Breast Discharge

Your breast is giving off something that should not be given off — at least not now, not like this, not without context. Milky, clear or discoloured discharge from the nipple outside of pregnancy and breastfeeding is a symptom that frightens most women. Medicine looks for hormonal causes, tissue changes, medication side effects. And this evaluation is important.

But if you are willing to look deeper, this symptom tells another story. Your breast is the organ of nurturing. Biologically and symbolically it stands for the maternal principle: the ability to give life, to provide, to hold. When this ability finds no space, when nurturing is blocked, prevented or devalued, the body seeks an expression. It gives off what has no recipient. It weeps through an organ that would otherwise be there for nursing.