Reader

“In many cultures, the eyes of the Goddess were sacred. They had the power to stare down and mesmerize, as in the case of the Medusa, or to draw toward, to fascinate and compel. One archaeologist, after seeing dozens of figures in which the eyes repeatedly appeared over symbols of water, speculated that ancient people believed that at the center of the world, where the primal waters flow, are the Goddess's eyes. Imagine Her gaze in the center of the Self, where the life flow begins... What would it mean to be seen by Her? What of ourselves would we see reflected? We are taught not to really look at ourselves or each other.  We are taught to look through the eyes of men.  We are taught to measure our images, our minds our bodies in terms of whether and how much they will be ‘pleasing’ to the other.  "What would it mean to be seen by Her? What of ourselves would we see reflected?”
― Kathie Carlson, In Her Image: The Unhealed Daughter's Search for Her Mother

“Tradition becomes our security, and when the mind is secure it is in decay.”
― J. Krishnamurti

“As Mother, the Goddess is the birther, caretaker and sustainer of all that She brings forth. She is the embodiment of maternal concern, protectiveness, nurturance, tenderness and love. She bestows her blessings, pours out Her nourishment, much as we expect Her human counterparts to do. But the Great Mother is not only benevolent and tender. She does not only pour forth the sustenance upon which the world depends. To see Her fully, to image this great a Mother, is also to see Her as depriver and destroyer. She is the gorgon who terrifies and petrifies the, earth who is fertilized by blood, the vulture who feeds on the dead. She gives birth to Her children but She also devours them. She is the Goddess of Life but also the Goddess of Death.

The Great Mother is essentially bi-valent, embodying both a 'good' and a 'terrible' aspect. Even the most benevolent of Her images have a darker, more savage side or a destructive 'sister.' Yet this ambivalence is not a static either/or; it expresses one of the most profound and deeply held beliefs of the Old Religion—that life is essentially a process, 'becoming' instead of 'being,' and that this process follows a cyclical pattern that endlessly repeats itself. Just as autumn and winter inevitably follow summer and then give rise to a new spring, just as decaying fruit produces from its dying the medium that enables the hidden seeds within it to sprout, so it was a 'given' to the ancients that the Mother of All embodied this basic and implacable natural way. So the Goddess created life, sustained it, destroyed it, and took it back into Herself in death, only to recycle what She had killed back into new life once more.”
― Kathie Carlson

“The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence.”
― J. Krishnamurti