BEING MOTHER – nine gateways of Motherhood
Back in February of this year, I was asked to take apart in a collaboration between ‘The Institute of Miniature Arts‘ and ‘The Creative Mothers Project‘, both based in the North of England. The invitation was to respond to the broad topic of motherhood – whether that was aspects of pregnancy, mental health, cultural reflections; in any way we interpreted. Little did I know then that this exploration would be the catalyst to my deeper exploration with my connection with Nature and a deeper communion with Mother Earth. The more pieces I created the deeper I connected with my truth and the directives I would later follow from Mother Earth herself. These directives have now become the ‘Feminine Fundamental’ Pillars’ – the foundations upon which my work is based and inform me on a daily basis how to live in harmony with life itself.
This collection of pieces was an exploration of the archetype of ‘Mother’. The aim was to broaden the perspective outside the mainstream definition of Motherhood. The questions I asked myself was ‘Why was motherhood, back in the day, defined by academic men?’ and ‘How did Motherhood become relegated to one person, when in the past, it was what a whole village once would have done for one another?’ Women’s bodies have long been a battleground for men with power in our society. The notion of motherhood has been romanticised and domesticated and relegated to the back room. These pieces are a response in reclaiming the sanctity of ‘Being Mother.’
Loss of the identified self – who am I – In the west, it is not the norm for women to be taught about the intricate workings of their bodies. Motherhood is a rite of passage, a transition from ‘Maiden’ to ‘Mother’. It is a transition that once begun opens us to new ways of being. In the process, as we embrace or resist this transformation, we can lose our sense of identity due to the honoring nature of this ‘rite of passage’ being ignored by our societal understanding.
Nesting – a natural phenomenon – That darkness of the womb, a place of birthing life and ideas reconnects us to our primal nature. We often become disconnected due to disembodied thinking from living in the mind. Often, unless we are menstruating or giving birth, we pay little attention to the darkness and stillness of the womb space? It is a place of golden radiance, a place to nestle into and connect to our natural way of being. As we enter the gateway of Motherhood there is a natural nesting process that takes place as we prepare to birth our souls longing.
Flow with life-force
The primordial mother essence, the ocean, the sea. I asked the ocean ‘how have lost my way?’ She replied – ‘Emulate me my dear – I am the mother of your creative flow’. Hear me in the rocks as I crash upon them, see my still waters – feel my depth – you are as vast as the ocean. Inspired by indigenous cultural painting this mini creation symbolises the flow of all life. Everything comes from the principle of creation – the womb.
Message in a bottle -Viva la vulva – Free the vulva
There can be no denying that somewhere along our history there has been a discrediting of the feminine. For all too long, the sanctity of women has been misrepresented. Our bodies handed over to medical models and Our creative powers minimised. Massive mistrust of the womb power, the realm of Motherhood, was seen as something to be dominated and controlled. It is time for a full reclamation of our womanly arts, to feel what it is to take in life, to be connected to its primal forces.
The Cosmic Mother
Reclaiming our sensuality and creative womb energy helps us remember our full-body intelligence, our inner knowing. Our physical feminine parts are not outwardly visible like the visible parts of the male anatomy. They can be seen as a metaphor for the mystery of the feminine that can only be truly known by turning inwards and becoming tuned in and turned on by the subtleties that lie within the stillness of the form between our thighs. We become wounded when we have severance from Gaia, from the earth and its Creative Matrix energy.
There she lies. – The ‘Sacred Whore’ -the magic between our thighs.
Culturally we have lived with a deep level of shaming of the female body. No more so than that which pertains to our sensual and birthing capabilities. Words that were once used to hold ‘women’ in high esteem now turned against them; used to discredit their true nature and higher status and that which makes them whole. In ancient times the word whore, derived from all that was holy – a term translated as ‘she who makes thing whole’. It was assigned to the women who used their gifts to heal the ills of their towns and villages through the wisdom of their womb bodies.
Flow with life-force
The primordial mother essence, the ocean, the sea. I asked the ocean ‘how have lost my way?’ She replied – ‘Emulate me my dear – I am the mother of your creative flow’. Hear me in the rocks as I crash upon them, see my still waters – feel my depth – you are as vast as the ocean. Inspired by indigenous cultural painting this mini creation symbolises the flow of all life. Everything comes from the principle of creation – the womb.
Book of life and promise – Words of wisdom
Considered to be inherited by our mother’s blood, our ancestral coding is imprinted in our bodies like the words on ancient pages, passed down through the mother line. Our voices connected through lifetimes from womb to womb. We are the wisdom keepers of the earth. Our ‘Mother’ story is not just in the history of our bodies but in the ecological biology imprinted on the land. If we think of the land alone-it is fertile and rich and full of stories and minerals and recourses -it’s like the true abundance of the mother and it is not scarcity.
Up on a pedestal
Women have the ability to carry life the most sacred thing of all. Yet this ability has been demeaned and stripped of its reverence and become little more than a shadow of its magnificence. It is time for reclamation. It is time to bring back the sacredness of our ‘vul-vanic’ gateway. The womb is the gateway that if listened to we feel the pulse of the earth and it plugs us back into the forces of creation through the body. The vulva is a gateway between realms.
The whole of this exploration was a call to from the Great Mother to come home to my body – to come home to my truth and begin the journey of being in service to her calling.
With Love
Creatively Coco xxxx
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