“The Feminine Spirit, the Power of Birth and Rebirth, and the Capacity to Accept Death in Life”

In archetypal psychology, the archetype of the Mother Goddess and the anima—the feminine dimension of personality—are always forces within the structure of personality that bring about transformation and change. This transformation does not merely give birth to something new: it also enables that new thing to grow, makes healing possible, and, when the necessary moment arrives, removes what must be removed—just like Mother Nature, who gives birth, heals, and at the same time brings death. The feminine spirit comprehends this cycle in its entirety.

In mythological images, from the Iranian goddess Anahita to the Egyptian goddess Isis, the Mother Goddess is often shown holding, or crowned by, a ring that symbolises the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. The Mother Goddess holds this cycle in her hands, and the cycle is nothing other than a symbol of the transformation of the world. This cycle—also called the Solar Disc, and represented in alchemical symbolism by the dragon that eats its own tail, the Ouroboros—is a symbol of transformation and eternity in the world. It is the same ring seen around the Faravahar of Ahura Mazda and in his hand, and the same ring that we exchange in marriage as a symbol of accepting the union of feminine and masculine consciousness, linking this life and consciousness to future generations and continuing the cycle of life.

The ideal mother is also unafraid of death because she knows that rebirth requires an acceptance of death. To understand the ideal-mother archetype in personality is to activate that part of the structure of personality that allows us to accept death in life. This death is not always physical death. Again and again we encounter psychological death and the death of our past in life, and sometimes we must receive the painful death of the past with open arms so that we can allow ourselves to be reborn.

YouTube video link:
https://youtu.be/42lt4Q9OFxE