I thought it would be appropriate to post on the subject of the Great Mother on the day my firstborn son turned six years old. Motherhood encompasses pretty much my whole life right now and I have had to put much of everything else on hold for it. But it is the sacred journey that has been given to me at this moment and I would be doing neither my family nor the gods honor if I did not let it consume me fully.

 

But the ups and downs of motherhood are not (really) the purpose of this post....

 

The search for the Goddess is what first set me on the road of Witchcraft. I randomly picked up Phyllis Currott’s Book of Shadows from a bookstore shelf and it swallowed me whole. I saw in it a group of women who worshiped a sacred image of themselves. How a thirsted for that connection! The beauty of looking upwards and inwards and to see the sacred in my love, rage, fear, indignation and all the other mysteries that make me woman... What greatness! 

One night, I was fiddling with a blob of clay, trying to decide whether to continue on this path and take the great leap towards the Pagan community. So much was happening within me: the guilt of leaving Christianity behind, the fear of divine retribution, the uncertainty of what I would find once I wandered in unchartered territory... In frustration, I banged the clay on the table. When I picked it up and looked at it, I saw the shape of a woman, sitting on a stone, draped in a veil. There was no doubt then that I had to find Her.

 

What does that mean for someone who is weaving the Christian and Pagan paths? A priest once told me that if God is almighty and all encompassing, then s/he has to have all the attributes that we humans possess. I am a strong believer in myth as a portal to understanding. The best way I can understand the greatness of the Divine is through the myriad of shapes and symbols that make up its infinite faces. The Sacred Feminine is one such dimension. The Christian tradition has a number of Holy Women who embody different aspects of that Sacred Feminine: Mary Mother, Mary Magdalene, the myrrh bearers, the Matriarchs, the warrior women of the Torah, the first priestesses of the Christian tradition, like Thecla and Phoebe and the women mystics of the Middle Ages, like Hildegard, Julian and Claire of Asisi. The Christian tradition is rich of depictions of Holy Women who, to me, represent the many facets of the Sacred Feminine. These are stories of real women, women that I can relate to. It gives me a ‘tribe’ to refer to.

 

There are probably as many understanding of the Goddess as there are Christian Witches. Some look to Sophia, others to the Shekinah or the Virgin Mary as the embodiment of the Goddess. Some will look to Mother Earth or Gaia. I think we are as eclectic as most other Pagans in this regard. Some have a hard time integrating a Mother in the landscape where the Father is so prominent. I look to the myriad of faces that are offered to me within my tradition and in other traditions as well. I do believe in a limitless Divine and all the sacred expressions of Holy Women and their teachings connect me to the Sacred expression within myself, that cycle of the moon in my life, going smoothly from maiden to mother to crone. Christianity has done a lot to eradicate Her presence. Yet, She is still here. She always has been. She always will be.