As a baby Dianic, whenever our more senior circle members would speak fondly about rites that directly involved menstrual blood, I'd be wrinkling my nose at one of my peers as we would silently mouth, ew, ew, no, no, gross. We were body positive, we used menstrual cups, but as soon as ritual and menses were mentioned in the same sentence, all of the junior members punched out.
I've been thinking a lot about gender identity as I write my book because glamour is for everyone of all genders. If you are a human person, it's for you. It is a feminine arte which is why it's so often dismissed, but that only works in our favor.
So, there are supposed to be corresponding boy life phases so boys aren't left out. Buck, Father and Sage. But that always seems sort of dismissive to me somehow. Also, there's less blood involved which seems to water it down. Of course, this brings us to other issues like: what if you are a non-binary gender? What if you are an Outsider in some other way? You needed a hysterectomy at twenty, you had a baby at seventeen, you never had a baby at all, you never got married, you're celibate, whatever. Where does that leave you?
This all gets put into the blender of my brain during tax season where I am essentially chained to the copy machine in the copy room. It's hot, the phone never stops ringing, the work that I do requires an exacting level of detail, so basically several hours a day of shamanic contemplation.
Let's not even try to come up with cookie cutter words to universally title each phase as that leads to everyone dissecting the titles which misses the point of considering what each phase has to offer. Pick your own titles, you're captain of your ship, use what works for you. The ages are a guideline. I'm growing seedlings currently in Spare Oom and some aren't going to pop at all, some are very slowly popping, some are growing at a moderate speed and some are trying to pop out of their little pods all together because they are growing so fast. No one does anything at the same rate, it may take you longer or shorter to work it out in a phase and that's fine. Again, go at your own speed, you are the boss of you.
Phase One:
From age 0-25ish
Spiritual Objective:
Practical Objective:
Emotional Objective:
Phase 1: 0-25ish: Grow a Heart, Grow Sense
Phase 2: 25ish-45ish: Grow Roots, Blossom
Phase 3: 45ish-life end: Withering and dying (find a nicer way to put this)