Gaea

Of what use is Gaea? Of what importance?

In the creation story of the Ancient Greeks, first there was nothing. Then there was Chaos - we're never sure from descriptions if this was air water or watery air; all we know is that Chaos was formless and turbulent. The first thing to form, to come out of Chaos, was Gaea, Earth. From Gaea came everything else, even the Gods (or nearly everything - by some accounts Eros, Love, and Tartaros, Hell or the Abyss, also came directly from Chaos - but always after Gaea).

She was not worshiped as other Gods were worshiped - in many ways, she was too big for that. There were no temples built to Gaea we have heard of - but those who sought her did so in the caves of her body, and each major temple complex had an altar to her. There were no priests of Gaea we have heard of - but she spoke to the oracles before any other God, and sacrifices of black sheep were accepted in her name. There were no public rituals dedicated to Gaea we have heard of - but hymns were sung in her honor, prayers were whispered to her, and many festivals included her in their celebrations. She was celebrated alongside all other Gods, because without her, even they would not exist.

We touch her every day.

I have Christian friends who speak of the all-encompassing, all-giving love of Jesus and the Father in Heaven. I have neo-Pagan friends who speak, with me, of that omni-present connection through our Deities that unites us all. Neil deGrasse Tyson (and other astrophysicists, but he's the one I'd go groupie for) speaks of how we are literally made of the materials that once formed the bodies of stars. I assume my friends of other beliefs could, if they chose, speak of similar concepts. Gaea, as she was seen by the ancient Greeks, is literal and physical expression of that principle.

Where does our food come from? (Besides labs.) Where do the materials that become our clothing and our shelter come from? And before you say it, where do we get that petroleum? If you trace the history of any medicine back far enough, you find a plant, or a mold, or an animal.

That transcendent love - that ever giving source - that constant rebirth of matter in new forms- all are Gaea. Gaea-as-Deity (or Gaea-as-Hypothesis) is the ultimate metaphor, the unmistakable symbol, the reality that we can literally grasp, but only start to understand. Gaea shows us the abundance of the Universe that every belief, including Secular Humanism, tries to convey.

("But MY all-giving source is heavenly." Of course it is. You don't think it's an accident that Gaea's husband was Ouranos - Sky or Heaven - do you?)

Of what use is Gaea? Of what importance? She is the commonality of us all. She is where we come from. She is that deepest root of home - not some domestic little house, but the complete experience of where your very life in all its double-heliced glory began. She is ours. She is all of us. We are hers. We are all from Earth.

And we touch her every day.

*****
I drew on Homer, Hesiod, Ovid, and other classical Greek and Roman writers. My thanks to Theoi Greek Mythology for cataloging and organizing the classical myths and their sources so neatly.