Moon Woman initiation

When a first girl becomes a woman ceremony, it is a transition not only for herself but for her mother.  The new grandmother, if she is also a first girl, becomes one of the Moon Women in a secret ceremony performed at midnight.

Execution

The ceremony takes place after the candidate's first girl is a woman living in her own house, on a clear full moon night that is not also a Feast of First Blood. Spirit-talker prepares the same sleeping drink that she does on a feast night, serving it to everyone except the Moon Women and the candidate, who receive the usual drink.
When the moon is close to its highest point in the sky, Woman Woman enters the candidate's house and wakes her.  Without answering questions she brings her to the village fire pit where the rest of the Moon Women are gathered.  The party then walks to the moon peak, reciting in rounds the first two thirds of the creation story.
When they arrive, Woman Woman places in the candidate's hands the village's moon talisman.  She makes a cut in her own fingertip and touches the stone, leaving a drop of blood, and recites the first line of the third and final part of the creation story.  Another of the Moon Women also cuts her fingertip, marks the stone with her blood, and recites the next line.  Each Moon Woman does the same until all of them have placed their blood on the talisman that the candidate is still holding.
When the creation story is finished, Woman Woman gives a fresh pipe tree splinter to the candidate, who by now knows what to do.  After she has contributed her own blood, Woman Woman congratulates her on having brought another woman into the world. It is now her duty to help the other Moon Women protect the women and girls of the village from the curse, and to keep its origins and prevention secret.

Components and tools

This ceremony is the only time when the moon talisman may be handled by anyone other than Woman Woman.  Even so, it must pass from her hands into the candidate's and back, with each other Moon Woman touching it only the once to leave their blood on it.  After the ceremony Woman Woman washes it in the village stream and returns it to its place in her meeting house.

Related Organizations

• Moon Women

Related Ethnicities

• The Women

View from the future

The women exiled from the villages were not themselves Moon Women, and so had no knowledge of the ceremony.  Many of their other religious ceremonies fell out of use in only a few generations, and it's very likely they would have soon stopped practice of the initiation in any case.