"Sacred Mother"

This piece celebrates one of humanity's most ancient and universal sacred concepts; the Sacred Mother.
The earliest piece of human art ever found is a voluptuous female figure, known as the Woman of Willendorf, thought to represent a Mother Goddess.

The Sacred Mother embodies many things; the feminine gender, fertility and the creation of life, nurturing and comfort, purity, protection, unconditional love and the earth itself, among others.

Every culture has a mother figure in their mythology.  They are often the female counterpart to the main male god, but many scholars believe that in earlier pagan (pre-Christian) times, the goddess was regarded as the supreme deity because of her exclusive ability to give birth.

In this piece, the Christian figure of the Virgin Mary (the mother of Jesus Christ) is central.  Her pregnant belly is represented by a mandala made of intersecting heart shapes that signify a mother’s unconditional love.  Below this is an image of the Paleolithic Woman of Willendorf, mentioned above.   

I've imagined her in the style of a Hindu goddess with multiple arms. In one hand she holds an egg, in the other, a sprouting acorn. Both of these are symbols of fertility and new life.  

She stands upon a lotus flower, a Buddhist emblem of purity and enlightenment.  She is surrounded by a doorway adorned with flames, which signifies protection, purity and holiness. The halo also represents divinity, the roses atop her head are symbols of love and beauty. The doorway is flanked by lilies – a flower associated with motherhood in many cultures.  

Above her head is a crescent moon.  The moon is traditionally thought of as feminine, and its waxing shape is associated with the growing womb of pregnancy.

In the upper left corner is the Japanese kanji for “mother”.  In the upper right is a vesica pisces (vessel of the fish), an ancient symbol that represents the vulva – the portal through which new life emerges. The stars around her head embody the notion of the Cosmic Mother, who brought the entire Universe into being.

This artwork is available as a high quality fine art digital print HERE. Prices start at $24.

The Global Goddess Series explores the idea of Unity in Diversity.

Every person, culture, tribe, religion and social group on Earth has their own unique personality and way of life.  Yet most of the core ideals – the things we hold sacred – are universal; they are concepts that unite us as a single Human Family. 

We are endlessly creative in our interpretations and expressions of these ideas, but what we hold in our hearts is largely the same around the globe, and throughout history.

In the Global Goddess series, each design will take a look at a particular concept as expressed through the female deities of many cultures, combining the aspects and associated symbols into a single goddess figure that encompasses the global expression of that idea.