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| "Choosing the Rose" by Portaels (1860s) |
Islam is said to be the fastest growing religion in the world. Currently around a quarter of all people on earth identify as Muslim. According to Pew Research:
“If current demographic trends continue … Muslims – a comparatively youthful population with high fertility rates – are projected to increase by 73% … As a result … by 2050 there will be near parity between Muslims (2.8 billion, or 30% of the population) and Christians (2.9 billion, or 31%), possibly for the first time in history.”
There is undeniably something dynamic about Islam, one aspect of which is its high esteem for (married) mothers – the saying goes “heaven lies beneath the feet of mothers”. By way of example, when a young man asked Muhammad if he could join the military (because he longed to do so) though his mother objected, Muhammad is said to have replied “stay with your mother. I swear to the God Who chose me as prophet that the spiritual reward which you receive for serving her even one night and making her happy with your presence, is greater than a one-year long holy war”.
Any spiritual tradition that venerates motherhood is operating in accord with the regenerative aspect of nature. When we look at the most prominent Gods of ancient Rome we see what aspects of nature they revered most: Venus and Mars – thus love, fertility and virility (Mars is not only a God of war but also agriculture). To get these very fundamental things right is to light the path to success, though it’s clearly a path on which many descendants of Europa have lost their way. It is not so much that we are not sexually active but that too few of us are in long term relationships.* This not ideal, as a tale from Ovid’s Metamorphoses demonstrates:
