Honoring Women
Good morning and Blessings to you all. Words from Maya Angelou:
“A Woman in harmony with her spirit is like a river flowing. She goes where she will without pretense and arrives at her destination prepared to be herself and only herself”
This month, to bring harmony and balance to our world- we are honoring women and specifically honoring mothers and The Mother. This is a tall order, but our hearts are connected to a larger network, so all is possible.
As a starting point, let’s start with The Divine Mother in the Universe as She births all of Creation. In the Ancient world, it was felt that The Mother as Divinity, was our source, THE Creator. She is and was the container for all possibilities; The Void that holds all potential. In most spiritual traditions, be they ones that flourish now or ones we are learning about from artifacts, there is a Divine Feminine Face or Aspect of Creator. She births forth the multiverse and therefore us. She was seen as the life-giving force, the nurturing One, the encourager, the sustainer, the wisdom keeper and the one to take us into Her arms when we leave this earthly life. I feel that many of these descriptions apply to our human earthly mothers as well.
There are so many names for The Mother that I will not speak them all, but they are up here on the altar. Later in our service, you will have the opportunity to connect to one or more of these. Perhaps you will be drawn to one for this whole year.
With Her name, take Her home with you, read about Her, write to Her, draw to Her, sing to Her, pray to Her, cry to Her, Love Her in your own earthly path. See what unfolds in your life doing this.
I need to say that at our deepest levels, there is BALANCE of the Mother-Father Creator, the Holy One. In the multiverse, for me…. there is not just the Divine Feminine aspect of Source- there is the balance of the Divine Feminine and the Divine Masculine in The All……or whatever you call this concept- that has a million names and no name.
One of the ways that The Divine Feminine aspect of Holy Source was seen by our ancestors was as our Earthly Mother. The Ancients connected the dots… as they observed Mother Earth birth and sustain all and saw women give birth and sustain humans. As above, so below. From a point on a circle or spiral as an innocent infant to another point on the circle or spiral as an elder wisdom keeper, the ancients honored and respected the role of womankind in the cycle of life, as they also worshiped and honored The Divine Mother in their spiritual lives.
As you might remember, for 7 years here at Interfaith, I was a part of a group of 6 women- including Sibyl, Karen, Deborah, Suzanna, Suniai and myself, who shared and celebrated the Divine Feminine. We called this group of women The Convocation of the Divine Feminine. This was done to celebrate not only the Holy Divine Feminine but also the Divine Feminine that resides within all of us. We did this to raise awareness and to establish balance. We shared the traditions and rituals of many spiritual paths and how they connected to the many aspects of the Divine Feminine or Holy Mother. The stages of maiden, mother, and wisdom keeper were celebrated in the ancient world with scores of goddesses across cultures around the world.
The ancients actually connected the dots between Divine Mother and earthly mothers and respected women for our multitude of roles. Somewhere around 5,000 years ago, things began to change. Our human relationship with the Earth and with Divine Mother became less and less connected, and the pendulum started to swing to the side of a less balanced and a more male dominated way of life. I feel that what we did as the Convocation of the Divine Feminine, was to walk our talk about this months’ direction….to honor women and mothers and make moves towards bringing balance to our modern world.
Some cultures and spiritual paths held onto a more equal pantheon of deities like Hinduism, Celtic religions, Native American tribes, and indigenous cultures across the globe. But, if you look deeply within the sacred paths of most religions, there is always a hidden pathway to the Divine Feminine. I mention this because when people respect and honor female deities and the Divine Feminine, they seem to respect and honor earthly females.
As an example of how the ancients honored and respected Divine Mother and the Divine Feminine that exists in earthly mothers and all of us, I want to talk a little about The Goddess, Danu.
Danu is the most ancient of all Celtic Deities. She is so ancient that she is both a Goddess and God and the all-encompassing Divine Source. Interesting, right? A balance within One.
She is experienced as the air we breathe, as the water that nourishes all of life, as the bounty and abundance of earth and as the cosmic ether energy of universal wisdom.
She is commonly considered the first Celtic Mother, the Divine Creator who birthed all things into being. Within her form as The Mother, she nurtures us to believe in ourselves and reminds us that we are aligned with infinite potential and possibility. As a Mother would, and as The Mother would, she reminds us that we are worthy and capable and to embrace our highest and best outcome.
As a mother would and as The Mother, she brings steadfast love and support. As a mother would and as The Mother would, she is motivating, encouraging and promotes the awareness that the power to achieve anything, resides within us. Doesn’t that sound like what a mother who believes in you would do and say?
Danu taught the Celts to honor and respect diversity within ourselves and within others and reminds us to honor each stage of our physical life. As a role model for the Celts, Danu taught women to be confidant and self-reliant and for men and women to honor and respect each other in the world.
Today I would like to honor the Cherokee people or as they called themselves TSALAGI people and their Hoops of Honor by sharing a little about their gender-equal society in the pre 1700s.
The TSALAGI determined their kin bonds through matrilineal clans and resided in households formed by extended matrilineages. Women owned the homes and farmlands and tended the crops. Men hunted and went to war.
The TSALAGI way of making decisions was to discuss an issue in a council with both women and men, for long periods of time. The government consisted of councils of women elected by the members of a clan and was presided over by a clan mother. The chief leaders were men that were elected by the women so branches of government in theory balanced each other. This model of equality was such an accepted way of life that in 1757 when a TSALAGI leader, Attakullakulla went to South Carolina to negotiate trade agreements, he was shocked to find that no women were present. He said, “Since the white man as well as the red man is born of a woman, why doesn’t the white man admit women to their council?” And FYI, it took until 1916 for a white woman to be elected to congress.
Men and women of the TSALAGI had roles that were balanced, and they respected each other’s part of the culture. The men knew that women were the source of life and provided a feeling of strength and consistency. There was a feeling of mutual respect between the men and women of the tribe.
TSALAGI women’s close association with nature, as mothers and producers, served as a basis of their power within the tribe, not as a basis of oppression. There was gender equality, not hierarchy.
In ancient times, the people on earth honored and respected Holy Mother, in whatever form She decided to take. In ancient times, the people on earth honored and respected Mother Earth- like the Celts and the TSALAGI, because they knew for their survival, this was needed. The ancients honored and respected the women on earth, as they knew mothers were the basis of our survival. They could see and feel the connection and connected the dots.
So.... what can each of us do to bring about more balance and to honor women and mothers? Each of us is an instrumental part in honoring women, honoring mothers, honoring mother earth, honoring Holy Mother. Every act to honor and respect each other can make a difference & bring about a glorious change.
I am a mother of two wonderful males, I am a grandmother of 2 sweet baby boys and 1 sweet baby girl, and I have a personal relationship with Divine Holy Mother, the aspect of Source that is nurturance, love, compassion, potential, creativity, wisdom and so much more. I am a mother and a grandmother, and I feel the responsibility to honor all women and mothers.
Words from Sister Joan Chittister, Benedictine Nun
The moment a woman comes home to herself,the moment she knows that she has become a person of influence,an artist of her life, a sculptor of her universe, a person with rights and responsibilities who is respected and recognized,the resurrection of the world begins.
I say, let the resurrection starts right here and right now!
To affect the energy on the earth, one of my prime directives as a Mother and a mother of men has always been to raise males that honor and respect all the aspects of a female, to have my sons go into the world with that outlook in everything they do. Everything. I am now a grandmother, and I will delight in seeing our grandson do the same thing.
Recently I read a quote from Ramana Maharaji who said,
“See everything as the Mother and you will know God. The way you go about your daily life may not change but you will see it all as a child sheltered in the loving arms of your Mother, who is all of creation! Then how could you not respect all of Womankind?”
There is a song- “Everything old is new again, in a new form, in a new way.” Let’s adopt the ancient’s wisdom. The ancients’ way of respecting Mother Earth and Earthly Mothers was tied to their respect and connection to Divine Holy Mother. They knew we are all one family that needs to respect and honor each other, with compassion, with love, with balance… to survive in a healthy way. See The Mother in all. Perhaps we can be the generation to restore honor and balance for all beings of creation. And this will be our reality.
Join me as we call to Holy Mother for Her assistance, in a chant that I wrote and taught you last month. “Ma- Amma- Ana” Feel Her embrace, feel Her Love, feel Her strength and Her encouragement to be the Love and Light we need in the world.
In closing, please consider these words from Raicho Hiratsuka From Women's Manifesto 1911 translated by Mayumi Od.
Women, please let your own sun,
your concentrated energy,
your own submerged authentic vital power
shine out from you.
We are no longer the moon,
Today we are truly the sun,
We will build shining golden cathedrals
at the top of crystal mountains,
East of the Land of the Rising Sun.
Women, when you paint your own portrait,
do not forget to put the golden dome at the top of your head.