Exploring Sexuality With Your Inner Maiden

As a Menstrual Cycle Awareness educator and Fembodiment™ Method facilitator, one of the things I love sharing about the most with women who want to feel more alive and in alignment with their cycle and their sexuality, is archetypal work in the Fembodiment™ Method, which we call your sexual shadows.

Archetypes and sexual shadows are an aspect of our psyches that have been developed over time. Think of them as characters in stories that have been passed down through generations in form of storytelling. When it comes to sexuality, words like slut, seductress, prude, or virgin will bring up images and/or characteristics that many other people, as well as you, will recognise. The reason why archetypes are a great tool to work with, is because they can help us to step into a character, exactly as if we were playing a part on stage. We get to ‘try them on’, play with their energy or even use them as tools for healing past wounds.

In Menstrual Cycle Awareness, there are four main archetypes that align with the four phases of the cycle. Working with them can help you to understand how your sexuality and sensuality evolve throughout your cycle, expand your concept of pleasure,and even remove taboos.

The Maiden/Follicular Phase

The first archetype in the cycle is The Maiden, which aligns with the Follicular Phase or Inner Spring. This is the time in your cycle when you’ve just finished bleeding and are heading towards ovulation.

The Maiden represents the first quarter of our lives, including our teenage years through to our mid/late twenties. This is an archetype associated with firsts - first love, job, holidays, break-ups etc. It’s a time in our lives when we’re typically unjaded, curious, experimental and ego driven.

This is a great archetype to work with if you’re wanting to bring in more playfulness to your pleasure practice, or the energy to try new things. It’s not about being perfect, but exploration. How does your Inner Maiden like to dress? What music do they like to listen to? Incorporating these elements into your pleasure time can help - maybe you want to wear more colourful underwear or make-up. You might choose to bring toys into the bedroom, ask your partner for something you’ve been a little shy about or experiment with bondage.

Because it’s all about firsts, The Maiden is confident. There’s literally nothing that can go wrong in their eyes, and this is a great character trait to try on if you’re worried about what others might think.

Something to ponder on… If you could do anything you wanted when it comes to pleasure - no matter how out there it might sound - what would it be? This is a great question to ask this most sex positive of archetypes.

Natalie Martin is an Author, Menstrual Cycle & Life Coach and recently she became a first-time mum to her beautiful son. She is also a Certified Level-1 Year-1 Fembodiment™ Method Facilitator and a guest blogger at The Fembodiment™ Institute.