Mother Goddess

A sermon by the Rev. Daniel Charles Davis

Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Winston-Salem

May 8, 2005

Out of our mothers we emerge

Into the emergency that is our life

Our brief moment in time

Descending from the watery womb of eternity.

Out of our mothers we emerge

Lathered in blood and sweat

Gasping for our first breath

Crying out in defiance of death.

Out of our mothers we emerge.

Toddling out the kitchen door

As she prepares our oatmeal.

We squeal with delight attempting freedom.

Yet tempted to turn and return to safety.

Out of our mothers we emerge

With lessons of do’s and don’t’s

And all the wisdom and worries

That we accept or reject.

To our mothers we return.

Her voice sings when we talk to children.

She is snuggled in every hug we give

To our mothers we return

And then she passes away beyond our reach.

Her love is now ours to teach

Until we too cease to live

And merge with mother earth

Immersed in the waters of eternity.

In ancient Egypt Mother Isis

Floating on the Nile. She conceives her son.

The statues of him on her lap

Are models for the Madonna and child.

Elizabeth Schusler Fiorenza, a Roman Catholic theologian wrote: “The Goddess is the giver and nurturer of life, the dispenser of love and happiness . . . Being a woman, living in sisterhood under the aegis of the Goddess brings us in touch with the creative, healing, life-giving power at the heart of the world . . . The traditions about the Goddess and those of the New Testament are conflated in the Catholic community’s cult of Mary. The more tha Christian understanding of god was patriarchalized.—The more God became majestic ruler and stern judge, the more people turned to the cult of Mary.” [1]

In India, the river Ganges is named for the goddess Ganga, with her long flowing hair:

“As a goddess Ganga washes away the sins of those fortunate enough to have their ashes thrown into her holy waters. In a hymn to the Ganga . . . Shiva himself says, ‘Mountains of sins accumulated by the sinner . . . disappear at the mere touch of the sacred Ganga water.’” [2]

As Jesus was washed in the river Jordan, a dove descended from heaven and its voice was heard saying, “This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased.” [3] The text does not reveal the gender of the voice, and it has been assumed to be God the Father. But the dove is a feminine symbol. “Christians adopted the feminine dove as a symbol of the Holy Ghost, originally the goddess Sophia, representing God’s wisdom.” [4]

Water is a source of life. The Hindu goddess Lakshmi floats on a lotus flower. She is the creative force springing from the primeval ocean.

Chalchiuhtlicue – Aztec goddess who held dominion over all running water, including rain. Because of her dismay and anger over the wickedness of humanity, she sent a flood, tears of the goddess, to erase and cleanse the world of evil, but in her kindness, she provided a bridge of many hues (the rainbow) for the righteous. [5]

Tiamat -- Serpent goddess of the watery abyss. Sumerian creatress. Sumero-Babylonian goddess mother, from whose formless body the universe was born at creation. Personification of The Deep. Mother Sea. [6]

Motherhood is associated with water. Water is the source of life, creativity the ongoing process,

the continuing nurture of life. But the water is not always benevolent. The river often overflows.

The Mayan goddess sent a flood. The Hindu goddess Kali creates rivers of blood with her destructiveness. In the Bible God answers Job’s questions about why his life has been destroyed, describing the divine creative and destructive power:

Job38 :25 Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain,

    and a path for the thunderstorm,

  26 to water a land where no man lives,

    a desert with no one in it,

  27 to satisfy a desolate wasteland

    and make it sprout with grass?

  28 Does the rain have a father?

    Who fathers the drops of dew?

  29 From whose womb comes the ice?

    Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens

  30 when the waters become hard as stone,

    when the surface of the deep is frozen? [7]

Note the feminization of the divine in this passage about water. The holy is described as having a womb. God is described as father throughout the Bible. But in the only instance where the holy reproductive organs are specifically mentioned, it mentions a womb, a womb that pours forth water in its creative and destructive forms.

Motherhood is powerful. It has the power to create and destroy. This has been affirmed by prehistoric priestesses and argued by Sigmund Freud – and experienced in some degree by all of us.

Who we are today is in great part determined by our mother, even if all she gave us was her DNA. That ties us to our heritage, and before we were even ourselves we swam in the waters deep inside of her. She transferred her being to us. The water broke and we were pushed into the world.

All of us, male and female, carry the power of motherhood. All of us, parents and non-parents, carry the power of motherhood.

The power to nurture and destroy: These two powers seem like opposites, but actually they are both part of the process of creation.

Any mother can tell you that the life before motherhood was destroyed by bringing children into the world. The power of water to destroy and nurture is a good symbol for motherhood. The monthly lunar cycle controls the flow of the tides.

There are a lot of reasons that when researching this sermon I was drawn more than once to memories related to water. My own mother loved the water. My fondest memories of her were along the shores of Lake Huron. She and her best friend, Mrs. Appelgate, would lead us all in a rollicking game of catch. The water gave us freedom to dive for balls that would be impossible to catch. She was 35 when she had me – older than the other mothers. But she did not stay on the shore like them. She plunged into the waves with laughter. Overweight and awkward on land, in water she was transformed into an athlete, weightless and strong. Water was freedom.

Our family time was often spent traveling to water, with its regenerating power, whether it was the Big Lake, stretching to the horizon and its cold intensity, or the warmth of Lake May, one of the seven sister lakes, small inland lakes that were warmed by the sun. Water time was family time. But my favorite mother time was along the Oqueoc River. There was a waterfall about four feet high. My mom would sit in it and let the water rush over her, totally engulfed by the water. It seemed scary and magical until she showed me the secret. I had to trust her as she taught me how to do it. She said to lean back and the water will go over your head. There is plenty of air to breathe behind the waterfall, she said. If you leaned forward, the water will overwhelm you. But leaning back, you could be in a small world of your own. Looking up, you could see the sun sparkling through the rushing water.

Being washed in the Ocqueoc River did not wash away my sins. Nor did a dove descend from heaven. Nor did I hear the actual words “This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased,” but I felt that love. She taught my heart to fear, and then my fears were relieved. A worrier, she taught me the danger of water, then taught me the courage to enjoy it.

We live in a dangerous world. Part of motherhood is to protect children. But more important, children need to be empowered. Motherhood is an ancient and eternal source of power. Share the power and the world will be blessed.

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1. Fiorenza, Elizabeth Schussler, Feminist Spirituality, Catholic Identity and Catholic Vision. In Womanspirit Rising, Carol Christ and Judith Plaskow editors. Harper and Row, San Francisco 1979.

2. Vitsaxis, Vassilis, Hindu Epics, Myths and Legends in Popular Illustrations. Oxford University Press, Bombay 1977.

3. Revised Standard Version Matt 3:17.

4. Walker, Barbara, The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets. Harper San Francisco 1983.

5. http://www.mothergoddess.com/maya.htm

mailto:barb@mothergoddess.com PO Box 457 Aumsville, OR 97325

6. ibid

7. Job 38:25–30 New International Version, International Bible Society, Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984.