I decided to go to the Saturday Farmers’ Market later that afternoon. It felt otherworldly to be in public like this. I felt so intimate with whomever I interacted with. My emotions were right there at the surface, and I felt really present, really powerful. I chose to be there, and these were good people, so it worked. It was like standing in two worlds at once.

Since that day, I have not had cramps. This part of my cycle still feels really different, but I know what to expect, and I’ve learned to have different expectations of myself at this time. I am just not going to function like I would on any other day, so whatever I choose to do; I need to be aware of that. It’s still frustrating when I have to go to work and keep track of mundane details when my mind seems to be inhabiting an entirely different plane. I wish all women could have at least one day per month to allow their sacred inner space to take over. There are divine gifts flowing through us at this time, gifts for the whole of humanity, and we need to be present to receive them.

Disclaimer

If You Feel Moved To Donate:

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We hope to provide a credit card option soon, so keep checking back. For now, donations can be made by check or money order, made out to "The Moon Hut Project," and mailed to:

New Address!!!

The Moon Hut Project

P.O. Box 11153

Eugene, OR 97440

We are currently seeking an existing nonprofit organization to act as our "umbrella" or fiscal sponsor until we finalize our own 501(c)(3) tax exempt status. The umbrella group would take a small percentage of all donations in order to guarantee that they are tax deductible. Check back here or email us for more information.

Thank you for your generous support!

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Contact Us

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Thank you for visiting this site!

If you'd like, you can send us your comments in the Contact Form below (keep scrolling down).

If the Contact Form is temporarily out of order, please send email to themoonhutproject(at)gmail(dot)com.

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Or send snail mail to our NEW ADDRESS:

The Moon Hut Project

P.O. Box 11153, Eugene

Oregon 97401

If you have found anything here to be helpful or of interest, please pass it on to a friend. One woman at a time we will change the world for the better.

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