Patriarchy's disregard for women and our point of view has turned mothers into evil witches. What is repressed comes back to haunt us. Just look at all the fairy tales with evil step-mothers and fairies. By not honoring the life-giving gift of motherhood, patriarchy has turned mothers into witches and the world into a death culture. It's killing the Earth, our Mother. It dishonors the women who might become mothers. And most immediately, patriarchy's power-hungry minions are killing the mothers and children in Gaza and Ukraine, the Congo and Afghanistan.
Patriarchy doesn't honor motherhood. Mothers and our children are not valued and respected for themselves in our patriarchal culture. Somehow, children became the 'property' of fathers. Welfare moms get demonized and homeless children go hungry while we throw money at wealthy corporations.
As a mother and grandmother, the hypocrisy of 'celebrating' Mother's Day, especially in its American version of sending a card or flowers and going to a dinner once a year, is blinding. Because everyday should be Mother's day. Everyday should be about creativity and birthing new people, new ideas, new values. Everyday should be about LIFE.
That's what ancient cultures felt about the Earth and felt about the mothers of the tribe. They accepted her life-giving attributes, so they could also accept her death-dealing traits too. We wail about our misfortunes, blaming each other or god, because we don't really honor mothers, Life and the Mother of All, Earth. If we did, we'd understand that life is both good and hard, that if we are spirits having an human experience, we are here to learn all the lessons of life and death. Those 'pro-lifers' don't believe that we have souls, or they wouldn't be so concerned with the body that is being built to house that baby's soul.
So let's re-enchant the notion of Mother. Let's give her back her power, her potency and really honor her capacity for kindness and love. Perhaps we have to return to a child-like state of heart, one where wonder and delight live.
Watching my 10 month old granddaughter light up with delight and joy whenever her mother enters the room brings back memories of motherhood and the happy joy that my babies brought to my life. And then I think about my own mother and I can't remember if I lit up for her in the way my granddaughter does for my daughter-in-law. The way my kids did for me.
I'm sure I must have, because she was a good mom in most ways and as I grew older, I realized she was a 'cool' mom. It never entered my mind to want a different mother as I was growing up. I just didn't want to do things the way she did, and so, that turned into my negative mother complex. When I learned astrology I understood how differently we approached motherhood - she had an Aquarius Moon (rules, judgments, ideals) and I have a Cancer Moon (nurturing, cuddling, loving). So my reaction to her instructions on raising my kids was to ignore her and find my own way.
I know many people's experience of their mothers was much harsher, while a few had mothers they learned from. But on the whole, Americans seem to have low self-worth and that starts with Mom, who had low self-esteem from our cultural bias. She was never good enough, so how could she raise children who felt good enough. That seems to be the test as we transition out of patriarchy into a partnership society, where the feminine values of life will be the basis for civilization rather than the death, guilt and shame our Christian culture has shaped.
To make this change in consciousness, we have to open up to the knowledge that if there is a male God, there is certainly a female Goddess who is our Mother. This Goddess will give us back our respect for women and mothers, and give us the deep love we each deserve.
Here is a dream of the Goddess as Mother, a dream that asks the dreamer to accept deep love and mothering from her inner Goddess. When she accepts this nurturing, she is restored.
I am an infant, lying alone in the grass. A great Being picks me up. She is huge and black skinned. She has a beautiful face and large soft breasts. She has the kindest smile I have ever seen. She holds me and sits down on the great stone steps of an alabaster temple. She nurses me with the milk of human kindness. I grow into a woman. We are dressed in the most beautiful garments. I have on a rose colored robe and she has on a ultramarine robe with small silver stars on it. It is the entire universe.
Remember. Without her, you wouldn't even be here.
Everyday should be Mother's Day. Let's make it so.
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