Review Of Literature
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org,
please feel free to visit the school website)
The Earth Mother is a concept studied by many scientists, philosophers, religions, and cultures, making this review of literature obscure. Where to begin and how far to take the study is a struggle for anyone trying to research such an ambiguous subject. One place to start is a broad book like Environmental Ethics: Divergence And Convergence (1988), edited by Richard G. Botzler and Susan J. Armstrong. This book is a compilation of different essays about the environment. It does not take sides and gives a fair chance for negative and positive voices to speak out for or against the environment and in response to each other. The essays are about both sides of the following: science, morality, aesthetics, history, religion, anthropocentrism, individualism, ecocentrism, ecofeminism, and society. It is design for college students to develop their own environmental ethic. Since 1988 this book has been revised. The revisions are equally good, but contain different essays.
One essay in all versions of Environmental Ethics (1988) is "The Land Ethic," which is actually the last chapter of Aldo Leopold's book A Sand County Almanac (1987). This is a brilliantly written book in which the last chapter is glorified because of its development of an idea he called "the Land Ethic," The beginning of the book contains first hand observations of nature in such detail as to truly take the reader away into a natural setting, while making each animal or plant seem like a close friend with a unique character.
Another book based on first person accounts of nature is Walden (1966) by Henry David Thoreau who lived near Walden pond in Massachusetts, alone, during the mid 1840's in a house that he built himself. During his stay "Nature herself" taught him many important lessons which he describes in this book. Thoreau wrote that he went to Walden to experience "Life!" because "who knows what it is, what it does?" Though Thoreau returned to "civilized life" after two years and two months, his book still leads people into Nature's embrace where they can find the answers to their own questions about life. Aldo Leopold and Henry David Thoreau are well known authors whose accounts are about men who had to unlearn an old society and way of life to then learn the lessons of the Earth Mother. However, many people who grew up in indigenous cultures did not need to unlearn anything to tell us about the Earth Mother they grew up knowing.
James G. Frazer wrote extensively about religions all over the world worshipping the Earth Mother in his book The Worship Of Nature (1926). He writes in great detail about each culture and religion, giving specific examples with extensive footnotes. He unites complexity with simplification by presenting detailed sky, earth, and sun worship together as different aspects of nature as a whole. This book will allow the reader to travel back in time and to all corners of nature.
Some of the essays written about people with native and indigenous roots are collected in Story Earth: Native Voices On The Environment (1993) which was compiled by Inter Press Service and edited by Pablo Piacentini. It contains essays by people who in some way are connected with native or indigenous cultures from all over the world. All the essays are about the Earth Mother but each have unique things to say.
Science is the other side of the Earth Mother coin. The Secret Life Of Plants (1973) by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird gives "a fascinating account of the physical, emotional, and spiritual relations between plants and man" with detailed accounts of scientific experiments and other experiences between humans and plants. On the back of this book it says, "Recent experiments in communication with plants indicate, as Paracelsus and Mesmer foretold, that all living things-man, plants, earth, planets and stars-are interconnected: what affects one affects them all." The context may seem a bit dry at times, but the content is expansive, detailed, and important.
Science has progressed to unify the life forces on earth and James Lovelock's ideas gave the entire world of science a giant leap in this direction with his books about Gaia. Among his books, the most detailed and advanced is probably The Ages Of Gaia: A Biography Of Our Living Earth (1988) in which he explains why Gaia is a living organism and how this should change our views of the world. His Gaia hypothesis inspired many well known scientists and began a movement commonly called the Gaia Theory.
A scientist, who inspired Lovelock, is Lewis Thomas who wrote the book The Lives Of A Cell (1974). He is quoted in Lovelock's book as saying, "Viewed from the distance of the moon, the astonishing thing about the Earth, catching a breath, is that it is alive." In this book he explores not only how cells and atoms act, but also how the earth behaves as a whole.
Rachel Carson is another well known author and philosopher who wrote Silent Spring (1962) which helped ban DDT and other pollutants as well as inspire many other people to write books, start movements, and help change the world. She is well respected among the common people as well as in the eyes of scientist and politicians such as Al Gore who wrote the introduction to Silent Spring (1994). This book changed the course of history and began the environmental movement as we know it today.
Beyond this, I must advise that you should find local animal, plant, and mineral identification books. With these books, walk into the local natural environment and discover the wisdom of the Earth Mother for yourself. Also read up on medicinal and edible plants in the local area. Every person will have to find their own books on this subject because each corner of the Earth Mother's surface has been graced with a different variety of life. However, this may be the source of the most significant information found in the course. You won't find the wisdom in the books themselves, but they will serve as maps to discover a connection with life, which will teach you how to learn from the Earth Mother. The Earth Mother's wisdom is what this course is truly about.