Earth Mother Goddess
When I was just beginning this round of wall hangings in 2008, a photo collage leaped out of a book and said “Make me, make your own version of me.”
In his photo collage “Totem Landscape, Rocky Shoreline and Reflection Turned 90 degrees, Manitoulin Island, Ontario” Courtney Milne took a scene of rocks and lake, copied it and put the two copies together to look like a natural totem pole. Wow! I began immediately to make my version, one of many versions of the Great Mother.
My mother in law, Blanche, died at the age of 101 when I was starting this Goddess, loved costume jewelry and left me her great collection. I wanted to honor her, so I put a lot of her jewelry around in this wall hanging. Here a sprig of gold flowers adorns the Goddess's neck giving her voice and a a turquoise earring appears to the right of her head. Once I had the idea of using jewelry I found the string of shells in the jewelry collection passed down by my mother. I thank the mothers for their help here.
This Great Mother's crown starts with an Inanna figure, carved from bone, one of many objects that wanted to come to make this goddess. Inanna is a Sumerian goddess who voluntarily went into the underworld, a dark place that can lead to inner knowing.
For the goddess's body I wanted to use boulders and earth elements, but as I worked the rocky shoulders on Milne’s totem pole turned into great breasts and shoulders.
With this shift, I could now no longer make correspondences using the photo's suggestions; I was on my own. A face lower down in the totum pole photo suggested a face in the goddess’s second chakra. What should it look like?
I found a shield with a polar bear that I’d made in Lynn Andrews' shaman school. To me polar bears are like lode stones or the North star. They help me get my emotional bearings and be content and centered within myself.
Immediately I could see a place for a lot of Blanche's jewelry. Two of her pins became the polar bear’s blue eyes, and a rhinestone necklace speaks to of the polar bear's watery world. The shells presented themselves for ear covers. I thought they would turn outward to help the bear hear but as with the goddess's eyes they wanted to turn inward for inner listening.
Below the bear a swag of pink embroidered flowers underline this chakra and outline the goddess ample hips that can sway and dance and carry children.
The Great Mother goddess lives within me and inspires life, adventure and wisdom in many ways. I encourage you to envision your own Great Mother Goddess because she has many strengths and many, many guises.
Still, I'm quite sure she wanted to be in relationship with her consort. When I began to make him, he came to be about Sky and Water. So this god and goddess interact to make a beautiful world. Below the Earth Mother Goddess is pictured with her consort, the Water and Sky God.
Like the photo my goddess started with the small black head and crown. Already under her spell, I gave my goddess cowrie shells for eyes. These have many meanings to ancient, native and Chinese people. Using them as eyes to me shows a way of looking inward, connecting with inward processes.
This goddess wanted many arms and so she got three pairs. She reaches up with black arms, people arms, out with her green plant like arms, and down with her brown animal colored arms, for we are all her children. These are enclosed in a circle, a feminine connection to the circle of life.
photo by Concepta MacNamara
My drawing made from Courtney Milnes' photo in Sacred Places page 18 East
Photo by Concepta MacNamera