GAIA TODAY

A Personal Approach from Oriole Parker-Rhodes

The idea of this essay is to open discussion by using my own experience as a touchstone from which the idea of gaia, a live planet of which we are all parts, can touch anyone personally too. This is the time to confirm our own contact with the world in which we move and have our being. The objective and more scientific views can be found through the links.

This is a work in progress, comments are very welcome. Hopefully a discussion will evolve through "Posts" at the bottom of the Gaia article.

The concept of Gaia is rising in human consciousness today. It was James Lovelock who first proposed back in the 60s, the idea that the planet earth is a living being. He has written a number of books on the subject. Lynn Margulis influenced his theory with her Endosymbiotic theory, how the complex cells of living organisms today contain organelles which were once independent lifeforms. Gaia can be considered as a spiritual path or religion, that works in terms of Saving the Planet, for where there is love and worship for the earth and the biosphere, there is deep respect and care. This would have prevented the cataclysms to come. The Abrahamic religions have subverted this natural way to the detriment of all life on earth. They took the biblical “dominion” to mean domination. What was meant was custodianship, the idea of loving care. The philosopher Mary Midgley has propounded the importance of our recognition of Gaia.

Deep Gaia Love is impersonal and all inclusive. This sort of love does not need knowing or liking. For me it is about with the joy of the wonder of the unity of the earth's ecology, the living Gaia, the human race, our galaxy and the universe. It is the joy of the connectedness of everything, the magic of existence and creativity; the perfection and continuing development of this interrelated sphere of life. Love for Gaia is the most natural of all religions.

I have been close to Gaia all my life. I was brought up to it through the Cornish Celtic tradition that my mother (through her mother and grandmother, down the generations) had in her heart and soul. My mother taught me our oneness with nature as a child. I remember being told to stand inside an old hollow tree and to feel its life all around myself. I remember lying with my mother on our tummies gazing into a clear stream. We watched the water insects living their lives, and weeds swaying with current. After a while I got bored, but my mother whispered, “No stay.” I stayed and a water shrew ran across the bottom of the stream, its fur silvered with air, mud clouds gently stirred by its little feet. We were filled with joy.

In 1975 I had my first peak experience of Unity, otherwise called a nervous breakdown. The collapse of personality was necessary to end an unhappy marriage. It also meant “I” was no longer in the way of my perception of the whole. In my despair I asked the Sun to burn me up, that it might burn a little more. The personality I had lived in disintegrated so the deeper reality of being a part of the greater whole was all that was left. This was clear as I walked in a lonely wood, with only the paths of badgers and foxes to follow among the trees and thick undergrowth of ivy, bramble and little dark plants. I knew my being was there within the greater being of the Whole wood. I was in complete communion with the Life of the wood. I could talk to the trees and appreciate the minute ecosystem of a little pool of water in the cleft of a large oak, as well as the larger one all around. My problems were gone.

Later I gazed out from a plateau across valleys and hills, fields, hedges, woodlands and grazing animals, and also knew we were all one. I was gone as an individual personality. From then on I always this security, even lost in the dark night in the Amazonian jungle, I was safe, though I didn’t want to risk sharing my physical being with vampire bats, so stayed standing up! (expand?)

In 1977 I gave birth to my daughter, and she was the focus of my life for two decades.

Soon after my parents died, in 1987, I came to live here by the sea. Gaia is very easily felt on this corner of Anglesey. She “spoke” to me. She called me. Love swept between the Land and myself. Before I moved or had even decided to live here, that contact was made. When I left after visits, I cried. When I found the cottage on the sea-cliff the local spirits (who I later discovered included Druids) did more than welcome me. They chose me as the female living custodian to help the local farmer protect this place. They also tried to hold me here. I couldn’t intend to go further than 10 miles off the island without feeling concern, or 20 miles without feeling grief. Packing to go was painful. Driving up the lane was agony. This continued for many many years.

I believe it is the activity of the Druids that makes Gaia is so palpable here. Anglesey was the great educational centre of Druids, and the last stronghold. The Celtic religion, like all old ones, is centred on Nature. The worship was of Rocks, Trees and Springs. These people studied on all levels, their religion entailed a very close relationship with the land and its trees, its creatures, waters and weather. Some specialised, and studied the stars and the movements of the planets, others worked on divination and sacrifices. They dispensed justice and linked the realms of nature. Students came to Anglesey from all over Britain, Ireland and Northern Europe. There was close communion between the Druids and nature and natural forces. Here, nature was worshipped and Gaia responded. Today we still reap the benefit of this.

After the conquest of Anglesey by the Romans in 61AD Gaia didn’t draw a veil at all, she just lay still. She was ready and waiting and eager to be worshipped and to communicate with people. Here, human consciousness gives her more power, not less. The Romans believed they had killed all the Druids and destroyed all their sacred groves. Of course, they hadn’t, some escaped across the sea to Ireland, there was much traffic across the sea from Caer Gybi, and the regions were linked strongly by their culture. Others hid, and their knowledge and genes continue to be passed down subtly, without the use of the Groves and old accoutrements and public rituals. The Cornish tradition may even have survived more readily, without that conquest touching there directly.

Though this Land is full of love, if it feels any lack of respect it could be spiteful. A little boy from a city came to visit. I took him for a walk by the cliffs. He had plenty of energy and I led him on a little climb up the cliffs. When he turned and faced the sea he wanted to throw rocks off the cliff. I watched him throw a couple and felt I must tell him not too, the land found it insulting. I continued up the cliff and turned to see him heft another stone in his hand. Strangely, his hand went right back and hit the cliff behind him. He dropped the stone at his feet. I turned and continued up, without him seeing that I had observed this. We reached the top and as we walked back towards the cottage he asked me “Have you ever the felt the rocks here pulling you, like a magnet?”

I knew what he meant, but I asked “What happened?” he described exactly what I had seen, but explained that the cliff had pulled his hand backwards, he showed me the small graze on his knuckle.

“Ah, that must have happened because you are not supposed to throw stones down.” I explained.

“Hmm, hey, look at those birds!”

Another time the invisible Druids showed their displeasure was when they shrouded the Royal Yacht Britannia and the naval military force that came with it in mist for three days.

It was Mike Robinson, a visionary seer, who alerted me to the malign effect of forces here, in 2001. At last, I became conscious of the local Druids and their attitudes. I imagined there were five of them, they looked a disreputable bunch. Dishevelled, smelly, bearded, they wore grubby, thick off white tatty robes. At first glance, all five men seemed old, though one appeared younger. His hair was greasy and dark, not grey. We spoke at length.

I made them understand they could no longer order me about with such emotional force. They didn’t realise how much the world has changed, that I could leave for a weekend across the sea and come back safely. I told them they were free to leave this realm, there was a lighter brighter place for them to develop their work and skills. I told them we would manage without them. But if any wanted to stay we could work together in cooperation. I believe two chose to stay as guardians, to support us, the sallow youngest one and his mentor.

The Druids on Anglesey take their responsibility of guardianship seriously. Now their work is more conscious and careful than it was, less emotional and spiteful, more cooperative and thoughtful. They help me to do the best I can with the land I feel responsible for, and the cottage.

The natural religion is Earth and Nature worship. When awe is inspired, worship is happens. It is the earliest most natural, even instinctive way of worship. There are still pockets of alive and thriving today, even under the mantle of Christianity. I have seen it in the Andes where I lived for a while. There, the native people, also professed Catholics, worship the Apus (spirits of individual mountains) and the natural world as the Inkas did and their ancestors before the Inka empire. Heaven (the starry sky and heavenly bodies) the dramatic weather forces like thunder, lightning, the Sun, and the might glacier capped mountains are all worshipped and personified.

If you’re looking for a religion, or spiritual path, then Gaia is ideal. It does not require any God, but the Goddess, who obviously exists as a physical being of which we are ecologically and physically a part. I believe in giving the highest love or worship to the highest force or being you can imagine. So if that’s a man in the sky with a beard, or the Earth, that’s fine. Or could be the Solar System, or it could the Milky Way galaxy, or it could be our Universe, with its laws of physics. Or whichever is appropriate at the time, including the tutelary gods and goddesses of the local springs, trees and rocks.

There is a is mutual interaction between ourselves and the Earth. This is clearly the case practically speaking, since, apparently, we arose from the natural evolutionary process, we are but a part of the Earth, made of it and sustained by it. But the subtle interactions on the emotional, mental and spiritual levels, was this opened up by Gaia, or by Human consciousness? And does it matter? Probably not.

Gaia has hosted life for between three and four million years. We tend to assume that Human consciousness is the first to have conscious communion with her, but we don’t know much about the consciousness of dinosaurs or cetaceans, nevermind a planetary consciousness. As fine apes became simple humans, would the older being, Gaia take the lead and speak to human consciousness, or even awaken it? Or would She have responded to the cries of the early people, crying out in fear, in bliss and in hope. Was She was awoken to her consciousness by ours, or did consciousness arise out of our need, so that we create the consciousness of the Earth, or the local Land?

It’s cyclical, a chicken and egg situation. It is not about separation, it’s about union, growth and development, life crises, learning experiences, experimentation, discovery – as for any being. It’s just that we humans and all the rest of life on earth, are part of Gaia. Ultimately it doesn’t matter which way round it is. We can use it either way.

Are we dealing chakras or energy centres, meridians or ley lines, as many modern western shamans suggest? Are these real on a subtle but physical level? Personally, I like to think of magic as the name for scientific facts that scientists have not yet understood. Is it all essentially present, or has human consciousness created it? The latter would be called Magic.

As we came “civilised” our intimate and natural relationship with Gaia started to break down. Our problems are caused by that separation, and can be healed by finding with new responsibility that we are part of this living being Gaia. Look back through time to try and define when humanity turned away from the nurture of Gaia, I find the start of farming. Yet, yet this was our next step, inspired surely by our close relationship with the Earth. We saw how Nature worked and copied her methods for ourselves. Here we started to become as gods. Farming replaced hunting and gathering, expressed in the biblical story of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. Eve wanted Knowledge, and disobeyed God to get it. In other traditions however, the first crops were gifts from God.

Humanity belongs here, we are part of the ecosystem, but we have overstepped our role. The job in hand is to reinstate close contact between human consciousness and Gaia Consciousness. Humanity grew up with it naturally.

This feeling is arising increasingly in human consciousness, and is being expressed by many. For example the Slovenian, Marko Pogaknic, and Peter Russell particularly his GaiaMind concept.

Our poor Mother Earth, our only planet, the very life force, is suffering. Sadly, this is because of mankind’s abuse and lack of respect for it. To use a planet unsustainably for as long as we have means that it cannot keep sustaining us. It is now affecting us all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lovelock

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Margulis

By and about L. Margulis “Gaia is a Tough Bitch” :--

From book: The Third Culture: Beyond the Scientific Revolution by John Brockman (Simon & Schuster, 1995) . Copyright © 1995 by John Brockman.

http://mikerobinson.com.au/sitemap/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noosphere

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teilhard_de_Chardin

http://www.markopogacnik.com

http://www.gaiamind.org/

http://www.peterrussell.com/index2.php

BOOKS by James Lovelock

Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth. By James Lovelock. Oxford University Press, 1979. Oxford Paperbacks 2000.

The Ages of Gaia: A Biography of Our Living Earth by James Lovelock. Oxford University Press, first published 1988, in New York 1987. Paperback 2000.

Healing Gaia: Practical Medicine for the Planet Harmony Books 1991 (US?).

The Revenge of Gaia: Why the Earth Is Fighting Back - and How We Can Still Save Humanity by James Lovelock. Gaia Books Ltd, 2000.

Gaia: The Practical Science of Planetary Medicine by James Lovelock. Gaia Books Ltd (1 Sep 2000)

BOOKS by Mary Midgley

“Earthly Realism: The Meaning of Gaia” by Mary Midgley. Published 2007, Imprint Academic. A short collection of essays by different writers who explore different angles.

“Gaia: The next Big Idea” Published 2001 by Demos by Mary Midgley. “It can help to provide solutions for many of the large problems which conventional politics is failing to address, from global warming to mental health and well-being.” Amazon