The Archetype of The Mother Mary

The holiday season turns our attention to the birth of Jesus - a historical event that occurred in the middle east approximately 2000 years ago. The story of Christ’s birth evolved to be quite mythological - the stable, a manger, the animals, shepherds, the great star, singing angles, and the wise men. All the necessary ingredients of a typical Christmas pageant or nativity.

Miester Eckhart, the German priest that lived in the middle ages said, “what good is it if Christ was born a long time ago unless we continue to give birth to him in our own day and in our own culture.” I resonate with what Eckhart said. Christmas should be a celebration of the sacred that is being born among us NOW - not just a memorial to a past historical event. While remembering and honoring the ancient birth narratives might have value - let us follow Eckhart’s lead and use the Christmas story as a prototype of giving birth to the sacred in our own day and culture.

First, the Christ was born (not built). We are surrounded by technology, capitalism, and industry. We build our “Towers of Babel” which are proud monuments to ourselves. While it is truly amazing what we have accomplished as a species - the Mother Mary Archetype reminds us that the sacred comes to us in simple and organic ways - it is birthed.

Secondly, if the sacred has to be born - then it requires a womb. A womb is a dark place. This speaks of the darkness that we wrestle with in our own souls. The darkness holds the space for the growth of the scared within ourselves. The darkness of pain and suffering - of doubt and despair - of quiet, stillness, and loneness which all becomes the rich place for the sacred to be conceived and to grow within us. Wombs are also wet. Hildegard, the Christian mystic who lived in the middle ages, said that our important spiritual work is the process of keeping our heart’s moist. The Christ cannot be born without a dark, moist womb.

Thirdly, if it takes a womb, then the presence of the feminine is required. Our society has become overly patriarchal - aggression, a survival of the fittest attitude, all the pushing and shoving of one’s way up the ladder of success. The patriarchy of big government, big business, big religion is all around us. The sacred cannot be born in the midst of all the masculine energy that permeates the culture. The sacred is born out of the softness, the nurture, the kindness, the gentleness, the love, the care, the touch, and the simplicity of the sacred feminine.

I submit that the world is in desperate need of a revival of the sacred feminine. We would do ourselves well to shift some of our religious focus from the Holy Father to the Holy Mother. She has been ignored much too long. I assure you, there is nothing weak about the Holy Mother (giving birth is not a day on the golf course). 2000 years ago there was no room for the Holy Mother at the Inn. Today, we crowd her out of the planet with patriarchy, war, hunger, greed, division, destruction of the world’s natural resources, religious and political haughtiness - God help us! Together let us hold the space - a dark and moist womb to give birth to the Christ in own day and culture.