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Gaia The Living

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GAIA mother nature was the Protogenos of earth, one of the primal elements who first emerged at the dawn of creation, along with air, sea and sky.

Peter Paul Rubens - The Union of Earth and Water

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Ophelia and He Will Not Come

Gaia was the Protogenos of earth, one of the primal elements who first emerged at the dawn of creation, along with air, sea and sky. She was the great mother of all: the heavenly gods were descended from her union with Ouranos, the sea-gods from her union with Pontos, the Gigantes from her mating with Tartaros and mortal creatures were sprung or born from her earthy flesh.

As Gaia was the source from which arose the vapours producing divine inspiration, she herself also was regarded as an oracular divinity, and it is well known that the oracle of Delphi was believed to have at first been in her possession, and at Olympia, too, she had an oracle in early times. That Ge belonged to the theoi chthinioi, requires no explanation, and hence she is frequently mentioned where they are invoked. The surnames and epithets given to Ge have more or less reference to her character as the all-producing and all-nourishing mother (mater omniparens et alma), and hence Servius classes her together with the divinities presiding over marriage. Her worship appears to have been universal among the Greeks, and she had temples or altars at Athens, Sparta, Delphi, Olympia, Bura, Tegea, Phlyus, and other places.

In myth Gaia appears as the prime opponent of the heavenly gods. First she rebelled against her husband Ouranos who had imprisoned her sons in her womb. Then later, when her son Kronos defied her by imprisoning these same sons, she assisted Zeus in his overthrow of the Titan. Finally she came into conflict with Zeus, angered with him for the binding of her Titan-sons in the pit of Tartaros. In her opposition she first produced the tribe of Gigantes and later the monster Typhoeus to dethrone him, but both failed in both attempts. In the ancient Greek cosmology earth was conceived as a flat disk encirced by the river Okeanos, and topped above by the solid dome of heaven and below by the great pit of Tartaros. She herself supported the sea and moutains upon her breast.

Gaia was depicted as a buxom, matronly woman, half risen from the earth in Greek vase painting. She was portrayed as inseperable from her native element. In mosaic art, Gaia appears as a full-figured, reclining woman, often clothed in green, and sometimes accompanied by grain spirits —the Karpoi.

Discussion Forum

We Learn It Too Late - 103 Year Old Doctor Dr. Gladys McGarey on Life's Secrets

Started by bridget orman. Last reply by Carmen Elsa Irarragorri-Wyland Mar 14. 2 Replies 3 Likes

Speaking to the Water

Started by Rosmarie Heusser. Last reply by Rosmarie Heusser Dec 26, 2023. 3 Replies 3 Likes

WHY OUR FORESTS ARE IMPORTANT

Started by bridget orman. Last reply by Carmen Elsa Irarragorri-Wyland Mar 14, 2023. 1 Reply 0 Likes

A couple of pretty, fixed bicycle-views along the road

Started by Rosmarie Heusser. Last reply by Rosmarie Heusser May 26, 2022. 2 Replies 2 Likes

Wonderful mansions in the bird world

Started by Luna Arjuna. Last reply by Rosmarie Heusser May 12, 2022. 3 Replies 3 Likes

Big Bertha

Started by Eva Libre. Last reply by bridget orman Apr 25, 2022. 3 Replies 1 Like

Daffodil

Started by Eva Libre. Last reply by Carmen Elsa Irarragorri-Wyland Apr 3, 2022. 1 Reply 3 Likes

The Cailleach

Started by Eva Libre. Last reply by Carmen Elsa Irarragorri-Wyland Apr 3, 2022. 7 Replies 3 Likes

How Trees talk to each other

Started by Eva Libre. Last reply by Rosmarie Heusser Jan 8, 2022. 1 Reply 2 Likes

Dr. Stephan Harding - Part 1 / 10 - Gaia Theory & Deep Ecology

Started by Eva Libre Jan 1, 2022. 0 Replies 1 Like

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Comment by Nada Jung on October 2, 2011 at 3:56pm: In a tiny corner of western Poland a forest of about 400 pine trees grow with a ...90 degree bend at the base of their trunks - all bent northward. Surrounded by a larger forest of straight growing pine trees this collection of curved trees, or "Crooked Forest," is a mystery.

Comment by Eva Libre on September 30, 2011 at 11:22pm: artist: Todd Klassy

Nature is a living example that releasing is a constant element of growth. Why are humans so resistant to change when the path is always infinite abundance?

Comment by Nada Jung on August 14, 2011 at 6:10pm: Mother Earth is a conscious, alive, and responsive being – a goddess in Her own right.

- Quote from The 13 Indigenous Grandmothers

Comment by David Sparenberg on May 29, 2011 at 7:39pm: INKTOMI’S MESSAGE
a retelling out of oral tradition

Inktomi, spiderman, visited the tribes of the Northern Great Plains. Each time descending from the sky on a silken thread, Inkto brought a message of desolation to the Arapaho, the Blackfoot, the Crow, the Cheyenne, Dakota, and Lakota. Each time, Inkto told the people, “Changes are coming, a harsh time, and mother earth will suffer. Her oldest children will cry out in terrible pain.” Each time, Inkto looked around and spoke: “Remember the cottonwood growing here by the living stream. The tree is like each of you. Roots hold earth while branches reach toward sky. Remember the rock, standing there on open ground. An ancient friend: strong, tenacious, enduring generations of change.”
Even though Inktomi is a trickster, that time he put his tricks aside and spoke from a clear and honest heart. He counseled: “People of the Red Path, if you will remember these simple things; the cottonwood tree, the flowing stream, the ancient rock of enduring earth, and all our relations in the many walks of life; a day will come when balance will return. Until then, remember: hold on to what has always mattered, from the beginning of life to this very hour.”

Now, among those who know this story, some wait in an aura of fire, and their prayers are like a breathing scroll enrapturing the heart of passion. Others dance, and their souls are like winds, undulating over the grass, moving like birds of mercy over shadowed hills. Most potent of all are the quiet watchers, whose eyes are like eagles’ eyes and whose maturity is one with the slow, trustworthy wisdom of stone—bones of the enduring earth. Of earth’s mountain dreamers.

In later summer, or especially autumn, a wilderness walker can see spider threads floating in the air. Perhaps they are detached from the harvest of color-intentioned trees? Perhaps they are luminously extended upward, hooking, soft and viscid, to passing patterns of smoke signal clouds? Some of us see them in wonderment. The respectful pray. Others who see this work of nature are nervous and turn away, having a civilized dread of creatures made like a sacred orb, whose bodies are chemical circles and whose spirits are expressed in powerful webs and elliptical, intricate, feeding journeys.

A traveling man in the glimmer of twilight once told me, “We have offended the tricksters, the wonder people. That is why so many bad things happen in this world of human arrogance and greed. We have offended the elemental families, driven them from the land, and now they are invisible. It is this displacement and our disrespect that makes the ancient spirits angry and dangerous. Yet without their care, the whole of creation turns rough and threatens our destruction.

“Tell me,” the green troubadour asked in a voice rooted deep in shamanic memory, “Now that we have gone too far, extravagant and senseless, where do we turn? What is to be done? Inkto is sending us a warning, a message of good counsel and wisdom. Who listens? Who can hear the fall of a pine needle in an upland forest, or a weave of a spider in the mystic glow of an autumn sun?”

from DREAMSPHERES, A Book of Stories by David Sparenberg

Comment by Eva Libre on May 29, 2011 at 6:57pm: We are all one (Subtitulado Español)

We are one, we are one family. Still time to wake up and realize. Let the sun rises, let dawn comes, is the time of the return of the wise men ... Namaste!

Comment by Eva Libre on May 27, 2011 at 9:48am: The Beautiful Planet Earth

Comment by Eva Libre on May 3, 2011 at 3:00pm: Les tribus de l'OMO

Les tribus de l'Omo.
Aux confins de l'Ethiopie, à des siècles de la modernité, Hans Sylvester a photographié pendant six ans des tribus où hommes, femmes, enfants, vieillards, sont des génies dun art ancestral.
A leurs pieds, le fleuve de l'Omo, à cheval sur un triangle Ethiopie-Soudan-Kenya, la grande vallée du Rift qui se sépare lentement de l'Afrique, une région volcanique qui fournit une immense palette de pigments, ocre rouge, kaolin blanc, vert cuivré, jaune lumineux ou gris de cendres.
Ils ont le génie de la peinture, et leur corps de deux mètres de haut est une immense toile.

La force de leur art tient en trois mots : les doigts, la vitesse et la liberté.
Ils dessinent mains ouvertes, du bout des ongles, parfois avec un bout de bois, un roseau, une tige écrasée. Des gestes vifs, rapides, spontanés, au-delà de lenfance, ce mouvement essentiel que recherchent les grands maîtres contemporains quand ils ont beaucoup appris et tentent de tout oublier.
Seulement le désir de se décorer, de séduire, dêtre beau, un jeu et un plaisir permanent. Il leur suffit de plonger les doigts dans la glaise et, en deux minutes, sur la poitrine, les seins, le pubis, les jambes, ne naît rien moins quun Miro, un Picasso, un Pollock, un Tàpies, un Klee.

Comment by Eva Libre on May 3, 2011 at 12:26pm: Natural Fashion

Ethiopia's Surma and Mursi tribes in the southwest Omo River valley region present a unique perspective on self-expression in the African style. As a result of their nomadic lifestyle, location near lush vegetation, and inventive nature, tribe members have taken body painting and adornment to a new level of creativity which has inspired the color palette for ethniciti collections.

Comment by Eva Libre on April 23, 2011 at 3:59pm: It's Time We All Started Rooting for Trees!!!

When was a last time you stopped to give a damn about a tree? They do, after all, purify the air, provide shade, induce evapotranspiration, reduce stormwater runoff, cool the climate, aid in energy conservation, and amp up property values!