Why a Mother Shrine?

When I tell people that I have a Mother Shrine at The Sacred Garden, sometimes they look at me like, “Why? What? A Mother Shrine?” So indoctrinated are we into the Heavenly Father concept that the concept of a Heavenly Mother image seems foreign or pagan or….weird. But let me tell you my why.

In the little picture, on my personal level,
Prior to my mom’s passing, she lost all ability to speak and write. While I cared for her I had to learn to listen to her beyond words. As she was in the process of dying and I was devastated at losing contact with her, I suddenly realized that there would be no difference. The way she and I had had to learn to communicate was the same way God communicates with us—through images, dreams, intuition, ideas, signs… Mom and I spent a full year prior to her death learning to communicate that way. She had been teaching me the language of God.

When my mom died I had a sense of her merging with God. God became very personal rather than bigger than life and I felt heard and loved in a way that I had not experienced before. I had a knowing of my prayers landing on ears that were listening.

On Mother’s Day, I wanted to honor her so I set up a Mother Shrine and pulled out all the images of God as Mother that I had in my home. Much to my surprise, I discovered I had quite a few. When Mother’s Day passed, I just didn’t want to disassemble the shrine, so I gave it a permanent home. Thus, The Mother Shrine at The Sacred Garden was born.

While that is how it started, I have since discovered the big picture level….
Our modern religions have focused on God in the form of the masculine, even to the point of denying any feminine aspect of God. Prayers are masculine both when referring to the Divine and the devotee. Women are denied priesthood in many religions, etc. So, for the female aspirant, this is problematic. If God is a male, and the predominant means of getting to God is delegated to males and all our prayers are in the masculine, it becomes very difficult for the girl/woman to feel like she is a part of this divine plan.

What I have discovered from praying in a Mother Shrine is a distinct difference that emerges than solely praying in a Father-based shrine and it stems from our cultural gender beliefs. While we think that we were made in the image and likeness of God, I tend to think that we have created our image of God in the likeness of us. In our society, the father is the protector, problem solver, provider and disciplinarian and the mother is the nurturer, caretaker, and healer. When we, as a society pray to a father image we tend to focus our prayers on asking for things (from the provider), asking for God to keep us safe (the protector), get us out of a mess we are in (the problem solver) and believe that God should be feared (the punisher). Somehow when we pray to a Father God, we ask for things to come to us from the outside in, like we might of our actual physical father.

When we pray to the mother image of God, there is a distinct difference, at least for me. I offer my gratitude for the love and nurturing that I am receiving and for the beauty that surrounds me. I do not ask for things, I ask for qualities—compassion, kindness, wisdom, love and strength. I don’t ask for things from the Mother, I ask to be like the Mother. I ask for compassion and gentleness with others and myself. I ask to embody the healing qualities of Tara, the compassion and caring of Quan Yin, the nurturing and amazing perseverance and strength of Mother Mary and Mary Magdalene, I ask for the ability to see abundance all around me from Lakshmi, I ask for the discernment, strength and loyalty of Kali and Durga who protect their loved ones with the fierceness of a mother lion. When I pray to a Mother God, I feel love. When I pray to a Mother God, I ask for things from the inside, out. Maybe this is just a “girl thing” but in any case, it is powerfully different for me.

One does not replace the other, nor is one better than the other. I just like being the child of both the masculine and the feminine and being included, as a female child, in the Holy arrangement.