Honouring the Mother

Another year, another Mother’s Day in the UK and in a while I shall join our little band of one grandmother, two mothers, one daughter and offspring to honour the occasion by cooking and sharing a meal, a joint enterprise. The occasion will also honour Exalie and Janillia our ancestral mothers. They are always invited to share with us and be our guides in life.

There is also the primary parent, Mother Nature. Gaia or the Great Mother is a metaphor for the Earth. As the Dynamic Feminine, she is wild and creative, ever ready to shower love and affection on all those who cherish and nourish her. The inscrutable face of the Mother Goddess is humanised and made accessible through the more prevalent pattern of the personal mother. 

Regardless of what kind of mothering we experience in the external world, we can shape our own inner Mother Archetype giver of unconditional love and nurturing. She is patient, and kind. She protects and bestows health and wellbeing. She is the harvest and the warm hearth. 

           

In West African mythology Yemayá is the Yoruban Great Mother, Sovereign Queen of all the Orishas. Yemaya is invoked for blessings, compassion, wisdom, fertility, inspiration, female power, natural wealth, sustaining life, washing away sorrow, revealing mysteries, acquiring ancient wisdom, protecting the home, and comforting children in crisis.  Obatala, the Great Father Orisha and the seed of life, respects Yemaya and her powers for it is she who germinates his seed; without Yemaya Obatala’s seed would perish.

As always, in honouring the Divine Feminine, I turn to Ethan Walker’s anthology Soft Moon Shining - Devotional poetry for the Mother of the Universe ...an invitation to step into the heart of the Goddess. She is ready to shower Her love and affection on any who care to turn their gaze toward Her fiery heart.

Dance with me
   under the soft moon shining
   in the wide open fields
      far beyond the toil and trouble
      of my busy mind

Dance with me
   before the night grows old
      while the winds of love
      still bow the grasses
         and the coyotes cry for you
         to step their way

Dance with me my beloved
   while the Mystery's Edge
      still flirts in the shadow
      of your radiant light