The first glimpse of Gaia that I had was when I saw a painting by my artist friend John from Inverness
which he posted on his face book page as “Our Lady of Birds”, some time back.
The painting had a powerful impression on me, and I kept thinking that the home
to which the painting will eventually belong, would be, truly blessed. The next
time I saw Gaia, whose idol became
very popular with many of his customers, was in my friend Jonathan’s shop in
Halifax. I was impressed by her cosmic belly which contained the entire world
and a phrase from Lalitha Sahasranamam
came to my mind: Aneka Kodi Brahmanda Janani, a Sanskrit epithet, which
describes the Goddess as the one who
carried the seeds of millions of universes in her womb and who is the Creatrix
of them all. I also realized that Gaia was still popular in many Pagan worship traditions and rituals in Europe and the Gaia theory or hypotheses propounded by James
Lovelock and Lynn Margoulis has its
roots in the myth of Gaia, and her role in creating and sustaining the world.
Gaia can be seen as a paradigm for the worship of the Earth
Goddess- the parallels of which can be found in different traditions across the
world. Gaia’s Pre-Greek etymological origins suggest various things like life, world in totality, residing in the
worldly or material sphere etc. The Greek legend suggests that Gaia came into
existence from Chaos, the Greek God and she in turn brought forth her husband
Uranus, (heaven or sky) to cover her on all the sides. She also caused Uranus to
be the abode of all Gods. From their
union, came into existence, Zeus their son, who became the Supreme ruler of the
Gods. (According to some versions, Zeus is the son of Cronus who is the son of
Gaia and Uranus.)
Gaia is the Creatrix from whom all the creation in this world
sprang up. In that sense, she is like the Spider Woman, the Creatrix of the
Universe in the Navajo tradition of North America. The union of Gaia who evolved
from Chaos and Uranus, resulting in the creation of the Gods who ruled the
world, could be understood in a spiritual sense as the merging of the body and
the soul or of individual soul with the vastness of space and the experience of
Divinity inherent in that journey. The
story of Gaia and her union which
resulted in creation of the Titans, the giants and of Pontus, the sea which saw
the creation of the primordial sea gods is relevant in understanding the
various natural phenomenon in our world. Gaia’s
fury which caused the birth of Titans or even the monster Typhoeus, the storm
giant is relevant to our understanding of what is happening in our world today.
We see evidence of Gaia’s fury in the floods, earthquakes and tsunamis that evoke mass destruction
and are meant to protest against humanity’s unjust treatment of the Mother Earth
and the living and non-living beings in it. It is interesting to note that Gaia
hypotheses propose that living organisms interact with their inorganic surroundings
on Earth to form a synergistic and self – regulating, complex system that helps
maintain and perpetuate the conditions for life on the planet. Even though this
theory has been challenged for lack of empirical evidence to support it and also
for its lack of connection to the Evolutionary theory, it is still very
significant in that it resonates with the beliefs of certain North American tribes.
Most of the Shamanic traditions believe in the interconnections between the
Organic and Inorganic worlds. So, Gaia hypothesis has a lot of relevance from
the spiritual perspective.
In the pantheon of ancient Greek gods and goddesses, Gaia
enjoys a special place in the sense that she is the mother of them all:
heavenly gods, beings of the ocean, and mortals in the world. Worship of Gaia
will help us understand the interconnections or webs that weave our universe
and the need to walk in balance. It is very interesting to decode the myth of
Gaia and tap into her energies to decipher some of the themes that govern the life on earth,
and also our own journeys to re-connect with the centre. Gaia’s relationship
with Uranus signifies the convergence of two planes- body and soul, energy in
manifested Universe to the potent stillness of the Un-manifested/ Space. For a
seeker, this implies tapping into the cosmic energies that lay dormant in our
own bodies/nature/earth, and connecting with them so that we can be covered by
the sky (Uranus)or vast infinity that is the abode of Gods, even as we inhabit
this material world, and learn, as Native Americans would reiterate, to Walk in Beauty...
