Fear and Need in the Absence of Mother God, part 2 by Caryn MacGrandle

Yesterday’s part 1 post quoted from the book, The Malleus Maleficarum

The book wasn’t just a message for women but for all. The tenets that formed the backbone of colonial culture:

• Paddle your own canoe. 
• Success comes with hard individual effort when you stay within the lines that we draw. 
• And if you fail?  Well, that’s on you. 
• Maybe you will get another shot if you are lucky, work relentlessly and act as you should.
• And never ever forget that your worth is defined by the number of 0’s in your bank account.

Women, black and brown people succeeded in this culture by following white male culture.  Don’t say how much you enjoy being a mother or making brownies because that will make you appear weak in the Boardroom.  Don’t wear your tribal gear and play drums.  Successful businessmen play golf.  Tennis.  We network in fancy restaurants and try to blend in while quietly promoting our impressive credentials and making the right connections.  Make sure your teeth are white,  your shoes expensive and your lawns perfect.

Pat McCabe (Weyakpa Najin Win, Woman Stands Shining) is a Diné (Navajo) mother, grandmother, activist, artist, writer, ceremonial leader, and international speaker.  She speaks on the BBC Sound Witches series about the vision quests within her community where they received the message that the European Witch Hunts were a pivotal time in humankind where a definitive fork in the road was taken and how it is our task right now to heal this wound.

Pat speaks of how this wound festered not only in regards to feminine power but also in regards to what has become today marginalized races and cultures.  Not to take away from their achievements and often good intentions, but under the flag of ‘righteousness’, white colonial culture ran over not just gender but other indigenous cultures and races.

‘Indigenous’ at its root means that you have a strong connection to the Land that you live on.  Mother Earth.  And like a good Mother, indigenous tribes generally emphasize community, ritual and collaboration.

We most certainly do not want to turn the clock back thousands of years:  tsunamis, earthquakes, tornados, famine, plagues, viruses, broken bones and failing organs.  The Land and nature can be brutal, unforgiving and dangerous.  The human body:  frail and needy.  Science and industry has brought us the knowledge and know-how to make these times safer and with more opportunity than ever before.

But here’s the odd thing.  Most of us are running around as if we did not know this.

We’ve been watching for decades rising costs and more ‘basic expenses’ but not rising incomes.  It has become harder and harder to do better than your parents or grandparents. 

Addiction rates have skyrocketed.   The working class has revolted by turning to meth and cannabis in record numbers.  Retail stores and manual labor can’t find employees.   Violence and suicide even if not statistically rising are shown in detail all over the news and media and have resulted in increased isolation, fear and depression.

A higher percentage go about their days and their time only physically and socially interacting with the people in their household.

And more and more that means no one because they live alone.

Loneliness is at an all time high.

And even for those who figure out the financial piece of the puzzle, we see example after example that a full bank account does not equate to true success.   Robin Williams, Suicide Age 63.  Alexander McQueen high profile fashion designer, suicide Age 40.  Christopher Foster, a 50-year-old British businessman, murdered his wife and daughter before burning down his house and killing himself.  You can read about nine other businessmen who had it all financially but took their own life:  Ten Millionaire Businessmen Who Committed Suicide.

I believe we have come back to that juncture and fork in the road, and this time we are realizing the need for balance.  The feminine and the indigenous are coming back into the picture.

It is time, and we are at a place to ask ourselves the big questions:

·       Why do 22,000 children die every day due to poverty*?

·       If we can figure out how to get to the moon and how to operate on a human brain, why can we not figure out how to make sure every person has water, food and shelter?

·       Will we ever be able to figure out how to all get along?

Maybe we cannot figure out the answers to these ‘big questions’.  Maybe we need the contrast to continue to evolve as a species, but don’t we need, at the very least,  to be continually asking them?

At this juncture in our human evolution, haven’t we figured out these truths:

·       No person is an island. 

·       We do truly need each other and each other’s differences.

·       Every action has a reaction. 

·       The good we do comes back to us, and so does the bad.

This isn’t Pollyanna.  These tenets are scientifically proven.  Prayer works.  Loneliness kills.  Love saves.  Meaning gives us life.

We need the Mother.  We need the matriarchal influence . A good mother looks at all of her children (and we are ALL of her children) and sees their strengths and their weaknesses.  She allows them.  She sets boundaries and makes them ‘play nice’.

She provides things that are sorely needed in today’s world.

Such as:

• Community where we know each other’s stories not through a smartphone or a screen but sitting across from someone regularly and compassionately interacting with people we hold differing opinions from and may even dislike.
• Inspiration and meaning, getting this from others physically in our proximity by listening to their stories and interacting with them over time.
• More relevant and meaningful ritual where we move away from the materialistic aspects of popular holidays.
• Learning how to speak from the heart and authenticity, standing in our own truth and recognizing we each have our own truth.
• Embodiment where we balance mind, body and soul.  Taking back the Puritannical influence that a body is something to be overcome and suppressed and instead learning to embrace and celebrate this vehicle of Life that we have been given.
• Sensuality apart from sex and within sex
• Song and dance for all of us not just those who are perfect with it but because it feels good to sing and move your body.  Working on the ability to sing and dance in from of other actual people.
•  Feminine ways to handle trauma where we physically move it through our body not just talk about or medicate it.

Creation stories are important.  Christianity’s creation story is that a Woman was responsible for bringing all the pain and suffering in the world because she disobeyed.

We need a fresh perspective.

For almost a decade now, I have been meeting in Women’s Circles and Sacred Circles, and I have always said that they are apart from religion.  I have sat in Circle with Christians, with Agnostics, with Witches and Hindus, Sufis and Atheists.  Within all of these traditions, the Divine Feminine can be found.

This is Her time.  And she is needed for balance. 

 ‘To eat of the fruit of the tree was to become aware of life’s seasons – its trouble and beauty, its gift and challenge, its joy and sorrow, and to embrace it all as good.” Eve Our Mythic Mother, by Patricia Lynn Reilly