Wayfaring Woman: Mama Magic Rising

There is power in Mama. Mother is love and life, wisdom and magic, and so much more. As a child I felt most connected to the divine in the universe when I was wrapped in my Mother’s arms. The warmth of her embrace and the depth of her love proclaimed my worth, wholeness, and beauty. In her arms, I could feel her worth, wholeness, and beauty as well. The divine spirit within my Mother encouraged and nurtured the divine spirit within me. Looking back over the years of my life, I see that my Mama made much Magic.

Healing is Mama Magic. She kissed my cuts and scrapes, cleaned them and dressed them for sure, but her real wisdom for healing came with lessons on treating the deep wounds of the heart. My Mother taught me how to soothe, clean, and dress wounds of the spirit. She helped me understand that from time to time people will hurt your feelings or life in general will disappoint you. This truth is a part of life. She taught me the medicines to heal those wounds, medicines best accessed from the place of worth, wholeness, and beauty that she first introduced me to within her embrace. She showed me connection to spiritual center for soothing. For cleaning the wounds, she shared the secrets of introspection for recognizing hurt feelings and the things I might be holding onto that keep those hurt feelings fresh. Mama also showed me the magic of meaning-making to wrap soul-wounds in lessons learned.

Courage is Mama Magic. She taught me to fight for what I believe in, but more than that she taught me to fight for the people I love. When I was in danger of being zoned into an underperforming middle school in my neighborhood, my Mother joined ranks with my aunt who was also a Mother, and they fought together to get me into a better school. When I was hurting and distant during a tough time in my life, my Mother sought me out, despite my best efforts to push her away. My Mother taught me how to access the core of my might in the world, the seat of my worth, wholeness, and beauty in order to rally in the face of adversity, to show courage in the face of uncertainty, confusion, and fear.

Resilience is Mama Magic. Adversity is a necessary part of life, painful as it may be but resilience is our ability to bounce back. It’s our ability to take on challenges in life and overcome them, either by neutralizing the challenge, or by learning a valuable lesson when the challenge gets the better of us. It was my Mother who taught me how to stand back up after falling down. I watched her weather troubles at work, at home, and in the larger family. I watched her rage and reason, cry and shout, fall and overcome again and again. The power to work this magic came from the center of her being, from the place where worth, wholeness, and beauty reside within her.

This is the Mama Magic that my Mother created in her own life and it is the magic that she taught to me. My lessons began with the warm embraces in my childhood that carried me to the center of my being. My Mother was born and shaped in worth, wholeness, and beauty, and so was I. Courageous, healing, and resilient, my Mother is a force of nature. Born of her, I am a force of nature. My mother continues to teach me the meaning of that bright Mystery. On this Mother’s Day, I honor Mama Magic and the Mother Goddess manifest in my Mother, and in all Mothers.

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