For the next meeting we will be going on a moon lit walk and discussing the subject of the egg, its meanings, metaphors and representations in relationship to motherhood. You are invited to bring along an egg and any other creative work or ideas that you would like to share with the group.

Some thoughts, ideas:

It was like treading on eggshells

An egg is boiling in a pan, a mother is sitting alone without her children at breakfast, she is relishing the peace and quiet, the sound of the egg bobbing in the pan becomes her focus.

A mother is baking cakes with her children. Her three year old wants to crack the eggs. The first egg misses the bowl, yolk and white ooze over the kitchen side and slither down the washing machine spilling onto the floor. She gets down on her hands and knees to wipe up the mess.

Women are born with approximately 300, 000 immature eggs in their ovaries.

A mother is trying to get her child to sleep. Her child is afraid of the dark. She turns off the light and soothes her child by saying the night is not dark it is lit by moon beams that are shinning just upon you.

“Turn the light on” crys her child insistently, “Its dark”.

“But your eyes will get used to the dark” his mother says

She picks her child up out of his bed and points to the moon out of the window. He smiles at his mother and they both gaze together at the moon through the attic window.

“It has long been assumed that menstruation was somehow tied in with the moon. But evidence is mounting that even more mysterious forces are at work. Vivienne Parry explains”

The Calender Girls, The Guardian, 25th August 2005

 

 

 

Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship, the ‘egg dance’ which is performed by a young woman called Mignon.

Grims Fairy Tales: Fitchers Bird

Angela Carter remodels Fitchers Bird  in “The Bloody Chamber” and Margaret Atwood in “Bluebeard’s Egg”.

The Iconography of Mother Goose

Willie Wonker and the Chocolate Factory Veruca Salt