Some rituals are performed simply because there is an overwhelming urge within the spirit that must be listened to and followed. One must have clear goals in mind as to what the ritual is to accomplish, or the urge will be left unfulfilled. Creating a ToothMother can help you get clear on who you are and where you’re at.
At the Pagan Spirit Gathering in 1992, Kathy Meadowlark planted a seed in my spirit about creating the ToothMother. A ToothMother is a spiritual collage of perceived faults one finds with oneself. It is designed to bring all of those attitudes and qualities that you dislike about yourself into a physical form where they can be acknowledged and examined. In creating the ToothMother, it forces us to closely examine ourselves, and freely face the negative aspects of self. These are the parts that I’ve found most people prefer to ignore or neglect in the daily course of our lives.
By making a physical symbol of these perceived faults, not only can we not ignore them, but we must then actively deal with them.
I made my ToothMother in a safe ritual space where I knew I would not be disturbed or distracted. I was greeting my inner self whom I had neglected for too long, and I was nervous and afraid of who I might find.
I built my ToothMother out of a piece of driftwood that had been gathering dust for many years under my altar. It was a broken root that had been tumbled in a rocky stream. In my mind, this root symbolized the negatives of my spirit-as-whole, which, once broken off, had been tumbled on the rocks, ground down by the waters of emotion, and once found again, left ignored to gather dust.
Attached to the end of the wood, looking out with his back to the rest, I glued a small figurine of a Viking. His horned helmet symbolizes my strong masculine spirit. He is carrying an axe in his right hand, a club on a staff in his right, and a sword belted at his side. This symbolizes my defensive posture I assume and show the world. Meanwhile, this figure is standing at the very edge of the wood with his back turned, symbolizing both my sense of isolation and turning my back on the rest of the ToothMother (my faults).
Next, I began to wrap a piece of Birch bark around the wood. Birch are sacred to me, and I frequently use the paper-like bark to write runes of power for spells and the like. This piece of paper-bark that I used was blank. When I first wrapped the bark, I was thinking of myself as a poet and writer, and how blank and empty I often feel when I am in “down-time” creatively. I sometimes go through phases where I don’t write a single word for months, and at these times I feel hollow and blank. It then occurred to me that this happens to me on a spiritual level as well. There are times when I feel myself surging with spiritual and psychic energies, and other times when I feel drained of everything. This blank piece of Birch bark symbolizes those low points. Although I’m not certain I want to call them faults, I at least felt the need to acknowledge them as an aspect of my spirit.
Next I added a small bronze colored sea shell to represent my anxiety over money. I used a shell instead of an actual coin because the shell is a product of the sea (emotions), and I suspect that it isn’t lack of money giving me so many problems, rather it is my overwhelming emotional anxiety about the subject.
Next I added a small brass screw that I have been saving for years. This represents many things. First, I feel that sometimes I have a “screw loose. Second, it represents my tendency to hang onto inconsequentials for a long time without ever really knowing why; and third, it reminds me of the consequences of suppressing anxieties. The screw is small enough to possibly fit a pair of eyeglasses, and the previous winter, in the midst of an anxiety attack, I took off my glasses and threw them across the room in frustration. I was having this anxiety attack due to money, and the loss of my glasses would only have made my financial situation worse. By removing my glasses, I was trying not to “see” my situation as it really was. This small screw reminds me of all these things, and forces me to both “see” them, and to acknowledge them.
When complete, I put my ToothMother on my altar. It's physical presence was a reminder that my inner world requires my attention just as much as the outer world does.
~Flame RavenHawk
1992