Auntie Moon

How might your life have been different, if, deep within, you carried an image of the Great Mother? And, when things seemed very, very bad, you could imagine that you were sitting in the lap of the Goddess, held tightly…embraced at last. And, that you could hear Her saying to you, “I love you…I love you and I need you to bring forth yourself.”

And, if, in that image you could see the Great Mother looking to Her daughters, looking to each woman to reveal, in her own life, the beauty, strength, and wisdom of the Mother.

How might your life be different?

from A Circle of Stones by Judith Duerk

Every woman I’ve passed this book on to has passed it on to another woman, usually her best friend. Judith Duerk’s words speak to my heart. I can easily imagine being embraced by the Great Mother. I know what it’s like to be taught that I have great value. The Great Mother doesn’t give us the paternal edict to go forth and multiply. She inspires us to bring forth ourselves, to become Vestal Virgins, so to speak, following our heart’s desire and being the person we were born to be.

I can’t think about a New Moon in Cancer without thinking of my own mother. I am one of the lucky ones. I had a loving, supportive, faith-filled, funny, and wise mother who told me I could do anything I wanted to do, be anything I wanted to be. (That’s her in the photo.) She was my best friend, a soul mate, and if there is indeed a karmic life to fulfill in the future, I would happily go through another lifetime with her. (To explain astrologically, I have a Cancer Sun, Moon in Taurus conjunct Jupiter on the 4th house cusp, the house of home, memory, mother. I call that the “soft place to fall” in my chart.)

The greatest advice she ever gave me both saved me and got me into a bit of trouble at times, but it’s great advice and I’d like to offer it to everyone.

If you don’t like the way they treat you, honey, get your purse and go home.

Well, I quit some jobs on the spur of the moment and ended some relationships perhaps too abruptly, but I always kept my self-esteem. Only when I didn’t take that advice did I find myself in unbearable situations without a reason to hold my head up. She was right, and so is the Great Mother. We must always bring forth ourselves.

But not all mothers are the same, and all relationships with our mothers are not so healthy and loving. It is possible to tap into that feeling by meditating on Judth Duerk’s words, and seeing ourselves embraced by the Great Mother, imagining how our life may have been different and then set out to bring forth ourselves ~ to be the person we were born to be, nurtured, loved, supported, with our heads held high and, sometimes, with our purses on our arms.