The Gaia method.

The word Gaia comes from the ancient Greek and means 'Land' or 'earth'. She was the Primordial Earth Goddess in Ancient Greek Religion. In Greek Mythology she was a Titan and Mother to several Greek deities. The earliest reference to her is from Mycenaean Greek Linear B 'MAKA'. (Interestingly Maka is also the ancient name for Oman in the Arabian Peninsula.) Transliterated it means 'Mother Gaia'.
To my mind the name also feels like it may have been influenced by Ancinet Egypt as many of hte mysteries were known to have originated there. Ma Ka would be the spirit of the Mother, which adds a whole new dimension to our understanding of her.

Hesiod's 'Theogeny' tells us that after chaos, arose broad-breasted Gaia, the ever-lasting foundation of the Gods of Olympus. She brought forth Uranus, the starry sky, her equal, to cover her, the hills and the fruitless deep of the sea, Pontus, without sweet union of love, out of her own self through parthenogenesis.

Gaia is believed by some sources to be the original deity behind the oracle of Delphi. Gaia passed on her powers onto Poseidon, the sea God.

To the Greeks her home was in Crete where she was known as 'Mistress'. A name which has been applied to many later Goddesses in both Egypt and Greece.

In modern time she is the soul of planet Earth.

I had a very interesting experience of 'Gaia' when travelling through the Dingle Peninnsula in South-West Ireland a few years ago. We were driving from Dingle back to Waterford in the South-East of Ireland:

The sun was shining and I began to feel completely open to its energy. I felt like the energy of the Earth, sensually open to the rays of the sun. I felt like a woman waking up on a bed of satin sheets, wearing satin pyjamas. The space around me felt luxurious and if I could see the woman she would have been stretching and luxuriating in the feel and cleanness of the room and bed, as though she was coming alive to the beautiful sunshine day. It was a wonderful feeling and I felt so open to it. I couldn’t have opened myself up any more as my whole body was absorbing this wonderful energy. It felt like I had a zip along the length of my body which I could just open up so all the inside of my body could receive this light. After a few minutes this feeling moved to the rain and I felt like the earth, accepting and loving the rain as it was absorbed into my body, feeding me as the sun had done.
Then after a few miles, the feelings faded and I wondered at the fabulous joy of how it is to accept these elements into oneself. Further down the road I began to feel an overwhelming sadness. I couldn’t figure it out. I saw an old derelict building and the feeling got worse. I began to be aware that this feeling was not mine but the newly awakened Earth Goddess. Having woken she now sees how things have changed. She is not honoured as she once was. The people who were around in her time worked in harmony with her, worked with her rather than exploited her as they do now. Like the Achuar Indians, they recognised how to live on the earth and how she gave them everything they needed to live. There was no greed and addiction, everything was shared. ‘Her’ people were now dead and gone.
This feeling persisted until, again, it faded and then I saw her, like a huge giantess moving across the land. Time for some changes, things had been neglected. I saw her huge hands resculpting the mountains, like a giant sculptress. She smoothed out other parts of the landscape, like a potter working with clay. Every now and then she stood back and surveyed her work. If she was happy she left it at that, if she wasn’t she worked a little more until she was. A huge hand patted the side of a small hill which sent a shudder through the land, like an earthquake. Then she began to plant new forests. She spent ages making sure that they were in exactly the right place for the landscape. It was amazing to watch, but also a little scary. She was so huge that I couldn’t actually see her in her entirety, just the parts that were doing the work or her face smiling as she worked.
It was interesting also as when she woke up she was young but as she went through these ‘phases’ she seemed to be getting older. By the time she was doing her resculpting she was well into middle age. When she was finished doing her ‘earth work’ she began to look for a place to sleep. She found Newgrange which had been specially prepared for her and she went in and curled up like a baby and fell asleep. I thought it was strange that she would sleep in Newgrange but then realised that the sun would wake her up again at Mid-Winter and she would start her yearly cycle, just like she had always done. She was back!
It was an amazing journey with her. I felt like I was her, woman of the earth. It made me aware that the more I work with the Earth in the Gaia Method, the more I become part of the Goddess awareness.

That leaves me a lot to think about. I am aware that I have been doing my bit to awaken the goddess here in Ireland so that we could go back to honouring her and living as part of her like we used to do. She needs to awaken everywhere!!!!