Heavenly Mother Resource Guide
With the inclusion of Heavenly Mother in the new Young Women’s theme, I hope and suspect that there will be even more interest in learning about–and feeling close to–Her. I’m not going to pretend that this guide includes every possible source, just that it includes my favorites and the ones I go to when people ask me for recommendations. I hope you’ll share your own favorites in the comments.
From the Church/ish:
“‘A Mother There’: A Survey of Historical Teachings about Mother in Heaven.” Written by David Paulsen and Martin Pulido. Researched by Martin Pulido, Rachel Hunt Steenblik, and a whole team of people. Published by BYU Studies. This is the article that opened up everything. Its premise is simple: Heavenly Mother is sacred, but She can be spoken about and has, by many past and present church leaders: here is some of what they said + where the myth that She is too sacred to speak of originated. (Hint: it was not from a general authority.)
“Mother in Heaven.” Gospel Topics essay. Published by the Church History Library. At just six paragraphs long this essay is short but hugely important. It gives us an institutional, First Presidency, approved place to send people (or ourselves) wanting to learn a bit more about Heavenly Mother. I am 100% sure it wouldn’t have been possible without the BYU Studies article, and not only because it borrows so heavily from it.
“Behold thy Mother.” Written by Jeffrey R. Holland. Published by the Church. This is not even close to the first General Conference talk including Heavenly Mother, nor is it the last. It makes my list because it explicitly said “Mother in Heaven” for the first time in over 20 years. (The last was Gordon B. Hinckley, not yet prophet, in 1991.) It also has these beautiful words: “To all of our mothers everywhere, past, present, or future, I say, ‘Thank you. Thank you for giving birth, for shaping souls, for forming character, and for demonstrating the pure love of Christ.’ To Mother Eve, to Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel, to Mary of Nazareth, and to a Mother in Heaven, I say, ‘Thank you for your crucial role in fulfilling the purposes of eternity.'”
Announced in October 2019’s General Conference. The reason for this list. It gloriously begins, “I am a beloved daughter of Heavenly Parents, with a divine nature and eternal destiny.” And I am. And you are. (That is, if you’re a woman or girl).
Posts/Articles:
“The Mormon Concept of a Heavenly Mother.” Written by Linda Wilcox. Published in Sisters in Spirit: Mormon Women in Historical and Cultural Perspective, University of Illinois Press, 1992. Also published in Sunstone. This is one of the first things I read on Heavenly Mother and to this day it’s still one of the most important. Linda worked for the Church History Library and traced how the discourse on Heavenly Mother changed over time.
“What I First Learned About Heavenly Mother.” Written by Rachel Hunt Steenblik. Published by the Exponent Blog. I first presented this to my Brooklyn Relief Society sisters as part of a beautiful Women of Faith Lecture Series, started by my friend, Mara Kofoed, of About Love. And then I wrote it down. It literally includes the first things I learned about Heavenly Mother via my full-time research for the BYU Studies article, “A Mother There.”
“Heavenly Mother is a Black Woman: Exploring a Mormon Womanism.” Written by Janan Graham-Russell. Published by By Common Consent Blog. Janan first presented this at a Faith and Knowledge conference at Harvard Divinity School where she was/is also a student. She is one of the best theologians we have and this post makes clear why.
“Before the World Was, She Was: Book of Mormon Lesson 17.” Written by Fiona Givens. Published by the Mormon Women Project. This post is from a women-written series alongside Sunday School lessons. In it, Fiona, introduces non-Latter-day Saint biblical scholar Margaret Barker’s work on Wisdom literature, Heavenly Mother as Wisdom/Sophia and the Tree of Life, and parallels Margaret and Fiona see in the Book of Mormon. It speaks right to my mind and heart.
“The Eternal Heavenly Mother: Shattering a Sacred Silence Through An Examination of What Church Leaders Have Taught About Her.“ Written by Allison Welch. Published by SquareTwo Journal. This is similarish to the BYU Studies article, “A Mother There” but in blogpost form. It also includes more recent sources both from church leaders and artists. It’s also just really, really beautiful.
Books:
Mother Wove the Morning. Written by Carol Lynn Pearson. Published like so many other of her important works, by herself, 1995. This book is a play. A one-woman play, made up of 16 roles tracing a divine feminine across culture and times. CLP performed it hundreds of times. Amber Richardson and a team of seven other women brought it back to life just a yaer or so ago with Carol Lynn’s blessing.
Our Heavenly Family, Our Earthly Families. Written by Bethany Brady Spalding and McArthur Krishna. Illustrated by Caitlin Connolly. Published by Deseret Book, 2016. Did you catch that? DESERET BOOK PUBLISHED! Obviously also hugely important. This children’s book isn’t *just* about Heavenly Mother, but She shows up on almost every page, sometimes with that meaningful identifier and sometimes included with Heavenly Father via “Heavenly Parents.” The authors also include quotes from church leaders to support their words. And the art. The art is a dream. (If you’re familiar with Caitlin Connolly’s work, you already know that.) + it’s the very first time a painting of Heavenly Mother made it on a Deseret Book book cover.
Mother’s Milk: Poems in Search of Heavenly Mother. Written by Rachel Hunt Steenblik. Illustrated by Ashley Mae Hoiland. Published by BCC Press, 2017. I accidentally fell into writing tiny poems about Heavenly Mother shortly after my first child, a girl, was born in 2013. And then I couldn’t stop writing them. Until I could. Until I suffered extremely bad postpartum depression and anxiety after the birth of my second child. And then when I got treated, I started again. I didn’t know that I would publish them or that they would be meaningful to anyone besides me, but I did and they are. Or at least readers tell me that they are. That they make them cry. The secret is sometimes they do the same for me. They’re also illustrated with simple, but meaningful line drawings by Ashmae Hoiland. Most of the drawings are of women and girls in our families who are important to us.
Dove Song: Heavenly Mother in Mormon Poetry. Edited by Tyler Chadwick, Dayna Patterson, and Martin Pulido. Published by Peculiar Pages, 2018. I started internally (and sometimes externally) saying “Wow!” from the very first pages of Susan Elizabeth Howe’s remarkable introduction and didn’t stop saying it until the end. It’s an edited collection of Heavenly Mother poems starting with the very first in our faith tradition. It’s not by Eliza R. Snow, but W.W. Phelps. Hers is third. 
