An Article on Red Tent Ceremonies and Women's Sacred Rituals Using Menstrual Blood.

Is your blood capable of magic? By RED Magazine 
Story by: Claire Floody | Illustration by: Beenish Shahab

At the base of a giant tree where an altar sits in Uvita, Costa Rica, Clarity Barton buries her menstrual blood as an offering to the earth. It’s February 2016 and it’s the first time she’s ever participated in a red tent ceremony, but the impact is lasting.
“Everyone cried,” she says. “Everyone. It was one of the most grounding practices that I’ve ever experienced.”
Barton was travelling in Costa Rica with her sister for a festival when she discovered the red tent and the women leading the ritual.
Most people have heard of the red tent ceremony from the 1997 novel The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. The novel is a biblical retelling of The Rape of Dinah, but this time from Dinah’s perspective instead of her brothers’. In the story, women come together in a menstrual hut (also known as a red tent) and share secret stories, wisdom and initiations amongst themselves. (Click here to continue reading).