Mothers Day

[Lynn]

Hello

We are heading towards Mother's Day and in this I found that the path to that day was quite an interesting journey of both a spiritual path and a historical path. This lead me to an idea for the staff where I work.

What I came up with was two fold. One path is the ancient one that ties to creation and the notion of Mother Earth, the other is the path of history and the Mother (s) that inspired the idea and ran with it.

So what I came up with had to be that two fold idea. I ordered bulk crystals in the shape of hearts. One small and one a bit larger. I then looked up the meanings of each one and did up a fact sheet for each one. The idea is on envelope for the Earth Energy and one envelope for the Mother Energy. The staff will get one of each blindly picked and will see what resonates with their choices.

I love to look at the origins of things to unwind who and what brought forth ideas. Not so much to teach but more so to open the minds to ideas on where things flow from.

Here is what I learned on Mother's Day.

Mother Earth or Mother Nature Origins

What do we think about when we hear “Mother Earth” or “Gaia”, we often to the notion of New Age Spirituality. The “roots” go much deeper in to history and are as old maybe as civilization itself.

Known by the ancient Greeks as Gaia, the Greek Earth Goddess. In Ancient Greece mythology she was the mother of all creation. Known as Terra to the Romans. She holds the powers over fertility and creation in natures Earth.

Like all Mothers Gaia was there for her children in that loving nature and that protective nature. If we look at Greek creation theory the Universe did not start with the gods of Olympus, but with Chaos, the word means chasm, or emptiness or vast void. This is known as the separation of Heaven and Earth we talk about today in spirituality. From this place the deities Chaos, Gaea, Tartarus and Eros were to arise from Chaos. In the beginning the only thing that existed was Chaos, and from this deity the first elements were formed. Gaia was the elemental Earth.

When we look at artwork Gaia is shown as a female rising from the Earth or internalized into the Earth, connected as one with the Earth. She never separated from her Elemental form. Being a Mother Gaia too had children of her own, Uranus (the sky), Ourea (the mountains) and Pontus ( the sea).
Gaia is the Mother of All Things – plants and grains grew from her soil and this nourished man and animals. When these creations died, they return to Gaia. It was believed that everything that grew on Earth came from the powers of Gaia.

The other notion of Mother connected to the Earth is Mother Nature, the idea of nature in all forms. She is most often depicted surrounded by animals in nature. In Greek mythology Mother Nature is connected to Hathor and Isis whom are 2 goddesses connected to motherhood.

When we look into the paths of spirituality we find Wicca and a connection to the Mother Goddess. She is worshipped as a Triple Goddess, the Maiden Meiden Mother, and associated with the Moon, Stars, and Earth and Sea. The non Pagan Mother Earth or Mother Nature are todays more common ideals of he Earth Mother idea of fertility.

So where does the idea of nature come from, it means birth, it was Aristotle that brought in the stars, and moon (and maybe the supernatural) into the mix of what Mother Nature incudes in many of todays paths.
Moving into later times we find Christianity and the idea that nature is not inclusive of all things. Mother Nature was created by God. Her place lay on Earth not in the heavens, above her Angles and below her Demons. She became a symbolism not a goddess.

In Indigenous peoples legend beneath the clouds lives the Earth – Mother whom is derived the Water of Life, whom from her breasts feeds the plants, animals and man. She is known as Nokomis – The Grandmother.
In Inca mythology – Mama Pacha is the fertility goddess whom looks over planting and harvesting. She is the fertility goddess and ties to the Incan people of what is now Peru. It was believed that if she was not respected problems will arise such as earthquakes.

“You cannot fool Mother Nature” is a now days statement. Real or not what we can not dispute is the notion that if there was no ecosystem (nature) there would be no us!

The History of Mother’s Day

The majority of countries that celebrate Mother's Day do so on the second Sunday of May. But it wasn't always this way...Let’s start with the Spiritual Origins of Mother’s Day.

Rooted in ancient rites with strong overtones associated with Goddesses and symbols of motherhood rather than an actual mother. This ranges over history from statues and figurines of female deities and later into the Christian church of today.

Mother’s Day we celebrate today is relatively new and its been just in the last century that Mother’s Day took on its commercial tone we know most today.
So how far back do we look for the written records or roots? This would take us to Ancient Egypt and the Goddesses, her name translated means “Throne”.
From here we move to Cybele and Reha – Ancient Moher Goddesses
Early roots in Rome Cybele is Phrygians and she is depicted sitting on a throne surrounded by animals her roots date back some 6000 years. She is often referred to as the “Mother of the Animals”.

At the same time some of the Greeks worshiped mother goddess Rhea the Greek Mother of all the god’s. She was born from the union of the Greek goddess Gaia (the personification for the Earth) and Uranus the Sky god.
Moving ever forwards into the 16h Century as we see the Ancient Roman traditions fade into other cultural traditions in Europe and England that give way to Christianity. Mother’s Day can see its date being the 4th Sunday of Lent and this date was originally used to honor the Virgin Mary (the Mother of Christ).

Moving to the 17th century in England we move from the focus being on the Virgin Mary to include “real mothers” referring to it as Mothering Day.
This day holds an interesting thread in history as on this day servants and trade workers were permitted to travel back to their towns of origin and visit their families. This is where that tradition of the presentation of cakes and flowers can find its roots.

Crossing the “Pond” so to speak to America here the tradition of Mothering Day was discontinued and a whole new Mother’s Day came into being.
So where did the North American Mother’s Day find its roots? For this we look to a woman named Julia Ward How, and her Mother’s Day Proclamation of 1870. What we might not know about her is rooted in history she is the one whom penned “The Battle Hymn for the Republic (some 12 years earlier). So why a day for “Mothers” this came about from her distraught feelings about the Civil War and the death an carnage that say a Mother’s son’s killing other Mother’s sons. She sought to have a day that was international for Mother’s Day celebrating the peace of Motherhood.

The date shifted a few times, at one point prosed to be on July 4th, but it settled to be set on June 2nd. It was in 1873 that 18 North American woman’s groups celebrated this new Mother’s Day.

We have Howe to than for personally funding most of the celebrations, sadly once she stopped taking on the expense most of the celebrations died off. It was thanks to the city of Boston that we might still have Mother’s Day, as they took it on for 10 more years.

While we have Howe to thank for planting the seed, we look to those who rooted the tree and made it bear fruits into what we know today. A West Virginia Woman’s Group that was led by Anna Reeves Jarvis began a celebration adapted from Howe’s holiday.

This was a time meant to re- unite families and others that had been separated by the Union and the Confederate sides in the Civil War. This group held a “Mothers Friendship Day”. Anna M. Jarvis’s Mother’s Day in 1908.

With the passing of Anna Reeves Jarvis, her daughter took on the role and campaigned for the creation of an official Mother’s Day in remembrance of her mother and in honor of peace.

Her request was honored and on May 10th, 1908 the first official Mother’s Day took place at St Andrew’s Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia and a church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The West Virginia event drew in 407, and Anna Jarvis arranged for white carnations (her Mother’s favorite) to adorn the patrons. Now days Pink and White Carnations note tribute to Mother’s living and passed over.

It was in 1908 that a US Senator from Nebraska (Elmer Burkett, proposed making Mother’s Day a national holiday. Sadly this was not to be, but by 1909 some 46 states were holding Mother’s Day services as well as in parts of Canada and Mexico.

Anna Jarvis did not give in or give up her fight she devoted herself full time to the pursuit of the creation of Mother’s Day. It was in 1912 in West Virginia the first state to “officially” recognize Mother’s Day. We have Woodrow Wilson to thank for this as he signed it into a national observance in 1914 marking it on the 2nd Sunday of May as “Mother’s Day”.

It is to be noted that the commercialization over the day did not sit well with Jarvis and the sale of Carnations. In 1923 she sued a florist to have a sop to the Mother’s Day event , she too was arrested in the 1930’s for “disturbing the peace by the American War Mother’s group. By this time it was all but too late to stop the tides of commercialism over Mother’s Day and the flower carnation took its lasting hold.

Marking the passing of Anna M. Jarvis we can note that over 40 countries observed Mother’s Day and today that number exceeds 70.

• Canada - Canada was one of the first nations to pick up the US version of Mother’s Day, making it a national holiday in 1909, one year later the United States did. The customs largely reflect those of its southern neighbor, although in Canada there seems to be an added emphasis on doing chores for the mother and cooking her supper.


Thought I would share in what I learned.

Lynn

Wow, this was very interesting to read about & I learned so many new things.