Guest Post: A Matriarchal Blessing

Guest post by Erin J. Kahn, who is a writer and printmaker based in New York City. Among other things, she’s currently working on a book about finding Heavenly Mother in the gospel.

“Bless me, even me also, o my father… Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?” – Esau, Genesis 27:34-36

Have you a blessing reserved for me
Borne by women’s knotted hands
Pouring a bath from stove-warmed water
Massaging a daughter’s tired shoulders

An ordinance of cakes and candles
Like white wind-lingering linen
A heritage of temple trees
Engraved with women’s wisdom

A blessing from bright Heaven’s Queen
Conferred by Eve in Ondi-Ahman
Or whispered by laughing Sarah
Beside her treasure’s cradle

I seek a power elemental
An earth-veiled priestesshood
Bestow on me also, Mother
A matriarchal blessing

I never sold my birthright
But I knocked and was denied
A thief crept into the temple
And stole my Mother’s blessing

Bless me also, o my Mother
I cry like a child alone in the night
She holds her hands above my head
And weeps

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This post is part of a series, Contemplating Heavenly Mother. Find more from this series here.