mother mary: hidden in plain sight

mother mary
cardinal creator
hidden in plain sight
birthing magnificence
beyond assumption

mother mary
sensual symbol
embodied energy
with just one kiss
divinity is revealed

mother mary
blessed creator
submissive, never
in birthing splendour
reflects her Self


The bible can seem pretty dry and unreadable. All that tiny print crammed onto hundreds of thin pages. And unless we’ve got a time machine, the meanings are elusive. This despite the best efforts of erudite theologians and historians.

After being raised in the Christian tradition, theologically educated, gone through the long process of ordination and out the other side, I find myself in a completely different spiritual landscape. And still, the stories, imagery and symbols of the biblical text continue to call me. That has proved to be something of a conundrum.

So, what I’ve been doing lately is taking an active reader response stance to the text. This means I can stir the dust and try to over-ride any ‘correct’ meanings that might have taken root within me, despite my best resistance.

I’ve also added doodling and dream work. This helps me unlock the ideas, images and symbols about the divine feminine that are hidden in plain sight. Opening to new meanings that come from my experience, imagination and inner promptings is bringing new delight.

8 Replies to “mother mary: hidden in plain sight”

  1. Yes, every time I stand in front of tukutuku I’m called to make sure the woven strands are not separated out in my mind. My conditioning was towards looking at the particular rather than the whole. Quite difficult to over come those early lessons

    1. I had to think about this for a bit. In a world where the scientific dominates with the desire to unpick every situation (and I do this in spades) something about the whole, interconnected story gets lost. I think the same thing has happened with critical methods of studing ancient texts like the bible. Good proess, to a point, but then the story can disintegrate under the weight of all that intellect!

  2. Our ancestors call to us – kindly, their words become literally strangers to us but themselves become literately as intimate to us as our contemporaries even through their strange words and words and narratives tease us by the strangeness of their choicest genius.

    1. hi George
      I keep wondering if we have done them a diservice by trying to understand their words in intellectual ways. Using our brains rather than our intuition. Because surely our ancestors that finally wrote some of this material were likely to have had a much more instinctual connection with their unconscious than we allow ourselves to have. More poetic, metaphoric and mythological than we have been able to allow. Whatever it is, I still feel the call of it…

  3. So good to go in behind and move out beyond the words that have lasted for centuries. Meanings are evocative rather than persuasive. What you are doing Sande is bringing the tapestry to life. Kia ora, nga mihi.

    1. hi Roy
      I think it’s because they have lasted for centuries that I experience a call from them.
      Almost as though they want to be understood, revamped, reinterpereted, reclaimed from another time.
      Who knows – can’t let them go though!

  4. Love it!
    Your creativity is abundant in
    Numinous freshness
    Word-crafting to dream doodles
    What a refreshing read.

    Much has changed
    In COVID-tide
    For me in the tiny
    Projection-screen universe
    We now inhabit
    Virtuality
    Is the new reality
    Ah, to savour
    That one kiss
    And be transformed

    1. Much appreciated!
      And how our world will continue to change in the face of what we do not understand or comprehend. I wonder if Corona will force us to become conscious of much more than our scientific understanding of her power…

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