Wisdom of the Mother

I feel I should try the best I can to define God. I still like to use the word even though these days it has a lot of baggage. When I first discovered that God was within I had no other word to give it. The next word that came to mind was friend. For it seemed to me that this new something in my world knew my innermost thoughts and feelings. I could ask it any question and I would receive an answer tailored just for me. The answer would come into my heart as a light filled picture that had the answer within it. The essence of that picture was alive, not like a photograph or painting, but alive with a living essence that filled up my entire being but in that filling created not a ripple of discomfort.

Some spiritual traditions would call these flashes of enlightenment. Not the actual diamond of enlightenment but the sparkles radiating from it. Flash or sparkle are good words for they do come and go very quickly.

These days I’m studying the tantric traditions of Kashmir Shaivism. I’m reading David Frawley, Sally Kempton and Swami Muktananda. They talk about Shiva and Shakti. Shiva being the formless aspect of God and Shakti being the active world of form. It’s as if God dances itself into being, into forms of wonderful variety and the dances are magnificent symphonies that move in an amazing variety of colors, shapes, and energies. If we could see them at inner levels we would be amazed at the light show. Fourth of July fireworks wouldn’t come close.

Someone once told me that the old Greek poet Hesiod had actually seen this display. In those days he couldn’t possibly tell anyone, so he put it into the Greek myths that have the gods and goddesses personifying these energies. These energies are in mother nature which includes our physical body and in our subtler being.

Thanks to Sally Kempton I have discovered a mentor. Sally introduced me to the Goddess Saraswati. She personifies the flow of language, insight, and sound. Right up my alley! Is she a real being? I don’t know. But I do feel her energies are real. God’s energies. God as a goddess, a feminine aspect designed to sculpt the primordial energies into beautiful forms. This is the mother aspect of God that sees my questions as a yearning to know the truth. I’m taken like a child sometimes, sat on her proverbial lap and her wisdom flows into my heart bringing amazing comfort and enlightenment. God as mother, as a sound that can go from a soothing lullaby to a symphony of roaring power and light.