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."