Finding Mother in Heaven in the Scriptures

I recently found this fascinating article online entitled How to Worship our Mother in Heaven (Without Getting Excommunicated) by Kevin Barney. I'm not sure what it was published in, but I'm assuming it was some journal at BYU, given the academic bent. It really opened up my eyes to the fact that our Mother in Heaven is a lot more visible, approachable, learn-about-able :) than I'd previously thought. You just have to be taught what to look for.
Some thoughts that I got from it / things are learned are:

We know Her name. Some of her names are: Happiness, Sanctuary or Holy Place, Tree of Life, Tree of Knowledge, Wisdom, Most High Goddess, Creatress of All, Lion Lady, and my personal favorite - She Who Treads Upon the Sea.

She was anciently symbolized by a tree. In Nephi's vision, he is shown a tree and then is shown Mary holding Christ. He immediately understands that Christ is gift of love given from God. Ancient Israelites knew of our Mother in Heaven and even worshiped her in the form of a tree. If the tree is our Mother, Christ is the fruit of God's love, the Fruit of the Tree.

Both the tree of knowledge and of life symbolize our Mother. She is the gatekeeper into and out of mortality. This is resonant with the goddess worship of many civilizations and cultures who worship the goddess as a maiden/mother/crone, both giving life and waiting to embrace you in death.

My favorite part of the article was that it pointed out many different symbols of our Mother, which once you've been awakened to their presence, you can go on to pick them out and see them throughout the scriptures and the world on your own.

How to Worship Our Mother in Heaven (Without Getting Excommunicated)

Enjoy! Post your thoughts and comments!




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