Paul McCartney: Mother Mary came to him

Maryam and Isa
Persian Miniature

The power of Mother - be she Mother Theresa or Mommie Dearest - has been a primary one throughout the ages.

There's a long list of Mothers that are embedded within our collective psyche: Mother Nature, Queen Mother, Mother Hubbard, Wicked Step-Mother, Fairy Godmother, to name a few.  These and others represent aspects of the Mother Archetype, which range from nurturing to smothering, from compassionate to indifferent, and from defending to abusing.

The Mother is so essential that even an abusive one seems better than none at all.  To feel deprived of the Mother seems the cruelest fate of all.  It is a fate that John Lennon and Paul McCartney shared - one that likely drew them to one another.

McCartney's mother, a Roman Catholic named Mary, had been a nurse in the maternity ward where McCartney was born.  She would later ride her bicycle to homes in which she was needed as a midwife.  McCartney remembers her doing so during a heavy snowstorm.  In 1956 when Paul was only 14, Mary (who had breast cancer) died of an embolism following a mastectomy.

Not surprisingly, the very first song that McCartney wrote was called "I Lost My Little Girl."  Years later, he would attempt to resolve this theme with "Let It Be."  The "Lost" was then becoming found. Mother Mary was being resurrected within Paul's consciousness.  Although there were still "times of trouble," all the mournful seeking was morphing into peaceful finding.

McCartney reported that "Let It Be" came to him via a dream visitation from his mother.  This dream had occurred during a particularly tense period with The Beatles.  McCartney stated that his mother had reassured him, "It will be all right, just let it be."  McCartney also said, "It was great to visit with her again.  I felt very blessed to have that dream..."

Resources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_McCartney