Hello! I'm Imelda Maguire, SoulCollage® facilitator from Donegal, Ireland. Also a counselor and poet, my joy is in working with others in healing and creativity. This column is for those of you who have already made some cards & are ready to discover the symphony of voices inside of you and around you.


Encountering the Divine Mother

When I find myself in times of trouble,
Mother Mary comes to me....

In one of the most beautiful Beatles' songs, Paul McCartney expresses something that is fairly universal. When we are in times of trouble, we find ourselves wanting comfort, wanting to be assured that everything is going to be okay. Even long after our mothers have passed away, or at times when they are far distant, when trouble comes, one of our most natural urges is a longing to be mothered. And this song speaks of the experience of receiving that mothering.

McCartney's mother's name was Mary (as was mine). When discussing this song, he was asked whether he was referring to the Virgin Mary. In response, he described a dream in which his own mother had come to him, but allowed that people could read whatever they wished into the song. Now, millions respond to it as something more metaphysical, as describing an encounter with what I think of as the Divine Mother.



I speak of Mary (having grown up in a Catholic, Marian-centred culture), but almost all cultures have within them a female figure that fills that role, the feminine aspect of the divine - the loving, nurturing parent - the Divine Mother.

During the week before my mother's passing, I was in California - an ocean and a continent away from her, to assist at a SoulCollage® Facilitator Training. I found myself drawn to a beautiful statue of Kwan-Yin in the grounds of the Buddhist retreat center where we were staying. In Los Angeles' magnificent cathedral, I was impelled to go to an altar of Our Lady of Guadalupe to light a candle - with an insistent voice telling me it was to be for my mother. Everywhere I turned in those days, the last few days of my mother's life, the hand of the Divine Mother guided and held me. It was long after word of her passing came (it had not been expected) that I recognized that we both had been held and mothered during that time.

I am no expert on mythology, on theology or on anthropology. My reflection and sharing is of my personal connection to the Archetype, the Council Neter that is Divine Mother. The two cards I offer are aspects of the same Neter - the one born out of the universality of the experience of being a mother, the other of being cared for by the Divine Mother.

We are her, and she is us, and she is with us.

Let it Be.


Imelda Maguire is a SoulCollage® facilitator from Donegal, Ireland. A counsellor, poet, Bach Flower Remedy practitioner, and creative-writing facilitator, her joy is in working with others, in witnessing a-ha moments and experiences of healing. She has been sharing SoulCollage® with groups since 2003, when she first discovered the process, and delights in others' excitement on meeting their Neters for the first time.