A Reflection on Water and Women

 

It is said that life began in the ocean, submerged in the amniotic fluid of the Great Mother. Then compelled, those living things emerged onto dryness, solidness, despite the challenges of harshness, locomotion, desiccation, sensory alterations, breathing in, breathing out. They moved away from lightness and the soothing embrace of this ancient womb.

Water increasingly became a separate domain, one you had to learn to maneuverer through, one that contained immense and inhospitable depths. We, bit by bit, severed our initial connection to this feminine force.

The cut of the umbilical cord.

As a mother you fear for the safety of your children. Does the Great Mother worry about us on our terrestrial journey? 

She provides us with nourishment, like we do our children. When we ignore her, defy her, deny her, she forgives us like we do our teenagers. We long to move on, we yearn for expansion and she allows it like we do our adults. She enthralls our senses with colour and contour, flora lush and scented, sandy to iced terrain, wind song, bird song, sweetness and spice, an abundance of delights. 

And do we thank her?

She speaks to us through nature and the nature of animals. 

But do we listen? 

She reprimands us with stormy outpourings, rises up in floods of frustration. 

But do we learn?

She let life move on with unconditional love, the gestation period had passed. The labour, the rise and fall of the waves as life pushed up and fell back, up and back had ended. And there in the open air it was freed from the tangle of seaweed twine left behind on the shore like placental remains.

As our mother, does she delight in our every advancement? We must be in our teenage stage of development, defiant and hungry for autonomy, though we know in our cells, our blood, the deepest regions of our brains this profound disconnection to the feminine source. It invites the abuse of the earth, which is her body, and is mirrored in the subjugation of females and all those deemed lesser.

Water like the feminine spirit is versatile and resilient. Contain it, freeze it, boil it, dam it abuse it, it still flows with so much power you can’t endlessly suppress its force. It will patiently erode at barriers to eventually wash over unyielding landscapes. Soft and soothing, gentle and intimidating. Mysterious depths. Alluring, playful and inspiring. Capricious and reliable.  Impossible to live without.  Beautiful, life giving and sustaining. 

We thirst for it.

Stardust

 

Happy Easter? A question for non-vegan Christians

Nothing says rebirth, renewal, and new life like the mass slaughter of lambs. 

How is slaughtering and eating a helpless, young, farmed creature the acceptable and expected Easter celebration?

I ask this question not only to Christian, but to any other celebrants that partake in ritualized lamb eating.

It doesn't make sense. 

At least, not these days.

Maybe, way back when, sacrificing an animal, and/or indulging in a feast of flesh had some relevance in context to the setting. Unlike now, people did not understand that the seasonal cycle was a cosmic/earthly certainty.* 

People needed reassurance that the sun would return and the harvest would be plentiful. They sacrificed to those beings they deemed to be in control, as a prayer, as a thank you. They ate heartily in celebration and gratitude. But the times have changed.

I am aware that lambs are slaughtered at a later stage than shown in the picture above, nevertheless, they are still babies. Or a baby is the coveted age.

According to this article, older lambs, and even mutton are sold due to the high price of spring lamb, (such a misleadingly cheery name.) 

https://www.irishtimes.com/food/2024/03/29/why-the-lamb-you-bought-for-easter-is-probably-not-spring-lamb/

This article gives a matter of fact account of the practice. For example, the mutton section appears to be written without the author batting an eyelid.**

On one side, this is good. It is, at least, honest. But the author's disconnect to the animals as more than a commodity is disturbing. Also, there's no talk of slaughterhouses, no pictures of bloody lambs. No in-depth details of overworked farmers and slaughterhouse employees (veganism concerns human suffering as well).

So, is the article really that honest? 

To use Christian terminology: in my view, hell is factory farms, slaughterhouses, prisons and war zones. And they are all on earth and all created by humans.

*Although, that is highly debatable when Neolithic symbols and structures are taken into account.

**Mutton are sheep older than three. In Ireland these are mostly ewes traded into the meat plants as “cull ewes”. They are culled because they don’t go into lamb, have traits you don’t want to breed from such as lameness or they can’t feed themselves because of teeth problems. These are called “broken mouthed ewes” and this can occur from the age of five.