Reclaiming Our Inner Wisdom
Why Women Were Taught to Distrust Themselves — And How We Begin Remembering
This week we passed through another Friday the 13th.
For many people it’s a joke. A superstition.
A day associated with bad luck.
But historically, Friday the 13th was anything but unlucky.
The number thirteen reflects the thirteen lunar cycles of the year — thirteen times the moon waxes and wanes, mirroring the natural rhythms of the Earth and the feminine body.
Friday itself is named after the Norse goddess Freyja, associated with love, fertility, magic and sovereignty. In Roman traditions it was connected with Venus — the goddess of beauty, creativity and sensuality.
When you bring those two symbols together — the number thirteen and the day of the goddess — what emerges is something deeply connected to feminine wisdom.
A day aligned with the moon.
A day aligned with the body.
A day aligned with nature and the cycles of life.
So how did something once considered sacred become something we were taught to fear?
When Women Trusted Their Bodies
For thousands of years, before modern systems of control took hold, many cultures understood the rhythms of the feminine body as a reflection of the natural world.
The moon moved.
The tides moved.
The seasons moved.
And women moved with them.
Menstrual cycles were not hidden or shamed. In many communities, women gathered during this time. They rested, shared stories, listened to dreams and intuition. These moments were not seen as weakness, but as times of heightened awareness.
The body was understood as intelligent.
Intuition was respected.
Life was lived in rhythm with nature rather than in opposition to it.
But over time, something shifted.
When Wisdom Was Outsourced
As patriarchal systems rose — particularly through organised religion and later through industrial society — the relationship between women and their bodies began to change.
Cycles became inconvenient.
Intuition became unreliable.
Emotions became something to control.
And slowly a new message entered the culture.
Do not trust your body.
Do not trust your intuition.
Do not trust your knowing.
Instead, trust the authority outside of you.
Trust the system.
Trust the expert.
Trust the institution.
And generation after generation, this message became normalised.
Until many women began to believe that their inner voice was something fragile or unreliable — something that needed to be corrected or guided by someone else.
But something deeper remained underneath all of that conditioning.
The body never forgot.
Why So Many Women Feel Disconnected Today
One of the things I witness again and again in women’s circles is a deep longing for something that many cannot quite name.
Women say they feel disconnected.
Disconnected from their bodies.
Disconnected from nature.
Disconnected from themselves.
Many feel exhausted by a world that moves too fast, demands constant productivity, and leaves little space for reflection, rest or inner listening.
And yet, beneath that exhaustion, there is also something stirring.
A quiet remembering.
You see it in the growing interest in ritual.
In the pull toward nature.
In the longing for community and sisterhood.
Women everywhere are beginning to sense that something important has been missing.
The Return of Ritual
Ritual is returning.
Not because it is fashionable.
Not because it is something new.
But because ritual is one of the oldest ways humans have remembered their place within life.
Lighting a candle.
Walking beneath the moon.
Sitting in silence.
Gathering in circle.
Marking the turning of the seasons.
These simple acts reconnect us with something larger than ourselves.
They remind us that we are not separate from the Earth, but part of it.
But there is something important to remember here.
Ritual is not about copying someone else’s practice.
It is not about performing spirituality in the “right” way.
Ritual is simply presence.
A moment where we pause long enough to listen.
Stop Outsourcing Your Wisdom
In a world full of information, teachings and guidance, it is very easy to begin looking outside ourselves for answers.
What is the right ritual?
What is the right practice?
What is the right path?
And while learning from others can be beautiful and supportive, the deeper invitation is something else entirely.
It is the invitation to trust your own knowing.
To ask yourself:
What does my body need today?
What feels true for me?
What rhythm am I being called back into?
Your ritual may be lighting a candle.
It may be sitting quietly with a cup of tea.
It may be dancing in the kitchen.
It may be walking barefoot on the Earth.
It may be calling a friend and speaking honestly.
Ritual does not need to be complicated.
Often it is simply the act of pausing long enough to hear your own voice again.
Because the wisdom we are searching for has never truly been outside of us.
It has always been waiting within.
The Quiet Reclamation
Perhaps the real reclamation happening in our time is not dramatic or loud.
It is quiet.
It is the moment a woman listens to her intuition instead of dismissing it.
It is the moment she rests when her body asks her to rest.
It is the moment she gathers with other women and realises she is not alone.
It is the moment she remembers that her body, her emotions and her inner knowing are not weaknesses — they are guidance.
And perhaps that is what Friday the 13th reminds us.
Not superstition.
But remembrance.
A Space for Deeper Exploration
This is a conversation I have been feeling deeply called to explore right now.
The stories we inherited about who we are as women.
The places we were taught to disconnect from our bodies, our intuition and each other.
And how we begin finding our way home again.
Very soon I’ll be hosting a free webinar called:
Reclamation — The Wounds and The Way Home
A space where we’ll explore why so many women feel disconnected from their inner wisdom, and how we begin reclaiming our voice, our rhythm and our sense of belonging again.
If this speaks to you, I would love you to join us.
Because perhaps the greatest truth of all is this:
The wisdom we are searching for was never lost.
It has simply been waiting for us to remember.
Click Here to register your interest for RECLAMATION
And view this weeks AROUND THE KITCHEN TABLE here.
