The Mother

Alternate Titles: Matriarch, Sibyl

Mother characters need not necessarily be literal mothers. They may serve in a mother-like relationship to some other character to whom they have not given birth, or they may mother the world even though they have no children. For the most part they are not fountains of unmitigated sweetness; the 1950's frankenmother with her sewn on smile and her plate of smouldering cookies is not an archetype, but a marketype. Mothers have sass. If you attack their children they will come at you like an angry bear. If you are their child, and you are being disgraceful, you can expect an earful and possibly a broom to the head.
The mother's care for her children is not merely, and not primarily, material. She is a Yellow Square character concerned with the attainment of wisdom, self-knowledge and character. Her instructions are infallible. You need merely obey to avoid being caught by Mr. McGregor or devoured by the Big Bad Wolf. It is the same infallibility that allows the Mother to sometimes appear as a sybilline character, dispensing riddles and oracular truths.
Some Earth Goddesses are Mother figures, however most, like the Medea, are indifferent to their children at best, and liable to devour them in human sacrifice at worst. Be not deceived.
The Mother is often able to continue to work in the lives of those whom she loves after she is dead. Good ghosts are almost invariably mothers, and mothers may also work in the guise of their symbols (through birds, trees, etc.)

Archetypal Events: Give Instructions, Make Provision, Detect Danger, Shelter

Common Mother Plots:

Mother and the Parasite: A Mother has a disgraceful pupil or daughter whom she must raise into an intelligent, resourceful human being.

Mother finds a Family: A Mother falls in love with a Magus, usually in his aspect of Father or Widowers. Either a) they meet and fall in love through their mutual love of a child/children, or b) they fall in love and together overcome obstacles (e.g. infertility, age) to have a family together.

The False Mother: A Medea claims the Mother's child for her own, and the Mother must demonstrate that she is the child's rightful guardian.

Mother and the Disgrace: A Mother is married to a disgraceful husband, or is saddled to a disgraceful son. She may use him as an example to teach lessons to any Disciples or Orphans in her care (this is the basic plot of most Berenstein Bears books).

Mother and Orphan: Sweet tales of a childless woman who finds and adopts a woman in need, or else, mother teaches daughter a lesson. Stories for small girls and Chicken Soup for the Soul readers.

The Mother's Nest: The mother's essential home is a nest, though this is often translated into a comfortable family dwelling (anything from a cottage to a treehouse to an urban semi-detached) which she has fitted out for her family. This is her domain, which she fusses over and preens, making it perfect for her brood.
Days: While both the Magus and the Mother have a supply of time, the Magus emphasizes the flow of time slipping away, while the Mother's time has a characteristic "day-by-day" feel: the Magus hasn't enough years in his life, the Mother hasn't enough hours in her day. This is particularly significant in riddle plots, where the mother is often given a specific quantity of days in which to find the answer that will save her child.
The Mother's Basket: The basket is a symbol of the mother's encircling love. It may hold provisions, babies may be hidden inside for protection, or it may be used to beat dangerous or disgraceful adversaries on the head.
A Wide Skirt: The mother's skirt functions as a security blanket for children who love to hold onto its folds, it can be pulled at to get her attention, and heroes may be hidden underneath it when persued.
Children: Whether she loses them at the beginning of her plot and must get them back, or is striving to have any at all, the mother's prize is her children.
The Family Tree: The Tree is one of those essential yellow-square symbols, and seems to be most closely affiliated with the mother. In many mythologies there is some sort of tree that gives life to the whole world. It might be noted that this Tree goes beyond the passive-feminine mother-earth type of symbology: the Tree has its roots in the ground, but it reaches up into the heavens. The Mother archetype is also such a conduit, first giving her children earthly life but then labouring again to give them the wider life of the mind and of the spirit as she raises them up in her branches.
Minor Symbols:

Tears are an important mother-symbol. When a mother weeps, her tears have the power to melt hearts or bring rains back to parched fields.

Milk is another obvious symbol of the mother, one which needs no elaboration. 

In fairy tales, the mother often transforms into a bird, especially a dove or a duck, who continues to look after her children when she is gone.

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