Celebrating mothers and motherhood
Have you made the restaurant reservation? Did you buy the flowers? Was the card sent? Are you ready for Mother’s Day?
Our modern Mother’s Day is not considered a religious festival, but it should be. We all have a special bond with our mothers, even with those mothers who were somewhat less than perfect. We carry the genes of mother and father, but it was mother who carried us within her for nine months, and gave us milk, sustenance and love after we were born.
Motherhood has a long history. “Eve ... was the mother of all living” (Genesis 3:20). This mythic woman was not only pictured as physically the mother of the human race, she also opened the door of consciousness, human knowing, to set us on our human venture.
She follows in the path of the 40,000, give or take, years when women were the honoured matriarchs who nourished and ruled. Women were seen as the carriers of life. They brought forth children, they provided hearth and home, they cared for and ordered the community. They were not merely the power behind the throne, they were the throne.
That ended about 5,000 years ago when patriarchy descended, with devastating results for women. But even then the place and power of the feminine could not be ignored. The Bible has a whole gist of strong and independent women who survived and carried out their purpose in a society that had little place for women. There was Ruth who saw that the name and family survived after the men had died; Bathsheba, who got herself into a place of power worthy of her talents, Queen Vashti, who confronted the king by refusing to appear, likely very scantily glad, before the partying banqueters. She was followed by Esther, who saved the Kingdom through her influence on the king – “You have come to royal dignity for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14). This could go on and on. In the Second (New) Testament there was Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary of Magdala, a chief disciple; and again on and on.
Following Eve at the cosmic level we meet Wisdom, Sophia, the creative partner of Yahweh; the nearest the First (Old) Testament comes to a goddess. Then there is the cosmic woman of Revelation 12, “clothed with the sun, with the moon under feet, and on her head a crown of 12 stars,” the zodiac. She is the creative power of the universe birthing the fullness of humanity. She is a goddess in everything but name.
The Catholic Church has elevated motherhood to the highest level. On Nov. 1, 1950, Pope Pious the XII declared that the Virgin Mary “having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.” That makes Mary equal to the other members of the Trinity. I’m not qualified to comment on Catholic dogma, but it seems to me they need to elevate women on earth to the equality Mary has in heaven.
Religions other than the monotheisms evolved a multitude of feminine deities. Zeus ruled Olympus in his erratic and vindictive way. It took the female goddesses to smooth his rough edges. Athena was a many-sided goddess, but often a soul guide; the one who supported and guided Ulysses on his journey home after the Trojan War. She has a city named for her, Athens, and the Pantheon, its magnificent tribute to her. Athena was a virgin goddess, but then there was Aphrodite, goddess of love. If I were more familiar with the plethora of goddeses in other religions I could add many more.
Our mothers carry all the feminine energies of the universe. Where else would they find the strength to be a mother: through pregnant, newborn, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and carrying an enduring love until her dying day.
Tomorrow we celebrate our mothers and motherhood. They brought us into this world and gave us the gift of life. We need to return them to the honour and power they had in the early ages of humanity. Swallow your pride, men, and get with the tour. We are not dealing with “the little woman.” She embodies the power and glory of the universe. Dine well.