ARCHETYPE
of
THE MOTHER
and
HER 3 FACES
of
THE MOTHER
and
HER 3 FACES
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At New Moon I am the Mother with her Child. My children are of all species and forms, as I bring them forth through my Creation. Do you remember when you were full with a new dream, laboring to bring it to life? A child, a song, a business, a book.... I was there with you then.
I teach you to observe the cycles and rhythms of your body, as they harmonize with those of Earth __which is my body. I am the Divine Mother, pregnant with the Holy things of life, conceived in every woman's womb. I am the Grandmother, bringing the wisdom of age, helping you accept changes when your moon-blood ceases, and your powers of nurture deepen to embrace life's moment.
At my moon-phase, the sun enfolds the moon in radiant daylight veils, while the night is pierced by stars in fecund darkness __where all New Life begins.
The Mother Archetype bears all others in her vast, prodigious lineage. Her body is the receptacle, the container for all vital energies in their emerging, growing forms. The Mother Archetype begins the cycle of our creative spiritual evolution, but she also reveals the mystery of our return and renewal through death.
Earth remains ever the prototypical Female, recreated in the fertility cycles and bodies of all women. The bond we inherit through our physical bodies to the earth connects us to all her creatures forever. Deep in our bones, we remember our sacred earthy origins.
Mother Earth represents the bounteous fertility and propagation of the planet we live on. In this painting, she is Gaia, goddess ever-birthing, ever giving and receiving life for the creatures living on, and in, her body. She is the beaarer of the world on which we live, and is, herself, within all of her creation. Her smile bestows warmth and sunshine, her tears bring refreshing rain, her eyes reflect the sparkling night skies. At her roots gather the creatures of plenty and persistence and prosperity; the rabbit and the turtle__legendary tortoise and hare__ guarding eggs that will hatch yet more abundance.
The stories about Mother Earth are found through out all her continents and on all the ocean's islands. The earth's waters are the source of all life herein. The oceans depths, the rivers lengths, and the glacial melted lakes perpstually spew forth Mother Earth's amniotic fluids, bearing ever-renewed life. Yet, she lives in great peril from the lowest of her creatures__ humankind__ the last to be created, and the least respectful of her great good bounty. Mother Earth needs our nurture now.
Invocation to Mother Earth:
Help me be grounded in your strength and enduring sensibility.
Let my body mirror the abundance of your generous gifts.
Let my roots reach into the depths of your nurturing,
all-knowing spirit. I pray to preserve and protect the earth.
The Divine Mother, with her child, stands for the ultimate bond between two souls: a merging of carnal with sacred energy to create new life through the mystical experiences of birthing and nourishing a relationship. A Divine Mother's love reaches far beyond the personal, to the profound, the all-embracing; beyond plain reality to inscrutable mystery. The nurturance of divine motherhood manifests as tough-love.
She represents the Virgin Mother__ the Madonna, Mary, of Christian legend, or the great Egyptian goddess, Isis, and their counterparts of other arcane myth. In this painting, she sits by the water, offering her nurturing bounty to the holy child in her arms. A Guardian-Angel Mother and her Angel Child stand beside her__ representatives of all generations in the never-ending lineage of our first ancestress. In the trees and on the water, representatives of mothers in Nature keep vigil at this serene nativity. The Divine Mother's halo radiates the rainbow__ a bridge between heaven and earth.
The Divine Mother is virgin, for she belongs to no man, but has conceived her child in sacred ritual ceremony__ whereby the babe symbolizes the union of love and peace ever-renewed through the womb of the goddess. She may be the legendary Mary Magdalen, who is said to have been consort to the avatar, Jesus, and bore his child secretly, after escaping to France for sanctuary. This child__ a girl__ is destined to carry forth the goddess lineage in the very shadow of patriarchy.
Invocation to the Divine Mother:
Help me demonstrate care-giving nurture to all of life. Let my
relationships with children__ and with the child in myself__ grow
in gentle appreciation for the wisdom of innocence. Help me curb
my own appetites, so that I may more generously nourish others.
I pray for fertile conception, robust pregnancy, facile birth,
and healthy progeny.
Grandmother guides our passage as she spins the yarns that give meaning to the confusing changes in our lives. Like a fairy godmother, she helps us look at life with a fresh eye__ through her clarified vision of hind-sight. She knows the secret to survival is to let go, let be, and move on.
In this painting, the Guardian Grandmother with angel wings serenades her creatures at the event of a holy and heavenly nativity. The animals have come to pay homage, as the infant goddess pays respect to them, in turn. The baby goddess inherits her beauty and wisdom from her holy feminine lineage, and Grandmother goddess imparts the stories that will guide her in her life's pursuits.
Perhaps this angelic and youthful Grandmother is especially meant to reveal how our ageless wisdom follows no set stereotype, fits no preconceived notions of "proper" appearance, style, background, or chronological age. We can each call forth Grandmother goddess from within ourselves at any stage of our life. Her good-humored wisdom always comforts, always assures, and always leads us home.
Grandmother is the Good Witch and the Fairy Godmother of all our childhood fantasy tales. She is the beatific one who bestows life-preserving magic to her progeny. It is her profound purpose to remind us that beauty never dies, but is re-cycled ever renewed, age upon age. Therefore, every death is the beginning of a new life.
Invocation to the Grandmother:
Help me to accept my aging body and the fact of death as an integral
part of life. Help me to believe that my experiences in life
give me knowledge of worth to pass on to others. I pray to accept
major life-passages gracefully.