Bestiary

As we’re all grown and nurtured inside women, so too does the Divine Mother figure exist in almost every creed. Prehistoric statues attest to Her presence among the most primal human folk. Call her Hathor, Durga, Great Goddess, Queen of Heaven, or simply Mom. Although She is most of­ ten known these days under the name of Mary, Mother of God, Our Lady is far older than Christianity, the Bible, or organized religion itself.

Like mortal mothers, Our Lady has many faces and aspects. She can be ruthless like Kali Ma, jealous as Hera, sublime as Sophia, or mortal as Fatimah. The Shakti essence of radiant femininity assumes a multitude of forms, each distinct yet intertwined. The Triple Goddess manifests its own Holy Trinity of Maiden, Mother, and Crone. Biblical Eve was the third among First Women (after Lilith and the

unnamed Lady of Blood), and biblical Mary’s name connects her to the Magdalene, the favored consort and wife of Christ. It’s significant that both Marys stood at the foot of the cross between mortal ruin and heavenly transcendence, and even more so that scripture names the Magdalene as the first of Christ’s disciples to see the risen Jesus, and to tell his hidden men, “He is risen.” Our Lady is mother and mate — the lover, the nurturer, and often the destroyer, too.

Sadly, jealous men debase Our Lady. She’s called whore as well as mother, slapped aside to the shadows of male dominion. Mary the consort is equated (wrongly, by the way) with the Woman Taken in Adultery, viewed as a prostitute even when the Bible itself describes them as two different women. Just as Marduk slew Tiamat and made the world from her corpse, so too do many men discard Our Lady’s presence in favor of their own reflection. And so, like Kali Ma, she rages. Like Begtse, she bears a sword. She is awful as the Morrigan, Phantom Queen of war and fate, yet forgiving as Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. Embodied as Fatimah, she nurtures the faith; in the forms of Hel, Persephone, and Ereshkigal (among others), she rules the realms of death. Our Lady is greater than name or face or culture, and she’s among the most personable of gods.

God the Father stands aloof in judgement, flinging thun­ derbolts and plagues. It’s Our Lady who takes our hands in the darkest nights and clicks softly in the warming beads of rosary atonement. Suffering people cry out to Her; doubtful folk see Her portrait on their bread. Our Lady shimmers in garden shrines, takes wing as doves, and casts her colorful lights upon the praying faithful in a church. While other goddess-figures embody lust or joy or war, Our Lady stands most for healing, justice, and mercy. She intercedes with raging lords, and births them when they become men. She is Isis, the reconstructor, and Freyja, chooser of the slain. Her cauldron is immortality, and her feet crush the serpent of death. Our Lady walks among mortals in the guise of women. She sends Marian apparitions to remind us to keep faith. She weeps for the Dying God, and nurtures crops with the blood he spills. Avalokitesvara blossoms in both male and female forms, bridging the illusion of gender through the unity of compassion. She is our past, our present, our future in one, as close as humanity yet as distant as the stars.