Mother's Day

Back in the Middle Ages, life revolved around folk religion, devoted in most of Europe to the Mother Mary. The beliefs of common people gradually changed as literacy increased and they were able to read the Bible for themselves and make their own interpretations. The printing press was a cultural revolution which allowed all kinds of previously forbidden books to be mass produced. I think that era would have felt similar to the emergence of the internet, and the way that suddenly new ideas could spread. Then as now there were a lot of conspiracy theories driving folk mad. Fear of physical and spiritual attack increased the intensity of Marian worship among all classes. With the dissolution of the monasteries and the Catholic church losing influence, public shrines to Mary became increasingly popular in England. Some conflated all the Marys of the Bible into one "mother of all". Mary represented every woman, and everyone was a child of Mary. She is explicitly linked to Eve, but whereas the original mother was tempted into sin, Mary was steadfast, impervious to temptation. 

It was in the 3rd century that the title Theotokos "mother of god" was applied to Mary, lifted directly from the goddess Isis. The cult of Isis was so widespread that her temples could even be found in Britain. The early Christians believed Mary to have supernatural abilities, and she was treated more or less as a goddess. The Coptic Council of 325 CE presented Mary as the most holy woman to ever exist, spending her days praying and fasting, totally dedicated to spiritual life, just like a Medieval nun was supposed to be. When Christianity was first spreading across Europe, it was easy for the lower class to adopt Mary as a holy figure in the same way that they had worshipped goddesses before. Poor folk were going off pure vibes, they didn't have the luxury of education and theological enquiry. They liked the vibe of Theotokos, they understood the Queen of Heaven on face value. Since the 9th century, she was referred to as the Mediatrix or "intercessor", intimately connected to not just pregnancy and birth, but also death and the next life. 

Through devotion to Mary, women could become respected mystics and even Saints. The mystic woman was a vessel for God's power. The folk hero Robin Hood was an outlaw but also a devoted Christian who fights against the corruption of the Church officials, in favour of the Marian cult. Robin Hood and his merry men mirror Jesus and his disciples. The folk tales reveal a lot about belief in Mother Mary as a divine protectress. The stories also elevate the King above the Pope, which reflects the distrust in Church officials. The presence of Mother Mary in Robin Hood tales was slowly replaced with Maid Marian as Protestantism declared the Marian cult a heresy. Our Lady became disguised as the love interest in the story. Now she is the brave ally of Robin Hood, an accomplice, friend, and partner. 

The protestant version of Mary was a humble woman, mild mannered and selfless, who devoted her life to motherhood. Shrines to Mary were looted and destroyed. The most popular shrine, "Our Lady of Walsingham," was renamed "The Witch of Walsingham". Thomas Cromwell's commissioner, Dr London, reported:  "I have pulled down the image of Your Lady at  Coversham, with all its trinkets, shrouds, candles, wax  images, crutches and brooches and I have thoroughly  defaced the chapel. The image is altogether plated with  silver. I have put her in a box, fast locked and nailed.  By the next barge it shall be brought to my lord, with  her coats, cap and hair and divers relics." At the same time, women were being dragged from their homes, accused of witchcraft, tortured and forced to confess to all kinds of Satanic crimes.

Today women are also under pressure from Capitalism to serve the role of mother at home, and obedient worker for their boss. A woman's job is to be attractive, and object of desire, but also maintaining moral standards of behaviour. A single mother with several children to different fathers, reliant on benefits from the government, has failed or fallen from grace. She is lazy, greedy, and a slut. The divine woman is an entrepreneur and a trophy wife. She's a Kardashian, she's an instagram model, she's a hustler, she's a brand ambassador, she is a magnet for money. She's healthy a glowing and she has several children but you'd never know it because her body miraculously recovers and the botox and fillers keep her ever youthful. We're not praying to Mother Mary anymore, we're just following our internet idols.

The neopagan movement has sought to bring back the goddess, the divine feminine, as a way of relating women to nature. We're looking at the way that our environment and our bodies have been abused by Capitalism. We're looking for a vision of womanhood beyond Capitalism. We don't want to return to Feudalism, but we find a surprising amount of inspiration in the simple peasant life. Looking even further back we see the matrilocal communities of Iron Age Britain and remember a time when mothers were at the centre of society. 

Mother Earth is the mother of us all, and can be envisioned as a goddess, but every bio-region can be conceived of as having its own identity and divine personality. In Glastonbury they call the region's goddess Nolava, the Lady of Avalon. In Dorset, the unofficial patron is Saint Wite (pronounced Wee-ta) also known as Candida in Latin, or Gwen the mystic. All of her names mean "white" and I would associated that whiteness with the chalk of Dorset. Some say that the saint is a memory of a much older goddess. The chalk of Dorset Downs connects to Salisbury Plain where Stonehenge is. The chalk ridge is practically littered with Bronze Age burial mounds. The ancient chalk ridgeway actually runs from Devon all the way up to East Anglia in a diagonal line. For pre-historic Britons, the chalk up-lands offered safe passage as a travel route surrounded by dense woodland and wet river valleys. Chalk represented a clear bright path through heather and gorse. In Norfolk, "Our Lady of the Chalk" is recognised by some. She is also called White Lady and Mother of Flint. Is this the same goddess as Wite or Gwen in Dorset? Perhaps we could consider her a sister. Gwen was remembered in folklore as Gwenhwyfar or Guinevere, a mortal queen, damsel in distress, and temptress. Some say she is originally a goddess of the white chalk land, and Great Mother of the matrilocal society that once had its roots here.