July’s female archetype: The Mother, the one who creates life
Female archetypes, an introduction to connecting with your ever-changing, cyclic feminine nature. July’s female archetype: the Mother, the one who creates life.
Imagine the hot days and those long summer evenings. The sun’s heat on your skin, the colors, the fruits that absorb water and light, the flowers and their intoxicating scents. It is the season of possibilities: an enchanted, sunny and radiant interlude.
The Mother is the one who initiates summer. She is generous and takes care of her children, whoever they are, she cradles them and feeds them. Reassuring, she mothers and embraces anyone who crosses her path.
The Mother gives life
She holds the sacred space of birth and creation. She gives life to all that is to be born. The Mother is not only the one who gives birth biologically, she is the one who gives life to dreams, projects, visions. She gives birth to our creations.
You don’t have to be a mother in a literal sense to connect with this archetype. The Mother’s attributes are part of every woman and goes beyond pregnancy. The Mother gives life to all that is intended to be.
The Mother is the one who feeds
She is the Madonna who broods, gives birth and then nourishes. She provides for existential needs, but her care does not stop there. She nourishes the body, the mind and the soul. She creates the necessary conditions for her children, her projects and everything she brings into the world to grow and fulfil.
She is dedicated and gives without expecting anything in return. She follows through and brings an unlimited support to anyone. Her heart knows that we help people grow by bringing them kindness and attention. She paves the way to unconditional love and comfort.
This kindness sometimes leads her to be too generous and to sacrifice herself. The Mother must learn to let go and let others go their own way.
The Mother is emotional
Bringing projects or children into the world is not done without contractions! The Mother goes through emotional ups and downs. Her element is water and, just like the sea, she experiences the movement of the tides and waves of life. She can quickly feel overwhelmed by emotions that are too strong or drown in her overflowing feelings.
The Mother teaches us to take care of ourselves
“Charity begins at home.” This solar Mother archetype who envelops us in her light and warmth teaches us that we are our first child. To behave with ourselves as a Mother would with her child is the key to any desire for growth. To know how to be tender when necessary and firm when our learning depends on it. Knowing how to guide and push ourselves forward to bring out our potential.
These questions will help you reflect further, either alone or with those close to you:
- Do you know how to identify your needs as if you were your own mother?
- Do you take the time to feed yourself properly, to take care of yourself, and to pamper yourself?
- Do you feel able to encourage yourself, to speak to yourself with gentleness and kindness when you need it? Or do you tend to be tough with yourself?
- If you are tough, critical, or sometimes unkind to yourself, do you know if an adult figure was tough with you when you were young?
- What kind of relationship do you have with children (your own or others’)?
- Is there something that triggers your anger or annoyance in a child’s behavior?
- Observing this reaction as neutrally as possible, what does it reflect about yourself?
Taken from my book “Femme Prêtresse” (Woman & Priestess), published by Editions Leduc, 2021
Ritual : Honoring the mothers of your female line
Sit in front of a white or red candle with one or several pictures of the women in your line and/or objects that connect you to them (jewelry, mementos, letters…). You can also decorate your altar with magic crystals to facilitate this divine connection.
Sitting in a lotus position, close your eyes and interlock your middle, ring and little fingers. Press thumbs and index fingers together. Move thumbs and index fingers away from each other, forming a diamond shape. Place your Yoni Mudra (this shape you are doing with your fingers) at your womb to connect to your feminine power and breathe deeply.
With each breath, pause to say aloud or inwardly the name of a woman in your line: your mother, your grandmothers, then your great-grandmothers. If you don’t know their names, name them as your mother and visualize their presence.
With each exhale, pause and repeat the following mantra: “I honor your legacy,” a word of gratitude to the women who have given you their lives.
When you have gone as far back in your lineage as possible, address your soul. Take a deep breath and repeat aloud several times, “I release you from the wounds that do not belong to you.”
Take time to feel and sense the dissolution of your family patterns. This meditation can be repeated several times until you feel a healing with your lineage.
