Spirituality & Religion
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org,
please feel free to visit the school website)
Spiritual practices of all kinds bring people closer to the Earth Mother. Almost every religion that I can find has something beneficial to say about the Earth Mother and has a God or Goddess to personify it. Even monotheistic religions have an earthly, creative, and nurturing side to their one God. Often the Earth Mother has been overlooked, so this course will illuminate her. It is easy to simplify religions and say that they are all the same, likewise, it is easy to insist that all religions oppose all others. In this course I have tried to include as much as possible without focusing too much on any one thing.
First I must point out that the religions selected for this course are truly basic and minimal. There are many important religions that I have failed to include in this section. This is not because I have a religions preference but because I am trying to simplify the vast expanse of this subject. I apologize for leaving an important point of view out.
To begin, let us turn to Pantheism. In the book Pantheism: Understanding The Divinity In Nature And The Universe (1999) the author, Paul Harrison, writes that the root of Pantheism is Pan which in Greek means “all.” Pan is also a God of Greek mythology who is associated with nature and reproduction and believed to be half goat and half man. The second part of the word Pantheism is theos which means God. Therefore, Pantheism means “All is God” and that is exactly what the religion is based on: the belief that all things in the universe are divine. Also Pantheists believe that all things in the universe are “interconnected and independent.” These are basic concepts that served as a foundation for many religions throughout history. More recently, with the up rise of Christianity, these ideas were suppressed because it went against the idea of a single almighty God. Nevertheless, the belief that all things in the universe are interconnected is now becoming a widely accepted belief, even among Christians and other readers of the Biblical text.
Though Pan is a Greek God who is associated with nature he is not the God who personifies the Earth Mother. Gaia, once Ge (or Roman Gea), is the Greek Earth goddess. This root began English words such as geometry, geography, and geology. The Goddess Gea or Gaia is the Earth, as in the actual soil and creature of the planet. In Greek Mythology Gaia creates herself out of swirling mist, shaping her body into lively landscapes. Finally, she called upon Ouranos the God of the sky to wrap around her as a protector. Then she gave birth to the Titan Gods and Goddess as well as to the ocean, thus to creation itself. The creation myth is the only myth in which Gaia is a main character. Though she appears in many other scenes, her story is short. Demeter is an important Goddess, possibly much more important to Greek mythology than Gaia. But Demeter is the goddess of corn or of the harvest. Gaia is the womb of the Earth Mother, while Demeter is the breast that feeds her children as they grow. Greek mythology has many other Gods and Goddesses to personify other aspects of the Earth Mother.