Oh dear Astrid, I feel like lately I am following you around on posts. xoxoxox.
I wrote that chant. It is on my CD Daughter of the Earth that Sylvia Brallier so lovingly produced and helped me with when I had never sung into a mic. Chenoa and Kiva bravely sang along with full hearts when they were still children. I wonder always at the folk song changes we make to songs as they travel by word of mouth. I wrote it for Zoe, Jewell's daughter, over 11 years ago and it was red buds blossoming then though I love this change (LOL). Totally works doesn't it? It happened that her rite of passage ceremony actually happened on the day when all the red buds in our springtime had fallen in Massachusetts like a carpet onto the road I was on while driving to her ceremony.

Red buds blossoming
You are opening
Bleeding is flowering.
A new woman walks on the earth!
A new woman walks on the earth!
ALisa Starkweather

This rite of passage for young women is a topic so close to my heart and I've been involved in many different ceremonies. I suggest giving the gift of Hemitra Crecraft's DVD or kit, ( www.womanwisdom.com ) called from Girl to Woman or Coming of Age; From Bud to Flower Menarche.

Here are a few things for us to reflect and embellish.

The gift of a pair of red earrings that a woman wears while she is bleeding.

In Hawaii, the Lomi lomi practice had a dance/massage/ ceremony that would last hours/days in a massage that opened the teen (both genders) to one's maturing self.

In India I asked the woman about this and they told me that they do give a ceremony to the girl. The woman gather and bring her gifts and the men stay away. I asked then what happens as I was interested if the Red Tent Temple Movement would ever have roots in India. She said, "We never talk about it again our whole lives and it is hidden."
? now this makes you think huh.

Many times here in our communities there is an outdoor quest that involves the three stages of separation (while held closely by community who are guardians and often begins in a circle/ prayers, intentions, etc), ordeal (a challenge and that sometimes means being alone), and integration (the return and the new status a young person can now have). I don't recommend rites that still have parents treating their new adult like a child again. In this case the parents also need to update about who this young person is and that they be given wisely new responsibilities and abilities to make choices. Also if we are confused about sexuality, we need to clarify what threshold we are actually crossing them over.

My daughter had a three day rite of passage ceremony which was very involved. It was many things all combined as she was brought up in community since before birth.

I am returning from a long 10 day trip right now from Women in Power in the NW and meeting with a woman from Gather the Women in California so it is not my best day to write long things. I will return to this thread however. Sometimes after long trips I have the best times on my days off to finally see what we are dialoguing about in the collective.

On this journey in Washington/ Oregon one woman told me a story that she asked we share and that is her father actually laid a single rose on her bed and wrote a note that said, "I welcome our new woman in our home." (or as best as I can remember that line right now.) She said they didn't talk (she is a thirty something woman) but it meant a great deal to her. She asked that fathers know how much it means too to daughters to be recognized.