Review

Title: Finding Mother God: Poems to Heal the World
Author: Carol Lynn Pearson
Publisher: Gibbs Smith
Genre: Poetry
Year Published: 2020
Number of Pages: 147
Binding: Hard  
ISBN: 978-1423656685
Price: 16.99

Reviewed by Andrew Hamilton for the Association for Mormon Letters

“They are good to me here
but I find that no kindly
patriarchal care eases the pain….

Surely there must have been
a Motherly embrace
I can call back for comfort.

I live in a Motherless house
Motherless and without a trace.” (“A Motherless House” 4-5)

I love my father.  When I was growing up, he did a lot with and for me.  He taught me to play many games and spent time playing with me.  He took me fishing[i] and “hunting[ii]”. He took me to see movies and bought me others on tape. He took me to sporting events and amusement parks. He did things with me I have long since forgotten.  He bought me books, comics, games, models, and many other fun things. When I was on my mission, he wrote to me every week. Despite all this, I don’t ever remember calling out for my father. When I was in pain, sick, scared, unsure of myself, or sad, when the person that I liked didn’t like me back, when life got too tough and I needed comfort, it was always my mother that I called for. I doubt that I am unique in this.  Since humankind came into existence, I would guess that the first and most common cry on the lips of the majority of the members of the human race has been: “Mother!” “Mama!” “Moeder!” “Meme!” “Matka!” “Majka!” “Mare!” Maminka!” “More!” “Ema!” “Ina!” “Maman!” “Mutter!” “Manman!” “Makuahine!” “Maji!” “Nyokap!” “Mataji!” Or just plain old, “MA!”

If our instinctual reaction when comfort is needed is to call out to our earthly mothers, if our ingrained impulses tell us that mama is the one that will ease out pain, then is it not perfectly normal that when our souls ache for divine intervention that we would call out to our Mother God?  Is it not natural that we would reach out to the Divine Feminine? Why would it not be expected that Mormons would call upon their Heavenly Mother when spiritual comfort and guidance are needed? And yet, as Carol Lynn Pearson points out, in an act that is almost criminal, the Heavenly Mother we so desperately need has gone missing, and few seem to notice:

“If the disappearance of the mother happened
in my house or the house of my friend
I would call the police
I would shout that something
criminal had happened.

But the disappearance of the Mother of us all
from the House in Heaven seems to have occurred
without much excitement, much notice even
and so very, very long ago.” (“The Case of the Disappearance of God the Mother” 19)

Injustice, suffering, and pain abound. The world needs healing.  We NEED God the Mother in our world and lives, but she is nowhere to be found.  Carol Lynn Pearson, beloved author and poetess has an offering to help us with this dilemma. Finding Mother God: Poems to Heal the World, is filled with meditations of sublime beauty on our Divine Mother.  In its pages, you will read verses that will soothe your soul. You will find thoughts that will touch your heart. You will be taught ways to encounter the Divine Feminine. You will be challenged to be better.  You will be encouraged to be more. And if you are a man and you sit down, shut up, humble yourself, and pay attention, you MAY just be given a glimpse of what women experience as they long to encounter and have a relationship with a Divine Being who resembles them.

The idea that Finding Mother God is a book of poems that can help to “Heal the World” is no small claim. Pearson expounds on this idea in an “Author’s Note” that precedes the text of the book. Speaking of the absence of our Divine Mother, she writes:

Our world suffers the pain of Her absence. This book … is an urgent invitation for all—women and men…to welcome our Mother God back into the family, to set a place for Her at the table. …

Bringing back our Mother is not just cosmetic—it is cosmic. With the full participation and full honoring of the female—on earth and in heaven—we have a stronger opportunity to create justice and peace, bringing the human family closer and closer to the promised land of Partnership. (p. xi)

I have read Finding Mother God multiple times. AS I read, I learned many principles that brought healing to my life.  In this review, I will highlight three that I believe can accomplish Pearson’s goal of bringing healing to the world by “bringing the human family closer and closer to the promised land of Partnership.”

First, the poems of Finding Mother God reminded me that I have a part to play in the healing of the world:

… I shone as a good sunbeam should.

But then I remembered that Christ
who lights the world said
that I should do works like unto his

that my own light is not a narrow shaft
and it’s time to throw off that bushel.

I am no longer small.

I see skies that are too dark
I see nights that are too long
and I see with wondering awe that

Jesus wants me for a sunrise. (“Sunbeam Story” 57-58)

There is a specific call in Finding for women to be involved in this healing:

Mother, who is ready to correct our view of heaven so that
God Herself and God Himself, who were always One
can join on earth to bless the confused billions.

The next step is ours, daughters of our Mother
and did we ever think She would not uphold us
in our essential mission?

We thank you, Mother, as now we rise
the women with microphones in the halls of government
the halls of justice, of media, of religion

the women penning books and scribbling poems
the women helping women buy a goat or a sewing machine
the women marching with signs and songs.

There is power in our words and our words are these:

We are here. We are female. We are divine.

I hope that those of us who are men will shut up, get out of the way, and let them do this. (“Message From a Mother” 6-8)

The second principle I learned is related to the poem I just quoted: Finding has a strong message for men who need to see and understand what women experience by their being denied a relationship with the Divine Feminine. A common practice in Mormonism for over 100 years has been the “Father and Son Camp-out.” For generations, these retreats have been an important bonding experience for fathers and sons. They have been a means of teaching young men about the priesthood, about their place in the “plan of salvation”, and of helping them feel the presence of their Heavenly Father. There has been no similar tradition to bond mothers and daughters. And there has been no tradition to connect anyone with their Heavenly Mother.  Pearson challenges men to consider the idea, what if these “father and son camp-outs” had been used to connect men and boys with the Divine Feminine:

And they sing just one more song
that great spiritual that still rocks
that comfort song that feels like a happy prayer:
She’s got the whole world in Her hands
She’s got the whole world in Her hands…

Smiling, the father and his boy
retire to their tent
and gaze out the mesh window at the
moon and the stars, the very ones
that She holds safely in Her hands. (“Turning Things Upside Down to Help the Men and Boys Understand” 89-90)

Men, REPRESENTATION MATTERS. Just as we have been raised to see, experience, and be guided by the hand of the Divine masculine, women need to see, experience, and be guided by the Divine Feminine.

I will illustrate the third principle that I learned by mentioning my wife’s experience with the book. Once my wife Karen saw my copy, she wanted one of her own. So I contacted Carol Lynn and she was VERY kind and gracious and sent an inscribed copy for Karen.  The day it arrived Karen started reading she had homework to do and assignments to grade, but she could not put it down. She absolutely LOVED every word of the book. Karen told me that Finding was “WAY overdue” and that her favorite poem was “Common Sense.” I quote it here in full because “Common Sense” and my wife’s love for it reinforced for me the most important lesson that I learned from Finding Mother God:

I may not be the sharpest knife
in the chandelier or the brightest bulb
in the drawer, but

seeing the creatures out in the zoo
and the creatures up in the blue
and the creatures on Fifth Avenue

who are pretty equally girl and guy
I will not buy
the Brooklyn Bridge

nor will I buy
a story that says the Creator
of all the creatures including me

was one or two or three Male Beings
never mind how potent
their omnipotence might be. (p. 13)

The third lesson that I learned was this: WITHOUT the presence of the Divine Feminine, WITHOUT the active and noticeable participation of the Mother of us all, God is INCOMPLETE. And if God is incomplete, HOW can we expect the world to be healed?  It is not enough to vaguely acknowledge that our Mother God exists.  We NEED Her.  We need Her in our houses of worship, we need Her in our lives, we need Her in our homes, and we NEED Her in our hearts.

As I conclude this review, I want to mention one more thing that is absolutely beautiful about Finding Mother God. In the modern publishing world of “Print on Demand”, most books, even hardback books, are glued together.  BUT the binding of Finding Mother God is SEWN! Maybe this only means something to book nerds like me, but for a book dedicated to our Mother Goddess to be SEWN together means that Carol Lynn Pearson has offered Her the best she has and has given us a beautiful book fit for a queen that will last for a long time.

Carol Lynn Pearson has been writing books as long as I have been alive, and I am not that young anymore! Each of her books has been a gift, and that is true of Finding Mother God: Poems to Heal the World. This last year has been rough, we are all on the beat up side, some more than others.  The inhabitants of our blue-green orb have experienced and are experiencing loss, depression and anxiety, fear, sickness, and pain.  We NEED the love, advice, and embrace of our Holy Mother God to heal our world. There is no need for us to live in a Motherless House any longer.  Carol Lynn Pearson’s Finding Mother God: Poems to Heal the World will help you to discover the Living Mother God and will help you to find healing in Her embrace.  I invite you to read and share a copy.

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[i] IN the spirit of this being a review of a book about our Heavenly Mother, I will note that while my father probably took me fishing the most, it was my mother who taught me the most about fishing, including how to clean the fish.

[ii] I put it in quotes because we never actually shot anything!