I grew up associating the name, Madonna, with a rock star. But when I moved to Ticino, the Italian speaking part of Switzerland, Madonna became the Mother. She looks serenely out of stone shrines, the size of large play houses that stand guard along the roads every few kilometers. Some of these date to the sixteen and seventeen hundreds. Farmers paint her face on stone barns, and villagers place statues of her in niches carved in stone walls. In one remote valley across a river, a shrine stands on top of a rock the size of a two storey building. Other shrines pop up on isolated hiking trails often near perpetual fountains. Sometimes the Mother holds the divine child but sometimes she stands alone.
The Mother’s presence is constant here and the energy of loving protection she embodies still prompts women and men to light candles at her feet before setting off on a trip or when a new baby is expected. While in America her image in public places might be the object of some political debate about religious freedoms, here she is offered up to the open mind and heart as a gentle reminder that sooner or later we too must give birth to and nurture the divine child within us. The Mother, or La Madre as they call her here, brings a gentle reminder of the need to protect the child-Self as it grows and matures into a full-fledged spiritual being.
In Locarno on a steep stone path up to La Madonna del Sasso Monastery a larger-than-life sculpture of a gilded Madonna stands alone on an enormous, frightful dragon. Her face beams with perfect equanimity and she seems totally unaffected by the huge beast which writhes and gnashes its dreadful teeth beneath her feet. No fear enters her heart as she seems to walk on unscathed and in perfect peace.
Imagine the power of this image. The Mother, the embodiment of unconditional love, softness, compassion, beauty, elegance, grace and all of the feminine qualities, is powerful enough to quash the demons – both inner and outer. The demon might represent the out of balance masculine qualities unleashed in the world – aggression, greed, envy, excessive activity and consuming, selfishness, hatred and all of those things that separate us from the divine Self. We sometimes may worry that without force, as man knows it, the feminine goddess will not prevail. If she could speak words of wisdom this Mother might say, "Soft does not mean weak. Your strength is in your gentle touch, soft eyes and an open heart. They will triumph."
Bio: Debra Moffitt-Leslie
Debra Moffitt-Leslie’s book, "Awake in the World: Spiritual Practices for Challenging Times" will be published by Llewellyn Worldwide in 2011. Read more at www.debramoffitt.com Her essays and articles appear in publications around the world and focus on drawing attention to the spiritual in a mostly material-minded world. She’s on the faculty for The Sophia Institute and gives workshops in the
What a awesome 6 hour, thankyou to Dave and all the crew at Roudtuit Caravan park for all the work that went to running this event, well worth marking in the dairy for next yearZayıflama Lida Fx15 ve Biber Hapı zlfvbh burmeh yaza lida fx15 biber hapı ile formda girin burmeh yaza lida fx15 biber hapı ile formda girin Trakya Üniversitesi tabiii en önemliside bize baya bi para getirecek. his family and particularly the children he had artificially created will be happier and far better off without him, not to mention wealthier. Remember and play his music if you want..it was pretty good but don't for get what an absolute failure as man he was. He dies a whiny drug addicted loser.. Save your sorrow for someone worthy