Childbearing & Mothering ... GLORIOUS GAIA The Earth Beneath Our Feet by Sophia Roselyn Breillat

GLORIOUS GAIA: The Earth Beneath Our Feet
by Sophia Roselyn Breillat

To the ancient Greeks, she was Rhea or Gaea. Perceiving the earth as our primordial teacher, they described her as a great vibrant being, a living breathing body, a heart, a spirit, a soul, a Goddess. The Northern European named her Erda, Earth, Ertha, Utha, Herth and Edda and the Romans named her Terra Firma.

This bountiful Earth Mother and Universal Life-Giver was worshipped by all original cultures. Revered as the mother of every race, every tribe, all of nature, she was loved as the source of creativity and inspiration. Worship of this Great Mother bestowed a profound sense of inner connectedness to all life forms. Bequeathing all riches, Gaia relates to comfort, compassion, support, abundance, generosity, opulence and overflowing fertility.

The ancient roots of the word “earth�?are embodied within the words, humus and humility. The material realm was once the domain of the Earth Mother, for “material�?once meant Mater Earth, or Wealth of the Mother. The frantic pace of modern civilisation has strayed so far from the original energetic meanings of these words. Through living within the knowledge that we are one with nature, we unite with the infinitely tender and nurturing power of Gaia.

 

WILD PLACES

From the depths of her wild places, Gaia calls to the beauty of our innate wild place within. Through dishonouring this bountiful sanctuary that supports us every moment, we lose touch with an integral part of our primal nature. Our intimately sacred connection with her ancient universal spirit is our connection with God, Goddess, Warrior, Muse and the intrinsic truth of life. Without union with the sweet mystery of her presence in our life, we lose a real and vital part of us that cannot be replaced or nourished by material security, career aspirations, civilisation or technology.

Her raw power and awesome presence have the capacity to deeply awaken the wild heart of every man and woman. This primal soul place within yearns to live so closely to nature, merging with aeons of instinctive knowing within our cells, long suppressed but not forgotten. Can you hear her call? Can you feel her heartbeat, her soul place within you? Do you know her love, her passion?

As a civilisation, we have strayed far from our natural heritage as loving guardians of this beloved earth. Through aligning with her sustaining beauty, we return so easily to the simplicity of being. How we long to be one with her rhythmic heartbeat, timeless mystery and fathomless spirit.

As young children, we are sensitively attuned to this simple intimacy with nature. As we reach towards wider horizons, our natural bonding with our physical mother embraces the earth, our spiritual mother.

When taught instead to bond with the false seduction of the world, our babies are denied their intrinsic rights as Gaia’s children.

Contemporary society relates to nature as something separate from us, to be viewed from a distance every now and again. Seen as temporarily relaxing between hectic schedules, it is not perceived as a deeply passionate part of our own nature. And, for this separation, we pay an enormous price.

The more affluent Western civilisation becomes, the more it suffers from a lack of spiritual roots and impoverishment of place and spirit. For modern people, relaxation with nature has now become a planned holiday, a luxury, something to be strived, stressed and saved for, when once it was an integral part of joyfully living upon this earth. Each day lived without gratitude to the Earth Spirit is a day lived without the purity of sacredness.

 

NATURE’S MYSTERY

The mystery of her vast spirit emanates from within every rock, ocean, mountain and blade of grass. Her awesome presence breathes through every bird, animal, man, woman and child. Her melody is caressed by the breeze, danced by the trees and sung by the skies.

When we are sensitively attuned to nature’s rhythmic cycles, we do not accumulate. We are aware that we have plenty for our needs, effortlessly giving away or getting rid of excess. When we honour

Gaia, there is no need for churches. Her majestic forest canopies and vast blue skies are our mystical cathedrals. Her towering rocks, sacred glades and sparkling springs are our holy temples. Her benevolent love is our true home.

Uprooting her life-giving forests, poisoning her magnificent oceans and raping her womb’s resources, we dare to call ourselves human. Burying her nurturing beauty beneath the bitumen, concrete and garbage that increasingly accumulate upon her belly, we dare to say that we love.

And every morning, the golden sun still shines and the sweet birds sing. And every moment, her mysterious presence still emanates the pulse of life. How long will we continue to live cosily within the lie that we can own her, exploit her, destroy her and ignorantly expect everything we need to still be here tomorrow?

We treat the splendour of her magnificent resources as a mere commodity, supplied purely for our greed and exploitation. Fuelled by an inner emptiness and loss of meaning too devastating to face, the contemporary world fills us with excess food, possessions, work and activities that conveniently suppress the horror of what we are doing to this beloved earth.

© ~ Sophia Roselyn Breillat ~ not to be reprinted without author’s permission

Sophia is a woman who lives, writes and paints from the heart ~
She may be contacted at: [email protected]