Certain words have no synonym. I think that mother is one of them. This one word functions as noun, title, and verb.

The word mother has no synonym. I think that it’s also a word that can’t be translated not because it’s exceptional to one language system but because every single language system has some way to say mother.

In western astrology, the planet that feeds and nurtures another planet is not called that second planet’s mother but, instead, its ruler. I think that this is a very interesting choice. In western astrology, your ruler is the planet that nourishes and feeds you but how many of us have ever experienced what it’s like to be fed by our rulers?

In Greek, an astrological ruler is called oikodespotes which Agamben uses to describe the domestic power which decides who gets to live. He differentiates oikodespostes from sovereign, patriarchal power which he defines as the power which gets to decide who dies to argue that domestic power expands into political power. The oikodespostes is the giver of life.

Who gives you life? Who nourishes you? Mother, food, and earth. For some reason, we have chosen to translate oikodespostes to landlord instead of mother.

When a planet is in its own sign, it is said to resource itself. These are the planets that are said to be in their own domicile. A planet that is resourced by another is said to be in that planet’s domicile like a tenant in a landlord’s home. How many of you have ever felt resourced by your landlord?

I feel like we need to have an honest discussion about what makes a home safe, possible, and nourishing.

Is it a ruler? A sovereign with a set of borders or other ways to demarcate territory? That’s what creates domicile or home? A landowner? Really?

In bazi, mother spirit is also translated as resource. You have two types, direct resource and indirect resource. But why is mother spirit translated to mean resource? Is it that the Chinese word for mother spirit really means resource or is that simply how contemporary bazi practitioners have chosen to delineate the term?

In Chinese, the word used for mother spirit (yin) actually means imprint. It’s like the stamp that forms you into her shape. How is that resource? Resource is a word that we use to describe extraction. Yin, mother, imprint, is what molds you into her shape.

I get why mother is translated to mean nourishment or resource. When we are new, when we are babies, our first food is mother. We drink from our mothers. She is literally nourishment in the form of nutrition. But that’s only for babies.

But that’s not the full extent of mothering. Mother is authority, is power. Mother shapes you. You have to earn your title as a mother. Mother is a queer moniker who challenges patriarchal authority. She is not a girl boss, a wife, or traditional by any means. Your mother gives you life. She can take your life. Your mother is your context and your history. You cannot live without mother.

Mother is food but she is not food as commodity which comes in the shelves in your grocery store. Mother is the foodways that your ancestors have cultivated for ages and ages. Your mom is not pure breast. She is body too. She is not a resource that you might extract and exploit wastefully. People who call their mother a resource lack self respect. They don’t know themselves and they have no culture. They are not yet grown.

What the hell is a resource anyway? A gas? An oil? A soil? The concept of resource is a fantasy.

I’m translating resource back to mother. Planetary ruler? That’s your planetary mother. You are dependent on her, on the soil that gives and withholds depending on how well you treat her. You don’t base the soil, your home. She has power over you. She holds the power of life and death over you. That is Mother.