Laying in the Lap of the Divine Mother
on uniting with her, worshiping her, and embodying her
What’s up, swimmers? Welcome to March.
The energy of this month feels like a swirl. A big, whirling cyclone of this and that, all overlapping and unfurling as we move ever closer to a new zodiacal year.
Numerologically, March is the third month of the year, bringing us into communion with the themes of the number three (3)—life experience, the journey, creation, communication, magic, and also destruction, misunderstandings, and primordial chaos.
In 2024, March gets a kick in the pants by our yearly number, eight (8), elevating our perspectives to that of the number eleven (11). Justice. A bird’s eye view. Transcendence out of the mud and into the heart of the blooming lotus. All the while remembering that we are rooted in the energy of two (2)—love, connectedness, compassion, and diplomacy, but also painful separation, conflict, dissonance, and the tight clamp of a hardened heart.
Our cards, as well as the ceaseless news cycle of violence and rupture, speak to the severity and the possibility of this moment. While the horrors are rich and complex, the medicine offered is simple and somewhat sweet. Gentleness in the face of depravity is the name of the game this month. Tenderness, yes, and also the art and act of being tenderized…
March is a portal between worlds, so it’s a good thing we’ve been making friends with the liminal space. Still, we are ready for the next, even if our legs are shaking.
The Year of Yearning will consist of twelve topics of study, one for each month of the year. Every Friday, you’ll receive a little lesson or a love letter. The first installment—which you’re reading now—will be sent to all subscribers, but the full versions of the love letters and the second lesson will be for paid pals only.
Our cards for March 2024 are…
3 - THE EMPRESS with KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK
THE SEVEN OF SWORDS with RESET
This month, we are…
LAYING IN THE LAP OF THE DIVINE MOTHER
On New Year’s Eve 2022, I ate mushroom-infused chocolate and finger-painted. I didn’t have a plan or design, and I certainly wasn’t paying attention to my “craft.” I simply let my fingers dip themselves in paint and spread about a blank canvas. The result (pictured below) was a colorful, pregnant person. It was an incredible sight as the clock, and I, slipped quickly into 2023—a three year in my personal numerology.
Why was this sight so revelatory? Three is the ruling number of the Empress, who is often depicted sitting amongst the trees, atop a throne or other seat of luxury, holding a scepter, wearing a crown of stars, and flanked by the shield of Venus. But more importantly, in many iterations, the Empress is pregnant.
Now, personally, I do not wish to have children. That is fine; the Empress does not mind. For they cannot be reduced to one type of gestation, nor one type of birth. They are ripe. They are ready. They are bursting with lifeblood, bringing that which is growing in the darkness into the light of the physical world. In Radical Tarot,
calls the Empress: The Erotic Force of Creation. Their fecundity is available to everyone through the senses—through smell, touch, taste, sound, and sight.The Empress—as bearer, as birther, as channel—rules the physical body. The one that houses us in this lifetime; that encases our spirit, our breath, our spark, in dense, yet intelligent, matter. The Empress is the body in pleasure and the body in pain. They stoke the fire of creation and destruction. They usher in both life and death, while transcending the dualistic concepts altogether.
The Empress reminds us that we cannot get what we want without taking into account what it will cost us to get it. There is always an exchange, even in magic. A price to be paid, a sacrifice or offering needed. This for that. Expansion here, now, but contraction there, later. It is in their care that we experience both the fruit we’ve worked for and the promise of the rot still to come. This is a natural balance.
The Divine Mother—as this energy is referred to in Ram Dass’s spiritual guidebook, Be Here Now—teaches us how to die as much as she teaches us how to live.
Here, in the lap of the Divine Mother, we are being called to listen.
Three rules communication, which includes both speaking and listening. One of the tenents of Synchromantics we explored last month is to listen far more than we speak. I know, it’s hard—even former-Bachelor Peter said that was his plan going into season two of The Traitors, but if you’ve been watching, you know he’s been pretty damn chatty… Every day is a chance to practice new habits and skills.
Before we hear her sweet praise, and her gentle voice encouraging us to Keep Up the Great Work!, the Divine Mother has a more pressing message for us:
Her children are dying. Our children are dying.
Her Earthly body is suffering. Our Earthly bodies are suffering.
Those who are sick with power and greed seek to control all matters of creation and destruction. They wish to desecrate the walls of her temple and spit on her floors. They will take and take and take and take and take—and she will give.
To her detriment. To her destruction. To her Death.
The Divine Mother is with the children and peoples of Gaza, and Aaron Bushnell, and Nex Benedict, and all her children whose names will never make the six-o-clock news or a social media feed. She scorns the works of those who would wish to gatekeep the sacred art of child bearing, which has always involved the use of medical and technological advancements. The ancestral midwives knew which herbs to work with to produce various results when it came to reproductive health. They were also killed by those who feared their knowledge and self-empowerment. The Divine Mother was with them, too.
Here! Here is where she begins to whisper to us with honeyed lips—
For her Death is paradoxical. She endures, she is ressurected, she will rise again. The Divine Mother—The Empress, the number three—heralds over the cycles of beginning, middle, end; mother, maiden, crone; birth, life, death.
It is not too late.
We may still commit ourselves to the Great Work.1 Her work. Our work. The work of this world, the work its peoples, the work of this Earth-bound life experience.
It is not too late.
The Seven of Swords worries that it might not be enough. That we might not be, have, or do enough. But the Seven is Swords is often preoccupied with what is outside of their grasp and their purview. The Seven of Swords is not often satisfied with what they are already holding in their hands.
The truth is, the Seven of Swords might be right. Our actions might not be enough, we might not be enough. But we just don’t know yet. We don’t know what the future holds. We don’t know how this is going to play out. What we do know, however, is that when we feel helpless, we are less likely to take direct actions against the powers-that-be. We are less likely to make concerted efforts towards change. We are less likely to use our voices to make Good Trouble.2
The Great Work is an esoteric concept of the internal journey that is always dancing with the external world. Furthering our lessons from last month, our commitment to the Great Work teaches us that we are God. It shows us that we have everything inside of us to create, destroy, live and die. The Great Work teaches us that we are this body, this soul, but also much, much more. There really is no other.
The Great Work rewrites the myths of this Earthly world. It opens us up to new ways of listening, methods of storytelling, and perspectives within old stories.
It’s okay if this feels far away or intangible to you. That is the work of this month. To rexamine, redirect energy, rewrite narratives, and resource ourselves for the world that is coming—the one we will nurture together, out of the ruins of the one that is no longer serving us. That is what lies in the lap of the Divine Mother.
In “The Myth of Not-Enoughness with Seven of Swords,” an episode of Tarot for the Wild Soul, host Lindsay Mack says, “that sense of not-enoughness is like the most insidious, time-wasting, bullshit lie. And it's a lie we believe so completely that it completely can totally drive our lives.”
This month, we’re in need of a mental and mythic RESET. For how could God ever not be enough?
LAYING IN THE LAP OF THE DIVINE MOTHER
Next week, I will write to you about my second experience with shrooms and the Divine Mother. It did not go as expected, and yet, she was quite generous with me. Soft, yet firm; her sense of humor necessary and welcomed. I am grateful.
But first, let us come to know her through the words of those who have already glimpsed her veiled state. Let us bask in the moonlight of the Mother who tends to us all. Let us begin to commune with her—to know her—and to play in her paradoxical sandbox of pleasure and pain without attachment to our desires.
1. UNITING WITH HER
In Be Here Now, Ram Dass writes:
Lame, halt, blind, dying
We’re all dyingAt this moment your body is disintegrating before your very eyes. If you’ve taken LSD you may be seeing it do this but you know it’s happening anyway
It’s all a downhill trip
All the wayBoy, what a funny place to get attached!
To something that’s got to go like that
So Buddha says: The cause of suffering is attachment or desireThey all say the same thing!
Third Noble Truth
Give up attachment
Give up desireYou end the births
You end the deaths
You end the suffering
You end the whole thing that keeps you STUCK!If I’m not attached to this particular time-space locus then I can free my awareness from my body and I can become
ONE with it ALL
I can merge with
THE DIVINE MOTHER
Rituals for Merging with the Divine Mother: Take three deep breaths, in through the nose, and out through the mouth / Sit for a Lovingkindness meditation / Light green candles / Say prayers to Mother Mary, Mary Magdalene, Our Lady of Guadalupe / Sit in Nature and notice / Engage all five senses and then let go of those “knowings” / Put one hand on your heart and the other on your belly, and practice feeling and releasing your physical body
2. WORSHIPING HER
Then, he writes (as pictured above):
All you can do is honor her and love her
Because if you say
Wow Lady I know who you are
You’re the keeper of this reform school
That’s attachmentCan’t have her
Can’t reject her
Can’t live with her
Can’t put her awayJust honor and honor her
DIVINE MOTHER
You’ve got to
WORSHIP HER
Rituals for Worshiping the Divine Mother: Pull the Empress card from your tarot deck and spend time with both the artwork and the spirit of the card / Adorn your altar with offerings of milk, honey, and roses / Say a rosary of your choosing / Read The Gospel of Mary Magdalene or The Madonna Secret by Sophie Strand / If available to you, call your own mother and thank her efforts. If not, invite the Divine Mother into your heart, and ask that she attend to your Earthly wounds
3. EMBODYING HER
Hanna Williams, who was on the podcast early last year, speaks about the Divine through cyclical experiences of concealment and revealment, so it didn’t come as a shock that when I first sat with the Empress, they spoke of the concept and craft of Glamour Magick!
Glamours are concealment spells that can work to shift the perceptions people have of you out in the world. It’s an ancient art, which has roots in Celtic, Greek, Roman, and Egyptian mythology. Perhaps this month, we can research Eastern examples to round out our cultural understanding of this type of magic.
Modern-day glamour magick “offers a powerful means of self-expression and self-transformation.”3 It can be used to both worship and embody through the ritual and every day use of clothing, jewelry, make-up, perfume, herbs, lotions, oils, bath soaks, crystals, tattoos, food, movement, mantras, and more.
Rituals for Embodying the Divine Mother: As I am not an expert, here are a smattering of perspectives and spells to try, written by others who are well-versed in glamour magick:
Feather of Green Witch Living, who wrote an article on Glamour Magic that includes various rituals to try, tells us that we are already familiar with a simple form of this craft: “A popular form of glamour magick goes by the name of positive affirmations… The saying, “fake it ’till you make it,” is a glamour of a sort. You are training your mind to become the ideal version of yourself until you and everyone else around you believe it and by default, it becomes true. Just like with any spell, when you believe something to be true, it shifts the energy for that outcome to become reality.”
Here, witch and writer Gaby Herstik is speaking about a former offering, but also the foundations of her glamour magick practice: “The temple of glamour is a space where we honor the Goddess, Venus and the divinity in ourselves through ultra femme aesthetics, lingerie, flowers and magick. [My definition of the temple] is, ‘dressing up as glamour as alchemy. Honoring the Goddess through creation as initiation with opulence and extravagance. In vintage lingerie with flower petals and moonlight in our hair.’”
In an article for Hauswitch called Glamour Magic for Beginners, Kalyn Anderson, offers us a simple spell called "Clear the Fog" Facial Steam “that will help to soothe the skin and quiet the mind.” For this steam, you’ll need peppermint, lavender, rosemary, and green tea leaves, but she also shares a table of common skincare ingredients and their magical associations so that you can create your own lotions and potions.
Lisa Stardust calls upon the wisdom of many prominent witches to offer a few examples of glamour magick spells in How to Practice Glamour Magic for Teen Vogue. Spells to try include: Find Your Power Color and Scent to Build Confidence, Heal Insecurities with Bath and Mirror Magic, Use Crystals and Minerals, and Make a Charm.
This month, I invite you to play with glamour magick in your life. Take notes, and listen deeply for whispers from the Mother as you delight in her, and your, beauty.
In a slight shift from the previous months, we’re approaching March from a place of process, not product. We’re creating, yes, but for the love and act of it.
Become less concerned with outcomes. Give up attachments to results. Commit yourself to your practices. Find pleasure in the blood, sweat and tears. Sit in awe of your Divine Spark, which lives in everyone. Come to care for all children of the Divine Mother. Take action from this place. Everything for the glory of the One.
Until next time, just keep swimming!
xx, Rebecca
“The Great Work signifies the spiritual path towards self-transcendence in its entirety. This is the process of bringing unconscious complexes into the conscious awareness, in order to integrate them back into oneself.” — Swan, Theresa (2010). Incorporating alchemy into contemporary theories of transformation: Transpersonal embodiment through the coniunctio (PhD dissertation). California Institute of Integral Studies. ISBN 978-1-109-76116-0. ProQuest 305237207
A phrase attributed to the late American civil rights leader and politician, John Lewis.
The Enchanting Art of Glamour Magic: Exploring History and Techniques by River Blue on Medium.
This was a balm for my soul this month. Thank you!