Many of us, myself included, have a tough time incorporating something into our psyche if it doesn’t seem at least marginally rational. Rationality is something we humans take pride in, and we can sometimes insist (as fervently as a religious person insists on their view) that if reality and rationality seem at odds, then reality must be wrong.
Perhaps this is why we speak of “rationalizing” our beliefs. Whether we think of ourselves as rational beings or we live in the furthest reaches of woo-woo land, most of us engage in this process of rationalization, trying to align our views with what we deem to be rational thinking.
So let’s do it. Let’s rationalize a bit, and see if the path of Divine Mother can appeal to our rational minds.
Sit back, and look out at reality. The universe. The world. Whatever we call it, we’re talking about the essence of being that makes all of this into what it is. And most humans make some attempt to understand reality. In fact, entire human institutions have arisen around this endeavor. Science, religions, philosophies – all of these make attempts to understand what is hidden behind everyday phenomena – to know or discover what moves and shapes reality as we know it.
Despite each system’s attempts to disparage the others, they all do much the same thing – they attempt to wrap reality up in a neat package that makes reality feel more relatable, more understandable.
The path of Divine Mother steps outside of these systems and gets a bit “meta”. It doesn’t try to insist that it’s the correct path and all others are wrong. In fact, it suggests that each system has things to offer, each one appealing to different parts of our minds that yearn to feel a sense of connection and understanding with reality. Here’s how it does it.
Consider that each system is much like putting a “face” on reality. We’re not content to just take reality as it is, so we lay a mask over it. Some thinkers put a mask of random chance. Others put a mask of a bearded old man in the sky. Others posit any number of other deities, ideals, or forces that we think of as “governing” reality. We can get quite confused about how we apply these faces. For example, many think of the laws of physics as governing reality (hence the word “law”, as if these laws are something that nature must obey). But a moment’s reflection will suggest that reality IS those “laws” of physics – these laws aren’t out there, existing of their own, with the universe following them (unless we want to posit a god or some other force that is making sure these laws are followed). The laws, after all, are just mental models we’ve created in order to explain the phenomena we observe in nature. In other words, we create a mental model from what we observe, and then forget we created the model and fall into the belief that the model is governing reality, rather than emerging within it.
In the path of Divine Mother, we consciously decide on a mask. We choose one that appeals to our senses and emotions, recognizing that it’s a mask we’re creating, rather than discovering. Yes. We’re creating Divine Mother at this point (though, oddly, this will shift over time, as we’ll see below). We create our mask with the realization that reality will “feel” different depending on the mask we select. Think of reality as a random and largely hostile place, and we’ll tend to feel anxious, fearful, and fragile. Think of reality as watched over by a judging god, and we’ll tend to feel claustrophobic and guilty. Think of reality as a playful interaction with Divine Mother, who loves us unconditionally and wants to dance through life with us, and we’ll feel excited and curious about life.
We create this mask as we see fit. Divine Mother doesn’t mind whatever form you want to make her into. She can have skin of any color, she can be large or small, she can be full or thin, old or young. Or she may change forms as you seem fit. The idea is to put a face on the universe that feels good to you.
This face doesn’t have to be limiting. If you are rational-minded, there is no problem at all with continuing to be as rational as you like. Part of rationality, after all, is governing our emotions, and when we consciously put a face on the universe, we realize that we are creating an emotional sensation whenever we think of reality.
If you’re asking, at this point, why to put a face on reality at all, this is a good place to recall that even using rational thought, we’re using a mask. We humans, unless we are Ninja Jedi Zen Masters, aren’t very good at seeing things “just as they are”. We seem to have a driving need to put faces on everything. Now, onward.
Once we’ve created this face, we will probably find that reality starts to behave a little differently for us. The rational explanation is that reality isn’t actually doing anything differently. We’re just interpreting reality differently. If we see Divine Mother as playful and even a bit mischievous, we start to interpret things with a smile. Even “bad” things might be holding little gems for us, if we look with these eyes.
What we’re doing is “believing without believing”, or “believing with our eyes wide open”. In other words, we’re not lost in our belief, believing it to be real. We’re consciously using the power of belief to enrich our life and color our interactions with reality in a fun and playful way.
This is the moment when we can introduce the myth of Divine Mother. I say “myth” in the sense of a story that we weave around reality to make reality more digestible. Yes, you’re seeing it correctly. A “myth” is synonymous with a “face”. And a good myth is one that we recognize as a story – it’s a mind-crutch to help us relate to the world, but shouldn’t be taken as an actual description of what’s really going on.
Here’s the myth of Divine Mother. Once upon a time, there was the Ultimate Reality. It was formless, without time or space, a nothingness that was also an everythingness (think pre-Big Bang here). This Ultimate Reality still exists, but it is not something our human minds can comprehend, imagine, or experience.
The Ultimate Reality decided to play a game and create Form (think Big Bang here). Ultimate Reality thought this was pretty cool. But it was lacking something. It was lacking engagement. So Ultimate Reality decided to become Divine Mother, and into this Divine Mother was put emotions like playfulness and love. Now in the form of Divine Mother, Ultimate Reality could really get into things. When two atoms smacked together, it was really cool, because as Divine Mother, Ultimate Reality was engaged with those atoms, curious about what would happen when they bumped.
Still, as Divine Mother, Ultimate Reality was just watching things unfold, kind of like watching a movie. So Ultimate Reality put into Divine Mother the ability not just to create external things, but to become things. And Divine Mother took the ball and ran. She started to become things. Suns and galaxies, black holes and nebulae. Then she started to create planets – entire worlds where living beings repeated Ultimate Reality’s trick. Ultimate Reality had become Divine Mother – someone who was simultaneously Ultimate Reality and also a limited perspective (even if a rather unlimited limited perspective). Now there was another layer of the onion, as Divine Mother became even more limited perspectives, embodying herself in giraffes, plants, fungi, rocks, rainbows, and innumerable other forms. Likely, she has created innumerable worlds, and innumerable beings.
Things were now really, really cool, because Ultimate Reality, through the perspective of Divine Mother, could experience being, say, a squirrel, and also an acorn, and could experience the excitement of the squirrel as the squirrel found the acorn, and the feeling of being an acorn tucked into the ground by the squirrel. Now there were sensations such as having feet and digging in cool soil, and the little urge of pushing out of an acorn shell as an oak sprout, and a million, billion, trillion other sensations and experiences as Divine Mother interacted with herself in uncountable forms and ways.
Then Divine Mother got this super awesome idea. What if she didn’t just become things, but instead she hid from herself? What if she created a game of hide-and-seek, where she could not only become something different, but where she could forget she was becoming something, and have a chance to re-discover that she was Divine Mother?
So far, in the form of squirrels and mountains, she was playing in her forms, but she knew she was playing squirrel or mountain. In this new form she’d be totally hidden, she’d forget that she was Divine Mother. It would be the most immersive experience yet. And then she’d leave hints, little clues in the world, where this new form could get an inkling that it wasn’t just a form. And where, if it followed the clues long enough, it could even discover that it wasn’t actually a form at all. That it was Divine Mother. That it was Ultimate Reality.
Thus Divine Mother created a new form. This form, if a little funny looking, was specially created to be more hidden than her other forms. She erased the memory of this form, so that it, unlike all other forms, thought it really was what it seemed to be – a mostly hairless ape-like thing with odd patches of fur on its head and groin. This mostly hairless ape-like thing was pretty fun to be, though not always for the form itself. Hidden from its true nature, it could get pretty anxious, fearful, and depressed. Divine Mother didn’t mind these emotions, as she was in the game to experience all sorts of different emotions and experiences.
There was a gift, however, in this form’s resistance to certain emotions and experiences. That gift was contrast. The bad times made the good times seem all the more precious. Even when this form was completely hidden from herself, Divine Mother loved to experience the world through human perceptions. Its penchant for drama, stories, and preferences made each human incarnation a whirlwind of contrasts.
But then the first of these forms started fulfilling their “destiny” – they began to see the clues Divine Mother had left for them. And a few started to unravel the mystery, and to discover who they really were. The unfolding of that mystery, and the final discovery, were like unwrapping a present – an experience rich with surprise, wonder, and adventure. When one of these human forms finally figured it out, then Divine Mother really started having a blast, because these human forms who had discovered their Divine Mother nature could play with and in the world in a way that Divine Mother had never experienced before. The world of preferences and fears had turned into a world of wonder and divine play – the ultimate good time for Divine Mother, and in turn, for Ultimate Reality.
And that, my friend, is what you are. You are Ultimate Reality, incarnating as Divine Mother, incarnating as You. Right now you’re probably mostly lost in your form, and life is probably a balance of the terrible and the wonderful. But as you start to see Divine Mother’s clues and discover your true nature, you become more and more like Divine Mother – able to experience even “bad” things with a new perspective. Able to play and dance with life instead of fear it and push against it. Able, even, to recognize how much yourcreate your perceived reality, and to begin, almost magically, to shape it.
This is the myth of Divine Mother, a story that, if followed, will lead you to an actual experience of what reality is all about. This actual experience can’t be described in words, which is why we use words only in the language of myth. But this is a myth that leads somewhere very, very special.
When we choose to believe this myth, to believe it without believing it, we start to play with it. And that play will unfold new ways of interacting with reality, and new ways of experiencing life. Like any belief, this belief will lead to experiences and interpretations of reality. Because this belief is inherently curious and playful, it will lead to new discoveries and new joys, new ways to frame our experiences. What waits behind this belief is useless to describe. It’s something waiting for any of us who embark on the quest.
As we journey onward, we’ll find that we begin with thinking of Divine Mother as someone “out there” who we can talk with and interact with. We then start to see her in everything around us, and don’t just interact with her as a divine figure in the clouds, but as each person, animal, plant, and experience that we encounter. Naturally, we start to develop new qualities. Especially if we can “fall in love” with Divine Mother, we’ll start to fall in love with the world that she’s becoming, and we’ll start to manifest qualities like compassion, and playfulness, and curiosity. We don’t have to strive to embody these qualities. They will naturally develop as we fall in love with Divine Mother and the world.
Then, at some point, we’ll recognize that if Divine Mother is becoming the squirrel and our friend Martha, she’s also becoming You. The love you feel for the world will start to be focused on yourself as well. And the line between you and the world might begin to become fuzzy. It might even dissolve.
In the end, science teaches us that we are made of the same stuff that stars are made of. Taoists say that we are all the Tao. The Hindus say we are all manifestations of Brahman. And on the path of Divine Mother, we discover this truth ourselves, through our own experience. We become the world. We become Divine Mother. We become Ultimate Reality.
The path forward can be short or long. We may only travel it part way. But each step brings new discoveries, new wonders, new horizons of love.
This is the time of the blossoming of Divine Mother. The blossoming of You. Let’s explore this path together.