Heavenly Mother/ Mormon Feminism     

Affinity, November 1990, p. 10.

Since January 5th of this year [1990], Carol Lynn Pearson has been enlightening audiences throughout the West with her one-woman play Mother Wove the Morning. Members of Affirmation had a chance to be enlightened when Sister Pearson presented the play to an appreciative audience in a special Saturday evening performance as part of Affirmation's general conference. Conference goers saw her remarkable portrayal of sixteen women, each presented as part of the search for the feminine principle in deity; the Mother God missing in most religions today.

In addition to accepting Affirmation's invitation to perform at the [1990] conference, Sister Pearson also presented the play to audiences at the ASU Kerr Cultural Center in Scottsdale, Arizona. "We are honored and thrilled she's been so well received," said Conference Co-Chair Irwin [Phelps]. "She's not as well-known in this area as in Utah or the Bay Area, and except for the first three nights, she has performed for sellout audiences." Mother Wove the Morning was so well received that additional performances were scheduled.

Many readers may be interested in the following excerpts from an interview with Carol Lynn that was printed in Mormon Women's Forum.

W.F.: Why did you decide to write this play?

C.L.P.: I wrote this play to change the world. I wrote this play because it has been pressing on my mind and my heart for about thirty years. Because I've felt these things so strongly in myself. I've assumed that others, too, must feel that we need the figure of the Mother. We need the feminine in our lives, and the thrilling thing is that today is a day when we can invite the feminine--the Mother--back into our lives.

W.F.: Why do you think the feminine God has been neglected in our religions and in our society?

C.L.P.: History goes through phases. One very early phase was recognition of only the Goddess. Historians, mythologists, and archaeologists are giving us more and more evidence that to those very early people, the Mother God was the acknowledged creator. And then--and you can find any number of arguments as to precisely how and why it happened--the Mother Goddess was slowly replaced by the Father God, and that's where we still are. I feel that we're at the tail end of that phase, and that the next phase is one of balance, of acknowledging both female and male.

W.F.: Do you have one episode that is a special favorite?

C.L.P.: I really love the rape of the Levite concubine. It just knocks me out. It's so wonderful to perform because I always cry--always. Dramatically, I really love that one. And I love the Greek woman at the theater because she is so much fun to do. But then I love the woman at Ephesus who is kneading bread, and who tells us very apologetically that she has no soul. And I love doing Elizabeth Cady Stanton because she is so strong. But then I love doing the witch. And the black Shaker woman has really been growing with the performances.

W.F.: How does your play deal with maleness?

C.L.P.: There have always been men who have seen the injustice done to women and have tried to do something about it. They have not always been able, and they have always been in the minority. I tried in my scents to create a few sympathetic male characters. I do not believe that women can reform the world in a separatist organization. I have sympathy for women who have become bitter, but I think that we have to create some kind of a structure where women and men can serve in partnership. This is not to say that women have to wait for men. We need to move forward. I have found many men in my audiences to be quite responsive. Whether they go home and do anything different remains to be seen. But at least they are no longer unaware of some things in our history.

At the end of the interview she shares a poem, written and given to her by a young man:

If you listen, you can hear

sixteen women singing through her,

and sixteen billion humming along.