Happy Mother’s Day! We are celebrating Mother’s Day in the United States, but it is the perfect day to recognize the nourishment and support that your mother has provided, no matter where you live.
Though ancient Greeks and Romans celebrated their “mother goddesses” with festivals and parties, and European Catholics celebrated “Mothering Sunday,” a specific Sunday during Lent dedicated to “mother churches,” the American version of Mother’s Day originated in the 1900s as the brainchild of Anna Jarvis. Anna created Mother’s Day in tribute to her deceased mother and as a way to praise the act of motherhood in general.
Historically, the feminine form, or “Triple Goddess,” is based on ancient goddess triads and the three forms (aspects) a woman takes throughout her life. No matter which transition she is experiencing, maiden, mother, or crown, it’s a nice time to bring awareness to the nurturing energy in your life.
The mother archetype in mythology is the archetypal mother who is often linked to the idea of the Great Mother. This includes Great Mother deities such as Gaia, Isis, and Mother Earth, saints, great leaders, and of course, the Virgin Mary. In this archetype, the mother nurtures not just the child, but also all of creation or certain elements of nature. This kind of care is always given to a female deity. In many polytheistic religions, the mother forms a triumvirate along with the maiden and the crown archetypes as the three stages of womanhood.
Originally, Mother’s Day was an intimate celebration between a family with no gifts or monetary focus. Individuals simply visited their mothers or the church in honor of all that moms do. After Mother’s Day was added to the official holiday calendar at Anna’s insistence, Mother’s Day gradually picked up the traditions of gifting and celebration we observe today.
There’s actually an area of the feng shui Bagua map that’s related to the mother, the furthest left-hand side of any space. This area is related to relationships, partnerships, the mother, marriage, the color pink, the number two, square and flat shapes, and the element of yin earth.
Here are six, the number of mothers, wonderful ways to send loving energy and to honor your mother or a mother that you know:
- Light a candle: Honor a mother who is living or who has passed by lighting a candle on their behalf.
- Give roses: The mother of all flowers, the rose is the flower of love, thanks to the goddess Aphrodite. The color pink represents compassion, nurturing, and love, and is the perfect color to represent the love you have for your mother.
- Simple ritual: Bring love and honor to yourself as a mother, or give thanks to Mother Earth by planting a plant or flowers.
- Essential oils: Pay homage to your mother through the power of scent. Below is a list of oils that may be appropriate:
- Jasmine: Associated throughout history with the compassionate Goddess of the Moon, Jasmine, grown along the Nile in ancient Egypt, is represented by Isis, the Egyptian Mother Goddess who held the secrets of fertility, magic, and healing. It is a bold, sweet scent.
- Patchouli: A sweet, earthy scent, patchouli is intense and spicy. It’s a grounding, harmonizing fragrance.
- Rose: Rose oil has amazing powers of love, trust, and self-acceptance. Roses are representative of faith, hope, and love, and have the qualities to restore the very center of one’s being. A gentle tonic of the heart, the compassion of the rose is seen through its ability to heal emotional wounds. When loss, rejection, or sorrow has injured our capacity for nurturing and self-love, Rose oil brings a sweet and gentle comfort, binding the “heartstrings” from the heart to the mind. Rose oil calms and supports the heart and helps to nourish the soul
- Rose Quartz crystals: Rose Quartz represents love, beauty, peacefulness, forgiveness, loving, self-love, and emotional balance. It works with the heart chakra, and is a soft, gentle, soothing stone that warms the heart center; it stimulates love and tender appreciation of all things.
- Plant-based meal: Honoring not only your mother but also mother earth, prepare a plant-based meal and enjoy it outside.
The goddess is the goodness in all women. And so I am wishing all of you mothers, stepmothers, or anyone fulfilling this special role a Happy Mothers’ Day!
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Use healing aromatherapy oils. An oil diffuser is nice as it sends the scent into the air. You can turn it on or off as needed. Lavender is relaxing, Eucalyptus is energizing. Peppermint is good for congestion. You can ask the person what their favorite flower scent is and find that oil. I used rose. 
I have noticed as I age, western medicine doesn’t seem to be as effective. For whatever reason, after I hit 50 I began to get all of those dreaded side effects printed on the warning labels of all the medication I was taking. But after a severe allergic reaction during a trip to India, an Indian doctor treated me with aromatherapy. For over two hours he applied essential oils, which seemed at the time, completely far-fetched. The treatment was labor-intensive, appeared imprecise and low-tech. But the treatment worked. The doctor explained that essential oils are multi-dimensional, filled with homeostatic intelligence that works to restore the body to a state of healthy balance. When body conditions change, oils adapt, raising or lowering blood pressure as needed, stimulating or repressing enzyme activity as needed, energizing, or relaxing as needed. “Oils possess an intelligence that we can’t comprehend,” he said. “Nature, Mother Earth does not need to read a textbook.”
Rene Gatfosee, a French chemist, coined aromatherapy over a hundred years ago. He worked with volatile plant essential oils, developing fragrances for the perfume industry, until one day he had an explosion in his lab and was badly burned. He plunged his arm into the nearest vat of liquid, which happened to be lavender. To his amazement, the pain stopped immediately, and no blistering or scarring occurred. As a result, he changed his focus completely to the medicinal effects of these oils.
Utilizing the wisdom of plants and trees medicinally pre-dates written history. Early man, as a hunter-gatherer, must have sampled different plants to find out if they were edible and if so, what effects the plants had on the body. He would have learned quickly that some herbs bring on stupor, some enliven, others purge and of course, many nourish the body. A deep understanding and connection would have been formed between man and plant. As anyone who has lived close to the land soon learns, plants have a spirit of their own and can commune their intent if one is open enough to listen to their energetic frequency. In early times, man probably had a much keener awareness of his environment and worked more closely with the rhythms and vibrations of the earth. His sense of smell would be more honed, the odor entering the brain allowing him to intuit the efficacy of the plant by tuning into its vibration and sensing whether it would be a healthy fit for his body.
So often we label the rooms in our homes by what we do in them, the dining room, living room, the entertainment room, etc. Creating a meditation space gives you a place in your home or office that is dedicated to calm, silence, and stillness. Finding a moment of calm each day is important for our well-being and overall stress levels.
Layer beautiful aromas from essential oils, aromatic candles, or incense such as lavender, chamomile, and peppermint, which can soothe the soul, mind, and body.
