11/12/2025
The Mother Wound
Many of us were not raised with the kind of tender and loving support we needed when we were children. We didn’t have a fierce and loyal protector or a safe and reassuring lap to crawl into when we were scared. This created, what I call, a wound of absence in our physiology. A soul wound. A gnawing emptiness that seeks to be filled. It is the birthplace of addiction, self-loathing, unhealthy relationships and alienation from ourself and each other.
In the words of Gabor Mate: In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts; “From the latin word vulnerare, ‘to wound’, vulnerability is our susceptibility to be wounded. This fragility is part of our nature and cannot be escaped. The best the brain can do is to shut down conscious awareness of it when pain becomes so vast or unbearable that it threatens to overwhelm our capacity to function.
When we flee our vulnerability, we lose our full capacity for feeling emotion. We may even become emotional amnesiacs, not remembering ever having felt truly elated or truly sad. A nagging void opens, and we experience it as alienation, as profound as ennui, as the sense of deficient emptiness.”
The Great Mother is the Archetype of unconditional loving and tender compassion. An immense warmth and welcome rooted firmly in the present moment. She opens her arms and invites us into her robust lap of comfort and gentle reassurance. She soothes the places inside that are worn and weary. She is never more than a whisper away.
"We are born of love; Love is our mother." ~ Rumi
~ Candace Kirby
July 28th, 2022
Healing the Mother Wound
Photo by Cherry Laithang on Unsplash
>>>> Link to resources in bio or www.candacekirby.ca
