GAIA

THE GODDESS PROJECT: Made in Her Image

GAIA

“I had a name once.

In this culture’s genesis I was Gaia.

. . .

In healing me you heal yourselves.

. . . Embrace me . . . I am you . . . YOU are Gaia

From Rachel Rosenthal’s performance piece, GAIA, 1983

Believing in the SACREDNESS of Gaia has nothing to do with religion but everything to do with survival. We are ALL swimming around in Her, inter-connectedly. The ancients knew this, the Native Americans know this and respect Her deeply still.

Last Monday was “Columbus Day” or as many prefer, “Indigenous People Day”, and there were many posts on social media with PROFOUND QUOTES by well-known Native American leaders. One spoke of Gaia and to me: “Some day the Earth will weep, She will beg for Her life, She will cry with tears of blood. You will make a choice, if you will help Her or let Her die, and when She dies, you will die too.” John Hollow Horn, Oglala Lakota

Gaia was the original Greek Goddess, according to the 8th century BC “Theogony of Hesiod”. Nothing existed before Her and Gaia was born out of Chaos. She gave birth to the Oceans and the Sky then later, the Titanesses and Titans who were the PARENTS OF ALL other Greek Goddesses and Gods. Delphi and all of the other temples built for Her (where they left offerings of HONEY and BARLEY) were eventually taken over by Zeus’ Pantheon.

Ancient playwright Aeschylus’ play “The Dainads” is a SONG TO GAIA:

“Of Gaia I sing. Whoever you are,

wherever you are, She feeds you

from Her sacred treasury of life.

Bountiful harvests, beautiful

children, the fullness of life:

these are Her gifts. Praise Her.”

Gaia gave birth to all of us and everything we see on this planet. We all coexist and came to life inside of Her womb just as we came from of our mothers’. Air is Her breath, the water and plants She created perfectly to sustain all life. The trees, insects and all animals are our sisters and brothers. We are directly descendant from the Divine. What we are doing to the smallest living entity, we are doing to ourselves. In her book GAIA AND GOD, Rosemary Radford Ruether wrote that “Gaia is the word for the Greek Earth Goddess, and it is also a term adopted by a group of planetary biologists..to refer to their thesis that the entire planet is a living system, behaving as a unified organism.” 3,000 years after the disappearance of Her followers, scientists are intuitively figuring out that the Earth is a living ecosystem.

From disposable clothing to disposable diapers to ACRES OF LAND TURNT TO DESERT just for one hamburger, we have to watch our steps. She is our life boat, we have to rise up, honor and protect Gaia now. This is how we worship Her, with every preserving petition we make now and always, for our grandchildren’s children.

When I asked our Gaia model, Christy, why she wanted to portray Gaia, she said: “I wanted to be Gaia because I first encountered the notion of Her when I was WOUNDED, ISOLATED, and SUFFERING. I was being abused at home in nearly every way one could imagine. At night, when things finally got quiet, I would curl up in a ball- like I was a fetus again. In those moments, when I felt most victimized and abused, Gaia whispered that I was safe within Her womb.” Christy now works as a subject matter expert in Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, FIGHTING FOR CHANGE AND AWARENESS.

Posing for THE GODDESS PROJECT: Made in Her Image, Christy said, made her feel “EMPOWERED. I could imagine myself, as a woman, embodying the Divine. So often we see the Divine with a long white beard or with a cloth over the male anatomy hanging on a cross. I know I cannot be that kind of a Divine. But Gaia, I CAN EMBODY HER and be the personal presence of Gaia in someone’s life.” Thank you, Christy, for giving Gaia new life.

Photography and graphic effects by David Clanton and FREE SOPHIA. Thank you.

For more of THE GODDESS PROJECT: Made in Her Image GODDESSES or other FREE SOPHIA posts, please visit: https://plus.google.com/u/0/107287050579003737566

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