A Mother's Day Message

Michelle Klein-Hass

Everyone has a mother. She is usually regarded with much love and affection, as the benign, loving presence in our childhood. That is, unless she was abusive, in which case her kids usually write books about her later. But who could forget the apprehension and downright FEAR you'd have if you had pulled your sister's hair, or written on the walls with a crayon, or got caught snitching a cookie from the cookie jar. The fear was not that of an innocent victim of oppression, but of a wrongdoer facing just punishment. The fear and loathing would inevitably subside after your behind would stop smarting, and she'd be back to being Benevolent Mom again.

As it is with our mother, so is it with the Earth Mother. Those who live in harmony with Her prosper, their needs met from Her bounty. Those who do violence to Her, however, risk Her wrath. The Mother is not just mild Demeter and sweet Parvati, but dark Hecate, the fierce Durga, and the absolutely horrifying Kali. She cares for us and loves us, and Her patience is near boundless. But Her patience has limits. We live in a time when more rape has been perpetrated on Her than in any other time of our existence as a species. Her Body has been defiled by mining and over-building. Her exhalations have been made foul by the smoke of cars and factories. And from Her Sacred Body, the Anglo has extracted what could be the seeds of our extinction-the Uranium used in both weapons production and nuclear power. The sacred Hopi prophecies speak of the world being defiled by "...a bowl full of ashes." This could mean the various atmospheric and underground detonations of nuclear weapons, or the accidents at Chernobyl and Three Mile Island.

I believe that this Bowl Full Of Ashes is not only these, but refers to all the destruction we have wrought on Our Mother. I have had some information revealed to me, in a way that seems to suggest that the Mother was speaking to me, both through Big Dreams and through an uncanny transmission I got while hanging out at Sepulveda Dam Basin. This is not a boast-this is something which I simply HAVE to talk about. We who strive to walk in harmony with The Mother, be you Wiccan, or Shamanist, or just someone who cares, have an awesome responsibility. Putting it simply, we are the ONLY FORCE STANDING BETWEEN THE PEOPLE OF EARTH AND HER RIGHTEOUS WRATH.

Our efforts might not be entirely enough to stay Her fury, considering the dramatic upswing in natural disasters that have occurred over the last 10 years, but it is obvious that WE MUST TRY. Shamanism has been "rediscovered" for a very basic reason. It means the possibility of healing this Planet and regaining awareness of Our Mother's will. We must guard against this tradition being bastardized and cheapened by those who commercialize these ways, and be very careful to not fall into the trap of honoring Mother to the point of forgetting the Sky Father, and forgetting that both Mother and Father are the ways that The Source Of All is revealed to us in a form we can understand. We must also be careful to whom we reveal information, being mindful that an unstable mind given some of this knowledge is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. But most importantly, Our Mother is calling us to restore our link with Her, and to work towards her healing. We have a lot of work ahead of us. Our very lives depend on it.

For The Earth Mother...ALWAYS!