Creating Cultural Change

& Menopause Empowerment

ABOUT

OUR MISSION

The Moon Passage is a menopause wisdom movement, creating a cultural shift from viewing the transition of perimenopause & menopause as a loss of youth & relevance to knowing this passage as a potent opportunity for initiation into psychological & spiritual maturity.

OUR INSPIRATION

Over 1 billion people will be in menopause globally by 2025. This is a physical and psycho-spiritual stage poorly understood by western medicine. Many find a lack of information and guidance about how to manage symptoms, and that’s broadly what the menopausal information that does exist is about - symptom management. Even more importantly, there is little or no support for our shift in identity at midlife and understanding who we are becoming as we go through this passage.

We have often met this time with fear, anxiety, shame, and silence, knowing that our youth-obsessed, ageist western culture associates this time with a loss of fertility, desirability, and value. There is a need not only for information about menopause as well as community support to navigate this rite of passage, but also a shift in our cultural narrative to value wise eldership and the work & knowledge of older women.

OUR VISION

The Moon Passage has been created as a trusted portal for menopausal wisdom, with virtual workshops, retreats, online community, a knowledge archive, and more. This project is vital to help us navigate this journey, relocating ourselves archetypally, and finding ourselves more alive in our vision of ourselves and the world. Our goals are to improve mental & emotional health, increase subjective levels of empowerment, increase access to knowledge about physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual wellness, and increase social support, with a butterfly effect transformation on our cultural narrative of menopause, aging, and the value of feminine wisdom.

The work of changing our cultural narrative about menopause and aging is a vital and important feminist frontier.

-Kerry McKee, LCSW

Our Core Values

Wellbeing, Feminine Wisdom,
Community, and Inclusivity

wellbeing

We seek to create a new understanding of menopause, honoring this time as a vital, powerful, whole-being rite of passage into wisdom. We are creating a space prioritizing our full wellbeing - body, mind, heart, and spirit. We seek knowledge from many realms including western medicine, holistic health, psychology, spiritual traditions, ancestral wisdom, and world mythology. We nurture self-care rather than self-denial; a sacred pause rather than overwhelm; body celebration rather than body shaming; and vulnerability rather than perfection.

feminine wisdom

We honor the powerful wisdom the feminine holds, which frequently has been dismissed, denigrated, suppressed, or persecuted in our patriarchal culture. This includes: connection to the wisdom of our bodies; the wisdom of our emotions; the wisdom of the earth; spirit & soul; intuition; creativity; wise use of ritual; and empathy. We explore how to dismantle patriarchal values including endless productivity, stress as the norm, and need denial, and alchemize these into values that truly serve our families, our communities, and ourselves, at a time when the world is in desperate need of a rebalancing of the masculine and feminine, both inside our own psyches, and in our larger world.

community

We honor the experience many of us have of feeling alone and isolated in our menopause journey. We celebrate and create welcoming and supportive community nurturing cultural change and individual wellbeing. We seek to learn from and honor each other’s experiences. We value vulnerability and honesty, confidentiality and consent. We come together in wise council, as our ancestors from cultures around the world did, to support each other, to listen from the heart, and share from the heart. We seek to support each other in transforming competitiveness, silence, and self-reliance into collaboration, truth speaking, and creating safe spaces for seeking support.

inclusivity

We seek to create a welcoming and relevant community for all who have a menopausal transition, inclusive of all races, ethnicities, nationalities, gender identities, sexual orientations, economic class background, religions/spiritualities, body types, neurodiversities, and physical abilities. We strive to create a community that is anti-racist and anti-oppression. We recognize racial and class health disparities as some of the many ways in which people may experience menopause differently. We acknowledge the privileges some of us hold in a white supremacist and capitalist culture. We will always be learning, growing, and educating ourselves in a humble way to be more sensitive and responsive to justice and inclusion.

The Moon Passage is dedicated to inclusivity through actions including: valuing the wisdom of women of color (WOC) and queer, non-binary, and trans folks as guest speakers and writers; donating a portion of all profits to organizations benefiting WOC and LGBTQ+ communities; creating affinity groups for WOC and LGBTQ+ folks in our future online community; seeking feedback & implementing suggestions about how our programs can be more inclusive; and having relationships with social justice experts to address concerns arising in our programs.

our gratitude

We humbly honor that this project - The Moon Passage - is built on the shoulders and work of so many who came before. There was a wave of dialogue and books with a wisdom perspective on menopause in the 1990’s. I honor Bonnie Horrigan, Gail Sheehy, Susun Weed, and so many more courageous and wise women who saw the need to redefine menopause as an initiatory rite of passage. After the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study about hormone replacement therapy shut down in 2002 due to adverse results, it seems that there was a long winter of silence about menopause, in which women and the health professionals who supported them were lost and confused about how to proceed with speaking about menopause.

There is now a renaissance afoot in our conversation about menopause, and The Moon Passage is proud to be a leader in this movement. Women’s work has so often not been honored and recognized in our culture. We’re bringing our own unique experiences and perspectives to this project, but so many wise women’s work has influenced this. Thank you to all of our mentors, alive and in spirit, and all of our wise female ancestors. We walk in the footsteps of your legacy and seek to continue the passion and importance of your transformative work.