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The Wise Wound: Menstruation and Everywoman
This is a book of many questions and some answers. What is this menstruation that half the world undergoes? Has it any use, or any purpose? Which is it, blessing or curse?
This groundbreaking study of the facts, fantasies, and taboos surrounding menstruation has helped bring about a profound shift in attitudes toward a natural phenomenon that has been reviled and denigrated over the centuries. Thoroughly researched yet highly readable, combining psychology, anthropology, and poetry, Shuttle and Redgrove illustrate their theories using examples ranging from the Bible to such modern-day pop horrors as vampire movies and the cult film The Exorcist.
This groundbreaking study of the facts, fantasies, and taboos surrounding menstruation has helped bring about a profound shift in attitudes toward a natural phenomenon that has been reviled and denigrated over the centuries. Thoroughly researched yet highly readable, combining psychology, anthropology, and poetry, Shuttle and Redgrove illustrate their theories using examples ranging from the Bible to such modern-day pop horrors as vampire movies and the cult film The Exorcist.
360 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1978
25 people are currently reading
747 people want to read
About the author
Penelope Shuttle
67 books11 followersPenelope Shuttle (b. 1947) has made her home in Cornwall since 1970 and the county's mercurial weather and rich history are continuing sources of inspiration. So too is the personal and artistic union Shuttle shared with her husband, the poet Peter Redgrove, until his untimely death in 2003. The fruitful nature of their relationship is celebrated in her poetry and in the work they accomplished together, most notably in the ground-breaking feminist studies on menstruation, The Wise Wound, and its sequel, Alchemy for Women. Recognition came quickly for Shuttle with an Eric Gregory Award in 1974 that acknowledged her poetry's visionary power. This quality is something she shares with the poets she read in translation, voices such as Rilke, Ahkmatova, and Lorca, whose early influence was far more profound than the pervading realism of the English poets of the period. Shuttle has also written five acclaimed novels as well as seven poetry collections, her Selected Poems (OUP, 1998) being a Poetry Book Society Recommendation.
Shuttle's poems are full of elemental imagery: water, earth and, in particular, lightening, as in her description of her marriage in 'The Weather House' with its "trembling galvanic rooms". Whilst her subject matter can be everyday - motherhood, depression, bereavement - she refuses to be bound by anecdote, drawing instead on myth and dream to transform reality: in her work "the ordinary seen as heavenly" ('Thief') becomes the norm. In keeping with her role as witness, Shuttle's language sometimes has a ceremonial quality about it, a setting aside of words from their everyday currency which is like the difference between a coin used to buy bread and a coin thrown into a well as an offering "Splashing down//for reverence, not luck" ('The Well at Mylor'). However, when dealing with the intimacies of family life, such as the shift of a daughter into womanhood ('Outgrown') or the process of grief, as in the moving sequence for her husband, 'Missing You', Shuttle can be painfully direct.
http://www.poetryarchive.org/poet/pen...
Shuttle's poems are full of elemental imagery: water, earth and, in particular, lightening, as in her description of her marriage in 'The Weather House' with its "trembling galvanic rooms". Whilst her subject matter can be everyday - motherhood, depression, bereavement - she refuses to be bound by anecdote, drawing instead on myth and dream to transform reality: in her work "the ordinary seen as heavenly" ('Thief') becomes the norm. In keeping with her role as witness, Shuttle's language sometimes has a ceremonial quality about it, a setting aside of words from their everyday currency which is like the difference between a coin used to buy bread and a coin thrown into a well as an offering "Splashing down//for reverence, not luck" ('The Well at Mylor'). However, when dealing with the intimacies of family life, such as the shift of a daughter into womanhood ('Outgrown') or the process of grief, as in the moving sequence for her husband, 'Missing You', Shuttle can be painfully direct.
http://www.poetryarchive.org/poet/pen...
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
September 2, 2011
The best book on menstruation ever.
January 6, 2009
I finished this book in cloudy sort of state of sickness, which was appropriate given that the last chapter of the afterward is instructions for a relaxation technique. It was comforting to read those words in my fuzzy mindset.
I've thought a lot about what I would say in my review of this book. I can't say that I did receive any sort of astounding epiphany or really any sort of new discovery in reading this; but then again, the science in this book are over thirty years old (at the least, not including the folkloric medicine).
Knowing that, I thought about the philosophy behind what the authors were trying to accomplish and I think that is where the essence is. It was marvelous to read a book that was unafraid of diving into the darkness when it comes to menstruation. It's something that society generally doesn't want to talk about. This book acknowledges that sentiment and simply asks why.
They address the bodily process itself and seek to find out why it is that we as a human society find something that is so natural to us so very disturbing. To society, menstrual blood is akin to excrement, yet society also finds it as one of the defining characteristics of femininity.
So to women, how does it feel to know that you are set apart because of your natural process and is it truly a curse?
I think at different times in our lives we find ourselves asking questions about who we really are, and at first it seems that we are defined by how we appear to others. Sort of like filling out the Name, Gender, Date of Birth, and Race questions on a standardized test. But in those seemingly simple questions like the biggest complications of all.
To grow up a woman in modern society is an extremely different experience than it was for our fore-mothers. Advanced science can tell us more about our bodies than ever before. Secrets that were once dark and forbidden have come to light as integral parts of ourselves and how our bodies behave and carry us through the world.
I think that this book is a step along the path that is leading to those dark things becoming light. Though the science isn't as new, the open-mindedness of the subject matter is very important to helping women to knowing themselves. I would recommend this book to women (and men) for that purpose.
I've thought a lot about what I would say in my review of this book. I can't say that I did receive any sort of astounding epiphany or really any sort of new discovery in reading this; but then again, the science in this book are over thirty years old (at the least, not including the folkloric medicine).
Knowing that, I thought about the philosophy behind what the authors were trying to accomplish and I think that is where the essence is. It was marvelous to read a book that was unafraid of diving into the darkness when it comes to menstruation. It's something that society generally doesn't want to talk about. This book acknowledges that sentiment and simply asks why.
They address the bodily process itself and seek to find out why it is that we as a human society find something that is so natural to us so very disturbing. To society, menstrual blood is akin to excrement, yet society also finds it as one of the defining characteristics of femininity.
So to women, how does it feel to know that you are set apart because of your natural process and is it truly a curse?
I think at different times in our lives we find ourselves asking questions about who we really are, and at first it seems that we are defined by how we appear to others. Sort of like filling out the Name, Gender, Date of Birth, and Race questions on a standardized test. But in those seemingly simple questions like the biggest complications of all.
To grow up a woman in modern society is an extremely different experience than it was for our fore-mothers. Advanced science can tell us more about our bodies than ever before. Secrets that were once dark and forbidden have come to light as integral parts of ourselves and how our bodies behave and carry us through the world.
I think that this book is a step along the path that is leading to those dark things becoming light. Though the science isn't as new, the open-mindedness of the subject matter is very important to helping women to knowing themselves. I would recommend this book to women (and men) for that purpose.
March 13, 2010
I'm not sure I'd say it was accessible. Maybe because the authors are poets. They use a very different word order pattern. It can be hard to get used to. But I have enjoyed the point of the book- that there are unexplored areas in menstrual knowledge both spiritual and physically that we would benefit from as individuals and as a society.
March 15, 2013
A little academic, but packed with insight
July 12, 2023
I’m not going to lie; at first, I didn’t really get this book. I was mired in thoughts of new age “hippies” expounding on the magical, mystical nature of the universe – comparing it to other “spiritual aliens are here to teach us” style of books. And then, on a second think, I realized that this book was written just about in the middle of Second-Wave Feminism, and it suddenly made so much sense to me and I really began to enjoy it.
Essentially, this book is about reclaiming menstruation as something that is a part of life, something that should be acknowledged, embraced, talked about, and perhaps even celebrated. As an amateur student of “deep time” history, I cannot deny that the very nature of menstruation could easily have given women a more unique, if not more intuitive and understanding, sense of the world around them. Being linked cyclically to not only other women in the tribe, clan, etc., but also to the Moon itself is a powerful thing that simply cannot be equaled in a man’s mind. The author continually reclaims menstruation as something special and magical, and perhaps even more influential than we think, and claps back against the male-dominated society of the time (which is still quite present, no matter what anyone will tell you).
The author also reclaims the idea of early Human history being very matriarchal, which, I’m sure back in the 1970s seemed the same as if the author claimed Humans society originated on Pluto. However, any real student of ancient history should readily embrace the concept today (I would hope).
If there is anything that I might disagree with the author about is that she claims Dracula, and Vampires in general, are steeped in the male fear of menstruation. And, while I can see where she is coming from, with the blood, and some of Dracula’s more…effeminate…qualities, I think the currently embraced Western European/American Vampire has more to do with the Othering of Slavic people; however, I won’t dismiss her claims as without merit, as I’m sure there are elements of what she proposes in there. Also, the author contributes much of the story of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” to his, perhaps strained, relationship with his spouse and his fear of her menstruation…however, I think some of Stoker’s distance from his wife had more to do with his close relationship with Oscar Wilde (if you know, you know).
It was an interesting read; however, I think you need to be of a certain mindset to truly appreciate it.
Essentially, this book is about reclaiming menstruation as something that is a part of life, something that should be acknowledged, embraced, talked about, and perhaps even celebrated. As an amateur student of “deep time” history, I cannot deny that the very nature of menstruation could easily have given women a more unique, if not more intuitive and understanding, sense of the world around them. Being linked cyclically to not only other women in the tribe, clan, etc., but also to the Moon itself is a powerful thing that simply cannot be equaled in a man’s mind. The author continually reclaims menstruation as something special and magical, and perhaps even more influential than we think, and claps back against the male-dominated society of the time (which is still quite present, no matter what anyone will tell you).
The author also reclaims the idea of early Human history being very matriarchal, which, I’m sure back in the 1970s seemed the same as if the author claimed Humans society originated on Pluto. However, any real student of ancient history should readily embrace the concept today (I would hope).
If there is anything that I might disagree with the author about is that she claims Dracula, and Vampires in general, are steeped in the male fear of menstruation. And, while I can see where she is coming from, with the blood, and some of Dracula’s more…effeminate…qualities, I think the currently embraced Western European/American Vampire has more to do with the Othering of Slavic people; however, I won’t dismiss her claims as without merit, as I’m sure there are elements of what she proposes in there. Also, the author contributes much of the story of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” to his, perhaps strained, relationship with his spouse and his fear of her menstruation…however, I think some of Stoker’s distance from his wife had more to do with his close relationship with Oscar Wilde (if you know, you know).
It was an interesting read; however, I think you need to be of a certain mindset to truly appreciate it.
January 30, 2025
A hard read (style of writing) but the information is worth it for a much neglected subject. I think it is entirely possible that there is a negative feedback loop in society when it comes to the 'time of the month' causing all sorts of physical responses like period pain where they shouldn't exist. I would be surprised if there were many women who didn't feel 'unclean' due to how this natural process is perceived by society.
My husband read this at work and was ridiculed by the men (surprise, surprise) but not by the women (more surprise - although I know of some women who would turn their nose up at this book).
A must read for everyone.
My husband read this at work and was ridiculed by the men (surprise, surprise) but not by the women (more surprise - although I know of some women who would turn their nose up at this book).
A must read for everyone.
November 20, 2022
The Wise Wound, by Penelope Shuttle and Peter Redgrave
Published: Now.
This book is as bonkers as it is relevant. It delves deeply into how women’s menstrual cycles have been viewed throughout history, and the struggles that have arisen out of these limited views. Shuttle and Redgrave investigate Freudian and Jungian philosophies against women’s bodies, and explore how dreams, moon cycles, goddesses, and supernatural systems have an active role to play in how we understand ourselves. I was particularly drawn to this book, because it deals with menstrual distress and how women can come to detest their bodies. I loved how Shuttle and Redgrave encourage tuning back into our femininity to find peace during our cycles. Rather than focusing on the negatives, they discuss the positive attributes at this time of the month – enhanced levels of creativity, enhanced attunement with the natural world, etc. It is a very brave novel, and to be read with an open mind at all times.
Published: Now.
This book is as bonkers as it is relevant. It delves deeply into how women’s menstrual cycles have been viewed throughout history, and the struggles that have arisen out of these limited views. Shuttle and Redgrave investigate Freudian and Jungian philosophies against women’s bodies, and explore how dreams, moon cycles, goddesses, and supernatural systems have an active role to play in how we understand ourselves. I was particularly drawn to this book, because it deals with menstrual distress and how women can come to detest their bodies. I loved how Shuttle and Redgrave encourage tuning back into our femininity to find peace during our cycles. Rather than focusing on the negatives, they discuss the positive attributes at this time of the month – enhanced levels of creativity, enhanced attunement with the natural world, etc. It is a very brave novel, and to be read with an open mind at all times.
February 17, 2008
This is an older book but a really insightful one about how menstuation affects us & thoses around us on a physical, social & emotional level.
July 29, 2017
This was a really eye opening book. There's not much for fluff in it, and thus I found it to be a bit difficult to make through in some places. Written by Penelope Shuttle and Peter Redgrove, this book has a balance of analytical and personal anecdotes.
I found this book after spending weeks searching for a sort of medical or cultural or mythical book on menstruation and the pagan period rituals and having no luck, until I went to the witchcraft section at the University. How crazy is it that our (vagina owners) reproductive and powerful history is this difficult to find research on, and was most accessibly researched in books falling into the occult categor? This book is cited over and over and is one of the only readily available books of it's type.
Published in 1978 I believe this is one of the first books on the female body that is edible to the masses if they have the motivation to read it. There's lots of highlighting and underlining in my yellow paged blue linen copy. I'm hoping it was used in a women's studies class.
1 - The Science of Bleeding
2- The Menstrual Epidemic
3 - Animus Animal Anima
4 - Does the Moon Menstruate?
5 - Did The Ancients Have Wisdom?
6 - Witchcraft: Nine Million Menstrual Murders
7 - The Mirror of Dracula.
The first three chapters are largely scientific and a little difficult to read when curling up before bed, but the last four chapters flowed steadily enough and refer to the underlying narrative in The Exorcist, Dracula and other horror movies and also explore the cultural roots of menstruation around the world and from Ancient Greece to modern (as of 1978) day.
3.5 stars, because I loved the content, but found it too academic for everyday reading, so rounding up to four because it is very elaborate and opened the door for books like Cunt to be published.
I found this book after spending weeks searching for a sort of medical or cultural or mythical book on menstruation and the pagan period rituals and having no luck, until I went to the witchcraft section at the University. How crazy is it that our (vagina owners) reproductive and powerful history is this difficult to find research on, and was most accessibly researched in books falling into the occult categor? This book is cited over and over and is one of the only readily available books of it's type.
Published in 1978 I believe this is one of the first books on the female body that is edible to the masses if they have the motivation to read it. There's lots of highlighting and underlining in my yellow paged blue linen copy. I'm hoping it was used in a women's studies class.
1 - The Science of Bleeding
2- The Menstrual Epidemic
3 - Animus Animal Anima
4 - Does the Moon Menstruate?
5 - Did The Ancients Have Wisdom?
6 - Witchcraft: Nine Million Menstrual Murders
7 - The Mirror of Dracula.
The first three chapters are largely scientific and a little difficult to read when curling up before bed, but the last four chapters flowed steadily enough and refer to the underlying narrative in The Exorcist, Dracula and other horror movies and also explore the cultural roots of menstruation around the world and from Ancient Greece to modern (as of 1978) day.
3.5 stars, because I loved the content, but found it too academic for everyday reading, so rounding up to four because it is very elaborate and opened the door for books like Cunt to be published.
December 12, 2023
It was a difficult book to read and grasp but the foundation that I received from this book has been worth my struggle understanding what the authors wanted to share.
While I was reading this book, my relationship to my periods has changed drastically and the pain has become easier.
I also came to the conclusion that I wish for more and more women turn towards their menstruation and using the opportunities it gives to them for insights and self-awareness, and being more confident in themselves. This is the true power of women. (In contrast to women trying to be like men in this futile pursuit that is happening in the society right now).
I highly recommend this book to any woman who wants to feel comfortable being a woman.
While I was reading this book, my relationship to my periods has changed drastically and the pain has become easier.
I also came to the conclusion that I wish for more and more women turn towards their menstruation and using the opportunities it gives to them for insights and self-awareness, and being more confident in themselves. This is the true power of women. (In contrast to women trying to be like men in this futile pursuit that is happening in the society right now).
I highly recommend this book to any woman who wants to feel comfortable being a woman.
April 23, 2025
As a woman who is going through the marsh of menstruation, I found the first couple of chapters a little derogatory. I think this would be a great book for men to read in order to better understand women’s strides instead of me just to nod along to the pages. I liked the little notes of connecting the concept to aspects of myths and histories, but I don’t think the authors analyzed their findings in a satisfactory fashion.
March 8, 2025
This book is thorough, and I'm surprised it isn't more popular. Do you know how big an impact menstrual cycles have on you, the people around you and society in general? This book goes deep into that. I'm so glad I read it.
July 13, 2022
Complete review at https://precaria-tra-i-libri.blogspot...
April 19, 2010
As far as I know, this book is unique. I highly recommend this book for both men and women. Young woman would especially benefit from this book.
October 5, 2011
Very informative book on menstruation. Essential for those who worship the snatch.
April 9, 2012
Every male should read this book!
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews