In Huxley’s compilation of essays Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, he gives a materialistic, naturalistic, or behavioristic outlook of the human spirit which Huxley sees as distinct from the body. Huxley basis his views on “modern psychology” (mid-century!) to the individual sense of oneness. The capacity of the spirit gives a oneness to the obvious diversity within the individual man.

One of the more interesting essays in Tomorrow is “Mother” in which Huxley presents a complex and dualistic portrayal of all that this role encompasses. If you are a Mother, as am I, and are looking for a warm, sentimental, appreciation for your important role in civilization, then I would not recommend this essay!

What is the definition of a Mother? What is her role? Today, we also use this endearing term as an adjective to describe the ultimate experience: “He delivered the mother of all speeches, captivating the audience with his powerful message” and a curse word. What happened?

MOTHER

Unfortunately, Huxley lost his mother to cancer when he was only 14. This early loss likely had a profound impact on him. According to his biographers, his mother, Julia, was a great influence on young Aldous before her death as she was known as a feminist and freethinker and had a great focus on education as a founder of Prior’s Field School with progressive values. Before her death, Julia instructed Aldous to “judge not too much and love more”.

Huxley’s essay “Mother” does not mention his own experiences with his Mother, but rather his views of a “Great Mother” as a complex and dualistic archetype.

In his essay “Mother”, Huxley begins by giving the perspective from the paleolithic man in which “every day was Mother’s Day” (Tomorrow, 176). Well, that’s nice! I like that, as it should be.

This can be attested by the carvings of Mother unearthed in caves from twenty thousand years ago. These caves, according to Huxley, served our ancestors as cathedrals. “In limestone, in soapstone, in mammoth ivory—there they stand, the Mother images of man’s earliest worship…their bowed heads, their faces perfectly featureless, no arms or feet”(176).

Mother was felt to be analogous to the fruitful earth, sometimes modulating into a hippopotamus in Egypt or an enormous female Toby-jug in Peru! Throughout the history of mankind, according to Huxley, all have experienced “Mother” with their whole being, physiologically, emotionally and intellectually.

Mother has been “not only the particular person who made or marred the happiness of fam’ly [sic] life; she was also the visible embodiment of a cosmic mystery. [“If Momma ain’t happy, nobody’s happy” author unknown, or my husband!].

“Mother manifested Life on all its levels—on the biological and physiological levels and also on the psychological level…Mother was that oceanic Unconscious, out of which personal self-consciousness is crystallized and it bathes.”(178) Mother was [and still is] the source of physical life and fecundity [ you’re welcome!!].

And now, the other side…

“The Great Mother is simultaneously the Creator and the Destroyer…Mother gives and Mother takes away”(179). The Great Mother was also known as the Terrible Mother, the Beneficent Mother, the Goddess of Destruction as well as the Creator and Preserver. Life gives birth to death. Destruction prepares the way for new construction. The self-conscious emerges from the unconscious (181).

Huxley brings us to modern man who has no such cosmic symbol of “Mother”; he has only science and technical philosophy (keep in mind this was written in 1952). Modern man “uses non-verbal symbols such as flags, swastikas, hammers and sickles”(182). These are the realms of ethics—the most important elements.

Huxley concludes his essay with the existential question :

“Will it ever be possible to revive the Great Mother, or create some equivalent symbol of the cosmic mysteries of life and death”(183)?

Triviality (think greeting cards) and make-believe (fairy tales…but most of the Mothers are dead) are much more turned to economic advantage than realistic profundity– think of Greeting Cards and Fairy Tales (unfortunately most of the Mothers are dead…).

The real educators of the masses, according to Huxley, aren’t the schoolteachers, the professors, the philosophers, and the theologians—they are the commercial propagandists.  

Works Cited

Huxley, Aldous. (1952). Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. New York: Harper & Bros.

Rogers, Winfield H. Aldous Huxley’s Humanism . The Sewanee Review , Jul. – Sep., 1935, Vol. 43, No. 3 (Jul. – Sep., 1935), pp. 262- 272 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/27535168