Mary, from her original Aramaic name ‘Maryam’ or ‘Mariam’, was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph, and the mother of Jesus Christ. In Christianity, Mary is commonly referred to as the Virgin Mary, following the belief that she miraculously conceived her son Jesus through the Holy Spirit, while still a virgin. Mary serves as the patron saint of all human beings, watching over them with motherly care. She is honored as a spiritual mother to people of many faiths, including Muslim, Jewish, and New Age believers. Millions consider her to be the holiest and greatest saint because of her extraordinary virtues.
Among her many other names and titles are the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Mary, the Mother of God (primarily in Western Christianity), the Theotokos (primarily in Eastern Christianity), Our Lady, the Madonna, and Queen of Heaven—the title “queen of heaven” was for centuries before used as an epithet for a number of ancient sky-goddesses, such as Isis, Astarte, Ishtar, Nut and Astoreth.
In Palestine at the time, women were usually married very young, at about 13 years of age. During Mary’s engagement to Joseph, the angel Gabriel announced she would conceive a son through a virgin birth and become the mother of Jesus Christ, the Christian Messiah—an event known as the Annunciation. There is little information about Jesus’s childhood. When he was about 30 years of age, Jesus began his public ministry, teachings and miracles, during which Mary was present. Mary is also depicted as being present among the women at the crucifixion of Jesus. Mary cradling the dead body of her son is a common motif in art, called a pietà or “piety”.
Mary was seen as a critical member of the early Christian community after the death of Jesus, and became the most prominent female figure in Christianity. Many miracles are attributed to Mary, both in her lifetime and after her death, through Marian apparitions—times when believers say that Mary has miraculously appeared on Earth to deliver messages and give people healing. In Islam, Mary has the highest position among all women. She is mentioned in the Qur’an more often than the Bible, where two of the longer chapters of the book are named after her and her family.
Mary’s special concern was to champion the poor, the outcast, the oppressed, the ill and the marginalized. Today, in various movements rising up against oppression, Mary is invoked as: woman of the poor, unwed mother, widowed mother, political refugee, seeker of sanctuary, mother of the homeless, mother of the nonviolent, model of risk, trust, courage, patience, perseverance and peace. Mary, as the Mother of the Poor, has the “ability to suffer with the suffering, to deepen love in the face of deprivation, to work for the elimination of injustice” (R. Scott Appleby).
Mother Mary is known for her pure compassion and devotional love. She embodies the gentlest and most tender qualities of maternal femininity. As the archetype of the divine Mother, her truest purpose is to mother, nurture, care, and listen.
At the foot of the Cross, Mary bore the greatest sorrow that a mother’s heart could ever endure: she witnessed the public execution by torture of her own son. By experiencing the deepest wounds and sorrows that a human heart could possibly experience, Mother Mary became the most compassionate of all creatures. It is this virtue that makes her so accessible today, for her sorrows were transformed by divine grace, through her faith and love, into the virtue of compassionate love for all humans. Her devotees call upon her in their darkest days, directing their pleas, seeking help and strength to face the challenges of life.
The importance of Mother Mary and other mother goddesses across cultures suggests that mature adults share moments of deep self-doubt, and longings to recover some of the security of childhood. These enduring maternal figures point to the importance of the archetype of the Mother across cultures, and the healing power of maternal, compassionate love in peoples’ everyday lives.
Many academics and historians argue that Marian devotion—the veneration of the figure of Mary—was kindled by pre-existing pagan myths and goddess worship. A common theme in explaining the rise of Marian devotion in the Church has been to recognize that, with the spread of Christianity over the known world, newly converted Christians inevitably assimilated or sublimated pre-existing local cults. One of the strongest religious manifestations of the ancient pagan world was the widespread worship of the great Mother Goddess, appearing in a multitude of female deities.
One of Mary’s titles, Queen of Heaven, was for centuries before used as an epithet for many ancient mother goddesses, such as Isis, Astarte, Ishtar, Nut and Ashtoreth.
Mythologist Joseph Campbell argues that the image of the Virgin Mary was derived from the image of Isis holding her infant child Horus: “The antique model for the Madonna, actually, is Isis with Horus at her breast”.
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Mary, like many of the pre-Christian pagan goddesses such as Diana, Astarte and Artemis, is often represented or symbolized by the moon: “the moon” is in fact one of Mary’s names, and she is often represented standing atop of a crescent moon. Mary is turned to by women in childbirth, just like her mother goddess predecessors.
A major similarity between Mary and ancient mother goddesses is her virginity. In pre-Christian earth-based religions, a woman’s virginity was synonymous with autonomy and power. “Ancient moon priestesses were called virgins. ‘Virgin’ meant not married, not belonging to a man—a woman who was ‘one-in-herself’. The very word derives from a Latin root meaning strength, force, skill; and was later applied to men: ‘virle’. Ishtar, Diana, Astarte, Isis were all called virgin, which did not refer to sexual chastity, but sexual independence. And all great culture heroes of the past, mythic or historic, were said to be born of virgin mothers: Marduk, Gilgamesh, Buddha, Osiris, Dionysus, Genghis Khan, Jesus—they were all affirmed as sons of the Great Mother, of the Original One, their worldly power deriving from her. When the Hebrews used the word, and in the original Aramaic, it meant ‘maiden’ or ‘young woman’, with no connotations to sexual chastity. But later Christian translators could not conceive of the ‘Virgin Mary’ as a woman of independent sexuality, needless to say; they distorted the meaning into sexually pure, chaste, never touched.” (Monica Sjöö & Barbara Mor, The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth).
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Mary is a complex topic for feminist analysis. There is a long tradition of women's writings on Mary, and very different perspectives to Mariology—the theological study of Mary. Contemporary feminist interpretations critique Marian devotion, claiming it is (and always has been) counterproductive for women’s flourishing and encouraging feminine submissiveness and obedience.
However, some feminist thinkers have attempted to reclaim Mary as an empowering feminine model. These feminist scholars study Mary through a feminist lens, a study known as Feminist Mariology. In this section, we will look at both sides of this complex discourse.
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Several feminist thinkers have criticized Marian devotion (the veneration of Mary), theorizing that Mary is a “domesticated goddess”. These critiques often come from the secular feminist movement, shaped by the anti-religious approach of Simone deBeauvoir, who considered the Judeo-Christian tradition “savagely anti-feminine.”
In 1949, emblematic feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir pointed out the contrast between the ancient pre-Christian goddesses and Mary: whereas the goddesses commanded autonomous power, Mary is wholly the servant of God. “‘I am the handmaid of the Lord.’ For the first time in the history of mankind,” writes Beauvoir, “a mother kneels before her son and acknowledges, of her own free will, her inferiority. The supreme victory of masculinity is consummated in Mariolatry: it signifies the rehabilitation of woman through the completeness of her defeat.”
In The Great Cosmic Mother, feminist authors from the Goddess movement Monica Sjöö and Barbara Mor write: “In Mary, especially within the Catholic church, the Goddess for the first time in history bows down to worship male gods as creators of life. Mary is wife, mother, and child to the same male power-figure. In her, the ancient power of the Goddess is captured, chained, used, domesticated and tranquilized”.
Cultural historian Riane Eisler points out that in Christianity, although father and son are immortal and divine, “Mary, the only woman in this patriarchal family organization, is merely mortal—clearly, like her earthly counterparts, of an inferior order.” (Riane Eisler, The Chalice and the Blade).
According to feminist philosopher and theologian Mary Daly, Mary is “a remnant of the ancient image of the Mother Goddess, enchained and subordinated in Christianity, as the ‘Mother of God’” (Beyond God the Father, 1973).
In Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary (1976), historian and mythographer Marina Warner argues that the Virgin Mary “became an effective instrument of asceticism and female subjection.” For Warner, Mary’s exaltation emphasizes her uniqueness and thereby excludes and damages the condition of the majority of women.
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Despite all these critiques painting the image of Mary as a disempowering female figure, many other voices view her as a symbol of true feminine power. Amid the pluralistic feminist perspectives on Mary, growing forms of religious feminism can confidently counter negative appraisals of Marian devotion. A reconciliation of Marian devotion and feminist ideals is possible, but requires a more sophisticated and nuanced reading.
Of course, Marian symbols have been sometimes used in a reductionist way in the modern era, but in this section, we will attempt to look at Mary from an empowering perspective.
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The enduring image
of the Goddess
Although some feminist thinkers see Mary as a domestication of the ancient powerful mother goddesses, some others read her veneration as a return to the ancient worship of the Goddess, and the Church’s resistance to Mary’s worship as a recognition of the lingering power of the Goddess (Riane Eisler, The Chalice and the Blade).
“Indeed, if we look closely at the art of the Neolithic, it is truly astonishing how much of its Goddess imagery has survived.... [the Neolithic pregnant Goddess] survives in the pregnant Mary of medieval Christian iconography. The Neolithic image of the young Goddess or Maiden is also still worshiped in the aspect of Mary as the Holy Virgin. And of course the Neolithic figure of the Mother-Goddess holding her divine child is still everywhere dramatically in evidence as the Christian Madonna and Child”.
Some feminist thinkers have attempted to reclaim Mary’s significance as the unacknowledged goddess of the Christian tradition (Baring and Cashford). From this perspective, the early church only partially defeated the goddess religions of the ancient world. Those religions were incorporated into Christianity in the status and devotion accorded to Mary, while being divested of their potent matriarchal significance in the context of a patriarchal religious society.
Historian Marina Warner acknowledges the enduring capacity of Mary to meet the religious need for a Mother Goddess figure. Charlene Spretnak—cultural historian and a founding mother of the Women’s Spirituality movement—affirms the need to recognize Mary's potential in terms of a maternal feminine divine presence in the Catholic tradition, and argues for the rediscovery of Marian devotion as an important aspect of feminist spirituality.
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Mary’s benevolence and support for women
Mary has received titles of reverence identifying her with all the virtues and beauties of nature: Our Lady of Good Counsel, Refuge of Sinners, Seat of Wisdom, Mirror of Justice, Mother of Mercy, Queen of Peace, Mystical Rose, Star of the Sea. These can all be read as feminine images of active power.
The Marian cult excelled in elaborating on the goodness of Mary as a real, embodied woman. Mary always offered concrete physical help, often coming to wipe the sweat from the brow of the dying sick poor. She was a supporter of women, helping brides without a dowry and attended women in childbirth. All of the phases of Mary’s feminine life cycle were identified with and celebrated by women, as well as by men. The older sorrowful mother, in an agony of grief at the crucifixion of her son, was never forgotten. She mourned with humankind in every sorrow, but especially with women who lost children.
Historian Henry Adams argues that the people idolized Mary “for being strong, physically and in will, so that she feared nothing, and was as helpful to the knight in the melee of battle as to the young mother in childbed.”
Within Marian devotion, there is a constant celebration and reliance upon Mary’s participation in human affairs as a real woman concerned with domestic details like all other women. She was the great and powerful queen of heaven as well as the approachable Everywoman concerned with the daily needs of ordinary men and women.
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Mary as symbol of social and ecological awareness
Psychologist and author Sidney Callahan argues that Marian devotions intersect with core feminist concerns, with a sophisticated reading. Feminist concerns for peace, nurturing power and new movements of ecological feminism bent on mothering the earth find a deep resonance within Marian devotion. Feminist emphases upon the importance of concrete social engagement are found in Marian devotion. In the Mary cult, the self is always relational; no one, not even God, appears without recognizing the bonds to mother and family.
Mary’s core place in the natural processes of procreation, her identification with nature imagery and her status as a spiritual mother for the world can give heart to those seeking to develop Christian ecological awareness.
Modern Catholics in the peace movement turn to Mary as Mother of Peace, and through her, are inspired to dream of new forms of peacemaking. A spiritual struggle for peace is central in the traditional cult of Mary.
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Virginity as symbol of power and autonomy
In the ancient world of goddesses, virginity did not refer so much to sexual purity as to autonomy and free self-determination. The virginity of female pagan goddesses such as Diana, Athena, Ishtar and Isis, signaled their complete freedom from subjection to a male or to a mate. Mary’s virginity and the virgin birth can be interpreted as symbols of her autonomy, signaling her direct relationship to God, unmediated through any male. Mary is equal, in no way dominated by her spouse and completely free as a moral agent. Even in a misogynous age, all of Mary’s powers and privileges, her strengths and virtues, were seen as independent of her status as a wife.
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Reverence for Mary’s feminine qualities
In Marian devotion, Mary’s feminine qualities or compassion, softness and tenderness are seen as empowering and inspiring. When, for example, Christ’s humanity and God’s loving mercy were obscured by a popular view of God as terrifying judge, Mary served as a compensatory embodiment of love and mercy, a metaphor of God’s maternal compassion.
Marian devotion affirmed the human need for emotion, for poetic beauty and for the fusion of feeling and reason in the human experience. Hyper-rationalistic scholasticism may have reigned in parts of the church but not everywhere—certainly not in Mary’s domain. If anything, the temptation of Marian devotion was toward an exaggerated sentimentality.
Marian devotion validates female human nature and female bodies while not allowing Mary’s gender to limit the ways she serves God. Love of God and neighbor, like wisdom and truth, know no gender.
Author Sally Cuneen offers new representations for Mary, other than Mary as the sweet, little Virgin. Mary should be seen as “representative of all the feminine virtues”. Cuneen argues that “the potential of Mary’s presence to evoke the divine feminine and heal divisions without canceling diversity is a tremendous, largely untapped resource” within the Church.
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Christian Feminism
Today, many modern women outside the traditional faiths have created neo-pagan goddess cults to empower themselves through feminine symbols and female-oriented rituals. So, too, Christian feminists reconstruct the traditional female symbols, female-oriented spiritualities, women-centered scripture readings and ritual celebrations. Christian feminists exalted Mary’s feminine spiritual authority, which worked as a counter-story to official statements of intrinsic feminine inferiority.
According to Caroline Walker Bynum, a noted historian of religion, while misogyny existed religion, “in fact religious women paid surprisingly little attention to their supposed incapacity” (Gender and Religion, 1986). Religious women reworked gender imagery and effectively established their own internal sense of equality. Today Christian feminists are working to uncover and articulate ancient, woman-affirming spiritual roots. When history is examined with newly opened minds, it will appear that different forms of feminism have arisen time and again—and just as often been suppressed.
Christian feminists will go further in a reading of the evolving significance of Mary: Marian devotion has preserved a feminine presence and recognition of feminine power within an officially male-dominated structure. One holy woman, at least, has never been forgotten, left nameless or banished from leadership in the church. Until God could again be invoked as Mother as well as Father by the faithful, Mary has stood witness to the divine Sophia and to the fact that gender is transcended in wisdom and faith.
In his book How God Works: The Science Behind the Benefits of Religion, scientist David DeSteno and his psychology lab researched what humans can do to improve their quality of life. Their findings echo what religious practices perfected centuries ago.
Much of what psychologists and neuroscientists are finding about how to change people’s beliefs, feelings, and behaviors—how to support them when they grieve, how to help them be more ethical, how to let them find connection and happiness—echoes ideas and techniques that religions have been using for thousands of years.
Psychologists are finding that religion enables people to have more compassion, gratitude and peace. Chanting and praying together and rituals create community and solidarity, connection. It was found that regularly taking part in religious practices lessens anxiety and depression, increases physical health, and even reduces the risk of early death. The ways these practices leverage mechanisms of our bodies and minds can enhance the joys and reduce the pains of life. Parts of religious mourning rituals incorporate elements science has recently found to reduce grief. Healing rites contain elements that can help our bodies heal themselves simply by strengthening our expectations of a cure. Religions didn’t just find these psychological tweaks and nudges long before scientists arrived on the scene, but often packaged them together in sophisticated ways that the scientific community can learn from.
When it comes to finding ways to help people deal with issues surrounding birth and death, morality and meaning, grief and loss, it would be strange if thousands of years of religious thought didn’t have something to offer.
Many modern scientists and psychologists like David DeSteno have come to see a nuanced relationship between science and religion. They view them as two approaches to improving people’s lives that frequently complement each other. DeSteno believes scientists should be studying rituals and spiritual practices to understand their influence, and where appropriate, create new techniques and therapies informed by them.
Our Lady of Guadalupe (Spanish: Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe), also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe (Spanish: Virgen de Guadalupe), is a Catholic title of Mother Mary, associated with a series of five Marian apparitions in December 1531, and a venerated image on a cloak enshrined within the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. The basilica is the most-visited Catholic shrine in the world, and the world's third most-visited sacred site.
The Virgin Mary purportedly appeared to an indigenous Mexican peasant man named Juan Diego, as a dark-skinned woman who spoke Nahuatl, Juan Diego’s native language. The image of the Virgin that appeared on his mantle had layers of meaning for the indigenous people of Mexico, who associated her image with their polytheistic deities, which further contributed to her popularity.
Her blue-green mantle was the color reserved for the divine couple Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl, the Aztec fertility gods. The rays of light surrounding her are seen to also represent maguey spines, the agave plant native to Mexico, and source of the sacred beverage pulque. When indigenous people saw Guadalupe’s image on the cloak, they could recognize the symbols surrounding her; the sun, the stars, the southern cross, and the placement of her hands indicating a gesture of offering—all were common symbols in indigenous mythology and worldview. The notion of a brown-skinned Mary figure was critical to the eventual conversion of millions of indigenous people to Roman Catholicism.
To the present day, Our Lady of Guadalupe remains a powerful symbol of Mexican identity and faith, and her image is associated with everything from motherhood to feminism to social justice. For millions of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans, December 12th holds a special significance as the feast day of the Virgin of Guadalupe.
“In some ways, Our Lady of Guadalupe has become less of a religious symbol and more of a general cultural symbol”, says John Moran Gonzalez, director of the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. The idea of the Virgin can retain her appeal without specifically being anchored in religious tradition. “Our Lady is seen as the champion of the underdog, of all those who lack power in society,” says Gonzalez. “In that sense she continues to be relevant as long as disparities in economic and political power exist. She is the ultimate Mexican mother. She is all about motherhood.”
Our Lady of Guadalupe is used as a symbol of justice, because she holds an appeal to the poor, to marginalized people. In the modern day, she represents people standing against oppression, declaring their independence.
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Here, you will find simple and gentle practices, prompts and rituals that will help you connect with the energy of Mother Mary and embody her qualities.
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Observe the following painting: The Virgin (1926) by Futurist painter Joseph Stella. Use your body to recreate the Madonna’s pose and facial expression. Relax your face, and soften your gaze gently downwards. Rest your open palms on your chest. Find stillness in this moment. What do you notice? How do you feel? What inner states of being arise?
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Each day of the week, engage in a secret act of virtue or kindness. Do something nice or needed for others, but do so anonymously. These acts can be very simple, like washing someone else’s dishes, picking up trash on the sidewalk, making an anonymous donation, or leaving a small gift on a coworker’s desk.
This practice helps us look at how willing we are to put the effort out to do good things for others if we never earn credit for it. Zen practice emphasizes “going straight on”—leading our lives in a straightforward way based on what we know to be good practice, undaunted by praise or criticism. A monk once asked the Chinese Zen master Hui-hai “What is the gate [meaning both entrance and pillar] of Zen practice?” Hui-hai answered: “Complete giving”.
The Buddha spoke constantly of the value of generosity, saying it is the most effective way to reach enlightenment. He recommended giving simple gifts—water, food, shelter, clothing, transportation, flowers. Even poor people can be generous he said, by giving a crumb of their food to an ant. Each time we give something away, whether it is a material object or our time, we are letting go of a bit of ourselves and practicing the utmost generosity. Generosity is the highest virtue, and anonymous giving is the highest form of generosity.
Practice by Jan Chozen Bays, from Mindfulness on the Go
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You can close your eyes or keep them opened for this micro-practice, that can be done any time throughout the day. Imagine the smile of divine mothers like Guan Yin or Mother Mary, this serene compassionate smile that is often seen on their faces. This gentle smile that communicates so much love and tenderness. Find an inner version of that smile. You don’t have to move your outer face at all. Smile inwardly at the back of your own heart. You can start to feel how the energy of that smile slowly begins to open your heart, to warm your heart. You can feel how the energy of that smile illuminates a very particular quality inside of the heart. The Inner Smile is a very ancient Qi Gong healing technique, because the energy of the smile contains this quality of infinite compassion. Smiling inwardly at your own heart can allow your own innocent heart to be revealed. Start to feel what gets touched here, what gets opened. What qualities inside of the heart are awakened? Find that inner smile any time throughout your day.
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Listen to this 15-minute guided loving kindness meditation. Compassion meditation involves silently repeating certain phrases that express the intention to move from judgment to caring, from isolation to connection, from indifference to understanding. The practice involves bringing to mind different people (including yourself), and sending them loving-kindness and peace. You don't have to force a particular feeling or get rid of unpleasant or undesirable reactions; the power of the practice is in the wholehearted gathering of attention and energy, and concentrating on each phrase.
Notice how this practice makes you feel. What happened to your heart? Did you feel warmth, openness and tenderness? Did you have a wish to take away the other’s suffering? How does your heart feel different when you envision your own or a loved one’s suffering, a stranger’s, or a difficult person’s? Bask in the joy of this open-hearted wish to ease the suffering of all people and beings, and how this attempt brings joy, happiness, and compassion in your heart at this very moment.
Practice by Penny McGahey on Insight Timer
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Tonglen is Tibetan for ‘giving and taking’ (or sending and receiving), and refers to a meditation practice found in Tibetan Buddhism. Tonglen is also known as exchanging self with other. Below is a simple exercise for practicing Tonglen Compassion Meditation—consciously breathing in the suffering of others, and breathing out relief for that suffering.
1. Find a comfortable position and begin to follow your breath and quiet the mind. After a few minutes or once you are relaxed, you can bring to mind a friend or loved one whom you know is experiencing emotional discomfort or suffering. Imagine that he or she is standing in front of you, and visualize their suffering as a dark, heavy cloud surrounding him or her.
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2. Move your awareness to your heart area and breathe in deeply, imagining yourself inhaling those dark, heavy, uncomfortable, cloudy feelings, directly into your heart. As you breathe out from the heart area, imagine that your heart is a source of bright, warm, compassionate light, and you are breathing that light into the person who is suffering. Imagine that the dark feelings are disappearing without a trace into the light of your heart; the dark clouds transforming into a bright, warm light at the center of your heart, alleviating his or her suffering.
3. Next, try extending your compassion out to a stranger that may be experiencing dark, heavy feelings at this moment. As you did for your loved one, imagine inhaling these cloudy, dark feelings away from those people into your own heart. As the dark feelings settle into your heart, imagine that they are disappearing without a trace into the light of your compassionate heart. You can imagine this person or people being enveloped by the calm and comforting light that you are breathing out from your heart.
4. Continue the above process of sending and receiving, but this time extend your compassion out to someone you find difficult to associate with. Tonglen can extend infinitely, and the more you practice, the more your compassion will expand naturally. You might be surprised to find that you are more tolerant and able to be there for people even in situations where it used to seem impossible.
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Tonglen on the spot
Tonglen can also be practiced informally and on the spot as one bears witness to suffering in everyday life. At any point during the day when you experience personal suffering or observe someone else who is suffering or struggling, you can do Tonglen for one to three breaths.
For example, if you see a mother struggling with an unruly child, you might wish to breathe in the stress and anxiety of the mother and breathe out a sense of calm and ease. You could also practice Tonglen for the child in this situation, breathing in the child’s discomfort and breathing out love and relief. If you see two people yelling at each other, you can breathe in the argument and breathe out understanding. Likewise, you can practice Tonglen for yourself if someone has upset you or something bad has happened.
This can be practiced as quickly as one cycle of breath or you could do it for longer. There’s no need to completely stop whatever you’re doing, just simply put enough energy into staying present with the suffering, without over analyzing or judging it.
Practicing Tonglen on the spot even just three times a day builds the compassion “muscle” in a truly transformative way.
Source: Positive Psychology
Dive deeper into the world of Mother Mary, her image and wisdom, with these resources including books and articles.
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✎ Book
‘Missing Mary: The Queen of Heaven and Her Re-Emergence in the Modern Church’
by Charlene Spretnak -
✦ Article
‘Mary: Feminist Perspectives’
by Tina Beattie -
✦ Article
‘Mother of God or Domesticated Goddess? Mary In Feminist Theology’
by Manfred Hauke -
✎ Book
‘The Myth of the Goddess: Evolution of an Image’
by Jules Cashford & Anne Baring -
New List Item
‘How God Works: The Science Behind the Benefits of Religion’
by David DeSteno -
✎ Book
‘Finding God In Science: The Extraordinary Evidence For The Soul And Christianity, A Rocket Scientist’s Gripping Odyssey’
by Michael R. O'Connell -
✎ Book
‘The Awakened Brain: The New Science of Spirituality and Our Quest for an Inspired Life’
by Lisa Miller -
✤ Journal Article
‘The Virgin Mary: A Liberator for Women’
by Egan Rachel -
✤ Journal Article
‘Breaking Mary's Silence: A Feminist Reflection on Marian Piety’
by Sally Cunneen -
✎ Book
‘Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary’
by Marina Warner -
✎ Book
‘Truly Our Sister: A Theology of Mary in the Communion of Saints’
by Elizabeth A. Johnson -
✎ Book
‘Believing Is Seeing: A Physicist Explains How Science Shattered His Atheism and Revealed the Necessity of Faith’
by Michael Guillen, PhD -
❊ Oracle Deck
‘Mother Mary Oracle: Protection Miracles & Grace of the Holy Mother’
by Alana Fairchild & Shiloh Sophia McCloud -
✎ Book
‘Building Sisterhood: A Feminist History of the Sisters (Women and Gender in Religion)’
by Servants of The Immaculate Heart of Sisters -
✎ Book
‘God's Mother, Eve's Advocate’
by Tina Beattie -
✎ Book
‘Empress and Handmaid: On Nature and Gender in the Cult of the Virgin Mary’
by Sarah Jane Boss
Sources:
Mary and the Feminist Movement
The Virgin Mary: A Liberator for Women
Mother of God or Domesticated Goddess? Mary in Feminist Theology
Psychologists Are Learning What Religion Has Known for Years | Wired
Mary Mother of Jesus | New World Encyclopedia
Our Lady of Guadalupe Is a Powerful Symbol of Mexican Identity | NBC News
Image Credits:
Emil Salmins • Erica Tighe Campbell • Siniša Simon • Anastasia Karaseva • Lauren Walsh • Timothy Helgeson