Omar Vidal

Mary and Tethys, Stars of the Sea

Sea stars. Mothers of oceanic mothers, primordial, saving cradles, creators of paths. Mary, wife of Joseph; Tethys, wife of Oceanus, courted by Zeus and Poseidon. Mothers who mourned the early deaths of their children–Jesus, the Christ and Achilles, the light-footed. 

This is not a theological or religious interpretation, but rather a reflection on images of the divine feminine related to the sea (humankind’s ancient motif of the unconscious), heralding salvation in times of meta-crisis, and an expansion of consciousness. Tethys and Mary represent the primordial powers that envelop the feminine, the feminine fecundity of the sea. 

Mary, from whom the ray that illuminates the world was born. Ave Maris Stella of the seas of life. The Annunciated, glorified, a drop of pure breath, a mantle of hope. The small one with dark hair who went to heaven, immaculate in body and soul. Mary, guide and protector of those who live by the sea. Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico, the Dolorosa of Kibeho in Rwanda, a Pilar in Spain, and the Candelaria of the Canary Islands. Virgin of Lourdes in France, of Fatima in Portugal, of the Orchard, of the Snows and of the Light in Italy, of Chiquinquirá in Colombia. Local, universal, immortal virgins.

Tethys, daughter of Nereus, the Old Man of the Sea. Marine divinity, mother of all the clouds and rivers of the world. Evoked in Mediterranean frogs assembled at the pond of which Plato spoke. Tethys, origin of all gods, the one with silver feet. Oceanic abyss, mother of mermaids, jellyfish, corals, mangroves, sea stars, and other echinoderms. Aquamarine goddess, patroness of sailors, Mother Pangea and its primordial sea, Tethys. Of waves that carry laments, of seas that drag absences. 

Mary and Tethys, crowned with stars, dressed by the Sun, the Moon under their feet. Paradisal ladies whose feet crush serpents and sins. They, the most present, the only ones, the beloved. Divine ones who descended to the netherworld, the inferno, and emerged to redeem gods and humans from unrest in the storm of volatile sea waves, of abyssal undercurrents. 

Oceanic, emancipated, revolutionary, redeeming. Mothers of all the seas–Arctic, Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Antarctic. Universal youths, rays of crystalline light, apostolates of the sea—Stella Maris—aquatic divinities that flow, radiate hope, quench our thirst. Mothers of all gods and of all mortals. They, filled with grace, femininities beyond good and evil.

Tethys and Mary, the mothers. Of today, of before, of always, those who fell asleep, those who never left. Feminine seas, steaming stratovolcanoes. Eternal women, nymphs of the abyss. Our marine redemption, here, in the distance, at the reach of our fingertips. 

Tides that return, that heal, immeasurable, loving femininities. Marine Mary and Tethys, glorious immortal mothers of gods, archangels, demons and humans. Stars of the morning. Hail Mary, full of grace and Tethys, libertarian, blessed among all women and blessed are we who come from their wombs and return to them...and to the sea.