The Power of Blood

I woke up to a bright, beautiful, crisp morning today...and the telltale cramps that mean only one thing: yes, it's That Time Of Month.

There's a relief that comes when the time arrives because it means that the PMS of the preceeding week or so is over for a time. I actually am in very good spirits. But the process itself is...not empowering to me, though some women see it so. In fact, I have such bad cramps that all I want to do is lie on the couch with a heating pad on my belly and moan softly until my husband brings me bonbons and tea.

as for the blood itself...I know of women who collect it and even make drawings with it, which they display prominently about the house. Okay, this seems icky to me, but I can understand the impulse. There's power in blood. That's why men have been afraid of women for years untold: we bleed and bleed and don't die. It's like we have such a vast reservoir of this power that it must needs overflow once a month just to bring us into normal territory. And old women are even scarier. What's happening to that blood power once they stop bleeding? Is it just building up? Making them more and more powerful? Some ancient and/or indigenous cultures have thought so.

Power in blood. When I was a cutter, back in high school, I used to write in my journals in blood. I would draw pictures like a child fingerpainting. I would splatter it on the page with wild glee, just to see the shapes it made. You would not believe how much blood it takes actually to write in it: a lot more than you would imagine. But it never scared me. It felt powerful, taking this substance from my body and using it to create. It feels like the most basic tool of creation is your own blood: the first ink. The one that says "Pay attention to this; it's important." I suppose that's why, in demon lore, contracts with the devil or any powerful entity are always signed in blood.

I don;t do that now, but sometimes I think about it. You can;t very well write a blog in blood and a red font just isn;t the same. Although I suppose the colour is why red is a popular ink for grading papers and the like: it harks back to the primal power of writing in blood. It says, "Pay attention."

Red is for stop signs and ambulance lights. Red is for danger. Red is for labels that warn you of the possible contraindications of your medication.

Red is for lots of things, but mostly, red is for blood.

The Power of blood.