Finding Mother God

By: Carol Lynn Pearson

Narrated by: Carol Lynn Pearson

Length: 2 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

Honoring the female part of the divine, from a refreshingly modern perspective.

Call Her Goddess - call her God the Mother - call her the Feminine Principle - her children need her, and our world deeply suffers the pains of her absence. Through the warmth and the wit of poetry, this book is an invitation for all - women, men, of any religion or of no religion - to welcome her home and set a permanent place for her at the family table. Carol Lynn Pearson’s poetry is accessible, thoughtful, and thought-provoking - the perfect balance of wisdom, humility, and humor.

Carol Lynn Pearson has been a professional writer, speaker, and performer for many years. In addition to her volumes of poetry, she is well known for such books as The Ghost of Eternal Polygamy and Goodbye, I Love You, her autobiography; Consider the Butterfly, which was a finalist in the inspiration/spiritual category of the 2002 Independent Publishers Book Awards; and a series of inspirational books that began with The Lesson.

Carol Lynn has been a guest on such programs as The Oprah Winfrey Show and Good Morning, America and has been featured in People magazine. She has a master of arts in theater, is the mother of four grown children, and lives in Walnut Creek, California. You can visit her at www.clpearson.com.

©2020 Gibbs Smith (P)2020 Gibbs Smith

powerfully read and beautifully written

I started listening to Carol Lynn Pearson read her latest poetry collection — Finding Mother God: Poems to Heal the World — and I could not stop. And now I’m listening to it a second time. It’s vibrant and healing. I find Pearson’s words in this volume (and, in the audiobook, her delivery) irresistible. Pearson eloquently, insightfully, and powerfully captures a longing for a closer connection to a Heavenly Mother—and the promise of what that connection may bring—throughout, “so that God Herself and God Himself, who were always one, can join on earth to bless the confused billions” (from “Message from Mother”).

There was one Face
and then the Face became two
like when you stare with soft vision
and one of the Faces looked like me.

She said:
It is wonderful to see you seeing me.

He said:
I am so sorry.
It never was intended that She be erased.
(from “A God Who Looks Like Me”)

The existence of a Heavenly Mother is not novel to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Our theology on this dates back to Eliza R. Snow’s 1845 hymn “O My Father” and has been echoed by Church leaders every since. (For an overview, see Paulsen and Pulido’s survey of teachings on Heavenly Mother.) Yet our regular, day-to-day teachings and worship tend not to involve her beyond that. Pearson proposes that rediscovering and re-engaging the divine feminine can be a force to heal the world. She traces the belief in a feminine divine much further back:

For all those little gifts you to gave to
the mythologists and archaeologists
to give to me

I thank you, Mother.
(from “Message from Mother”)

She draws strength and comfort from the concept of her Mother God: “Because She is Beauty, I must be beautiful. Because She is God, I must be good. Because she is everlasting, I will continue tomorrow and the day after the day after the days after that” (from “Like Mother Like Daughter”). (I can hear something like eternity in that day after day after days.) I read these not as imperatives (something I have to do) but as identities: we are beautiful and good and we will continue. Pearson reminds us that even when our faith (in any god) may waver, we may find Her or Him as we “do just a tiny bit of what God should do” (from “Chiasm on the Being of God”). In the gorgeous poem “What Good Is God,” she recognizes those moments when we feel our prayers have gone unanswered and imagines a response: “If I don’t answer your prayers, you could answer mine. That’s what Jesus would say.” I’m inspired by the idea of entering each day, seeking to answer the loving prayers of my Heavenly Parents on behalf of their hurting children.

The collection is wonderfully varied. Pearson speaks of girls’ education in countries where that is difficult to access (“A Goddess of the East”). She reflects on mothers in The Sound of Music and in Mary Poppins (“Our Mother in the Movies”). She pronounces a glorious, not-to-be-missed, fist-in-the-air defense of women nursing in public (“Woman Creating”). She reminds us that in a Zion community, it is safe not only to grow but also that “you can fall here,” caught and comforted by a quilt of women’s hands (“Women Together”).

While the poetry is beautiful to my ear, these are accessible poems, some reading more like poetic essays than poems. In other words, this is a collection of poetry to be loved even by those who don’t love poetry. As Pearson puts it in her (prose) author’s note: “This book of poems … is more than poetry. It is an urgent invitation for all … to welcome our Mother God back into the family… With the full participating and the full honoring of the female—on the earth and in heaven—we have a stronger opportunity to create justice and peace, bringing the human family closer and closer to the promised land of Partnership.” I pray that it may be so.

Divine

Carol Lynn delivers the much needed input of the feminine into the Divine. I'm honored that I have been able to read her words as well as listen to her read her own words. Poetry is meant to be heard and hearing it from the voice of the poet is critical.

Perfection.

I wish I had known about this book sooner. I could hear my many questions and cries echoed in these words. Having just finished it, I feel like a piece of my soul has been mended & that I somehow owe a debt of gratitude to the author. I also really appreciate that my first experience with this book was hearing the poems read in the author’s own voice. Although now I have a strong urge to buy a hard copy so I can see the words laid out on the page & appreciate the aesthetics in that way as well. I would recommend this book to just about anybody.

Enchanting

From the very first poem I was hooked. This is a book I want to give all my sisters.
If God is She then She is God.
I feel like I can embrace my divine nature now more than ever.
Thank you for helping me remember Heavenly Mother.

excellent book concepts never before considered.

narrator was excellent, being the original author, and would recommend it to anyone wishing to expand their concepts of God and gender.

Beautifully Read

So beautiful! I loved hearing the author read her poetry, so filled with emotion. My soul was filled with love for and from our Mother.

inspiring!

Carol Lynn outdoes herself with this one. Moving. Divine. I'm grateful. She gives life to the concept of the Mormon Mother in Heaven.

Sublime!

Can I say that Carol Lynn Pearson is a prophetess? And that this book should be canonized?
This sublime owed to the

Beautifully Told

Not only is Carolyn’s poetry about Mother God beautiful, but the way she reads it is equally as impactful and important. I loved how this book appeals to an entire spectrum of belief and also to traditions around the world. Truly a gift.