Today is Mother’s Day.

It begins in innocence. Music is playing, the night smells of lilacs, she asks if he would like to come in for a minute, and he does, and little does she know what cataclysm awaits her inside: the loss of individuality as she joins the Holy Order of Maternity.

When you think of Mother’s Day in the U.S., you probably think of flowers, phone calls and crowded restaurants for brunch. But did you ever wonder how Mother’s Day is celebrated around the world?

Since there is a negative stereotype of how Islam views women, many people may not know that mothers specifically and parents in general are held in very high esteem in the faith.

Islam commands kindness, respect and obedience to parents and specifically emphasizes and gives preference to the mother.  Actually, Islam raises parents to a status greater than that found in any other religion or ideology.

Although Mother’s Day has been officially proclaimed a holiday since 1914 in the U.S., many countries around the world have been celebrating a day honoring mothers for centuries, with celebrations occurring as far back as ancient Greece and Egypt.

The motherhood festivities have historically been in spring, the season of fertility. In ancient Egypt, there were celebrations to honor Isis, the loving mother-goddess, who is often shown in Egyptian art with the baby Horus at her breast, much like Mary and Jesus in later Christian iconography.

All of our ancestors had mothers. We have evolved in an environment that included a mother or mother-substitute. We would never have survived without our connection with a nurturing-one during our times as helpless infants. It stands to reason that we are “built” in a way that reflects that evolutionary environment: We come into this world ready to want mother, to seek her, to recognize her, to deal with her.

The archetype of the great mother is more than simply a residue of our relationship with our own mother. Motherhood on our planet is as old as life. So the archetype holds in it all that experience, all those patterns of behavior, whether of the mother wolf with her cubs, or the eagle rearing its young.

Archetypes are universally understood patterns of behavior that transcend geography, ethnicity, or era.

The pervasive influence of the goddess in the earthly world does not only involve giving birth and tending to crops through the cycles of the seasons.

Mother is a symbol as much as a flesh and blood reality of this world. Everything is born from the creation of mother energy. Most people forget that tiny fact. The act of creation within and the birthing of that creation into physical reality is the event that literally creates a “mother”. A Mother just doesn’t happen. A Mother is created in the act of creation.

Mother energy is not just within our actual mothers. It exists within the earth, the tree and plant, the animals and insects, amphibians, birds and reptiles. It’s a transformational gift within female energy that nurtures Life as we know it.

In modern times, while we may not inhabit a society that weaves respect of feminine principles into the daily cloth of life and work, we instinctively are drawn to mother, to nature, to the feminine, to form and beauty, to symmetry and asymmetry, to sound and song. We are instinctively drawn to the feminine because the images and lore of the mother goddess represent an archetypal energy – an energy that resides in our collective subconscious.

All of life, while developing, is about creating and also destroying to make way for the new. Nurturing is not only about holding hands to “form” love, but also taking away matches from the reach of a seven-year old. Fire produces light and energy for reading and warmth, while it can burn and destroy to clean and enrich.

The Prime Creator or Original Spark of Creation is a feminine aspect. Therefore the Divine Mother is Supreme. She is beyond everything. Beyond the Beyond.

In India they say that there is nothing higher than worship of the Divine Mother. The great Saint Sri Aurobindo said that surrender to the Divine Mother is the final stage of perfection.

I am the Divine Mother. I am also Mother Mary, mother of Jesus son of GOD. I am the Mother of the Universe, the Nurturing aspect of the DIVINE. I am also Mother Earth and the Nurturing aspect of the World. I am the Goddess within and the forms of creating without. I am the Diva, the wise Grandmother, the Sophia — the woman of the world.

Although there is no single universal symbol for mother, the meaning of mother is absolutely universal.

This is largely due to the fact that we all have a mother and each of us has our own distinct idea of what mother means to us; each impression is more different than the next. Because of vastly varying perception of the mother concept – the symbols for her are endless.

As all of life is both energy and matter, the whole of the DIVINE (that which to some is called GOD, or any other name for the Highest aspect of Self, the Total Creator) is the combination of energy, that which is being created, and matter, the substance of life once created.

In the true sense, the All of Divinity is the combination of both energy-creating- female-Nurturing , and matter-created-male-Protecting. We admire Nurturing traits in males and Protecting traits in females because the goal is to become both Nurturing and Protecting. The All of Humanity, the universe and beyond, is without physical presence and can be any aspect of itself. Therefore, you are worshipping, talking or praying to an image that is everything.

In each of us there is a masculine side and a feminine side. The model of the universe in which a male God rules the cosmos serves to legitimize male control in social institutions. But we cannot merely reject the system that is not working. It must be replaced. Nor would it work to replace the system with the Matriarchy.  Historically, peace was produced when men and women ruled together as equals, worshipping the Divine Mother together. No one dominated anyone.

When the pilgrims came to America, they stopped celebrating “Mothering Day”, just as they stopped celebrating most holidays that they thought had become too secular.

Mother’s Day was reintroduced to America in 1870 by Julia Ward Howe, who wanted to set aside a day of protest after the Civil War, in which mothers could come together and protest their sons killing other mothers’ sons.

But the woman who really created Mother’s Day as we know it was Anna Jarvis. Her mother had held Mother’s Friendship Days to reunite families and neighbors separated during the war, and when she died, her daughter, Anna Jarvis, worked to proclaim an official Mother’s Day to honor her mother and celebrate peace.

But Mother’s Day became commercialized very quickly, especially in the floral industry, and Anna Jarvis was furious. She said, “What will you do to route charlatans, bandits, pirates, racketeers, kidnappers, and other termites that would undermine with their greed one of the finest, noblest, and truest movements and celebrations?” But flower sales and card sales continued to grow, and Anna Jarvis died in poverty and without any children of her own.

However, the re-emergence of the Mother Goddess is becoming the symbol and metaphor for this transformation of culture.’

When people surrender to the Divine Mother extraordinary changes take place. When you explore the Goddess energy, you truly value life!

The essence of the life force that cannot be controlled.

I testify that motherhood is a divinely designed role.  It is a great challenge, I know we will have to overcome many obstacles, but it is also a great blessing and service to our children.

I am grateful for my mother and her example to me, for teaching me how to make right choices.  I remember many years ago my mother teaching me about intuition, more importantly, mother’s intuition.  She taught me that as mothers we do have a special connection with our children-in knowing what they need and what is best for them.

There is no one perfect way to be a good mother.  Each situation is unique.  Each mother has different challenges, different skills and abilities, and certainly different children.  The choice is different and unique for each mother and each family…What matters is that a mother loves her children deeply and, in keeping with the devotion she has for God and her husband, prioritizes them above all else.

Although we as mothers were born to fulfill this duty, it does not mean we are always going to know what to do in every situation, or always make the right decisions, or have all the answers.  Sometimes we will make mistakes, our children will make mistakes.   But when we fall we get back up again and tell ourselves I will do better.  I will keep trying.

I know that if we follow the good examples of our mothers and if we live our lives in a way that will help the spirit to dwell with us always, our children will be greatly blessed.

The Lord did not graft into the natural branches, branches from a father tree, or a babysitter tree, or a government tree, he grafted unto them the branches of their mother tree that they may bring forth good fruit unto Him.

Happy Mother’s Day.

Live and Learn. We All Do.

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