In this episode, I sit down with Alexandra Pope, co-author of Wild Power — a book that makes a bold and clear claim: the menstrual cycle process, when consciously engaged with, is a spiritual practice. The original spiritual practice.
Alexandra has spent decades working with the menstrual cycle as a psychological and spiritual force, and in this conversation, she shares the heart of what Wild Power is actually about — not as a concept, but as a living reality in the body.
We cover:
— What wild power actually is: the deep holy self, unencumbered by conditioning and society's expectations. Not something built or achieved — something uncovered. The menstrual cycle, consciously engaged, strips away what isn't true and returns us to what is. The work isn't to become something. It's to come home to what was always already there.
— The inner temple: Alexandra describes the premenstrual phase as a preparation for what opens at moontime, and the moment just before bleeding — what she calls the announcement — as the call to the temple. I share my own experience of this: hearing a trumpet on the ethers, feeling like a spaceship being pulled toward the void. The choice every cycle: surrender into it, or try to steer away. Steering away costs energy. It also creates pain.
— The void and the bleed: what menstruation actually opens into. Alexandra describes it as the most extraordinary place of love, bliss, union, and visioning — all of it given to us freely, simply through following the rhythm of the cycle. The spiritual practice most people spend a lifetime seeking is already encoded in the body. The only requirement is surrender.
— The collective dimension: what happens when women wake up to this — not just for themselves, but for the world. The menstrual cycle, consciously lived, is a restoration of something collective. A channel for love. A political act. When a woman becomes conscious of her cycle, it doesn't stop at her — it ripples outward through her relationships, her family, her entire life.
— Where to begin: Alexandra's answer is simple and complete. What day of your cycle are you on? What do you notice? That's enough. The act of paying attention to your cycle is an act of love, and it's where everything begins.
This is a conversation about the extraordinary intelligence already living inside every woman's body — and what becomes possible when we stop fighting it and start listening.
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Melanie Swan is a Trauma Resolution Specialist, Womb Medicine Woman, Perimenopause Guide, and host of The Sacred Womb Podcast.
With over 24 years of clinical and metaphysical experience, she supports women to resolve repeating patterns at the root, heal the womb, and navigate perimenopause as a profound initiation into their true nature.
She leads the Womb Medicine Woman Training® and is currently writing her first book, Sacred Womb, Sovereign Woman.
The Sacred Womb Podcast is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.
