Coming Home to the Divine Beloved: Musings on Rachel McGarry’s New Single ‘As You Do’
Mother, teach me to love me as you do
Mother, teach me to love me as you do
as you do, as you do, as you do
as you do, as you do, as you do
Mother, teach me to love me as you do
Mother, teach me to love me as you do
Jai Ma, Jai Ma, Jai Jai, Jai Ma
Thank you for loving me, protecting me, guiding me, inspiring me
For loving me, protecting me, guiding me, inspiring me
Inspiring me, inspiring me, inspiring me
Jai Ma, Jai Ma, Jai Jai, Jai Ma
-Rachel McGarry, As You Do
photo credit for blog image: Tanja Rohn
Rachel McGarry’s lush new single As You Do is inspiring. It gives me pause to reflect. As You Do points out a path through the tangle of worthlessness and despair that so many of us grapple with every day.
As a soul on life’s meandering path, like you, I walk alongside countless fellow beings. Many of us are seeking. Many of us suffer from isolation, a sense of loss, woundedness, or emptiness. This is painful. We wander, searching for something that seems elusive. Maybe we can’t pinpoint what it is, but we feel its lack like an ache. We know it, because we have been there and we carry a primal sense, a memory—no matter how deeply buried—of home.
Home.
The place where we belong, where we are beloved, enfolded, and embraced. Where we can be present in the moment, just as we are, without fear of judgement or rejection. A mystic of nearly any spiritual tradition on Earth would tell us that we are in exile from our shared sacred nature.
Not only have we forgotten what we’re missing, we have forgotten the way home, and that we are welcome there. In this sometimes thick fog that is part of our life journey, reinforced by western culture’s addiction to individual achievement, competition, and the merits of developing a tough hide, we’ve fallen under the illusion that going it alone is the ultimate mark of strength. If we consider the suffering of our fellow beings, we can’t help but see that the models of rugged individualism and everyone for themselves are not only serving us poorly—they’re not serving us at all.
One of the practices I have turned to in my own life when I feel stalled, overwhelmed, inadequate, fearful, or full of despair is to simply surrender. Not surrender in the sense of giving up; surrender as in giving myself over to a deeper knowing. It can be difficult to find words for this. Some might call it Faith. Release. An admission that my intellect alone can’t solve the problem or comprehend the mystery, and that I must pull the matter down into my heart.
As a shamanic practitioner and bhakti yogi, this pulling the matter into my heart signifies releasing my grasping and desperation and giving them over to Source, the Sacred Spark that dwells in all beings everywhere. What it amounts to, quite simply, is recognizing that I am part of something greater than my ego-mind—and asking for help.
As You Do is that exact kind of call-out from Soul to Source in the aspect of the Great Goddess, the Mother who creates, sustains, and transforms all things. This chant’s spiralling central mantra is a signpost to those of us lost in exile, a reminder that we are part of something greater than our struggling minds, and that we can come home and receive the Great Mother’s embrace.
Mother, teach me to love me as you do.
In surrendering our perceived imperfections, inadequacies, and the self-judgement that comes along with them, we make space within. We become lighter. We can be held; we can be rocked and comforted. We are more able to expand into the truth of who we are, beings who form threads of a sacred tapestry woven by the Universal Energy. If the idea of Goddess doesn’t float your boat, maybe Thich Nhat Hahn’s concept of inter-being speaks to you. All that exists is connected as ever shifting, vibrating, infinitely changing energy. Nothing is truly separate from anything else: no paper without a tree, no tree without the rain or Mama Earth’s nutrients. Scientific inquiry is telling us more and more about inter-connectedness these days, too. This sounds a whole lot more like Oneness than rugged individualism.
If we could release our narrative of ourselves as inadequate, separate, lonely beings in constant competition with one another, and recognize that we are strands of a wondrous and sacred web of existence, perhaps we could make space to love ourselves, one another, and the Earth a little more. To reach together into a deeper shared well of wisdom that flows from the heart, the centre of each of us. Ram Dass was fond of saying that we are all just “God in drag.” And yes, he was a guy, and he used masculine terminology sometimes. I’ll take Goddess, Mystery, Source, Universe, ShivaShakti, Pachamama… a rose by another other name. And I’ll join Rachel in summoning that Sacred Font to flow from my heart to yours, pouring out its wisdom and love.
Jai Ma, Jai Ma, Jai Jai Jai Ma
Yeah, baybeez. Victory, hail to the Mother. Hail to the Source of Wisdom and Love with the power to transform suffering and call us back home to the heart.
It is time to remember that we do not walk alone, and to find the joy, relief, and nurturing in that wisdom. And so the beautiful metaphor Rachel chose for As You Do is feminine, invoking Mother Love in all its fierceness, tenderness, creative and transformative power.
Thank you for loving me, protecting me, guiding me, inspiring me.
Imagine letting go of self-hatred, worthlessness, loss, despair, and separation, and surrendering into a place of knowing unconditional love. We are indescribably, exquisitely taken care of. It is not only permissible to reach out for help and comfort; we’re also being invited to soften our hearts to give and receive these gifts. When we expand into this spaciousness, we become available to radical healing and transformation. We make ourselves conduits of healing and transformation for those around us. Gratitude rises and spills from us as a natural blessing of walking each other home.
I recommend streaming Rachel McGarry’s new single As You Do by following the links provided on her web site: https://sanctuary.is/music/ . It is just one of the delicious song beings celebrating the sacred feminine on her soon-to-be released album SHE RISES. You can stay current with all her latest offerings by following Rachel on Facebook and Instagram at rachelmcgarrymusic.
I’ll be listening with gratitude, Rachel, to you and Herself, in Her infinitely varied Oneness.
