Honoring Our Mothers

Mother’s Day is a holiday celebrated world-wide, though on various different dates. It is a time to honor and show our love for our mother. But in truth, we all have many mothers.

We are all a compilation of the Mothers who came before us – our mother, our mother’s mother, and her mother and so on. It doesn’t matter whether you are a man or a woman, the Mothers who came before all had a hand in the making of who we are today. But a mother isn’t always someone who is related by blood but can be someone who nurtured you or had a great influence on your life. And thus, that woman’s mothers will also have become a part of you.

We possess all the knowledge of the women who helped shape us. This knowledge can manifest in our intuitions, our thoughts, our feelings, our dreams. It is part of our very essence and while it may be buried deep within our souls, we may access it through meditation and dream work.

Even the Goddess(es) who we revere are present in our being as well as the Goddess(es) of the women who came before. Brigid, the Earth Goddess or Morrighan, the Goddess of War from Celtic lore. Freya the Goddess of Abundance or Frigga the Goddess of Marriage of Norse origins. Or perhaps the Goddesses of your past are Venus, Isis, or Athena. We honor that connection, that remembrance, with an altar or shrine.  

While we all feel especially connected with a specific woman or deity, Gaia is the mother of all. We connect with her every day; with every drink of water, every bite of food we eat, and every breath we take. Our connection with Gaia is essential to a happy, healthy life. We need to feel her heartbeat, to connect with her life giving essence in order to feel complete and whole. 

Our mothers wanted us to be happy and healthy and to lead a life filled with laughter and love. And what better way to honor this than by loving ourselves. The love of self is not an ego-oriented love but one which connects us to the Divine. We should all embrace each phase of the journey of our womanhood, from Maiden to Mother to Crone. We all have a part to play in the creation of our world. We are needed to nurture and love and embrace those of the world who are in need. We need to pass on the knowledge and beliefs to the next generation lest it be forgotten.

A special ritual held at this time incorporates a white candle, an empty bowl and a handful (or two) of small stones or marbles. Light the candle while meditating on the divine feminine. As the candle burns, place a stone (or marble) into the bowl for each woman who has filled your life with knowledge, love, and laughter. While doing this, speak a short affirmation for each woman. Don’t forget to retain a stone for yourself. And speak an affirmation for yourself. Because we all are the embodiment of the Divine Feminine. We all have the wisdom, power and mystique of the Women and Goddesses of yore.

Originally published in The SundayStew