Mother Wisdom

Every society has some hallowed image of the old wise woman, the crone, the female sage of the village. In the world’s mythologies, strangely enough, wisdom is feminine. Wisdom is usually an attribute of a goddess or woman in whom wisdom has become a conscious part of her psyche. Wisdom is a woman, a crone, a goddess, a feminine archetype. In Greek mythology, she is Athena, goddess of wisdom and military victory, the patron goddess of the city Athens. In the Bible, she is Sophia, Lady Wisdom crying out in the streets. She is the Divine Mother, the Sacred Feminine, Mother of God, Mother Earth. Her name is Mary, Aphrodite, Venus, Kwan Yin, Tara, Gaia, Maat, Isis, Saraswati, the Shekinah, to name a few.

Sadly, Mother Wisdom has been reduced in our community in recent years to “Madea,” a commodity to poke fun at, as can be seen in Tyler Perry’s blockbuster serial caricatures. For years, however, the old wise woman was the grandmother who cares for her children’s children, the old maiden who lives down the street who knows which herb is best for which ailment, the homeless woman who walks the streets muttering odd sayings to herself, the colored school teacher who never had children of her own, the woman who waits at the bus stop on First Sunday to be taken to her Baptist church where she sits proudly on the Mother Board. Part fantasy and part reality, she’s the old woman in the village who has lived long enough to tell the truth and not care who is offended. No longer the object of anyone’s sexual desire, she represents all that society dislikes most in a woman: unpredictability, undesirability, unconquered. To hear her speak, however, is as though you're hearing the voice of God. Her wisdom feels like what must be God's feminine side.

She captivates us and embarrasses us, this old wise woman does. As much as we sit on edge when she comes in the room, wondering what in God’s name will come out her toothless mouth this time, she continues to be the object of our secret longing. After all, she reminds us of all the un-mothered/ under-mothered places within. Places within each of us that still long for a mother’s touch, a mother’s voice, a mother’s guidance, a mother’s protection, a mother’s breast, a mother’s wisdom.

Renita J. Weems, Ph.D.