Truth-and-Darkness                                                            Page 48

The "hood of slate-blue" may be a passing reference to images of the Virgin

Mary, though those found in many, if not most, modem churches would have

no resemblance to what, or who, the poem describes. ( Certainly no

resemblance to anything to do with real bodies. ) Looking into the calm, dark

face “so worn with the burden of inexpressible knowledge" , the poet asks,

'"why is it that I begin to worship you with tears?" It could be that the tears are

tears of recognition. The woman's "image and likeness" is reflected back. The

face of the goddess has the same kind of calm as the tranquil lake in "The

Maker" :

to mirror their joy and pain;

and all their pain and joy

I from my own heart make.

Perhaps the tears come from age-old remembering:

We are bon remembering; we are bon connected. The thread of

personal myth winds through the matriarchal labyrinth from womb to

womb, to the faceless source, which is the place of origination.⁵⁶

Meinrad Craighead's painting '"Hagia Sophia" shows a hooded woman whose

strong face is worn with ancient knowledge. She is surrounded by mythic

symbols of birth, death and wisdom. She holds the thread of life between her

thumb and forefinger. The thread runs from an intricate labyrinth that is

pictured symbolically in her womb. She is at the centre of a large mandala

whose rays go out to the universe.⁵⁷ She is, like Ishtar, a haunting presence.

⁵⁶ Meinrad Craighead, Immanent Mother, in The Feminist Mystic, Edited by Mary Giles

    (New York, Crossroads. 1982) pp.82-83

⁵⁷ This image is reproduced in Elizabeth Johnson's She Who Is (New York. Crossroads 1993)

     between pp.58-59