Mother: the universal divine feminine in all forms

"The Infinite is the Mother behind all human mothers."
- Paramahansa Yogananda

"Mother is Mother, to every soul in the Universe.  She doesn't belong to any religion."
- Sri Kaleshwar

my meditation and flowing feelings today have been deep in the Divine Mother -- She who embodies the dynamic creation principle in this world, serving as both fiercely loving Mother and the smoke & mirrors of Her maya, Her illusion veil as well.  

in the Vedic philosophy of India, it is Mother who is considered more powerful in this world than Her counterpart, Shiva (the god-the-father principle) -- in fact, the generic name often associated with Divine Mother is "Shakti," meaning "power."   She has the power to make and break the illusions of life and death, of suffering and hurt, of gain and loss... and She is the ultimate healer, the merging unity of all souls back into the divine light that is the source of each of our own individual sparks of consciousness in this planet. 

we see Divine Mother represented in many of the religious/spiritual paths on this planet -- sometimes by name, like Mary or Quan Yin, Kali or Shekinah, other times disguised as simply Nature, or Her formless form, the fiery light of creation. 

today, though, I'm remembering the powerful writings of a 14th Century English mystic, the little-known (alas!) St. Julian of Norwich, an incredibly profound, enlivened soul who had direct experiences with the divine -- in the forms of Jesus, his mother Mary, and more.   Julian's experiences also led her deeper into the mysteries of creation itself, and how the spiritual energy operates in this world. 

and those awarenesses, or revelations, were full of the light of Mother Divine.

you can find out more about Julian, and her luminous writings, here. 

in honor of mothers everywhere -- since all women embody the Divine Feminine -- I thought I'd share a few of the most inspiring excerpts from Julian of Norwich today:

Also, as truly as God is our Father, so as truly God is our Mother. And that he shows in all and namely in these sweet words, where he says,'I it am'. That is to say,'I it am, the might and goodness of Fatherhead; I it am, the wisdom and the kindness of Motherhood; I it am, the light and the grace, that is all blessed love; I it am, the Trinity; I it am, the Unity; I it am, the high sovereign goodness of all manner of things; I it am, that makes you to love; I it am, that makes you to long, the endless fullness of all true desires'.
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I understand three manners of beholding of Motherhead in God. The first is ground of our natural making. The second is taking of our nature, and there begins the Motherhead of grace. The third is Motherhead of working and therein is a spreading forth by the same grace of length and of breadth, of height and of deepness without end. And all is one love.
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The mother's service is nearest, readiest and surest. It is nearest, for it is natural, readiest, for it is most of love, and surest for it is of truth. This office might nor could anyone ever do to the full, but Christ Jesus, God and Man alone. We know well that all our mothers bear us with pain and for dying. But our true Mother Jesus, he alone bears us to joy and to bliss, and endless living, blessed must he be.

 Thus he sustains us within him in love. And travailed into the full time that he would suffer the sharpest throes and the most grievous pains that ever were or ever shall be, and died at the last and when he had done and so borne us to bliss, yet might not all this be enough to his marvellous love. And that showed he in these high overpassing words of love, 'If I might suffer more I would suffer more.'

He might no more die, but he would not cease working. Therefore then he needs must feed us, for the dear worthy love of Motherhead has made him debtor to us. The mother may give her child to suck her milk, but our precious Mother Jesus, he may feed us with himself, and does full courteously and full tenderly with the blessed sacrament of his body and blood that is precious food of very life. And with all the sweet sacraments he sustains us well mercifully and graciously. 

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The sweet gracious hands of our Mother are ready and diligent about us. For he in all this working uses the true office of a kind nurse, that has nothing else to do, but to attend about the salvation of her child. It is the office of our lord Jesus Christ to save us. It is his worship to do it, and it is his will, we know it. For he wills that we love him sweetly and trust in him meekly and strongly. And this he showed in these gracious words, I keep you most surely'. Furthermore a natural child despairs not of the mother's love, and naturally the child presumes not of itself, naturally the child loves the mother, each of them loves the other.

Happy Mother's Day, everyone -- Mothers and Fathers alike, animal mommies as well as human mommies, and of course, all you midwives of the divine light, everywhere, helping to birth the consciousness of the Divine Feminine again, into our world...!