Our Divine Mothers
by Rev. Cory Coberforward
Luke 13:34-35
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
Responsive Reading: Psalm 139:7-14
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
Read the written message below with music videos
God being described as Mother or Father is quite apt, as God is the source of all life, the Great Parent known by many names. And on a day like Mothers’ Day, we have the added opportunity to look to those mothers and motherly figures in our lives with a renewed sense of appreciation for the Divine Light that shines from their every wondrous detail. Our moms are our first and often best example of what and who God is: what the essence of Life is. Often overlooked because their prowess and support are as expansive as the earth, our mothers channel a grand power that makes that of warmongers pale in comparison, the power of the very connecting force of the cosmos, love itself, support, care, kindness, wisdom, and the eternity of life. Our moms express the greatest uses of the universe and the point of all life: to live in caring community, to learn, to grow together, to find peace, and to thrive in the light of love.
It's not as often as it should be that we take a moment to appreciate the mothers in our lives, let alone the Great Mother working through our moms and Mother Earth. And perhaps even more overlooked are the ones that have been surrogate mothers in our lives, that aunt, grandmother, sister, cousin, friend, colleague, even pet, who has shown us a kind ear, a supportive touch, wise counsel, and loving care. Let’s all just take an intentional moment to sit in gratitude of these motherly ones in our lives, knowing that their love, wisdom, and support carries us even today.
Mothers’ Day is one of those holidays that no one ever has a problem with, we all have some appreciation for how much we owe the mothers in our lives, whether biological or not. We know just a fraction of what they’ve done, and yet we already feel like we haven’t celebrated it enough! We can easily correlate this with our appreciation of God, as well.
If the mystics are right, then the force that our mothers are ultimately one with is the Infinite Divine Being we call God, the Creator. Underutilized, though, is the term “Divine Mother,” although this isn’t always the case across cultures and traditions, with some espousing the Great Mother. Even the Bible relates God to a mother in multiple places, as our reading today does.
What a lost opportunity! As our moms are typically the most stalwart example of what it means to always be there, to love unconditionally, to teach resolutely, and to set aside aspects of their own identities and lives for those of others. Christ was being quite radical in his open use of “my Father” to point to our Divine Parent, and this radical gesture was important in breaking down people’s limited view of how close and caring God is. Christ also said that God was “our Father,” and that we should become his children (speaking to the intentional aspect of falling into God’s peace and unity). The use of the term “Mother” for God similarly breaks down barriers, while also encouraging those of us identified as women to have a closer sense of how connected we are with God and what God is.
The mystic Emanuel Swedenborg also espoused how all feminine qualities come from God, just as all positive male qualities come from God as well. And in some places in his writings, he uses the female Latin term for Creator to describe God. What I find even more interesting is that in his visions of the afterlife, when one more masculine angel and one more female expressing angel become life partners, they are then called one angel, and often appear as such from a distance (as well as many other things, such as two children playing). Further, he writes that the whole of heaven, with all its aliens and varieties of community and life, appears to God as one grand angel. This means that the Creator sees their essence made manifest through the endless varieties of people and communities expressing love, wisdom, and uses. This further means that God sees God’s Self more clearly in heaven as the number of diverse heavenly beings continue to grow and through the unity of human expression.
Although these beautiful visions were filtered through the lens of Emanuel Swedenborg’s 18th-century European gaze and his intended audiences, we can already easily see the wide breadth of God expressing itself in everything good, through all gender expression. What’s amazing is that often the core teachings of our mothers connect back to this great openness, this great expression of the love of God. Our mothers typically teach us in myriad ways to be accepting, to be kind to all others, to be supportive, to share, to care for the underdog, to not take our own opinion or defensiveness too seriously. And they may go even further, telling us that all cultures and religions connect to the Divine Source in their own way, that we shouldn’t judge and condemn anyone, and also teaching us to love others.
Our Mother Earth is much like this as well, providing the openness of herself for all life to be born, flourish, and eventually move on. Like our mothers, she feeds us, clothes us, provides shelter. She teaches, disciplines, supports. These are the type of activities that us Swedenborgians often call uses. The term “use” from a Swedenborgian perspective, envelopes all the great activities of life, all the things that are supportive of love, being, joy, connectedness, peace, and wisdom. And thus, the term is most easily attributed to the things a mother often does and exemplifies.
Sometimes when we think of someone’s use our attention goes to their career and their outward impact on the world. But often the greatest uses take place in the home and in our own spirit. God’s work is on this personal level foremost, as God is in the business of bringing souls into peace, love, and harmony. This is also often something that falls on our mothers as well, striving to support our internal lives as well as their own, while also grappling with all the other demands of a modern household. This continues as we grow older, with our mothers often being an open ear and sounding board to our news and what we’re going through, and always being there to love us even when they are in the spirit realm. Like God they wish the best for us, and also like God, they can only do so much in the face of our needing to have it our way.
The number and breadth of things our mothers have done in support of us is beyond calculation, similar to God. In that vein, often our best course of celebration is just to bask in the openness of the love that has carried us to this moment. This involves no need for words or specific images, in fact these can’t really do it justice! Let’s each then take some time today to appreciate the loving silence of the motherly embrace that carries us along in every moment, expressed in the ground below our feet and the open hug of the air around us that sustains our lives.
This reflection just starts to scratch the surface of how our mothers shine the light of God. Today let’s celebrate them as we also seek to emulate more of their motherly natures. If we are mothers or have been a type of mother to someone, let’s celebrate ourselves as well and all the ways that God has flowed through our lives. The Divine Mother is at the core of each of our natures, whether we know it or not and whatever our words for God and faith. Let’s rest in Her eternal embrace within, coming to know that She is there no matter what may come, seeking to wipe away our tears, shield us from the storms, and empower us to grow further into Her likeness: wisdom, use, and love.
Happy Mothers’ Day,
Cory son of Blythe