Starlight and brilliance of
Sun's solar flare
White and golden red
Woven tapestry of
Jet black Cosmos.
Green and brown
Of fertile land
Blue of sun kissed
Watery basin.
Rainbow of color
Spread across
Pattern of cloth
Textured and etched
In crystal and stone.
Blackness of heated striation
Of rock's core as gentle bud
Pushes upward towards sun's
Radiant blessing as Gaia sheds
Her parched skin and dons Spring's
Celestial mantle of lusty fertility.
This post is excerpted from my online course, A year and a Day on the Wiccan Path. It was part of the lesson focusing on The Natural World and seemed most fitting in celebration of Earth Day 2015. Enjoy!
We finish our journey through the Natural World at our home base Earth. Many call this Earth Mother, Gaia. She offers us her food and willingly sacrifices her waters and lands to our needs, and asks only that we love and respect her in return. We see her creativity expressed through every leaf and flower; always pregnant with new life and always having just birthed what renews and replaces.
Gaia is the Goddess that personifies Earth. She is the Great Mother, as she holds within her body all of life on this planet. She is the natural extension of the thoughts of earth as being a fertile world that nurtures humanity. Wicca, being an earth/nature-based religion, at its foundation of philosophy views everything of the natural world as sacred and to be held in reverence. Nothing takes precedence over another in its nature of Divinity for everything is created from and an expression of the Divine.
If we look at the emerging thoughts of Wicca being not only as earth-based but cosmically-based as well, Gaia again holds true as goddess supreme. Her myths tell of her progeny which were planetary, stellar and Gods and Goddesses that ruled various aspects of the earthly domain.
** Check out T. Thorn Coyle’s Podcast from Pantheacon Episode #29 -February 2010 and panel discussion of this subject.
And, to quote Tom Kenyon, Sound Healer and Shaman..
” The Earth has her own grid or grid-work of subtle energy channels. Some of these are called ley lines. They are conduits for the flow of subtle energy through Earth’s body, similar to your own subtle energy channels. But, of course, the energies that move through the Earth’s subtle energy channels are much more massive than those energies that move through your body. But there is, nonetheless, a relationship between your meridians/nadis and the ley lines of your planet.”
Her Gifts of Color and Light
Gaia vibrates and beams of color and light fill the panoramic view…
Color
The Earth produces an artist’s palette of color. The primary colors are red, blue and yellow. The secondary colors are green, orange and purple. And with the multiple variations of each we have the painting that is the natural world. We have taken from this palette and interpreted and routine make use of the various colors in our mundane lives. Read More ……..
Her Gifts of Crystals and Minerals
Gaia holds within her bosom the gifts of Crystals…
“A crystal is a solid in which the constituent, or ions are packed in a regularly ordered, repeating pattern extending in all three spatial dimensions. The formation of a crystal by a substance passing from a gas or liquid to a solid state, or going out of solution (by precipitation or evaporation), is called crystallization. The process of crystal formation uses – minerals – heat – pressure and gas. Once formed, crystals are the most stable and organized compound in the Universe. Color of the crystal is determined by minute presence of other substances. Iron produces the color red; smoky brown indicates the presence of uranium and pink reveals titanium and manganese” (Scientific America). Read More……
Her Gifts of Herbs
Gaia offers the bounty of a natural medicine chest of healing and sensual delights….
Herbs and plants of the Earth were the first medicinal and magickal tools used by the ancients. In all of the ancient cultures you will find plants being used as medicine, tokens of offerings to their Gods and Goddesses, for protection, fertility, as a source of nutrition and more. Herbs mixed with available resins were used as incense in the Temples and many of these same ingredients are used in today’s incenses. The use of the censor with Frankincense burning fully in churches began as a way to purify the surroundings where many would congregate particularly during the times of plagues and rampant disease. Read More….
Her Gifts of The Sacred Trees
Gaia raises leaf and branch from roots embedded in the sacred folds of her body…..
Everyone has a fascination for Trees at some point in their lives. This may have been as a child and the power felt in climbing up through the branches of your favorite tree. Or as a teenager, sitting with your boy/girl friend under a tree hoping for that first romantic kiss. If this fascination grew you came to see Trees, not only as a source of shade but as a living growing space of beauty that spread further and reached higher than any human could. And, if you were particularly astute in your observation you came to see that each Tree had its own sort of personality (energetic stamp) and changed in accord with the seasons flexible in its strength and glorious in its majesty. You may have also noticed that many of the natural groves and spaces of the Trees were being cleared to make way for urban expansion. The once green shady path that sat at the edge of the city was now concrete and bustling with stores and restaurants. Read More….
In Conclusion..
Gaining knowledge of the mysteries of Gaia, The Great Mother is our task and care and respect are her expectation. In setting foot on the Path of the Wise we are accepting responsibility as stewards of the Earth and all that lives within Her fertile body.
As we end our study of the Natural World and Lesson Two, be sure to take full advantage of the timing of this Lesson to get outside and physically enjoy the beauty of this life. Drink in the Sun Light, rest in the shade of the setting sun and ever be mindful of your place in this world and the power you have in improving and honoring it.
Blessed Bee!
