The Lady's Prayer
| Our Mother, Who art in all places Blessed be Thy names. Thy presence be known, Grant us this day, For Thine is the Light, the Dark, So mote it be. |
Commentary (Or, why rewrite a perfectly good prayer?!?)
When Jesus first taught his disciples to pray the "Lord's Prayer", He taught them new thought forms, forms of approaching Divinity with the intimacy of Abba ("Pappa" in Aramaic). Jesus proclaimed a God more accessible than the Terrible-Thunderer-upon-the-Mountain; He taught that God is as good and as close as an earthly father who loves his children.
The Christian Church has spent most of the last 2000 years attempting to make God distant again. After all, guilty, fearful people can be controlled much more easily than those who sense the brilliant immanence of Divinity. "The Lord's Prayer" has become an entrenched part of the liturgy of this perverse effort. It no longer speaks to most people of the intimate lovingkindness of a close Father. We no longer experience it in colloquial English, instead reciting it in a tongue already 300 years out of use.
In writing this prayer, I attempted to recapture the notion that the Infinite Universe dwells immanently within each of us. We need not experience Divinity as distant or abstract, but can open up and touch the Intimate Infinite Presence.
| Our Mother, | We experience our mothers far more intimately than we do our fathers. How could it be otherwise? We are nurtured within and by their bodies. In searching for a metaphor for intimacy, I have settled on that of the Great Mother. |
| Who art in all places | The Lord's Prayer localizes God in the distant heaven--by transcending all locations, He becomes accessible to all, not requiring a stone temple for worship. I recognize the immanence of the Mother--in all places, including the depths of our souls. She, too, is intimately accessible. |
| Blessed be Thy names. | Throughout all ages, throughout all cultures, the archetype of the Great Mother has emerged in myth, in art, in culture. We know her by many names; to each of us She whispers Her secret name, if only we listen. |
| Thy presence be known, In all hearts thy home, |
She, Who in all places dwells, dwells deep with the psyche of each person. When we recognize and cherish Her presence, we fall in love with Divinity. |
| Upon the Earth which is Thy body. | Mother Earth. Gaia. Ancient myths from countless cultures localize fertility in the Living Earth. For the last 2000 years we have turned our collective backs on that archetype. As the ecosphere begins to collapse, we reap the rewards of worshipping a distant and vengeful God. The time has come to fall in love, not only with Her, but with Her Body, the sacred Earth, upon which we depend for life. |
| Grant us this day, Our daily strength. |
I could go many days without my daily bread--quite beneficially! Instead, I pray for strength. Not just strength of body, but strength of mind, to think new thoughts; strength of will, to actualize a new paradigm; and strength of passion, to love more deeply. |
| Guide us through our karma | Karma, Sanskrit for "works", implies that we do experience the consequences of our behavior. Although in some abstract way I may experience Divine forgiveness for my misdeeds, the consequences of my behavior remain. But I do not bear my consequences alone--She still dwells within me, allowing me to stand just a bit taller as I walk my walk. |
| As we embrace our shadows. | The Shadow refers to that portion of our selves which we cannot acknowledge. Because it is a part of us, however, we enact our shadow unconsciously, or it slips out without control. In Jungian psychology, the Shadow is to be embraced and integrated as a part of the whole Self. She, who knows us better than we do ourselves, can guide us into a more complete knowledge of our Shadow. The light of Her presence also provides enough safety that we can brave embracing our discarded parts. |
| Lead us not into power-over, | Domination. Power-over. This is the great paradigm of our society. Go figure! We worship a dominating God--we retell myths of a jealous, almighty Divinity who claims suzerain lordship over His people. In place of this paradigm, the Great Mother offers a paradigm of empowerment, power-within. This power is not the power of fiat, but the power of the seed. Not the power of an army, but the power of the sun. |
| But deliver us from ego. | The ego, that incomplete part of our psyches which thinks that it is our entire psyche. The ego has a part to play in who we are, but unless we are delivered from its domination, we shall never find contentment. |
| For Thine is the Light, the Dark, and the Love for ever and ever. |
Just as the moon has a dark face and a light face, so She too is Light and Dark. The Great Mother is also the Death Hag. But always, She is the Love, the Love for Her children, in life and in death, in light and in darkness, in joy and in depression--She is present. |
| So mote it be. | An old English form of "So may it be", the usual translation of "Amen". |
Page created by: john@jelder.com
visitors
Changes last made on: 10 March 1998