Uniting the Earthly and Heavenly Feminine
Flashback to Isla Mujeres, Mexico, when my friend Nadley and I had been desperately trying to dance the night away — alas, the party was nowhere to be found.
And instead, across from where we parked our golf cart (yes, the island is small enough you can get around on a golf cart), there was this gorgeous mural.
A striking image of the unification (and partnership) of the earthly and cosmic feminine.
Here’s my interpretation:
On the left, Ixchel, Mayan Goddess of fertility, embodying the earthly feminine — with her strong and steady legs, a wise python on her head, and rabbit on her skirt (symbol of fertility in many cultures). She’s our roots, she’s the wisdom of our bodies, and our interconnection with each other and the earth.
On the right, Mother Mary, Queen of Heaven, the cosmic feminine. With her mantle of stars and celestial crown, she tells us of the divine origin of our souls, and of the magical light that permeates every cell of our being. She calls us back to our spiritual power, and the remembering of the larger, bewildering cosmology of Love our life belongs to.
Art by Daniel Mirante
Art Rita Torfs
Both Goddesses are unified by red paint or adornments on their hands, feet, and faces — symbolizing the renewing, menstrual blood of the Goddess. An ancient sacrament across many spiritual traditions, that later took the form of bindis, henna, and indigenous face paint, symbolizing awakened life force and power.
Between them, a heart-womb, under an auspicious moon, opening and releasing the elixirs of the feminine, the life-giving waters of our feminine wisdom, which emerges as our cosmic and earthly bodies unify. We become the anointress and the anointed.
The waters bless the land and the people — the ‘ordinary’ consciousness of our everyday existence. And below that, mounds of skulls, which we can see as the Underworld, the realm of the dead. Or even, as I felt when I first saw it, the part of us that’s gone dead or numb, and needs a resurrection.
Seeing images and transmissions of our larger collective story is one of my favorite parts of traveling.
How does this image make you feel? What visual or details give you a special nudge?
