Note: Click cc turn closed captions on or off.
Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims,
This Tuesday is the Feast of the Annunciation and I want to share an adapted excerpt from my book Birthing the Holy: Wisdom from Mary to Nurture Creativity and Renewal. My book explores 31 archetypes of Mary and this one is on the Greek image of Theotokos.
During these difficult days with uncertainty and suffering everywhere, we can call upon Mary as God-bearer to remind us that we too are called to birth the holy.
Theotokos: She Who Gave Birth to God
Theotokos means God-bearer. There is a beautiful fullness to that image. Mary as the one who could bear the divine within her very womb. Who nourished and nurtured the Christ child for nine months within her. To bear God is to have great courage and wisdom.
In the Greek Eastern Orthodox tradition, Theotokos is one of the traditional names or titles for Mary and literally translates to “God-bearer.” The term is also used to refer to icons of Mary as Mother with child.
Mother is one of the great archetypes that exists across time and cultures. She is the source of life and nourishment, of unconditional love and care, the generous flow of abundance and grace. We see this archetype alive in images of the divine as the Great Mother, whether Mother Nature, Gaia, or a Goddess figure as well as in sacred images like Mary’s role as mother of the incarnate God. She is the abundant provision of care and nurture.
Theologian Elizabeth Johnson, in her book Truly Our Sister, writes: “Mary’s mothering has the potential to promote the ‘ripeness of maturity’ that enhances the dignity of all women who nurture and serve the life of others, whether biologically or in other ways. . . we are all meant to be mothers of God, for God is always needing to be born.” At the heart of the image of God-bearer is a calling to each of us to embrace this vocation in our lives as well.
The Mother archetype is the one who supports us in giving birth to what is gestating within. She calls forth the power to birth and sustain life, whether a child or a creative vision. Sometimes through birth we are also called to experience a death of some kind, and the Mother accompanies us here as well. These are the times when the Mother is often activated, when we begin to discover our inner resources available through her. While the Mother is associated with the female gender, she is present in each of us, however we identity our own genders.
Call on Theotokos
Mary as Mother and God-bearer supports us in giving birth to what is gestating within our own bodies and spirits. She calls forth the power to birth and sustain life, whether a child or a creative vision.
We can call on Mary in those moments of laboring, of crying out in pain wondering if this journey is worth it, of feeling the intense emotions that arise in making ourselves so vulnerable and exposed. She knows these experiences intimately herself. Mary holds us through it all, comforts us, cares for us, and models the process of holy birthing for us. She stays by our side until our sacred creation has been released into the world. She helps us to gaze with loving wonder at all we are able to imagine and offer through our creative actions.
With great and growing love,
Christine
Christine Valters Paintner, OblSB, PhD, REACE
Theotokos icon by Kreg Yingst. Blessing video by Abbey of the Arts with footage from Canva.
