Mother Nature, Mother Earth . . . terms we use so frequently, but do we fully understand and embrace the meaning behind these words . . .
How is the Earth like a Goddess?
In classical Greek mythology, Gaia was the Earth Goddess. She was the first to take form out of chaos. She then gave birth to the sky, mountains, rivers, oceans, and all living things on the planet.
The words matter, matrix, and material come from mater - latin for "mother" We refer to the our planet as "mother earth" and "mother nature" easily.
It was once just as easy and natural for people to worship Mother Goddess, the Divine Feminine and see women in her likeness. To imagine divinity as female was a natural consequence of observation.
Is the Earth just as alive as a Woman?
In the mid 1960s James Lovelock (atmospheric scientist) and Lynn Margulis (microbiologist) formulated the Gaia Hypothesis, proposing that the Earth is alive and that it functions much as our bodies do to maintain homeostasis. Our bodies are an environment in which temperature and chemistry must be kept within a very narrow range of fluctuation. To be alive and healthy requires very sensitive interaction among our many systems - circulatory, respiratory, digestive and so on. Gaia (earth godddess, planet earth as feminine form) has equally complex interactive systems that must also maintain balance - oceans, soil, atmosphere, biosphere and so on.
What does it mean to think of the Earth as Gaia (Mother Nature, Goddess)?
Inhabitants of the planet Earth must realize that we are in a relationship to Gaia as in a fetus in the body of a pregnant mother. In the womb we are provided for and protected. We can only thrive if our mother's body is healthy.
"We all know our beautiful green planet is in danger. Our way of walking on the Earth has a great influence on animals and plants. We are all sleepwalkers, not knowing what we are doing or where we are heading. Whether we can wake up or not depends on whether we can walk mindfully on our Mother Earth. The future of all life including our own, depends on our mindful steps. We have to start learning how to live in a way that the future will be possible for our children and grandchildren"
~ Thich Naht Hanh, The World We Have
When we are finally able to see the earth as our mother and love her as she is, then we will also realize she needs us
Why does caring for the Earth seem like a women's movement?
In our society boys are often shamed for being soft hearted, emotional, imaginative and are discouraged from interests and inclinations that seem "unmanly" Leaving girls to be the "emotional, nuturing" counterparts. Leaving girls as the more likely ones to respond to beauty and to little children and animals. Women are the ones who can be emotional. Women are the ones who bear children and know of the effort it takes to raise a child into adulthood. Women are the empathic gender and therefore in order to save the world, we must gather the women. Beliefs such as this have led to the rise of Eco-Feminism.
Ecofeminism is a social and political movement which points to the existence of considerable common ground between environmentalism and feminism. Ecofeminists argue that a strong parallel exists between the oppression and subordination of women in families and society and the degradation of nature.
We have a beautiful mother
Her oceans wombs, her wombs oceans
The summer grasses her beautiful hair
Her brown embrace eternal
~ Alice Walker, poet/writer
If we want to see progress in future generations we must celebrate, love and respect that which gives birth to us and sustains us - women and the Earth. There are goddesses in every woman. Let's start treating our women and our planet as the Goddesses they are.
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