We are striving for a cultural norm that embraces Mother Earth, since the old one that dominates isn’t working so well. We want our carbon footprint to be small, our resources to be sustainable, our air and water to be pure, and our waste to be recycled, composted, or nearly non-existent.
Once again, I bring up the Feminine Dimension, this time to address fully functional, harmonious living. Way back in the Neolithic period of Old Europe, people who worshipped a female deity—The Goddess—lived with and loved the Earth. Many of us today refer to Earth as Gaia—the goddess name given by the ancient Greeks—because we want to express a real feeling of companionship and reverence for the metaphysical Life Force that is, in every respect, feminine. Just outside your window, you’ll see evidence of the Feminine Dimension in the form of a world waking up for spring and summer. Flowers opening, and blossoms awaiting pollination to start the seed-forming process to create the next generation of the plant. Birds, squirrels, cats, dogs, all rushing to the mating call of Nature, like the plants, heeding the cyclical call to begin new life. We see this birth, growth, maturity, decline, death and rebirth cycle of life played out for us every trip around the sun. Life is all around us buzzing, popping, calling, singing, barking, meowing, bellowing, screeching, stretching, budding, forming fruit, pushing roots deeper into the earth, turning to follow the sun’s rays through the day, making seeds, duplicating cells, growing bigger, eating, pooping, making webs, nests, hives, tunnels, warrens, burrows, learning to fly, crawl, dig, transforming from bug to insect. All because they heed the natural instinct that they are endowed with, the one that humans have denied in themselves because we are civilized and above all that. It’s almost overwhelming, but it is real life. The Feminine Dimension is constantly at work producing life, supporting life, ripening it to harvest for man, bird, and beast. That is the waxing part of the life cycle. Next comes the waning part, when seed falls to the ground, gets covered over by leaves, animal activity, and the natural inhabitants of the soil, constantly tunneling, turning, and processing. There, it sleeps through the winter, as does most all of Nature, until the seasonal change in sunlight, rain, and warmth reawaken this slumbering seed to burst with new life to begin the cycle again. Perennials, like trees and shrubs slumber in place, some with leaves, others without, then sunny, warm spring days awaken them, blossoms open, tiny new leaves, needles, or fronds push forth from their buds giving us the sudden colors of burgeoning life. Gaia has put on her fresh, spring dress to dance in the sun and the moonlight. Or so it seems. Being small on the face of this big, beautiful planet, we northern hemisphere residents sometimes forget that Australia, Africa, and South America are experiencing these same seasons, but exactly opposite to ours. We have summer, they have winter; we have autumn, they have spring. This is proof that the Feminine Dimension includes not only cycles, but balance in those cycles. (So maybe Gaia is wearing mukluks with that dress.) It is cycles that are natural. Varying hours of daylight through the year are natural and not at all dependent on clock time. Goddess People understood this and lived happy, productive, peaceful lives in harmony with Nature. They chose flat, alluvial plains by rivers for their villages with fertile soil for their crops as well as good grass for their animals. They followed the cycles of the region where they lived. Being in harmony with Nature led them, likewise, to live in harmony with each other. Archaeologists have found no evidence of fortifications around these villages. In addition, art and beautification are found everywhere: in figurines, household pottery, mosaic floors, and wall murals. These civilizations, of more than 5,000 years ago in the area of Europe surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, were living much as we hope to. Their love of The Goddess and their harmonious care for Her creation were central to their lives.
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