Symbols - What does heaven look like
Mother and Father
Everything in the spirit world is organised around classes of things – Spirit Entities – and those Spirit Entities consist of the Class Name [see Names] and the Functions that are part of that class.
All Spirit Entities can create subtypes of themselves and they are organised into an Intelligence hierarchy. The following hugely simplistic diagram shows the principle of the Entity hierarchy.
The letters are Functions. The top level contains all function [Ultimate Intelligence]. At the next level down the functions have been divided, with a certain number of shared functions between each Intelligence/Entity. Only at the lowest level of the hierarchy are copies of the species or class made and physical beings or things result. Note that this is the Tree of life with its leaves.
Every Entity without exception is both a Creator and the Created. To use an analogy, if spirit is software, then the Package creator and the package created are one. At every level therefore there is a Creator and Created. So called 'Nature' is a subset of this hierarchy.
Symbolically in this context the Creator is Masculine and the Created is Feminine, this symbolism is used because of the perceived nature of the roles. The Created is the holder of the potential for physical beings. In effect the 'Masculine' [and intellectual] Software package developer creates a Border collie package, for example, and the 'Feminine' border collie package then, every so often, sends down copies of the border collie functions to new physical border collies, she becomes a Mother and the Border collie package developer becomes a Father.
There is not therefore one Mother and one Father. For every species and type of thing in the universe there is symbolically a Mother and a Father - a conjoined pairing that produces copies of itself.
Mother and Father in different cultures
Please see the extra section Mother and Father in different cultures which goes into some detail
The Great Mother and the Great Father
The highlands of Central Anatolia in Turkey in the region of Phrygia are mountainous with very rugged terrain. The religious traditions in this area are equally fierce and the religions here had an influence over the Greeks and probably the Egyptians too. The Great Mother [Magna mater] was recognised well before Christ, and the original Kybele was the name given to this symbolic role. To understand this, we have to go back to the hierarchy. If every Intelligence is both symbolically Mother and Father, there is in a sense a hierarchy of gradually more functionally powerful Mothers and Fathers. The Ultimate Intelligence is thus the most powerful Mother and Father of all and as a consequence the Ultimate Intelligence is then the Great Mother and the Great Father.
Substitute Mothers in religion
When the Judaic religions - Christianity, Judaism itself and Islam specified there is only one God and that he is male, they destroyed a set of beliefs and understandings that had been in existence for thousands of years. With one move they removed the union of the feminine and the masculine - the equal partnership that is needed in all creative acts - not just making babies. In prosaic physical terms it is the balancing of the left brain and right brain functions. We all contain within us symbolic masculine and feminine functions and to progress spiritually they have to be in balance. Neither the feminine nor the masculine should be too strong. At the moment we are horrendously tipped towards the masculine, which is why we seem to have a plethora of 'clever' men but not wise men. A wise man has got in touch with his feminine and a wise woman has got in touch with her masculine.
In a desperate attempt to preserve some of the old wisdom, some figures within the Bible and in the Judaic religions have taken over the role of the Mother to try to win back some of the balance lost. Interestingly the name is based on the Hindu generic name, some example names for the Mother role are:
- Virgin Mary
- MARRATU – Chaldeans
- MERI – Syrians
- MARIAM - Jews
Perhaps even more intriguingly, the word “Ma" is one of the mother syllables of all Indo European languages, and is defined as "intelligence – the force that bound elements together to create forms at the beginning of the world”.
The Mother, virgin birth and grain
As symbolically Mother and Father are roles and the Intelligence is one united being, there is no need for the symbolic impregnation of the Mother with the Father. The Mother is the software package, as such she can produce little copies of herself any time she wants. This is where the symbolism of virgin birth comes from, at any time the software package that is the Border collie package can be copied to physical border collies - there is no need for a Father in the process.
The copies of the software package she produces are then symbolically seen as little raindrops or tears or grain. The Tears of FREYA, for example, were gold raining down from above. Freya was depicted as a virgin.

Sisters and mothers and husbands
The Mother as a set of functions - the border collie package or anenome package or daffodil package or shire horse package - has in some senses been created by the Father role, she is thus both the symbolic Daughter and the symbolic Wife of the Father [complicated I know]. This is how the legends of daughters being born from the appendages of Fathers comes from - symbolically this is the Software package creator producing a new software package from himself. It also gave rise to much Incest symbolism which inevitably came to be used literally. In the Poetic Edda poem, for example, Lokasenna, Njörðr is said to have fathered his famous children by his own sister.
Mothers and the Egg
Where do all the little software copies that animate the form of physical beings come from? Symbolically if the Created is the Mother, then they must come from the womb and thus the Egg and the womb can become symbolically synonymous.
The three roles of the Mother
We [and all physical things] are born, live, and die - physical creation of the body with its soul and Higher spirit, ongoing maintenance of the resulting body, and destruction of the body and soul, whilst preserving the Higher spirit and its perceptions.
The Creator creates new packages, the Mother manages the copies of the package. And thus we have three activities of the Mother figure - Creation, Maintenance and Destruction of 'soul'. This is extremely well represented in Hindu thought where is the recognition that all three roles are needed. Kali is the symbolic embodiment of the Mother of destruction.
Philosophies of India – Dr Heinrich Zimmer [edited by Joseph Campbell]
Is Kali, my Divine Mother, of a black complexion? She appears black because she is viewed from a distance; but when intimately known she is no longer so. The sky appears blue at a distance; but look at it close by and you will find that it has no colour. The water of the ocean looks blue at a distance, but when you go near and take it in your hand, you find that it is colourless
Synonyms for Mother and Father
The Mother and Father symbolism is synonymous with a whole host of other symbols, all of which embody the concept of the union of Creator and Created. There are thus connections here with the symbolism of the Sun and Moon as well as the Bull and Cow.
The table below is a summary of just some of the synonymous names
Creator |
Created |
Sun |
Moon |
Bull |
Cow |
Stag |
Deer |
Father |
Mother |
King |
Queen |
Emperor |
Empress |
Prince |
Princess |
John Smith – The Platonist
barren speculation may unfold the plicatures of Truth's garment, but they cannot discover her lovely face
Observations
For iPad/iPhone users: tap letter twice to get list of items.
- Agrippa, Heinrich Cornelius - Sacramentum matrimonii antiquissimum est - 03
- Alain Danielou - While the Gods Play - The crucial role of the feminine
- Alexander, Dr Eben - enters the Inner Court
- Ancestors, the - Art - Jacquetta and Christopher Hawkes
- Ancestors, the - Art - Lady of Villers-Carbonnel
- Ancestors, the - Art - West Coast Rock Art
- Ancient Egyptian - Isis as the Mother symbol
- Ancient Egyptian - The Creation Myth of Heliopolis
- Ancient Egyptian - The symbolism of the Sun and Moon
- Apuleius - The Golden Ass - The Navigium Isidis festival
- Ashoka
- Atharvaveda - XII 1 Hymn to goddess Earth - Part 02 Give us this day
- Atharvaveda - XII 1 Hymn to goddess Earth - Part 03 Protecting the Earth from harm
- Atharvaveda - XII 1 Hymn to goddess Earth - Part 14 We worship Thee
- Aurora Consurgens - 01 An allegory of the Great Mother
- Bax, Clifford - The Meaning of Man - For as those that are sunken deep
- Black Elk - Native American Indians - Climbing high mountains
- Blake, William - My roots are brandished in the heavens, my fruits in earth beneath
- Brunton, Dr Paul - A Hermit in the Himalayas - Great Mother
- Canistris, Opicinus de - World map
- Canistris, Opicinus de - World map 2
- Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz - The First Day
- Cirlot on eagles
- Clark, Fay Marvin – Into the Light – The early Mayan concepts of creation, the creator, and the origin and destiny of the Nagual
- Colin Wilson - Mysteries - Celtic gods and beliefs
- Colin Wilson - Mysteries - Celtic suppression by Christianity
- Corpus Hermeticum X
- Crowley - 03 The Empress
- Crowley, Aleister - Book of Lies - Peaches
- Crowley, Aleister - Book of Lies - The Ante Primal Triad
- Crowley, Aleister - Book of Lies - The Battle of the Ants
- Crowley, Aleister - Book of Lies - The Glow-worm
- Crowley, Aleister - Book of Lies - The Gun Barrel
- Crowley, Aleister - Book of Lies - The Oyster
- Custance, John - Adventure into the Unconscious - The need for Contrast
- David Livingstone - The Dying God
- Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion - David Hume – The Intelligent hierarchy is both male and female, as is God
- Dionysius the Areopagite - De Mystica Theologia - Names
- Dr Jordan Peterson – The Mesopotamian gods and the Creation story
- Dr Jordan Peterson – the story of Osiris, Seth, Horus and Isis
- Dürer, Albrecht - Symbolism - Mary with child
- Enûma Eliš - First Tablet
- Eriugena, Johannes Scotus - Homilia on the Prologue to the John Gospel – The Word
- Father Bernabe Cobo - Inca Religion and Custom - 'The Flood'
- Frank Waters - Book of the Hopi - Initiation
- Gaudi - Professional work - 04 The Sagrada Família
- Gnostic Gospels - Judas
- Gnostic Gospels - Mechizedek
- Gnostic Gospels - Philip - The Heavenly Man has many More sons than the earthly
- Gnostic Gospels - Philip - When we were Jews we were fatherless
- Gnostic Gospels - Sophia of Jesus Christ
- Gnostic Gospels - Thomas
- Goosey goosey gander
- Hans Peter Duerr - Dreamtime - Visiting the Earth Mother's womb
- Hawker, Robert Stephen - Aishah Schechinah - A shape like folded wing, embodied air
- Hawker, Robert Stephen - The Signals of Levi
- Hippolytus - Mamas and Papas
- Holderlin, Johann - Patmos
- Hopi and Zuni - Hummingbird legend
- Hymn from the Stele in Memphis in front of the Temple of Hephaistos
- Ibn El-Arabi - The Tarjuman al-Ashwaq - They left me at al-Uthayl and an-Naqá shedding tears
- Intelligences - PLANETS VENUS Ashtar and Ishtar
- Jacquetta Hawkes – A Land – Of Menhirs, the Great Mother and women turned to stone
- Jesus - John 5 & 6 - On God
- Jesus - The Gospels - Love your enemies
- Jili, Abd al-Karim - Al-Kahf wa al-raqim - 013 Introduction [Extract]
- Jili, Abd al-Karim - Al-Kahf wa al-raqim - 030 Section 2
- Jili, Abd al-Karim - Al-Kahf wa al-raqim - 100 Section 9
- Joyce, James - Ulysses - Nirvana
- Katha Upanishad
- Kepler, Johannes - Epistola ad Maestlinum - The Sun and the Moon
- Kwakiutl - Native American Indians - In the beginning
- Lalla - You made a promise in the womb
- Lalla - Your way of knowing is a private herb garden
- Luiseno - Native American Indians - Creation Myth
- Malta - 04 Venus of Malta and Alchemy
- Manley Hopkins, Gerald - As Kingfishers Catch Fire
- Mary had a little lamb
- Masters and Houston - The vast feminine Earth Mother fertilised by the Sun Father
- Mayan - Popol Vuh - 02 Sky-earth, lake-sea
- Mayan - Popol Vuh - 04 The Creation of the First humans
- Mayan - Popol Vuh - 05 The Creation of the First humans
- Mayo, Jeff - On the Mother and Father
- Meister Eckhart - Selected writings - God the Father and the Son have nothing to do with time
- Michael Harner - The Jivaro and Conibo
- Michelangelo - 1508 Sistine Chapel - 08 Creation of the Sun and Moon
- Mircea Eliade - The Earth Mother and Gaia
- Mircea Eliade - The gods of Siberian shamanism
- Mircea Eliade - The Great Goddess
- Mircea Eliade - The Storm gods
- Mircea Eliade - The Yakut and the Tree of life
- Mircea Eliade discusses the Epic of Gilgamesh
- Mircea Eliade – The Tree in Africa and the Indus valley
- Misc. source - Incas - Con Tiqui Viracocha
- Mount Agung Bali
- Mount Athos
- Mutwa, Vusamazulu Credo - On the Trinity
- Mylius, Johann Daniel - Courante I & II-Lutz Kirchhof
- Naglowska, Maria de - The Light of Sex - Overview
- Native American Wisdom - The Land of heaven
- Ogotemmeli - Anvils, hammers and the celestial granary
- Old Mother Hubbard
- Orphic hymn to the Mother of the gods
- Ovid - Metamorphoses - The Giant's War 6
- Pascal, Blaise - The Memorial of Pascal
- Pauli, Wolfgang - Dream of 20th July 1954
- Pordage, John - The nature of the Holy Trinity
- Prasna Upanishad
- Ramakrishna - Hymns of Ramakrishna - O, Mother, what a machine is this
- Reichel-Dolmatoff – Amazonian Cosmos - Desana Creation Myth
- Reichel-Dolmatoff – Amazonian Cosmos - Master of Animals
- Reid, Christopher - Two survived the flood we are not of their blood
- Ride a cock horse
- Rider-Waite - 03 The Empress
- Rig veda - Those who know have wings
- Rig veda - Bull and Cow
- Rig veda - The Great Mother
- Rig veda - The Smith
- Rig Veda - Two Birds
- Rilke, Rainer Maria - 28 Sixth Elegy
- Rilke, Rainer Maria - 36 Eighth Elegy
- Rilke, Rainer Maria - 48 & 49 Tenth Elegy
- Rock a bye baby
- Ruskin, John - Extracts from Letters to the Clergy
- Samavedas – 01 Book 02 Chapter 01, DECADE I Agni [extract verses 4-10]
- Samavedas – 01 Book 04 Chapter 01, DECADE I Indra and others
- Scotland, Lewis - Cailleach na Mointeach - moonrise
- Segantini - Le Cattive Madre 1894
- Segantini - Death
- Segantini - Engel des Lebens 1894 [L'angelo della vita]
- Segantini - Punishment for Lasciviousness
- Simple Simon
- Songs of Embracing Singularity in Embryonic Breathing
- Soustelle - Aztecs and Mexica - Mothers and Fathers
- Spencer, Stanley - Symbolism 05 - The Nativity
- Sri Airobindo - Savitri - A Message from the Unknown Immortal Light
- Sri Aurobindo - 01 Savitri Book I Canto I
- Sri Aurobindo - 03 Book III Canto II - 03
- Tabula Smaragdina - Newton translation
- Tabula Smaragdina - Theatrum Chemicum translation
- The Ancestors - Grime's Graves
- The Ancestors - Somerset - Cadbury Castle
- The Book of Taliesin - Kanu Ygwynt - Llyfr Taliesin XVII
- The Kybalion – The Mother and Father
- The Lady of Ephesus
- There was an old woman
- Thomas, Dylan - From Love's First fever
- Tibetan Book of the Dead - Confessions
- Tree of life with eggs
- Twelve drummers drumming
- Tzu, Lao - A Way you can call Way isn’t the perennial Way
- Tzu, Lao - All under Heaven have a common beginning
- Tzu, Lao - Tao can be talked about, but not the Eternal Tao
- Tzu, Lao - The Spirit of the fountain dies not
- Tzu, Lao - There is something in a state of fusion
- Urantia Book - Paper 34 - The Local Universe Mother Spirit - Father, Mother and Son
- Urantia Book - Paper 42 - Energy, Mind and Matter - Spirit and energy recycling
- W.Y. Evans-Wentz - The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries - The Sun and the Moon and being 'moon-struck'
- Whiteman, J H M
- William Seabrook - The Hougoun and the Trinity
- Yasna - The Divine Heptad
- Yeats, W B - Collected poems - A Needle's Eye
- Yeats, W B - Collected poems - An abstract Greek absurdity has crazed the man
- Yoga Sutras of Patanjali - Book IV - 05. World Soul
- Zhang Guolao - Secrets of Embryonic Breathing