Throughout the ages various cultures
have held that the Earth is alive. Some have named
the Earth as a goddess, as the Greeks did, calling
her Gaia.
Most cultural mythic stories
of origin do
not separate what we in the West call nature
vs. supernature. They simply assume that humans came
forth from the same living source that gave life
to plants and other animals. The ideas that
the Earth is not-alive or simply a dirt ball hurling
through the cosmos or nothing but a temporary residence for
human life—are counterintuitive to most
cultures.
Yet, these ideas are key to
the stories
of origin of the three Big Stories that
dominate contemporary global consciousness.
Earthfolk's gasping
response to the sight of Mother! was an
awakening to
more than any previous mythic story has ever conveyed.
It was an
awakening to the heartfelt emotional bond that
we share with all that
exists: not just humans, fauna and floral but with
what is labeled by the
dominant Big Stories as "inorganic," meaning
dead or lifeless.
Earthfolk sensed that everything that
is, is part of the Living Earth.
Rocks, stones, minerals, elementals ... everything is
somehow what the Living Earth is.
