Mother Goddess Carrying Children/Food (Well-Being)
The goddess of care-giving provides comfort, ease, and contentment in the home and wherever she goes. Her qualities provide for daily nurturance and the necessities of life and support for our physical and emotional fulfillment.
Invoking the Qualities of Comfort and Contentment.
The mother goddess in her aspect of beneficence gives nourishment, food, and well-being to domestic life. Her mothering tends to the immediate and personal needs of daily human life. She cradles and nurses infants, is surrounded by children under her care, and carries fruits, ears of corn, grains, cakes, breads, goblets of wine, kegs, pots, baskets and cornucopias spilling over with fruits, grains, and breads. Her dependable and soothing attention provides comfort and contentment in daily life.
Images of the mother goddess of well-being are found throughout the Celtic territories. As a local maternal sovereign, she attends to the everyday needs of life by sustaining the local crops, blessing the harvest, nursing the babies, comforting the sick and the dying, pouring out the wine, and dispensing the fruits of the harvest. The passing of life, the cycle of birth and death, and the vicissitudes of day-to-day existence are her concerns. Her presence is familiar, homey, and soothing. Amid the insecurities and dangers of life, she blesses life with comfort, constancy, and contentment.
Whether depicted as a single goddess or in groups of two or three representing her magnificence, the mother goddess in her aspect of loving care carries symbols of well-being, security, and prosperity intended to bless and provide for life's daily needs. In image after image, she holds fruit, grains, ears of corn, bread, pots of honey and mead. Ordinarily, she carries babies and is encircled by toddlers and older children seeking her attention and perhaps her good counsel. In this lovely image from the Rhineland, she carries two enormous cornucopias, signifying her bountiful presence in providing food and sustenance throughout the years.
The goddess of the home and locality is immortalized in the words of the ancient poet Amergin:
"I am the womb: of every holt, I am the blaze: on every hill, I am the queen: of every hive, I am the shield: for every head, I am the tomb: of every hope."
Drawing this oracle is a wake-up call to nourish yourself with soothing activities and relationships. A complete rest is not necessary. Nonetheless, you are asked to focus your attention on your immediate and personal needs for comfort, nourishment, and well-being. What activities would soothe you? Is your diet supporting your life? Do the people around you give you comfort and reassurance? Is there a way to receive more physical or sexual contact and comfort? Do some people and activities unnerve you or deplete you? Even seemingly minor activities can be enormously tiring or rejuvenating. Look for patterns, especially in your home life. Write them down, even if they seem unimportant at the time. Since the mother goddess is devoted to tranquillity at home, it is especially important to consider ways to bring more ease, contentment, and security to your domestic life.
Even amid trying situations, it is possible to support your physical and emotional well-being. Small signs of joy, acts of kindness, personal prayer, meditation, and attention to diet and exercise are essential. The presence of this oracle gives hope that the nourishment and comfort you need is available in your immediate environment.
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