I didn’t actually write this essay. It was written by my friend, Tracey Snoyer, in an effort to capture the essence of what happened when some women got together for a few days of spiritual exploration in the tree-feathered foothills of Mt. Hood. I was part of the sacred circle. I invite you into the circle today, to seek with us greater light and knowledge about our Heavenly Mother.

Heavenly Mother’s Job

It started in a circle of women. Of bright, accomplished women, who held feminism as either an ideology or a manifestation. They were all empowered women: artists and business leaders and writers and thinkers. And all of them, spiritual savants in their own way. Two mothers and two never-mothers spending their days in inquiry and devotion with good food and long walks and quiet meditation. It took until the fifth day for the insight to grow deep enough for the question to be asked, and, in a spiral of light and magic, answered.

It began, as many inquiries of Heavenly Mother do, with an inquiry on Eve. Some believed that Eve knew exactly what she was doing when she took that fruit. Some believed she understood the plan in a way that inspired her to move the plan forward in the face of Adam’s solid obedience that, while beautiful, also brought stasis to the human family. It was Eve, some said, that had the insight and foresight and inspiration to make the choice that would start humanity. This idea seems to be gaining popularity: Eve as risk-taker, as knowing intercessor.

Others in this circle believed that this welcome view of Eve is a reaction more than a reality. It is a corrective response to the millennia of Patriarchy which defiled Eve, made her the weaker, disobedient sex, and which created man as intercessor for her to Father. This rankling view of Eve has been modernized to support a view of Eve and all womanhood which allows for Eve to be the wiser, greater persona, who ushered in the great Fall and the greatest act of human creation: life, through wisdom and insight.

As if punishing ourselves for our wrong-headed view of Eve from the ancients, we now exalt her as goddess. And perhaps that is exactly how it is. But perhaps this view swings too widely in the other direction. Let’s consider a different view. In this narrative, Eve, an innocent, made a mistake. She may have been doing it for good reasons, believing she had an obligation to usher in humanity, but she did it out of order and without a clear understanding of the impact of her decision until later. And when she saw, she saw with eyes wide open and with the great and horrible recognition that she had set something in motion that God Himself could not revert. And she did it in a way that forced her partner, Adam, to release himself from his sacred covenant of obedience or risk thwarting life altogether. Faced with this tragic choice, he chose Eve and Life. As well he should have.

It is not clear that Adam and Eve understood the Plan well enough to know that a Savior could be provided who could expiate this sin and bring they and all the children of mankind home. It is likely that they did not understand this right away, until they were taught it again and their memory was restored. Joy came in this morning. Do not doubt it.

And as these women talked about Eve, the Mother of All Living, they moved to our other Mother, the One who lives in a quiet space in eternity, shielded from the sensibilities of those who worship. We are told platitudes about her: she is not revealed to us because Father is protecting her against the blasphemes He Himself must endure. She is being protected from the fallen world, her own children. To those of us with feminist sensibilities, this idea rankles. She — the great High Priestess, the Goddess of all our Universe — fragile? It evokes a sense that one bad word from her child will send her running to her room, throwing herself on the bed in tears at the distress. This does not resonate with all the strong women we know. Quiet dignity is not so easily brought low.

And yet, even those in the room who long for a Heavenly Mother admit that they do not readily feel her. They acknowledge that She is in a hiding place. These women who, in sacred circles, share experiences of associations with angels and beings, and for whom the veil is often quite thin, admit that they do not feel her. And so it brought them to this question: why is she withheld from us? What is Heavenly Mother’s job? It does not resonate in any way that she is a being who has less power, inheritance, rights, dominion or purpose than the Father. It rankles to think she is the spirit-baby-maker to His world-creating powers. She may make babies, but we see some holy partnership that, worlds without number, is creative beyond our imagining.

And so we consider another place in the eternal plan for Her. Heavenly Mother is the steward of all Life Force in the universe. That powerful, passionate, creative energy that is the force that creates and holds life in all of its profound purposes. The eternal power by which the worlds are created, by which plants and animals and beings are formed. She stewards the Source of music and beauty and art. She holds this power, like the flame that lights the night sky, like the fuel that combusts all of Life.

It is the pulsating energy that is just beyond our sight but which infuses everything that has life in it. It is the life of intelligence. It is spirit-life. It is light-life. It is energy-life. And while it is the Source of all that powers the universe and all creation, it is wild and ferocious and unruly. She is not wild and ferocious and unruly, and this is why She is the steward of it. Like earthly fire, it can be harnessed to create or to destroy. It is not useful in its uncreated form. It is chaos and beauty rolled into one. It must be channeled for the purposes of Mother-Father Creator.

And it is channeled by the Word. It is the masculine God who brings order to this flame. It is upon the Word of the Great Father that this energy is channeled into being-ness, where all things are and were created from all eternity to all eternity. It is He who is the steward of Principle, Law, Order, Covenant, Keys, Element, Symbol and Prinicipality. It is the force that calls upon creation to fulfill its measure, that adds direction and purpose to the flame of creative life. In this way, it is the masculine that brings order to the work: bringing authority to the use of the spark, bringing law to the foundation of the creation.

Without the order-maker (Father) the energy of eternity would be unexpressed in mankind. Its purposes would fail. Without the flame-maker (Mother) there would be no life to the order. It would be a dead and finite system. Its purposes would fail. Eternal progression would be impossible. The Plan would be stopped. We would be stopped.

If Creation wants to make music, it is Mother who provides every note, major and minor in scale, all instruments– string, brass and percussion — at all levels and in every key. And it it is Father who calls upon Order to create it as symphony.

We have not yet evolved as a people to be able to harness the Mother-Power. At best we would be at the effect of the creative chaos. At worst we would become destroyers. And so, She is not withheld from us to protect Her. She is withheld from us to protect us.

Eve brought Adam to the light through her longing to channel the creative powers inside her. Adam brought order to the brightness of living that Eve held as her stewardship. The Mother is the steward of the creative force of the universe. The Father calls upon it to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of Their children.

Our work in this life is to grow to become like God. In other words, before we can be given access to the volatile and powerful flame of the universe, kept by our Mother, we need to learn how to become like Him. Through obedience, sacrifice, covenant, self-mastery, consecration and the power of the Atonement, we become sanctified as beings who can evolve as Creators, who can harness the feminine power that is stewarded by the Mother and become, as our Father and Mother aligned, Creators of all things.

What do you think is Heavenly Mother’s job?