After writing this post yesterday morning about honoring the anniversary of my mother’s death I stepped into the day releasing expectations of what the hours ahead would hold and opened myself to how my mother might whisper to me across worlds. I arrived at my yoga class ten minutes early as is my habit to settle into a few moments of silence to begin this sacred time of entering the body’s wisdom. As I moved into the room there was an ethereal woman’s voice singing. Another student asked the teacher what music this was. “Hymns to the Divine Mother” she replied. I smiled and let the rise and fall of the music carry my breath. When class started we began in Child’s Pose and were invited to bring an intention for the class or to offer our practice on behalf of someone. I offered this time to my mother. Then we moved into our first pose which was Butterfly and I began to gently weep. Butterflies were a significant symbol when my mother died, so much so that I had one tattooed on my ankle. As if the music weren’t enough, I knew then she was there with me in that space and my whole practice became a joyful place of reaching across thresholds, inner and outer, here and beyond.
This is the last week of the current lectio divina online class and we are exploring ways to practice lectio with life experience as a sacred text. In my own practice later in the day I brought this experience to prayer. The song and the butterfly shimmered in my memory. I savored those moments again, feeling connected and held. I tended to the feelings stirring in me: the grief, the longing, the peace, letting each have its space. I listened for the invitation and heard this: allow yourself to be embraced by the Divine Mother, for she is always with you. Bring the names of Devi, Mary, the holy matrix of creation birthing in each moment to your practice. I rested deeply into the stillness.
I found the music online, the video below has the Sanskrit words and the English translation. It is a beautiful celebration of her qualities. May the Divine Mother embrace each of you this day. May reminders of her presence shower over you in surprising ways.
(You can also order the whole album online here in CD form and here as an MP3 download)
Thank you for all the extraordinarily kind and gracious words you sent to me in a variety of ways.
11 Responses
Christine,
Thank-you for sharing your thoughts on your post. When one of our parents die we all grieve differently. Last year I wrote two poems about my father on the anniversary of his death, one a lyrical poem, and one an elegy. Both were quite healing poems. I played the Hymn to the Divine Mother. It was beautiful, but just as I was playing it my sister called.
Christine, I want to share one quote with you.
“Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.” Henry David Thoreau
Christine,
So beautiful, thank you! I have had mixed emotions about marking the anniversaries of my parents’ deaths (11 years ago for my mother and 4 next month for my father). But after reading your last two posts, and seeing it as honoring them, I see it as the release from physical pain and suffering. So thank you for that.
Gayle
How incredibly moving this was for me. Grieving the loss of my stillborn grand daughter, born on Feb. 3, and having her visit me countless times as butterflies and wind viewing these images and listening to the angelic voice brought me right into her realm with tears of loss and celebration, the both/and of her existence. Thank you so much for this beautiful gift. I’ve shared it with many.
Blessings,
Terei
Beautiful. I loved it.
Pam, I do sort of remember the story but it was wonderful to hear it anew, especially in light of my experience yesterday. Thanks for sharing this beautiful memory with me.
Christine,
It is very likely that I told you this story before, but when you talk about death of mothers and butterflies, I can’t help telling it again and again. By the spring of 2000, my mother had been sick with cancer for a long time, but she had survived so much that we had no idea that death might be near. Several of my children were still small, so I ordered a kit where you receive several caterpillers and watch them turn into butterflies. (I highly suggest that you get one of these!!) When the caterpillers were getting bigger, we found out that my mother’s treatment was no longer working and they expected she could live only another 3 months. However, I went to Portland to be with her to try to figure out how these last months would be lived. It turned out that I stayed with her until the end because she only lived two more weeks. My husband stayed home with the kids and the caterpillers, so I would call quite often. At one point, my husband said, the caterpillers have gone into their cocoons (or chrysalis), and I said “So has my mother!” She had slipped into a coma, so she was no longer with us, but not yet gone…. in a transition that we could not witness. When I called my husband on what we thought would be her last day, he said that just one of the butterflies had come out of the cocoon, but was not yet flying. When I called him that night to tell him that my mother had died, he said that the butterfly was now flying! It was really a gift from God to have this happen with this timing as it gave me and my family a sense of the beauty of a soul on its way to heaven.
Such a gorgeous, stillness-inducing piece of music and song.
That is such a beautiful piece… it filled me with both tears and peace.
Thanks Deb, it was an incredible experience, one I was not expecting. I just added links to purchase the CD and mp3 version on Amazon.
Blessings to you! Christine
How precious the way you have honored your mother and all others through out time and space! The video is spell bounding. can this prayer be found on a CD anywhere? I am very blessed to have access to what Sophia places on your heart and in your soul to share with others.
Namaste,
Love and Light, Deb