Remember, Remember, Remember...

Remember a time when the Earth was new, when the moon was full and the priestesses gathered. Feel the dirt beneath naked feet; share the warmth of the fire, hear the beat of the drum. Gaia. By the Earth which is Her body, and the wind which is Her breath, the fire of Her passion spirit, and the birth waters of Her blood; a product of the infinite void, the absolute nothing called Chaos. She is Gaia. Mother Earth. She comes from a time of knowing, a time before words, when we were the watchers of the tides and the winds, and the phases of the moon. Remember, remember, remember… Gaia. 


In the Beginning…
Gaia seems to have started as a Neolithic earth-mother worshipped before the Indo-European invasion that eventually led to the Hellenistic (Greek) civilization. She is the oldest of the goddesses and the personification of the "All-Mother", or "Goddess of All Things", she who gives and takes life.

Gaia is the Earth goddess in Greek mythology, Terra Mater (Earth Mother) in Latin, the eldest of the gods, who emerged out of Chaos, the great void of emptiness within the universe, and with her came Eros (love).  She gave birth as she slept to her son Uranus, the Sky god, and Pontus, the Sea god. This was achieved parthenogenetically (without male intervention).  Uranus showered fertile rain upon her secret clefts as he gazed down fondly upon her from the mountains, and she bore grass, flowers, trees, and birthed the astounding array of birds and beasts to populate them. The fertile rain of Uranus also made the rivers flow and lakes and seas came into being when the hollow places filled with water. 

According to the historian Hesiod, Gaia, born of Chaos, gave birth to all aspects of Nature. As the Earth herself, Gaia was regarded by the ancients as the mother of all and, as such, was the first "Pythia" or Oracle at Delphi. Her daughter Themis was known as the Queen of the Oracles and thus began the long line of priestesses, or Pythias, at Delphi, lasting more than 1000 years. The priestess, Oracle of Earth, was called Pythia after Pytho, the serpent who guarded the sacred divinatory Castalian Spring.

It was said that the Pythia sat on a tripod in the cave, inhaling fumes from a fissure in the earth, or from burning laurel leaves and, falling into a trance, delivered her oracle. The serpent or dragon symbolized the chthonic energy of the earth, hence the term "dragon lines" denoting the ley lines or earth currents between places of high sacred energy, Delphi being the geographical center, omphalos or navel of Earth. The omphalos is said to be the tomb of Pytho, who was slain by Apollo. The symbolism in the myths of Apollo slaying Pytho, or St. George slaying the dragon, reflects patriarchal attempts to conquer the energies of Earth.

Mother Earth even proved helpful to Zeus in his fight versus Atlas and the Titans, shortly after taking power. However, she and Zeus parted company once her twenty-four sons, the Giants, attacked Olympus. (Many claim that this battle represented the last attempt to reassert female leadership over the heavens, symbolizing the war fought between those who preferred matriarchal (women-ruled) philosophies over those who wanted patriarchal ones.)

Even though Gaia was one of the most prominent figures in the earliest myths, Mother Earth suffered a greatly diminished status with the eventual transfer of power to patriarchal societies. She drifts between being an individual character and a personified conceptual entity representing the original life force of the earth.

Gaia appeared in minor roles in a handful of later myths, but eventually the shift to Zeus' rule saw him being assigned most of her responsibilities and accomplishments. Mother Earth came to be perceived as more of a concept or metaphysical notion than an active goddess. She was never part of the Olympians' council of twelve, up on Mount Olympus, because she was considered too old and set in her ways to suit the new breed of gods.

Gaia. the idea of a world soul, an anima mundi, a planetary Logos, is an ancient one found in both Eastern and Western culture. This world soul is usually conceived as a "formative force," an active, intelligent, purposeful spiritual presence at work in the material world to guide and guard the course of planetary evolution. It might be looked upon as a great angelic or archangelic being presiding over the well being of the world, or as the gestalt, the wholeness of all the lives and patterns that manifest upon, and as, the earth.

It is this tradition that Gaia reinvokes in our culture. The sense of a living earth enjoyed and practiced by earlier, non-industrial cultures grew out of living experience and closeness to nature that our culture has set aside. It was woven into the fabric of life and culture.

The Judeo-Christian tradition arises from the Semitic spiritual perspective of God and creation being separate and distinct, as well as from patriarchal social structures. In such a context, sacredness has overtones of authority, power, distance, and maleness that would have been alien to the spirituality of the ancient Celts or the Native Americans, two cultures that incorporated a sense of the living earth. When we strive to imagine the sacredness of the earth, we do so in a very different cultural context than did those who took for granted an immanent, accessible sacred presence pervading all things.

When we talk about the spirit of Gaia, the spirit of a living earth, or even of the earth as being alive, just what do we mean in our time? Do we even have the same sense of life, of what being an entity means, as did our ancestors? We are the products of a materialistic, technological, rational, male-oriented culture that over two hundred years ago set aside the medieval notions of the Great Chain of Being in which each and every life had a purpose, a place, and a meaning. The importance of the bottom line has made us forget that there is also a "top line" that gives the spiritual value, the holistic value, of a person, a plant, an animal, or a place. If at worst the bottom line represents how entities can be exploited and used for profit, the top line represents how entities can empower and must be empowered for the good of the whole.

If Gaia is an important spiritual idea for our time, then we must remember that a spiritual idea is not something we think about but something that inhabits and shapes us. It is like a strand of DNA, organizing and energizing our lives. A spiritual idea is not just another bit of data to be filed away. It is incarnational in a profound way, coming alive only when incorporated (made flesh) in our lives through work, practice, effort, skill, and reflection. It becomes part of the foundation and the architecture of our lives.

Gaia focuses our attention on issues of life. It shifts our operating paradigm from a mechanical one based on classical physics to an ecological one based on biology. It puts the phenomenon of life itself back into center stage in our culture. It inspires us towards a reformation that produces a culture that is truly life-affirming and life-centered.

Gaia in my Practice of the Craft



Before I knew that I was a Witch, I was alone.  I was the loneliest person I could be.  I had a mother and a father, but they were very busy with their own concerns and I couldn’t ask them the questions I desperately needed answered.  “Why are we here?  How did we come to be here?  Who am I, and why am I here?  What am I supposed to do?”

I began to learn about the Craft.  I confirmed that I had abilities which were unusual to say the least.  I could stop bleeding with my hands, barely touching the wound.  I knew what people were going to say before they said it.  I saw two ways into time, backwards and forwards; synchronicity flared around me like lightning.  I searched in vain for the hero of my ancient quests, and I was sure I was the only one of my kind.

One day I lay down on the Earth and felt myself sink down into its welcoming bosom.  I felt the heartbeat of the planet.  “Is this Gaia?” I asked, and the answer came, “Yes.  I am your Mother and the Mother of All.  I will be with you always.” From that moment I was no longer alone, and I began to understand my connection with everything in the Universe, with dry red rocks on Mars as well as with the green grass under my feet; with the animals and the bugs and the fish; with the viruses and the Sun and the Moon.  We are all sisters and brothers.  I beheld the face of the hero of my ancient quest, and it was myself.


Gaia’s Ritual: the Homecoming


Gaia’s Ritual affirms our connection with Terra Mater, the Mother of All.  We who have been orphaned, who have never known the deep and nourishing connection with the Mother Who made us, come to Her bosom in love and trust.

Although Gaia is traditionally honored at the Spring Equinox, She can be invoked at any time.  Like the good mother she is, she is always available to Her children.

Need:  
Bath:  Sea salt, oil of rosemary, Goddess Oil or favorite oil for Self Blessing.  White clothing or skyclad.
Goddess candle, white; 4 candles for the cardinal points – Air, white or silver, Fire, red, Water, blue, Earth, green; 1 white Self candle, athame
Sage or frankincense incense for purification, or spring water with sea salt
Flowers, fruit, stalks of wheat or oats, green branches
Music:  Song of the humpback whale; loon songs or other bird song

Ritual Bath:  Before beginning the ritual, fill bathtub with comfortably hot water.  Add a handful of sea salt, and oil of rosemary.  Bring Self candle into bathroom, light it, turn out electric lights.  Relax in water; envision your limbs floating, weightless.  When the water cools, let it out of the tub, dry off, perform Self-Blessing with Goddess Oil or favorite oil.  Dress in white clothing, or go skyclad. Free hair from all ties and bindings.

Bring white Self candle to altar.

Light incense and purify, or sprinkle altar and room with spring water and sea salt.

Cast the Circle deosil, and invoke the directions:
“Hail. Guardians of the Watchtowers of the East, Powers of Air, be with me now!  (Inscribe invoking pentacle)
“Hail, Guardians of the Watchtowers of the South, Powers of Fire, be with me now!  (Inscribe invoking pentacle)
Hail, Guardians of the Watchtowers of the West, Powers of Water, be with me now!  (Inscribe invoking pentacle)
Hail, Guardians of the Watchtowers of the North, Powers of Earth, be with me now!  (Inscribe invoking pentacle).

Invoke Spirit:  “Hail, Gaia, Earth Mother, creatrix of all that lives, giver of life and love, I invite you into my circle.”

Say, “This is a place that is not a place in a time that is not a time.  We are between the Worlds.”

Invocation:  The purpose of this ritual is to approach Gaia, our Mother, with love and devotion, and to experience Her love.

Light candles at the four cardinal points.

Meditation:
Play songs of the whale or bird song.  Sit or lie facing altar and contemplate the candle flames as they burn steadily.  Close eyes and keep image of candle flame.  Slow breathing; be aware of air traveling gently in and out of your nose.  

Consciously relax your body; bring your attention first to your feet, then to your legs, up your torso, to your arms and finally to your face, so that all your muscles are relaxed and receptive.

Ground yourself; feel the Earth under your feet and the base of your spine.  Feel that your spine grows, like a tap root, down into the Earth, branches grow from the top of your head.  Slow your breathing until it is enough to sustain you.

Become aware of the heartbeat of the Mother.  Feel Her heartbeat through your feet or, if you are lying down, through your spine and your hands.  Allow your heartbeat to be in rhythm with Hers.  Everything slows.  Slowly open your eyes and stand up.  You are in trance

Invocation:  Homeric Hymn to Gaia




I will sing of well-founded Earth, mother of all, eldest of all beings. She feeds all creatures that are in the world, all that go upon the goodly land, and all that are in the paths of the seas, and all that fly: all these are fed of her store.

Through you, O queen, we are blessed in our children and blessed in our harvests, and to you it belongs to give means of life to mortals and to take it away. Happy is the person whom you delight to honor! She or he has all things abundantly: our fruitful land is laden with corn, our pastures are covered with cattle, and our house is filled with good things. Such people rule orderly in their cities of fair women and men: great riches and wealth follow them: their sons and daughters exult with ever-fresh delight, and their children in flower-laden bands play and skip merrily over the soft flowers of the field. Thus is it with those whom you honor O holy goddess, bountiful spirit.

Hail, Mother of the gods, wife of starry Heaven; freely bestow upon me for this my song substance that cheers the heart! And now I will remember you and another song also.

Body of Ritual

Sit or lie facing the altar, Turn your gaze inward and feel the pulse of the planet again.

Say, “Mother Gaia, I was an orphan.  I was alone and I had no parents.  I did not know my sisters and brothers.  I come to you, Mother Gaia, first of my family, bringing my love and devotion and drinking in Your love as water to the thirsty.  Through You, I know my sisters and my brothers, those that walk upon the land, those that swim in the ocean, those that fly through the sky.  Through You, I am part of the stone, the soil, the grasses, the waters.  Through You, I am a flower, a seed, a song, a star.

“Mother Gaia, I am no longer alone.  I am kin to everything that is.”

Raise Cone of Power
Return your attention to the present; be aware of the music playing softly.  Dance, swirl and move to the music.  Gaia’s breathing and heartbeat move your feet and your body.   You dance as the trees dance when the wind moves them.   You dance as the winds blow.   You dance as the water flows over stones.  You dance as the Earth quickens.

Say,”Mother Gaia, I am Your child.  I am in Your arms for my entire life, and afterwards I will lie in Your womb and become the seeds of those to come.”

Ground
Kneel, put your palms on the ground and rest your forehead between them.  You may need to stay this way for a while (much power raised!).

Open the Circle

Moving counterclockwise, open the Circle.  Thank the Watchtowers, saying to each in turn, “Leave if you must, stay if you will.”
Thank Mother Gaia, saying, “Leave if you must, stay if you will.”

Feast:  Ale or beer (or ginger ale), corn cakes and honey are a fitting thanks to Gaia.  Pour a little of the ale and put a piece of the corn cake into the Earth in gratitude.

Ground again if necessary.  Say, “The Circle is open but unbroken; the love of the Goddess is ever in our hearts.  Merry meet and merry part, and merry meet again.”




O when first I opened My eyes
I thought they were closed.  All was dark; all was silent.
At my side, a small form slept.  I put My hand on its head and felt love.
“Love,” I said.  “You will be Love, Eros.”   
I closed My eyes, and dreamed.  Two more small forms
Crawled out of My womb, found My breasts, suckled.  I put My hand
On their heads; the first I named Uranus, Sky;
The second, Pontus, Ocean.

 I slept and dreamed again, and in My dream the world was born.  
From Me, the world was born, the rivers ran, mountains reared their proud heads.
Soft rains wet Me, breezes dried Me.  The animals, birds, fishes, plants were born.
Out of Chaos, order: the stately dance of planets around bright Helios; the waltz of moons around the planets, and the brilliant points of light jewelling the sky.

Titans I birthed, and oracles, Women and Men, the whale and the loon.  Giants walked the Earth, and Titans.  Great Zeus fought Me; I won, or so I thought.

His armies were legend.  They wore Me down, like water on stone,  like ice on mountains creeping slowly along, moulding and displacing all In its path.  I was old, old; I grew weary.

Still I birthed, still I nourished, and still I received back into My cauldron womb The spirits of those whose lives were finished.  In Me they rested until their time to be born anew.  Aeons passed.

The mighty smith, Hephaistos, under the dark light of Pluto and Chiron, taught humankind to rape me.  They forced My priestesses and murdered My daughters, calling them unclean, unclean.  They tore open my skin, strip-mined my flesh.  They pumped my oil and dug out my coal.  This they burned, choking me and My children.  They tore a hole in the heavens,

They cut down My rain-forests, hunted My animal children to extinction, and they killed one another.  They killed each other!  I wept, I shook the ground beneath their feet, sent the Ocean to sweep them away.  Yet they prevailed.

I heard the lamentations of My daughters, and then one day I felt the daughters weeping,  Lying on my bosom, they wept, they cried to Me!  Mother Gaia, Mother Gaia, we return to you!  All over the world candles bloomed.  My daughters lit candles, burned sweet herbs.  They prayed and praised Me, they shook their spears in the faces of invaders, they grew strong.

I listen from far under the Earth’s mantle.  I am here, as I have always been, always been here, procreating, nurturing.  My daughters are returning.  I sing the Earth, the planets, the soil, the crops, the animals, the plants, I sing My returning children!



Credits:
David Spangler  Earth & Spirit (IC#24)
Late Winter 1990, Page 44
Copyright (c)1990, 1997 by Context Institute
Ron Leadbetter on 03 March 1997; last modified on 02 January 2000.
© MCMXCV - MMV Encyclopedia Mythica
Elinor Gadon, The Once and Future Goddess
Patricia Telesco, 365 Goddess
http://www.gaiaswomb.htm = Angie Buchanan, 2001
http://www.thanasis.com/Gaia.htm
http://www.goddessmyths.com/Gaia