The World Mother
In some countries and by many people from the remotest times, the divine Mother-Principle has been especially recognized, adored, worshipped, and served. Human beings have taken their tragic problems and broken hearts to this Eternal Mother of all. Living as the never-failing Refuge, She is the embodiment of the Madonna-like maternal, brooding compassion. All the highest qualities, the protecting, conserving, guarding, and sheltering activities of the human mother are expressions in human life of God the Mother, or the Feminine Principle and Power in Deity. Mother concern, care and comforting when the child is in trouble, the mother watchfulness from the child's waking in the morning to its falling asleep in the evening, are seen as an expression in mankind of the very same loving care and concern of God as divine Mother. Thus, we say: "God is love" which, at a highly exalted level, includes mother love as expressed by the mother of a human family.
I speak of the Reality of this Feminine Aspect of Deity as a living Presence, and tell of how "She," in all Her godlike perfection, becomes incarnate. Her compassion and healing love are ever available and outpoured to all who are in need.
The Madonna
In Christianity, this divine Personage is presented as the Madonna, Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and many beautiful titles have been bestowed upon Her. Christians refer to Her as the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Holy Lady Mary, Morning Star of Salvation, Consolatrix Aff1ictorum (Latin for Comforter of the Afflicted) and as the Star of the Sea. This last title clearly refers to Her in Her Cosmic Aspect; for She is the Cosmic Virgin Mare (Mare means sea in Latin, Romanian and Italian), the pure, virginal Sea of Space, which gives birth immaculately to universes, stars, suns and planets. Pictures and statues of Her standing upon the crescent moon refer to Her Cosmic Nature, the moon symbolizing partly the vault of the heavens and partly the Feminine Principle active in the Universe, in all Nature and in the human Race. By these beautiful titles and symbols, the mysterious and wonderful mother love is presented to our minds. Her love ever seeks to aid, protect and heal all the newly born and younger children of the world, active as well in the female animals, as in woman, whether married or unmarried.
While we Christians, especially in certain denominations, worship Our Lady and have beautiful statues of Her, it is important to realize that such forms are only aids to our imagination and our worship. It is well for those of us who belong to the Christian Faith also to remember other forms of the World Mother as revered in other Religions and to know that none of these concepts fully represent Her. The Mother of the World is a glorious Being Who holds all living creatures and human beings within Her heart of love.
The Many Faces of The Holy Mother
In Hinduism, the name for the World Mother is Jagat Ambe. From the Sanskrit language, it is derived from the roots Jagat, meaning “the World,” and Ambe, meaning “Mother.” She is also called Aditi, the Mother of the Gods. She was a sky goddess and it is said that she had twelve (Adityas) descendants corresponding to the months of the year. She is also Vishnu’s female counterpart and is said to nourish the earth, support the sky, and sustain all existence.
The Chaldeans knew Her as Ishtar, and Isis was a name for Her in Egypt. On the Temple wall at Edfu, South of Luxor in Egypt, there is a most beautiful "Madonna" stone-relief, of Isis, the Feminine Aspect of Deity depicted as nursing her divine child, Horus. Her worship was later introduced into Rome where it became popular among the Romans, particularly as in the Mysteries of Isis.
Pallas Athene was worshipped in Greece as a feminine Goddess of perfect Wisdom. She was the daughter of the Supreme Deity, Zeus, and regarded as the Preserver of the Athenian State, Protectress of Agriculture, Patroness of the Arts and, in addition, Virgin Divinity. To students of the Secret Wisdom of the Hebrews, the Kabbalah, the Feminine Aspect of Deity is Shekinah, Eternal Light. The Chinese Buddhists call her Kwan Yin and this ancient prayer cries out to her:
"Mother of Pity, hear my prayer,
That in the endless round of birth,
No more may break my heart on earth.
But, by the windless waters of the
Blest, weary of rest, that drifting,
Drifting, I abide not anywhere.
Yet, if by Karmic Law I must resume this
Mantle of the dust, grant me, I pray,
One dewdrop from Thy willow-spray and
In the double lotus keep my hidden heart asleep."
Thus, in other Faiths than our own, the World Mother is known by many different names. Indeed, Our Lady, embodiment as She is of the divine maternal love of God, shines within and through numberless forms in Nature and through the many religious symbols under which She is worshipped. The Mother of the World embodies and ensouls with Her divine grace and compassion all Her differing racial and religious appearances, each one being a beloved guise by which She is known by Her many worshippers.
It can now be understood that the World Mother, who is represented in these several ways cannot possibly be conceived of as belonging to any one Religion; for She is the Mother of all living beings, including the speechless creation, the animals and birds and all other children of Nature. St. Francis of Assisi knew of this intimate relationship between mankind and all sentient life, all sharing equally in the one divine Life of the Godhead. This is evidenced in his love and respect for his "sisters" and "brothers", as he addressed the animals and birds and even the element, "sister" water.
Human Representatives of The World Mother
Our next step in thought is that, in order to come ever closer to humanity, the World Mother requires human representatives on Earth who, each in their own way, feel deeply compassionate towards all in need. Such human agents can act as channels for Her healing energies. As such channels, we who are so moved can pray to the World Mother, invoke Her divine grace, and thereafter pour it forth upon the world.
At this point, it may well be asked "should we not pray for consolation and healing aid to the Lord Christ Who is the Savior, the Healer and the Comforter of the World, rather than to the World Mother?" The answer I suggest is that, of course we should pray to Him, for there is no division of Persons at these exalted levels of consciousness, all being as One and One as all in mystic unity. Just as in the earthly home, children turn to both parents, Father and Mother as so moved, so in the "home" of the world and the Universe, all may turn to both or either Our Lord Christ or Our Lady. The World Mother is, however, a Source of a special kind of healing and consolation, which is outpoured from Her for all in need, whether human, or subhuman.
We can become a positive and practical means of helping the Divine Mother to "Mother" Her world. Success in this task is based upon the power of thought, which can be used as a transmitter of spiritual light and blessing. For thought in humanity is a mighty force. It both shapes the character of the thinker and affects those who receive the thought stream. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he," says the Bible. "What a man thinks on, he becomes," says a Hindu Scripture. Therefore, by our prayers and our daily lives, we can actually both mold our own characters and serve as channels, for the Mother-Love of God, becoming human agents here on Earth for the Feminine Aspect of Deity.
The Pathway to Her Presence
From the Ancient Wisdom, preserved for us by the Sages and Saints of antiquity, we learn that the Representative of the Mother Aspect of God is a real Being, existing in the invisible worlds. Throughout the ages She has revealed Herself to men and women as the embodiment of divine compassion.
How may this contact be brought about for ourselves? How may we, men and women of today, belonging to any or to no religious group or Faith, come to know Her as a great Reality, a Comforter and a spiritual Refuge? Before advancing the following suggestions, I wish to make it clear that they are offered as being completely free from any sectarian or authoritarian restrictions and any possible suggestion of obedience to control in any way whatsoever.
We may come to know the Mother of the World as a great Reality by thinking continually of Her, by dedicating our lives to Her and by making our homes dedicated centers of Her compassion and Her peace. In these ways we can become channels for Her saving and healing aid, Her human agents in the physical world.
We can also increase this communion with Our Lady by carrying out a contemplative procedure, whether by ourselves alone, in a group or both. We can meditate on the ideas which I have offered, taking for this purpose, perhaps the quality of compassion, trying to understand this non-possessive, unselfish, sacrificial love for all human beings. Feeling it uplifting us, we can send from our hearts a great stream of love to the world and any individual in distress. We can also help ourselves more fully to know Her by meditating upon the World Mother and trying to act as a consoler in Her Name to all who are bereaved and in despair. Remaining in mental stillness, we may then concentrate in silence upon the World Mother as a divine Personage. Thereafter, we may pass from Her form Aspect into contemplation of the divine Idea and Essence of the Cosmic Mother of all as Principle and Power in the Universe. This is a deeply religious experience to which women, by their very nature, are perhaps especially open.
In these ways, we may legitimately apply these ideas to ourselves and our lives, realizing that as a sincere and understanding man can link himself with, and draw upon, the masculine, positive Aspect or Father power of the Godhead, so likewise a woman, with similar sincerity and understanding, is able to draw upon the Feminine Aspect and Mother power in God, also immanent within the Universe. At the same time, it remains within the power of both men and women with equal effectiveness to draw upon either the positive or the negative Aspect of Divinity. This is possible because the masculine and the feminine potencies are to be found in both male and female human beings. There can, therefore, be this twofold response from Deity. The positive, masculine power of God the Father, and the negative, feminine power of God the Mother, is at the atomic level of all the seven planes of Nature, including the physical.
How One May Become A Channel
Becoming conscious agents for healing energy requires complete brain-awareness and bodily self-control in order to invoke and direct the needed spiritual aid. Being an effective channel is a scientific procedure which demands full self-awareness in the devotee. First, there must be a fully self-conscious, self-identification with Our Lady or with the Lord Christ. Second, we should invoke spiritual grace and healing power, and third, we then send forth these influences through our hearts, either upon the world in general or for a specific case in our mind.
Concern for the sufferings and the welfare of others must be deeply felt and the deeper our feeling and the closer our sharing, the greater will be the effectiveness as helpers of mankind in the Name of the Consoler of the Afflicted, the Mother of the World.
This is not a difficult technique and does not involve a special effort. But it does need a constant remembering of the idea and a mental and verbal invocation in absolute faith based upon insight and assurance, that the invoked compassion and healing power of the World Mother will be bestowed whenever invoked. In this very special and powerful way, we can bring the healing grace of the Mother of the World to all who are in trouble, sorrow, need, sickness and despair.
As already suggested, such a human channel is not only important for the benefit bestowed upon others, but also because of effects produced by the passage through ourselves at all levels of the blessing of such a great Being. The result will surely be a rich and rewarding service to humanity and a gradual enrichment and beautification of the whole nature of those who serve. Increased self-sensitization to the divine life in all other beings and creatures and a communion with the divine life throughout the whole vast kingdom of Mother Nature Herself will be brought about by regular practice.
We may also share with Our Lady, not only the sorrows and tragedies of life, but also the joys and happiness as well, bringing Her intimately into our thoughts and feelings and the events of daily life. For just as She pours out upon and through us Her consoling and strengthening influence during sorrowful occasions, so may She rejoice with and through us in times of deep happiness and fulfillment.
Individuals who desire to offer daily prayers could, if they wish, use the following during their regular devotional or meditation periods
by Sandra Hodson
Personal Prayers
I invoke the benediction and healing power of the Lord Christ and His Ministering Angels upon all mankind, praying that human hearts may be filled with universal brotherly love and that peace may come to the world.
May Christ's healing Grace descend upon (state names of those needing help). I pray that all cruelty may be banished from the hearts, the minds and the lives of all human beings, to be replaced by compassion towards animals, birds, creatures and all sentient life, to children, the aged, people in institutions and prisons, and to all who have suffered.
I pray that divine love and compassion may fill the hearts of all the peoples on our earth, and that all mankind may increasingly become illumined by the interior light
I bow in homage and gratitude to the Lord Christ, the divine World Mother, and to the Angelic Hosts, and offer myself as their dedicated servant wherever I may be. Amen.
Links
Canticle of Brother Sun by St. Francis
The World Mother as Symbol and Fact by C. W. Leadbeater
The Spiritual Significance of Motherhood by Geoffrey Hodson
Behind the Madonna by Jeanine Miller
Mary, Mother of Resurrection by Thomas Haney
Eastern Images of the World Mother
Conception and Evolution of The Mother Goddess in India
Kwan Yin, The Compassionate Rebel
Artwork
Icons of the Mother of God by Fr. William McNichols
Nicholas Roerich Museum
Origin of Invocation
Quest Magazine, Sept./Oct. 2004
The Theosophist Magazine, June, 1976, pdf
(1933 - 2006)
