In a recent DM, we celebrated the Via Positiva and the Via Creativa and the role that the artist (and that means all of us) plays in standing up to despair and bringing light and empowerment in times of darkness.
We offered an article on artists in Russia who are daring to resist the lies Putin is telling about the war in Ukraine, pointing out how all prophets invoke imagination–moral imagination and alternatives to lies and unjust power games.
This too is the work of motherhood, as Carl Jung says, “Creativity comes from the realm of the mothers.” This too is part of Mother’s Day—to celebrate and practice our creativity and moral imagination.
Creation spirituality and today’s creation story from science remind us how creative the universe is and how busy it has been birthing from the first millisecond of the fireball. And how it has birthed something colossal in scope—two trillion galaxies each with hundreds of billions of stars—and our tiny, fragile, beauty packed earth which in turn is busy creating amazing beings after amazing beings.
Creativity and motherhood is not restricted to the human, it is not anthropocentric and it is happening all the time with every species animate and inanimate. As Meister Eckhart puts it, “What does God do all day long? God lies on a maternity bed giving birth.”
Moving beyond patriarchy includes moving beyond anthropocentrism and beyond dishonoring creativity or taking it for granted. Indeed, when fascism reigns, artists and creative thinkers are usually the first enemies to be lined up and eliminated. One result is that pessimism reigns, for as Otto Rank tells us, “pessimism comes from a repression of creativity.”
Adrienne Rich equates motherhood with “the powerful Goddess” and reminds us that all human life on the planet is born of woman. The one unifying, incontrovertible experience shared by all women and men is that months-long period we spend unfolding inside a woman’s body.
Motherhood is not easy. Motherhood is earned, first through an intense physical and psychic rite of passage—pregnancy and childbirth—then through learning to nurture, which does not come by instinct.*
*Adrienne Rich, Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution, (NY: W.W. Norton, 1976), pp. 11f.
Adapted from Matthew Fox, Julian of Norwich: Wisdom in a Time of Pandemic—and Beyond, pp. 45f.
To read a transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.
Banner Image: “Colors of the Goddess”. Photo posted to Flickr by CLAUDIA DEA.
Queries for Contemplation
What follows from Adrienne Rich’s teachings that all human life is born of woman and that motherhood is “earned”?
Recommended Reading
Julian of Norwich: Wisdom in a Time of Pandemic–and Beyond
Julian of Norwich lived through the dreadful bubonic plague that killed close to 50% of Europeans. Being an anchoress, she ‘sheltered in place’ and developed a deep wisdom that she shared in her book, Showings, which was the first book in English by a woman. A theologian way ahead of her time, Julian develops a feminist understanding of God as mother at the heart of nature’s goodness. Fox shares her teachings in this powerful and timely and inspiring book.
“What an utterly magnificent book. The work of Julian of Norwich, lovingly supported by the genius of Matthew Fox, is a roadmap into the heart of the eco-spiritual truth that all life breathes together.” –Caroline Myss
Now also available as an audiobook HERE.
12 thoughts on “Adrienne Rich, Jung, Eckhart on Motherhood & Creativity”
Matthew, Our Queries for Contemplation for today comes from: “What follows from Adrienne Rich’s teachings that all human life is born of woman and that motherhood is ‘earned’?” What follows is, as she writes: “The one unifying, incontrovertible experience shared by all women and men is that months-long period we spend unfolding inside a woman’s body.” More than this, she writes: “Motherhood is not easy. Motherhood is earned, first through an intense physical and psychic rite of passage—pregnancy and childbirth—then through learning to nurture, which does not come by instinct.” Lately, I have been reading a book by Adrienne Rich titled, BLOOD, BREAD, AND POETRY. I must say that I have read a number of feminist spiritual writers: Z. Budapest, Carol Christ, Riane Eisler, Rosemary Radford Ruether, Starhawk, Merlin Stone, and others but I have never read anyone as powerful and passionate in her critique of patriarchy, compulsory heterosexuality and lesbianism as Rich !!!
An extremely profound intricate thought and emotion-provoking meditation!
Some women, do not experience the first rite of passage of Motherhood, that Mathew has spoken of today, that being the pregnancy and birthing of a physical child from their womb into this world… of which I am one of.
For a long time, I personally struggled in connecting deeply with the Divine Feminine within myself… Motherhood… and womanhood… because of this. I, at one time thought of myself as less than all of these things associated with woman, womb, the processes of birthing, and the qualities, characteristics and virtues of nurturing. Having said this, I appreciate the connection being made to the womb, with compassion and creativity, within today’s DM.
Although I have been blessed in being apart of co-parenting a child, whom comes from my husband’s first marriage, whom I hold in my heart and love dearly as my own son… I do not know of this first right of passage in Motherhood. I agree, based on my own personal experience that nurturing does not come by way of natural instinct, just because you are born a woman. I’ve personally searched long and also worked really hard at rediscovering and reclaiming these Divine Feminine aspects within myself… and in and through this journey, compassion and creativity became the healing balm for my own womb wound. This healing balm was worked out through being a step-mother, entering the health care profession, tending to the elders in need, and being a co-creative artistic being… creatively birthing many other things from within myself and my life.
Some of what I have learnt is that Motherhood and all that this encompasses… actually has nothing to do with gender. For example the Indigineous teachings that I received during my apprenticeship, taught that the male gender has a spirit womb. Motherhood, I have come to understand, is a Cosmic and Universal essence, present in its presence… impregnated within all that exists. We are all apart of that One Womb… which we are gestating within… and many diverse expressions of this are also gestating within the womb of our beingness… which desires to be acknowledged, responded to, cultivated and nurtured in many compassionate and creative ways… that this may unfold, evolve and emerge… giving birth in infinite expressions and manifestations. And this is a rite of passage that we all can participate in and experience for ourselves.
Thank you for your heartfelt and inspiring words. It is well to remember that not all women can–or even want to–physically bear children and that this can be exquisitely painful and result in a feeling of “less than” or even of shame. You point out beautifully that true motherhood has nothing to do with gender and that we are all capable of learning to nurture and to cultivate it in ourselves and in one another.
Jeanette, You begin your comment today by writing: “Some women, do not experience the first rite of passage of Motherhood, that Mathew has spoken of today, that being the pregnancy and birthing of a physical child from their womb into this world… of which I am one of.” The only reason I bring this up is (and I’m sure that you already know) that we are all “mothers of God” in the teachings of Eckhart, for he writes: “What good is it to me if Mary is full of grace and if I am not also full of grace? What good is it to me for the Creator to give birth to his/her Son if I do not also give birth to him in my time and my culture?” And this was Eckhart, a male speaking. And speaking of “God the Father” (I too feel uncomfortable with the title) he writes: “What does God do all day long? God lies on a maternity bed giving birth.” So again, we are all mothers of God…
Richard, thank you for once again reminding of Eckhart’s words of wisdom and truth. Jeanette
When I was writing for Catholic New Times in 1983 the editors commissioned a poem for their ADVENT edition. I didn’t think a poem could be written by commission but I agreed to try. This is the poem:
WAITING
In the fullness of time
she waits
watching for signs
afraid
it is time
Her eyes scan the strange
stomach stretched large
into life
Her fingers gently trace
limbs straining their
tight swaddling of flesh
World noises mingle then
wither away
She turns inward
she spins her own
cavernous space
It echoes with sounds of
the whole human race
In stillness she waits
a handmaid of time
false labour brings fear
and joy to her eyes
contractions subside
The whole cosmos waits
breathless
Who is it this time?
I love you small stranger
I love you my Self
this whole swollen
body is broken
for you
Life stirs within while
Death holds her hand
Gwen, Thank you for sharing !!! What a wonderful poem !!!
I was 14 when my sister was born. Because of circumstances, I nurtured her from infancy. She was, in effect, my first child. I looked out the window today at a little greenhouse she gave me one year for Mother’s Day. I noted how it has deteriorated and badly needs attention. I thought how, if she were here, she would come and help me make repairs.
She died three—nearly four—years ago. Suddenly. As she died, I whispered to her how I had held her when she went to sleep as an infant and I would hold her now as she left us.
After my sister was born, I gave birth to 2 children. I parented 3 more. Now I am a mother-figure to my niece, who found she was pregnant within a month of her mother’s death.
Yesterday, I spoke for an hour to a daughter living in another state. We talked about gardening, about counseling our children, about food we will make—about Creating.
I often wonder what it all means. How did I do these things? How do I continue?
This is the Creative Spark. The Strength of Women. It is born in us. Give thanks.
Olive, Thank you for sharing your life with us from the perspective of your experiences with “motherhood.” And thank you for your closing words: “I often wonder what it all means. How did I do these things? How do I continue?
This is the Creative Spark. The Strength of Women. It is born in us. Give thanks” !!!
Our Mother~Father Creator and Holy Spirit of Divine Love~Wisdom became part of All Creation from the beginning through the Cosmic Christ… Through evolution, human beings eventually came along many millions of years later as part of God’s Plan and Divine Will… Now in the multiverse our eternal souls are still evolving with-in Cosmic Christ Consciousness as co-Creators towards Loving Diverse Oneness to bring about God’s Kingdom~Queendom on ‘earth’ as it is in ‘Heaven’… Matthew, is this also your general understanding of the Christian mystical spiritual journey of creation and evolution? Of course as human beings we continue integrating our Divine Nature as the Body of Christ in our daily human unique ways with one another and All Creation with faith and the grace and Presence of God’s Loving~Wise~Creative Spirit within and among us to continue evolving~transforming as active compassionate beings….
🔥❤️🙏
Thank you, Matthew for posting the hymn “Mothering God, You Gave Me Birth” in today’s meditation. This hymn, #735 is in the hymnal, WORSHIP of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). My wife is an organist at an ELCA Church in the Seattle area, and she will be playing and the congregation will be singing this hymn this coming Sunday. My wife always plays this hymn for Mother’s Day.