Fantasy Dictionary Definition: Streta

Streta (noun): STRAY-ta, in the specific sense: women's rites of passage; the blood-rites of women. Streta is the term for the main transitions and phases in women's lives: girl-childhood to maidenhood, maidenhood to motherhood/womanhood, and adult womanhood to cronehood. The term also applies to the smaller monthly cycles and passages of womanhood and, in a looser sense, to any experience that is linked to the emotional learning of womanhood, like the pain of loss in relationships, or the bitter-sweetness of watching children move out into their own independent lives.