In the beginning, when Mysterious Mother was waving an arm as long as a spiral galaxy, creating all things that spring from her, she made a decision with humans. She had magnanimous love for all of her creations and made them with the skills to have them all playing well together until, at last, they returned to her. The humans presented a challenging case, as with them she decided to supercharge the thinking and feeling aspects of their nature, but at the same time they needed to remain in balance with the rest of her creations. In a way it was like the Mysterious Mother was an artist that was used to confining her work to a 2×3 canvas and then challenging herself to do a wall-sized mural. It was the first time she’d tried such a thing, so in a way humans were also an experiment.
She was tired on Saturday night, but she knew she would rest the next day and so pushed to finish. Her arms felt like great weights and her shoulders sagged. Her eyes grew heavy and her vision blurred. She took a break and ran a nice hot tub and put her favorite vervain-scented bath bomb in, then went to finish humans before climbing into the tub.
Major huffing and puffing and singing sweet melodies accompanied her people weaving. Soon a row of humans were sleeping on a mossy hill, dreaming who knows what, as they were the very first to experience human life. Mysterious Mother smiled and called it good. She wearily shuffled to her hot tub and fell asleep herself within minutes.
As the eons passed, Mysterious Mother watched her experiments, who first wormed their ways into her heart as her favorites. They used the thinking and feeling parts of their brains to create what they called art in many forms. They were the closest creation of hers to her nature. They thought well enough to overcome their lack of other survival attributes including fur in the winter time. Their feeling selves learned to love each other and care for each other as she did for all of her feeling beings.
Over time though, things shifted. Yes the humans continued with their art, their survival, and their loving each other, but something else began to creep in. A sense of entitlement, where their thinking brains rationalized that they were the most important thing on the planet, which in turn bred arrogance. They lost their reverence for the earth and abused it. A blackness on their souls sprouted rationalizations.
As rationalizations spread through the brains of humans, the feeling parts of their brains were pulled along in subservience to it. After awhile the feeling brain forgot that it had the power to think independently from the thinking brain. There came a time when the feeling brain was paralyzed unless it consulted the arrogant and self-serving nature of the rationalizing thinking brain.
Mysterious Mother knows and feels all. She feels the arrogance, backed by rationalizations, of the humans who have ravaged their created kin and have made it standard practice to abuse and exploit members of their own kind without conscience. She feels the sorrow of those whose feeling selves are paralyzed and enslaved to them. Her sorrow dwarfs them all. She who is beyond all reproach must acknowledge humans as a failed experiment. Her task now is to decide how to correct her error.
Reena Saxena is the host of Reena’s Exploration Challenge. Reena says:
Imagine two sides/perspectives/characters/mind-sets with the following names:
- Thinking Brain
- Feeling Brain
Write about how these two interact, clash, complement or supplement each other.
This is a free-flow format of no rules, and a space for exploration.
Image: “Goddess Of Truth” is a mixed media by Shannon Crandall
I am also linking this to Earthweal’s Open Link Weekend.
Tao Talk 
This is a very memorable piece of writing. Hard hitting! “Her sorrow dwarfs them all” Wow! Very nice! ☀️
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you very much.
LikeLike
You bet! ☀️
LikeLiked by 1 person
A brilliant piece, and one of your best! Thanks for the contribution, Lisa!
Abusing and exploiting their own kind is a sign of living in claustrophobic and blind narrow mental lanes. I struggle to understand this every day.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Reena. I struggle with it also.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reblogged this on Reena Saxena and commented:
Mysterious Mother, and the rise and fall of humans… by Jade Li/Lisa
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very well written Lisa… very deep
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Max.
LikeLike
“humans…..a failed experiment.” An absolute truth. Sigh.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is amazing work! you have weaved and created a story that pokes and prods at all the things we have done as humans, presented like a puppet show, those who are guilty must hang their head in shame. What will she do to correct her error? Sounds like she has come choices. I totally love this from you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Gina thank you very much. Yes I wonder also…
LikeLiked by 1 person
A wonderful myth for the earthweal pot, Lisa! Creation stories are so powerful and offer a songline to and through the present. Loved the details of the Mysterious Mother’s bath. Wondering if the Mother will solve the problem by draining us all down with the bath. Thanks for bringing this to the new forum. — Brendan
LikeLiked by 1 person
Brendan, your comments are appreciated, as always. I wonder also…
LikeLike
Amazing piece, Lisa! “humans…..a failed experiment.”, a reality!? Bravo!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Eugi, thank you very much.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re most welcome, Lisa!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Fascinating exploration of where we surely come from, and how we have so sadly gone wrong. You make us feel the power of the earth-mother’s judgement hanging over us all, and we can only hope she is as wise as she has been kind, because we are past the point of fixing this on our own.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hedgewitch, your comment is insightful and very much appreciated. Yes, we are 😦
LikeLike
Excellent personification. I like your storytelling style.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you very much, Kerry.
LikeLike
After being a lifelong optimist, I have begun acknowledging the human experiment has failed. As we learn only through hard lessons, those will be coming along shortly. Too late smart. I loved reading this. I especially loved Mysterious Mother climbing into her hot tub after all her hard work.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sherry, your insightful comment is appreciated.
LikeLike
Jade Li, check your spam folders. I tried twice to leave a comment on your Iran essay which is very knowledgable and well expressed, but because you use akismet it is likely sending me to spam. I am impressed with your many comments. Well done. So glad to cross paths at Earthweal.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Sherry, I’ll check my spam folder.
LikeLike
Sherry, I didn’t find any of your comments in the spam folder. Thank you for this comment.
LikeLike
Spot on.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Ken, I wish it wasn’t 😦
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well, I think the Mysterious woman might flush us out in the drain unless we can wash that darkness away.
LikeLiked by 1 person