The Earth as Goddess?

It's been a while, but I have a good excuse--I was picked to serve as a juror on a criminal trial recently. What an experience! Two thoughts: I went into the courtroom lighthearted and a little excited because I'd always wanted to serve on a jury. During the proceedings, the weight of deciding on a man's innocence or guilt dampened my bordering-on-frivolous attitude and impressed me with the huge responsibility jurors face. The trial happened, we deliberated hard for a couple of days, and we found him guilty. The result: He'll be going to prison. Not something to take lightly. I learned.

Back to goddess stuff. A few weeks ago, a writer friend named Cat interviewed me for her blog at Humble O Radio.

Cat is also a master gardener, and wanted to talk about goddess worship from the angle of earth spirituality. Here's how she set it up:

From ... the United Nations Global Biodiversity Assessment, as quoted in Forcing Change, Issue 6, Volume 1. (www.ForcingChange.org is a site chock-full of documentation of world politico-religious agendas and trends.)

Author and researcher Carl Teichrib quotes the UN Environmental Programme’s literature as encouraging people to think of the soil as “our Goddess; our religion.” Yes, it’s where our food grows, and as such it sustains our physical lives. But at what point do we cross the line of assigning it a spiritual value, and on what basis? Is pagan spirituality being manipulated for political purposes?

Nahhhh… Couldn’t be. Politicians never do stuff like that. (From Humble O Radio's blog on "The Monday Hum: Watchdoggin' It)

Cat then asked me all sorts of questions about earth spirituality. Here's an excerpt from our chat:

CAT: For the sake of my beleaguered readers, what is earth worship?

SUSY: Many pagans believe that the earth itself is female and the giver of life. They call this deity “Gaia,” and teach that she is an energy force around us and in us. Many pagans, especially Wiccans, believe that Gaia is a goddess (sometimes called the Great Goddess or the Mother Goddess), and that she takes many forms with different names such as Diana, Artemis, Isis, and hundreds of others. Pagan artwork often pictures the earth as a beautiful woman with long flowing hair, dressed in robes made up of flowers and animals, pregnant, with the planet portrayed as her womb. So, one huge difference between pagans and Christians is that pagans worship the earth, while Christians worship the Creator of the earth.

Earth worship is nothing new; it seems to have arisen in the form of fertility cults in ancient Mesopotamia, where archeologists often unearth small stone figurines in the form of a chunky woman that were probably used as objects of worship in this religion.

What is new is the current popularity of earth worship. It seems to attract spiritual seekers who are especially attuned to ecological issues. In other words, outdoorsy people with a love for the natural environment might naturally be intrigued by a religion that elevates Gaia, or Mother Nature, to godhood. This attraction is easy to understand; some of the moments when I’ve felt closest to God have been on a granite mountaintop in the Sierras or marveling at reef fish off the coast of Maui!

Click here to read the rest of the Humble O Radio interview, including some thoughts on the "Christian Right Wing."

More tomorrow....

 

Comments

[Grian]

If I may be so bold, I would like to explain something. Most Pagans (capital P like Christians) believe that there is no separation between nature and the Goddess (capital G like God). Just as you may admire a beautiful sunset and see the glory of God, Pagans see the Goddess in all things - very especially nature. The personification of the earth or nature is simply a form of myth and metaphor and not to be taken literally. It would be silly to think that all Pagans believe the earth is genuinely a human woman with god-like powers named Gaia. Gaia is a Greek myth once used to explain creation and the workings of our planet. Gaia, in fact, was the Greek word for earth. So, lets bring this down to Gaia for goodness sake, and avoid sensationalizing a serious religious topic.

Sincere Blessings, Grian

[Kristy]

Up here in ND, where there are a lot of Native Americans, I see earth worship quite often. There are at least two Native-made sculptures in town that place the earth in a position of reverance. In some ways, folks think it is harmless because Native culture isn't in the mainstream, but I think it's actually more pervasive because of that.