Sacred Earth, Sacred Cycles

Hope this doesn't bum anybody out but I'm Gaian (believe that the ecospheric systems which are the living flesh of Planet Earth form a consistent Being which has a deeply sacred Spirit).

I don't have anything against other religions -- in fact I think there are people of other religions who are also Gaian. However, in this category, I thought I'd just pop right up with this concept and see where it takes folks.

If it makes you p-oed please remember that I'm not trying to tell you you're wrong -- for you. Just that nothing to me is as sacred as this living Earth.

Hope it doesn't ruin your day, eh? :flower:

Penny, I feel you are going to have an awful lot of explaining to do, bummed no, clueless yes!

Do you have a link to a very simple guide?

Good morning -- I'm on my first cup of tea here but found myself practically kept awake by the questions in response to my post.

So... how much do you understand already or should I start at the beginning? It's complicated because there's the personal level, the scientific level, the movement level and the theological level. I'm sixty eight years old and began my search in the 1950s. In some ways I'll never end because the end goal is to become a model citizen of Planet Earth and now I think I don't have enough years left to change all the ways our society raised me to be.

So give me a little more specifics. Pick your level and I'll start from there.

Penny

Very sorry Penny but step 1 for me!! Rather than write you could point me to a link with the very basics if you prefer, then take it from there?

Probably the best choice, Windymiller

I already wrote a response once but for some reason the site system decided to make me log in again (as you know you can't even write a post without being logged in) and the entire post was wiped out. Sigh.

It's harder the second time. So you get a short version. Not so convincing, I imagine.

I grew up "all higglety pigglety" in the Midwest, USA in small towns and rural areas. The grownups were young and having their troubles and I was an active outdoors kid who would rather not come home before supper time. Nature was much more dependable and lovable even that my parents (who I did love but who weren't dependable). Religious instruction was sporadic and didn't make much impression until my preteens when an aunt adoped me. Then what a shock. Needless to say I didn't believe a word they were telling me. What nonsense. You could say I'd already been trained by the winds, the mud and rain, the sunshine and trees. I didn't believe in humans' word about the nature of God. It made no sense at all and didn't feel right either.

From that time I kept looking for something that seemed right. By age 14 I knew I was some kind of pantheist but not what. By age 30 I'd discovered the neo-Pagan movement in its early stages. But it wasn't until James Lovelock's (you can Google him and his work) Gaian Hypothesis was published stateside that I found my metier. I am a Gaian. It is the ecospheric systems he named Gaia which hold my heart and soul. I believe Gaia is a consistent living Being with a Spirit as huge as Planet Earth itself. Planet Earth is just a ball of rock, water and gases. Gaia is a living Being.

There may very well be a Prime Sourse of the universe on all its levels. I am not going to fuss myself over it. What I love, revere and want to spend my life supporting and taking joy in is Gaia -- particularly the living hills and valleys and winds and waters near to me. I am grateful for this living world.

I became involved in neo-Paganism because I thought it was a neat paradigm, not perfect but at least it presented Nature as sacred in a time when most people are terrible alienated from and ignorant about the natural world. But being Gaia-centered doesn't demand ethnic affiliations, doesn't demand rote mythologies, doesn't require pieties.

Thank you for the opportunity to express this.

Thank you for sharing Penny. It is a joy to read such a well thought out reasoning for a persons beliefs and feelings.

Very interesting Penny, the last paragraph I can identify with 100%, I will read a bit more about the subject before replying properly. I have a Training and Competence (T&C) visit in the morning so I working a little today to make up for the lost time. Still cant resist a peep on the internet!

Penny, how do you understand the relationship between Gaia and the physical Earth? Is it the relationship between a body and a soul, or is the earth in your view the temple of a greater, more fundamental and older being? Or do either of these metaphors fit well enough or at all?