Rematriation: Coming Home to Gaia
“Mother” – What does it mean?
For most of us the word evokes the image of a female parent—the one we love, the one we don’t, the one we wish we’d had. For others, the image of a divine female—Mother Mary, Kwan Yin, White Buffalo Woman, Saint Brighid—arises. Many think of “mother” as a fierce protector. Some see only the mother’s nurturing characteristics. Regardless of how we view it, motherhood is somehow sacred—indeed, the act in any species of carrying a fetus to term is a potentially life-threatening endeavor, and as such is revered.
Little girls in most cultures are trained from early childhood to nurture others. Many female children have experienced playing with a doll as substitute for a real baby, or if not a doll, then a beloved stuffed animal—or a real pet. Girls worldwide are expected to care for younger siblings as soon as they are big enough to hold a baby in their arms. Nor does this “feminine” trait exist only in females; many boys and men, though generally trained quite differently, are equally gentle and kind. Even many who never experienced the love of their biological mother have been fortunate in finding a mother figure—a grandparent, aunt, big sister, teacher—who filled this gap with love and care, enabling them to become nurturers themselves.
Today the world around us is filled with anger, hatred, distrust, violence, and fear—emotions specific to our culture’s patriarchal focus on power and greed, emotions antithetical to the energy of mothering. Yet we still retain the memory, no matter how dim, of motherly love on some level.
Where does this come from? How do we know? Is there a spark of the Divine Feminine—the Great Mother—alive in each of us? What if we applied this inner knowing to our world and the human and non-human beings with whom we share it? What might then be possible?
We will explore this question in the Winter 2022 issue of Four Winds Journal through a process we call Rematriation, reconnecting ourselves and each other with the energy of the Mother in all realms of existence. We look forward to sharing this journey with you.
Submissions Deadline: January 31, 2022
Please send your article, poems, or artwork to
Editors: Four Winds Journal
For Submission Guidelines please visit our website:
Winds of Change Press Submission Guidelines
https://orenda-arts.org/winds-of-change-press-submission-guidelines/