The House Panel

Two of the quotes on this panel deal with the topic of praying to Heavenly Mother. The quote from President Hinckley says we do not pray to her because we are taught in scripture to pray to the Father in the name of the Son. The quote from Orson Pratt in its entirety is this:

"But if we have a heavenly Mother as well as a heavenly Father, is it not right that we should worship the Mother of our spirits as well as the Father? No; for the Father of our spirits is at the head of His household, and his wives and children are required to yield the most perfect obedience to their great Head. It is lawful for the children to worship the King of Heaven, but not the 'Queen of heaven.'... we are nowhere taught that Jesus prayed to His heavenly Mother..." 

He also believes that God has more than one wife, which would make praying to a specific being pretty difficult. This quote can be found in The Seer page 159.

The Gordon B. Hinckley quote is found here: https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1991/10/daughters-of-god?lang=eng

The third quote, by Carol Lynn Pearson, is from an article titled Healing the Motherless House.

http://signaturebookslibrary.org/women-and-authority-1

The Elder Pace Quote

In defense of our Mormon position that we are literal descendants of the divine, we often quote 1 John 3:2. In this scripture we learn that when we stand before God, we will see that we are like him. If true, what does this mean for women?

I believe, like Elder Pace, that there will be a Mother there to greet us in heaven along with the Father. I take comfort in the fact that this doctrine has been taught by numerous Church leaders.

http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=1886

The Scale Panel

This panel showcases two polar opposite opinions that have been held about the Feminine Divine within Mormonism. These two men are roughly contemporary with each other, and of equal status within the hierarchy of Church leadership. Nevertheless, their ideas seem to be 180 degrees apart.

For me this scale represents a choice that each viewer has to make. The choice between embracing the Mother that has been revealed to us, or maintaining her position as a subject of Sunday School trivia.

Location of the quote from Elder Cannon: https://archive.org/stream/juvenileinstruct3010geor/juvenileinstruct3010geor_djvu.txt

Location of the quote from Elder Ballard:http://ldsarch.lib.byu.edu/CD%20Volume%202/Disc35/v600-602/seg15.htm

The Joseph Panel

This story is found in the History of the Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Association of the Church of Jesus Christ of L.D.S., from November 1869 to June 1910, written by Susa Young Gates. Because it is a secondhand source, many have treated it as though it is not entirely reliable. I choose to trust the source, recognizing that most of Joseph Smith's words are related through his scribes, family members, and friends.

I find it wonderful that Joseph taught about Heavenly Mother. Susa Young Gates even says that Eliza R. Snow most likely wrote her poem, O My Father, after hearing this doctrine from Joseph.

You can find the story for yourself in the previously mentioned book in a footnote on pages 15 and 16. The BYU library has both print and digital copies. 

A Mother There

David Paulsen and Martin Pulido wrote an article for BYU Studies Quarterly titled A Mother There: A Survey of Historical Teachings about Mother in Heaven. Their goal was to look carefully at all that has been said about Mother in Heaven. Nowhere in their research did they find a General Authority directing church members to remain silent about Heavenly Mother.

To me, this suggests that we are able to talk about her openly and without fear of breaking a commandment. This article was one of my favorites to read again and again, because not only did it tell me I could talk about my Heavenly Mother, it gave me numerous examples of places where she was talked about. I found so many wonderful pieces of information about Mother in Heaven by reading the article. I highly suggest that anyone wanting to know more about what has been said about God the Mother to begin their search with this reading. 

https://byustudies.byu.edu/PDFViewer.aspx?title=8669&linkURL=50.1PaulsenPulidoMother-482bf17d-bbc5-4530-a7cc-c1a1b7e5b079.pdf

The Margaret Toscano Quote

This quote comes from a chapter in the book Women and Authority: Re-emerging Mormon Feminism. The book was edited by Maxine Hanks, and was published in 1992. The book tries to look at the Mormon experience from a female angle. 

The chapter I got this quote from was written by Margaret Toscano, titled Put on Your Strength O Daughters of Zion: Claiming Priesthood and Knowing the Mother. I choose this quote because I found it beautiful and hopeful. I hope that one day we can know the Mother. 

http://signaturebookslibrary.org/women-and-authority-18/

The Hart Crane Panel

This is part of a poem titled My Grandmother's Love Letters from Hart Crane's collection of lyrics, White Buildings (1926). The poem begins "There are no stars out tonight / but those of memory." The mysterious "I" that narrates the poem seems hopeless, without light and love. The only comfort he can find, the only light, seems to be in his memory. In the second stanza, the reader realizes what kind of thoughts the narrator seems to cherish: thoughts and artifacts of his grandmother. But all of this remains extremely delicate. Such memories are "liable to melt as snow." The third stanza reinforces the delicate nature of his memories. There is a temporal distance that removes the narrator from the love and light of his grandmother--"It is all hung by an invisible white hair." Then the narrator presents the passage which means so much to me. He asks himself whether he is capable of reaching back to his grandmother. To me, this is symbolic of my search for the Heavenly Mother. I must as myself, as the narrator of the poem does, "Are my fingers long enough to play old keys that are but echoes?" I realize, as Crane does, that I face an immense struggle. "And so I stumble."

The Trinity Knot Panel

The image on this panel is called a trinity knot. This is often used to symbolize the unity of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. In my mind, and with the quote below it, the circle through the knot stands for the unity of the Father and Mother. Without them, the trinity would not be. 

The quote comes from a Women's Conference talk which I accessed here: “Becoming Bone of Bone and Flesh of Flesh.” Chapter in As Women of Faith: Talks Selected from the BYU Women’s Conferences. ed. Mary E. Stovall and Carol Cornwall Madsen. Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book, 1989. pp. 107–21.

The Baby Panel

Eugene England was a Mormon scholar, teacher, and thinker. He founded Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. This quote comes from an article he wrote in 1987, titled On Fidelity, Polygamy and Celestial Marriage. I found the whole article remarkably comforting, but particularly enjoyed this quote, since one of my greatest worries is that I will spend eternity giving birth to spirit children. 

The Campell Quote

Joseph Campbell was an American author and teacher best known for his work in the field of comparative mythology. This quote comes from his book Goddess: Mysteries of the Feminine Divine. This quote comes from the introductory chapter where Campbell gives a brief history of goddess worship through the ages. To me, he is trying to say that even though worship of the goddess is rare now, it hasn't been. She continues to return to the world in various guises. Even though we don't know her very well now, she will have her ways of reaching out to her children. 

The Young Women's Theme

This panel was inspired by several different blog posts that I read. In them, people were asking to make a small change to the Young Women's Theme. They want to change the very first line from, "We are daughters of our Heavenly Father" to "We are daughters of our Heavenly Parents." 

One post says: "I believe that if we can make this small and simple change to the YW Theme – of changing “Heavenly Father” to “Heavenly Parents” – our girls will be invigorated.  They will see themselves not just as daughters of a Heavenly Father, with past and present divinity, but they will see that there is future divinity for women, too.  I believe that envisioning Heavenly Parents, with a Father and Mother side-by-side, will embolden them to see themselves as they are: divine daughters of God, with divine nature and divine potential."

http://www.the-exponent.com/visiblewomen-we-are-daughters-of-heavenly-parents/

The Greek Panel

The words on this panel come from the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, lines 344-45. In this story, Persephone, the daughter of Demeter (the goddess of the harvest), is kidnapped by Hades. Demeter searches everywhere for her daughter, not eating or drinking or sleeping for nine days. Finally, someone tells her where Persephone has been taken.

Demeter immediately goes to Zeus (the king of the gods) and asks him to make Hades give back Persephone. Zeus sides with Hades, and tells Demeter that she is lucky to have such a prestigious son-in-law. Demeter is obviously upset, so she leaves the home of the gods and lives with the mortals. She also puts a famine on the land so that no crops will grow. Zeus finally decides to have Hades give back Persephone once he realizes that without food, the humans are bringing him fewer offerings than normal. 

Hades pretends to give Persephone back, but also fed her some pomegranate seeds which means she cannot leave the realm of the dead. A compromise is reached where Persephone will spend part of the year with her mother, and part with Hades. When Persephone is with Hades, Demeter once again curses the land, which is why we have winter. 

The Cipher Panel

This quote is one that resonates quite a bit with me. In Mormonism, we are taught that we are gods in embryo. If we live as we should, we can become like God is. But, God is male. I have no idea what a female Goddess does with her time. What does being a god mean for a woman? What does the future hold for me? 

The quote that I used on the panel comes from a blogger on the blog Times and Seasons, Sarah Familia. The post is part of a larger series that she did on the Heavenly Mother. 

http://timesandseasons.org/index.php/2012/09/finding-my-heavenly-mother-part-2/

The Seed Panel

This quote comes from an amazing article by Carol Lynn Pearson, titled Healing the Motherless House. 

http://signaturebookslibrary.org/?p=935

The Tree Panel

There are two separate items to be discussed on this panel. The first is the scripture, which is Proverbs 3:17-18. These verses are talking about Wisdom, personified as a woman. It is common for wisdom to be treated as such. Proverbs 8 is an entire chapter where Wisdom speaks to men, and is introduced in the first three verses as being female. 

As I was searching for information about Heavenly Mother, I stumbled on several articles who thought that Wisdom might be Heavenly Mother speaking to us. I liked the idea, and decided to put my favorite of the wisdom scriptures on a panel.

The quote from Daniel C. Peterson ("She is the tree.") comes from an article that was published by the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Studies in 2000 titled Nephi and his Asherah. In this article he discusses the possibility that Nephi recognized the tree of life as Asherah, the ancient goddess wife of El. 

http://publications.maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/jbms/9/2/S00003-50be458eb2b313Peterson.pdf 

The Beehive Panel

This quote came out of my reading the book The Secret Life of Bees. I read this book without knowing what it was really about, but when I did read it, I found that Lily's search for knowledge of her mother, and how Sue Monk Kidd (the author) wrote about Mary, the mother of Christ, really struck a chord within my own heart. 

The quote inside the beehive came from one of the chapter headings in The Secret Life of Bees, and I thought it fit with what I was trying to say. 

Are You My Mother?

This book was one of my very favorites when I was small, and I think that it speaks to the knowledge that everyone and most everything has a mother. When one is not there, we know that something is wrong.

I choose to include this design because it states what I felt for a very long time. I had a Mother in Heaven, and I was going to do everything in my power to find Her. I spent over a year searching blogs, magazine articles and various other sources to learn more Heavenly Mother. And I did learn about Her. Like the baby bird, my search eventually helped me get to where I needed to be. 

I Often Go Walking

This popular children's song is a staple in the LDS Mother's Day programs. A loving song from a child to her mother, I felt that it fit very well within my work about the Heavenly Mother. I like to think that perhaps Mother in Heaven was the one who designed all the flowers. 

O My Father

This beautiful poem was written in 1845 by Eliza R. Snow. It is believed that she first heard the doctrine of Heavenly Mother from the prophet Joseph Smith. This hymn is the most well-known direct reference to Heavenly Mother within the LDS church today although there are other, less popular hymns that mention her. You can read more background on this remarkable hymn, and the even more remarkable woman who wrote it, in an article published by BYU Studies in 1997, The Significance of O My Father in the Personal Journey of Eliza R. Snow by Jill Murvay Derr. 

https://byustudies.byu.edu/PDFViewer.aspx?title=6362&linkURL=36.1DerrSignificance-5a553016-b3c9-4461-b22e-34ea4909902a.pdf