Homeric Hymn XXX to Gaea (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C7th – 4th B.C.) :
“To Gaia (Gaea, Earth) the Mother of All. I will sing of well-founded Gaia (Earth), mother of all, eldest of all beings.
She feeds all the creatures that are in the worlds, all that go upon the goodly land, and all that are in the paths of the seas, and all that fly : all these are fed of her store.
Through you, O queen, men are blessed in their children and blessed in their harvests, and to you it belongs to give means of life to mortal men and to take it away.
Happy is the man whom you delight to honour! He has all things abundantly : his fruitful land is laden with corn, his pastures are covered with cattle, and his house is filled with good things.
Such men rule orderly in their cities of fair women: great riches and wealth follow them: their sons exult with everfresh delight, and their daughters in flower-laden bands play and skip merrily over the soft flowers of the field.
Thus is it with those whom you honour O holy goddess (semne thea), bountiful spirit (aphthone daemon). Hail, Mother of the gods (theon mater), wife of starry Ouranos (Uranus, Heaven); freely bestow upon me for this my song substance that cheers the heart!”
Today is Earth Day and most people think of it as a “quaint” holiday and think of people who honor Gaea (Gaia) as being a little “loony”, or being a “treehugger”. Most people don’t have a strong connection to Gaea — because we don’t live in the same ways that our ancestors did — often for centuries. How do we help them understand that WE are some of the “creatures that are in the worlds” when we have created a mindset that we are not “animals” and because of that artificial divide we are somehow separate from Nature and the gifts that the mother of all gives to Her children.
Gaea seems to be starting to do things to make the blind aware of their part in an interconnected system with large wildfires, droughts, and ever-more-powerful storms — both cyclonic storms and winter storms. Part of how we honor Her is to change what we are doing so as to mitigate our portion of the things She is allowing to happen in order to wake up humanity to our collective ties to Gaea herself.
greekrevivalistmommy 