12 Days of Yule: Mother's Night

 And Thus begins the 12 days of Yule, and what a wonderful way for our mother to grant us the delight of her presence! A moon eclipse that rose through the starry sky -- mother moon and father sun blessing their children from above, making them feel their love and warmth. 

Being raised Catholic, I cannot help but to ponder between the similarities between my Catholic background and my Pagan ways. In Mexico we honor the maternal figure probably more than we honor anything else. During the month of December, the figure of Mother Mary (or, as we call it, the Guadalupana or the Virgen de Guadalupe) is honored on December 12, as a mother to all Mexicans. Through the year, we ask for her protection, for her love, for her comprehension -- and we ask her to guide us, to give us hope, and to bring us confort in times of joy, in times of need, and in times of solitude. To me (as well as to many other Mexican pagans out there) Mother Mary (or La Virgencita) is just one more of the many faces the Great Lady portrays -- the motherly figure who cares for all her children. 

My grandmother said that once you have a child, you're mother to every single child in this world. And I have seen that through the eyes of my mother and my sister. I have not yet been given the joy and blessing of motherhood. Yet every creation that comes out of my hands, every animal that I heal, every mind that I educate, is as if I am giving birth to a new life and a new expectation --- a new hope.  


So, yesterday's eclipse to me was a warm reminder that our blessed mother is there for us. In a world that often seems to go mad, in times when we feel desperate and alone, we can always look up to the sky, open our hearts, our minds, and feel our celestial mother's love.