The myth and story of Changing Woman is known and held dear by the indigenous peoples of the North American continent. She is called by many names: White Painted Woman, White Shell Woman, Corn Maiden, First Woman.

Her persona can be found woven in the archetypes of all earthly communities as the pre-eminent Mother, who sustains us through Earth’s bounty. She is the consummate representative of each woman’s connection to the Divine Feminine and to her unmistakable conceptive energy. These energies can be experienced in the mystery of birthing life, in the strength and power of renewal and the magical qualities of the continuation of all earthly cycles. According to the Dine (Navajo) Great Spirit guided Changing Woman to create the menarche ceremony for young women surrounding their first blood time.

The ceremony marked the passage of a maiden’s passage into womanhood and the claiming of her new status in the community and in her personal body lodge. In preparation for the rite of passage ceremony, each young girl was instructed in the mysteries of life, change, and the responsibilities of womanhood. The teachings were given by elder women of the clan in the ancient wisdoms, including healing, pharmacopeias, pageantry, cultivation of land, weaving, migration, birthing, art, etc. Not only was her passage one of honoring, she then had a valuable voice in her community.

The voice of the feminine has been silenced and forgotten far too long and in our current transformation as women on the planet, our voice can be remembered and used as a healing contribution for all.

Over time, She has been called by many names; Inana, Isis, Astarte, Asherh, Demeter, Aphrodite, and always she was known to be the creatrix and sustainer of life.

Changing Woman, whose name can be translated to mean “the woman who is transformed time and time again,” was chosen as the metaphor for the Changing Woman Sisterhood™. She symbolizes the ways in which a woman can catch the discarded threads of her inner knowing to re-weave them into the fabric of her deepened spirituality in all cycles of her life. Woman, with her heart as the central force, can reach back to traditions of ages past and reach forward to her legacy to restore the fibers of the generations into wholeness, interdependence and interconnectedness. These are the wisdoms only she has the power to Re-generate.