Whether we are mother to a child or mother to a political or social cause, many of us are tapping into feminine energy that lends itself to the healing of the planet in one way or another.
The archetypal mother has the qualities, amongst many others, of gentleness, unconditional love, radiance, presence, and acceptance. How can we tap into this archetypal mother to find balance, our own voice, and unconditional love of ourselves and others? Most of us will fall out of balance if we forget to nurture and honor the inner mother. Some of us have allowed another voice, such as the “should voice,” the “keep up and compare voice,” or the “performing voice” to dominant our experience and block our internal loving mother.
Some ways we can access the mother are by getting quiet, paying attention to our feelings and bodies, honoring our own path in life, being intentional and deliberate about our time, and surrounding ourselves with supportive and inspirational people who support our inner mother. (These people may sometimes be men! Good news!)
Those of us who may have had absent, conditional, or unavailable mothers may look for images that embody the qualities of mother that we desire. We can then begin to recognize and internalize these qualities. Our Lady of Guadalupe resonates with me as a luminous example of the mother. We may look to Quan Yin (the bodhisattva of compassion), Mother Theresa, Jane Addams, Susan B. Anthony, Jackie Kennedy, Athena or Isis, or other archetypal mothers to seek and find the qualities we wish to embrace in ourselves.
