When you are in need of a Mother’s love, just look down at your feet. When you call Her, She comes!
Every day, our feet are stuck to Her as She spins in the cosmos. From this connection to Her, we have everything we need to live. All the other Elements dance with us because of Her influence, Her Gravity, Her Love…
Our Mother…
Our Heartbeat…
Our Earth!
When you call Her, She comes!
She has had four and a half billion years to become the Element of our existence. Her spinning core, the revolutions of Her Heart, create the incredible forces of gravity that keep us, Her children, alive and connected to Her in every way!
Consider…
The Element of Air is held to Her by Gravity, our thin blue line. The Winds that dance across Her face? Their patterns and their strength are determined by Her spin. (Can you feel it?)
The Element of Fire is born in the friction of Her spin. The warmth of the Sun, collected by Her, energy that allows all of her children to thrive, even down to the tiniest molecules. Flame dances with Air, to Her meter. (Can you feel it?)
The Element of Water, from the great Oceans to the smallest trickling creeks, ebbs and flows in a cadence tied to the Moon, 238.9 thousand miles away, bound tightly to Earth’s rhythm by the arms of Gaia’s Gravity. (Can you feel it?)
When you allow yourself to connect on this level, you become one – one with the Earth and the Elements that gave us birth.
In my Muse-ical journey, the more I focused my songwriting on the Elements, the more intimately aware of this Rhythm, this Heartbeat I became. It rings and sings in every melody and lyric. But this experience is not restricted to musicians – not at all!
Feel It!
Here’s a meditation to connect with that Rhythm of Earth:
If you can put bare feet on the ground, that is awesome. If not, just put both your feet on the floor wherever you are – even in a high rise! Take in a deep breath and let it out slowly…
Close your eyes and lay your hand on your chest, Feel your own heart beating, knowing that rhythm is set by the spinning of our Mother Earth.
Now, start tapping your hand along with your heartbeat. Tap… Tap… Tap… I know you can feel it!
Start humming a low note and let it thrum to the beat. Stay on that note or let it flow up or down – just keep feeling the rhythm. (Singing is not the point here. Any sound you make works…)
Let yourself drift into the beat and connect with the Element of Earth, becoming aware of Her in the many levels and facets of your living.
Let your spirit rest there with Mother for as long as you wish, then drift back up, holding the memory and knowledge She imparts with you.
Earth Encounters
From the earliest times, humans have been keenly aware of the connection to Mother Earth. In every country, every culture, every civilization, the sculptures and depictions of the Goddess as Earth Mother are numerous and present a beauty spanning time and place. Stop and think about it for a second: Back in the beginning of human time, carved wood, stone sculpture, cave walls – those were the internet of the day. They passed from hand to hand, from teacher to student, from parent to child, and were traded along with the stories and mythologies. Always, the Earth Mother was found in the art, the songs, the tales.
Earth was Maiden. Earth was Mother. Earth was Crone!
She was Maiden, the talisman of life and fertility, passed from mother to daughter, blossoming anew each Spring. She was Mother, who brought the seasons with their cycles of Life, round and fecund, always bringing Life into being She was the Healing Goddess who provided the healing herbs and their knowledge for both man and beast. She was the Huntress and, with her Consorts, She called the game and kept her children fed. She held the dark secrets of time and age, in the depths of caves and hidden places, She was the Crone Goddess of Transition and Time!
How many names did we know Her by? Only mentioning a very few: Gaia, Ceres, Bhumi Devi, Pachamama, Ki, Ninnhursag, Maka-akan, Spider Woman, Houtu, Prithvi, Žemyna, Danu, Cel, Akka, Sif, Demeter, Rhea, Terra, Persephone, Muma Pădurii, Mokosh, Papatūānuku, Asase Afua… (Please add in your favorites in a comment if I missed them!) Yes… Her names are too many to count, but most of the time, I just call Her, “Mother!”
So, what’s in a name? Something deeply important! When we hold the name of someone or something, we have accepted a connection. When we call out to Mother… Mother Earth…. OUR Mother! We acknowledge that connection. We are Family!
Earth Warrior Thoughts
We know that there are huge changes happening on our Mother Planet right now. We know the Human Race is responsible for a lot of those changes, too. We became the illness. The Industrial Age opened a nasty can of worms that only got worse as the Technical Age rolled on.
Our Mother’s eco-systems evolved in a balance based on many things – the krill in the ocean and the ocean currents that carry them to the sea creatures that consume them, from squid to whales. Those tiny krill exist in oceans that maintain a certain temperature range, and we have been changing that. The warming seas have been melting the polar ice and the mountain glaciers, removing enough weight that Antarctica is actually rising! The fresh water is also desalinating the oceans. The changing sea environment is pointing to a major re-routing of the currents that have supported life on Earth as we have known it. There is speculation that the Gulf Current that keeps the weather stable in our northern hemisphere may even stop. No one knows for sure what that will mean, but the prospects don’t seem very nice right now!
Ocean currents are only ONE of the dominos we humans have been messing with. Do we need to bring up our Air quality? Or what commercial agriculture is doing to our soil? There is more than one domino at play here…
Our Mother Earth is struggling to maintain as best She can. We need to step up and fight for Her. We need to become Earth Warriors!
Remember that a true Warrior is not someone looking for a fight. A Warrior stands in defense of their family, their clan, their Home. Our Mother IS our Home!
Earth Dreaming
The good news is that, as children of our Mother, many of us are working to help heal Her and step into the new Age of Aquarius. We can be part of the Cure as SHE is healing herself!
As we work to bring about the changes needed, we can sing about our Mother. We need to share the old stories and write new ones for our kids – and for each other – rebuilding the bonds with our Mother that were weakened by “progress.”
Our words can remind the rest of the world just how beautiful our Mother has been and always will be. And, as we are raising our voices in song, we can form intention and build energies to add to the healing.
Let us dream of Her, healthy and serene once more, Her sustaining beauty and spirit filling our hearts, raising our children and shining into the future!
For more information about Ginger Ackley, including her collected articles here on Pagan Song, her bio, and links to Ginger’s sites on the web, check out Ginger’s page on Pagan Song.
For more articles about the Element of Earth, as well as the other elements/quarters, please visit our “Magic and Ritual How-to” page in Pagan Song’s Book of Shadows, where we’ve collected all our blog posts about the elements.
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