Holy Mother! Why Do We Still Divide One Mother From Another?
As another Mother’s Day passes, I am struck by the habitual rituals in place to celebrate this day.
As I enjoyed time with my own mother at Mother’s Day brunch along with my sisters, their spouses, and our children, I started to think about “how” we define a mother. Often at odds with my own mother, I wonder if it is time to redefine what it means to be a “mother”? Simply giving birth to children seems like one definition, but what about those who raise animals and mother them? Plants? Spouses? Siblings?… It seems to me we have missed the entire point of “mother”.
Traditionally, this biased day of celebration is offered to those who raise children, maybe a cry out from the past where mother after mother in history has been overlooked. When you look back in history, even back to the Bible, we see few references to “mother” as though we stopped acknowledging the magical force of “mother”. If we truly stopped to look beyond one day a year and explore the concept of mother in depth, what fear does this drum up?
What were, and are, Western cultures afraid of?
In India there are examples and celebrations of the Divine Feminine all over the country. In the Hindu religion, monuments and statues are raised in honour of the Divine Feminine. In Western culture we have Sunday brunch, flowers and Hallmark cards to honour this sacred energy. Why is this the case? No statues, just one day a year of paying homage to the women who have birthed children into the world. Yet being a mother is so so — so much more than that. I have birthed two beautiful children into the world, yet I would say what unites me with my fellow sisters has little do with this process.
On the morning of Mother’s Day, I went for a walk with my oldest daughter Shiah, we stopped to say Hi to our lovely neighbor Deb. She has watched my children grow over the last 8 years, noticing their height changes, watching out her front window as they walk to school, playing watchdog over the suspicious house across the street. Deb is very aware that my babies need to be protected. Deb has never had children of her own per say yet I would define Deb very much as a mother. Her Divine Feminine Energy glows out of her being, her kindness radiates, her love permeates and for all that she is, she is a Divine Mother. When I wished her a Happy Mother’s Day she looked at me as though she didn’t think this day applied to her. Yet, in my mind it absolutely does!
Over time, when we examined the repression against Divine Feminine Energy we made attempts to rectify our crude examples of motherhood and women by exalting a day to honour these women. As if by slapping some lipstick on one-day a year we can now say we are being honoured for our Divine Feminine! The soul knows we have only just begun the path back to the true place of honour. We, as women, should look at a day like Mother’s Day and ask if this is just page one of the journey back to seeing the Divine Feminine in each of our fellow sisters.
For years I have spoken about the concept of needing the village to raise children. It does in fact take a village to raise one; I was one of those children raised by a neighbourhood. Today we see hyper segments of labels that we choose to define who gets what title. Mother, father, daughter, sister, brother, and so on. Yet maybe there are two types of labels in the world: Divine Feminine and Divine Masculine. In every instance a human being carries both in equal measure, and yet one is over expressed at the compromise of the other. When it comes to raising our children, it is the force of these energies that ultimately define the expressions of each child.
My body was the carrier of my children, but I do not for one second believe I am the only affecting energy on how they develop their own sense of the world. My children will be raised by the village of both energies, often in conflict and often in discourse with each other until we can find the mutually beneficial compromise. Children need both energies coming from all angles at all times as examples of love. The way the girls’ dad loves them is different from my love, and how their grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, and neighbors love them, is also different.
All of it is the perfect storm of love.
The Debs of this world critically impact the world in which my children develop as human beings. Her Divine Feminine Energy contributes to their make-up, and without question Deb is in fact a mother. Yet our Western tradition excludes many women like her and my fellow sisters. So this is my grand conclusion on Mother’s day.
Mother’s day is a nod to our Feminine Energy, but it is still completely exclusionary and stifled, and unfortunately it offers another example of how you can only be a mother if it fits this defined criteria. How sad that we still buy into it, accepting such limited forms, a commercial validation to the magic of being a Divine Feminine Being.
Yes magic.
If you have not witnessed the magic of the Divine Feminine ask yourself one question: where do you think the world learned about love?
Mother’s Day is a day of uprising where we pause to see all of our fellow sisters (and brothers too) acknowledge our Divine Feminine Energy, yes even you Macho Dad.
For generations the celebration of mom has come into place, driven by the silent cries of many women who were seen in the background, creating love.
It is in the unseen that mothers all over the world have fuelled the spiritual existence for all of mankind since the dawn of time. Yet the Divine Masculine Energy has dominantly, and quite out of balance, been the most talked about. Perhaps, my fellow sisters knew that as long as we talked about this dominant masculine energy (and like all women the world over, just let “men” believe this was their idea) we could quietly go about our business fuelling the world with love. Perhaps that is part of her cleverness.
For all humans who live predominantly from their Feminine Energy, you are a mother. You are here to spread that veil of love over all those that have the extraordinary opportunity to cross your path. If you derive much of your joy from this Divine portion of your being then today I say, “Happy Mother’s Day.”
Please note: I will also say that despite defining this energy in gender types I do not believe gender has anything to do with Divine Energy, you are born with both and your soul will guide you to exercise one more dominantly over the other. So although I poke fun at our “male counterparts” I truly mean our Divine Masculine counterparts, which can be male or female. I know I live predominantly from my Feminine Energy although I display strong Masculine Energy at times as well.
For the “literal” mothers of the world, please be mindful that there is more than one type of mother, more than one vehicle to mother, more than one kind of “child” to raise.
Our contribution as Divine Feminine Energy is to raise the vibration of love. That is our calling and the true spirit of mother.
A Hallmark card or a designated day cannot define or validate the gift this energy provides for you. You are the guardian of love each and every day. We, as Divine Feminine Energy must unite each and every day around this common bond.
This is the true definition of Mother’s Day.
