i s   s c i e n c e   c l o s i n g   i n ?

BACK to MAYA-GAIA INFORMATION AND SITEMAP Update 02 03 09 The Symbolism of Gaia Out of Chaos rose Gaia, Mother Earth... As she slept, from her side she bore a son Uranus, god of the starry sky who then became her husband, showering down fertile rain which seeped into her secrete clefts penetrating to the very depths of her bosum. From this union she bore the nine Titans and three Titanesses each of whom took a brother as husband. Rhea married her brother Kronos who swallowed all of their children to thwart the prophecy of Gaia that one of his sons would overthrow him. By swaddling a stone which Kronos devoured, Rhea saved her remaining son Zeus who she spirited off to Mt.Ida to be raised by the nymph Melissa. Later Zeus does indeed depose his father and makes him disgorge all of Rhea's other children who become the Oympian gods. One of these, Demeter becomes goddess of sivaculture, law, order, marriage and fertility and is confused with Gaea, Rhea and Cybele. She is associated with the Eleusian tradition or mysteries which initiated rebirth and eternal life. The following from The Power of Myth... "The only myth that is going to be worth thinking about in the immediate future is the one that is talking about ... the planet and everybody in it and what it will have to deal with will be exactly what all the myths have dealt with- the maturation of the individual from dependency through adulthood through muturity and then to the exit; and then how to relate to this society and how to relate this society to the world of nature and the cosmos.", Joseph Campbell in an interview with Bill Moyers. His Holiness The Dali Lama writes... Excerpt from the foreward to "Dharma Gaia", Parallax Press, Earth Day, 1990, "Our Mother, is telling us to behave. All around, signs of nature's limitations abound. Moreover, the environmental crises currently underway, involves all of humanity, making national bounderies of secondary importance. It is important that we forgive the destruction of the past and recognize that it was produced in ignorance. If we develope good and considerate qualities within our own minds, our activities will naturally cease to threaten the continued survival of life on Earth. By protecting the natural environment and working to forever halt the degradation of our planet we will also show respect for Earth's human descendents- our future generations- as well as for the natural right to life of all Earth's living things. If we care for nature, it can be rich, bountiful, and inexhaustibly sustainable." Our Greatest Challenge... If we accept the Gaia Theory, what is inescapable, is that human civilization is analogous to Earth's cancer. The personal challenge then, for each of us, is to evolve from a virulent to a benign strain, by raising our environmental consciousness. ef Beyond the metaphor for Earth as a holistic self-regulating organism, Gaia can also be perceived as somewhat similar to the divine feminine of Daoist yang, the Hindu Shakti, Lakshmi and Devi- a manifestation of all immanent cosmic reality as well as the Sophia of the gnostics. Such a concept is presented with qualifications in my dual/nondual Dual Nondual Model of Reality GAIA LINKS Surprisingly a major controversy has arisen over whether Gaian consciousness contributes to the Integral Spiritual paradigm as modeled by the Ken Wilber community. See relative links here. Homage to Gaia by James Lovelock Reviewed by Imogen Evans-Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. One Last Chance to Save Mankind - interview with James Lovelock - With his 90th birthday in July, a trip into space scheduled for later in the year and a new book out next month, 2009 promises to be an exciting time for James Lovelock. But the originator of the Gaia theory, which describes Earth as a self-regulating planet, has a stark view of the future of humanity- but he's still optomistic about reaching 100. Inside Gaia- The Ecological Enigma of the Earth- An examination into our collective failure to take realistic action on behalf of our own survival. Overcoming The Energy Of Old Evil And Old Gods We Will Arrive For The First Time Upon The Sacred Enigmatic Earth As The Single Home Of All Humanity And All That Lives. Cionaodh Gaia Blog "I read an interview with Andrew Cohen and Ken Wilber (a must read) who said that: "...unfortunately, you can't really embrace Gaia until you transcend Gaia. Otherwise, you have a mere addiction to the finite realm. You're not embracing it with love; you're embracing it with basically the same addiction you would heroin or any sort of sensory indulgence." I have been grappling with this thought for a long time, trying to understand how best to be of benefit to Gaia, humanity and the Universe and have found that paradoxically from Mr. Wilber it too must be transcended- if so we must challenge it wholeheartedly. We have to not only be as I promote so heavily, be a Citizen of Planet Earth, but also a Galactic citizen who would know the unborn and Universal truths that Justice holds in front of us all today. Sometimes, Love just is not enough. Nuclear Gaia? by Ben West 2006 "Now that we have made the Earth sick, it will not be cured by alternative green remedies, like wind turbines and bio fuels alone. This is why I recommend instead the appropriate medicine of nuclear energy as part of a sensible portfolio of energy sources." -the words of James Lovelock. For years the global trend has been the decommissioning of nuclear power plants in the aftermath of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, with the exception of some new plants in Asia. However, Lovelock and several others clearly think that the threats facing our biosphere are more serious and immediate than the potential risks from producing more nuclear power. The We Campaign is a project of The Alliance for Climate Protection -- a nonprofit, nonpartisan grassroots effort founded by Nobel laureate and former Vice President Al Gore. Our ultimate aim is to halt global warming. Specifically we are educating people in the US and around the world that the climate crisis is both urgent and solvable. We need an international agreement on the climate crisis that is consistent with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's findings. It must cut global warming pollution sufficiently to ensure our children and their children inherit a healthy planet–not one severely damaged by the effects of climate change. In Newt Gingrich's 2007 book Contract with the Earth- a book on the environment co-authored by Terry L. Maple, President and CEO of the Palm Beach Zoo and professor of conservation and behavior at the Georgia Institute of Technology -- Gingrich and Maple advocate "Green Conservatism," an innovative, market-based, common-sense approach to protecting the environment by rewarding conservation through incentives while fostering "green" economic growth. The Gaia Sutra by Tim Willard- examining Gaia concepts in terms of metaphysical/philosophical aspects. His current blog Green Future focusing on practical issues concerning Gaia eco-sustainability. Rainforest Action Network Audubon Martin County, FL SaveWolves-Defenders of Wildlife Environmental Orgs. Web Directory Review of Gaia Hypothesis The Vanishing Face of Gaia by James Lovelock 2009. The financial crash may help sales of James Lovelock's second volume on Gaia. If it happened to the economy, why not to climate? Both systems are "complex and non-linear and can change suddenly and unexpectedly", he writes. He lacks confidence in climate models with their smoothly rising curves of global temperature up to 2100, and instead anticipates a sudden flip to a state 5°C as hot. Joseph Campbell Foundation E. O. Wilson on Biodiversity Opinion: A new alliance for creation By David Gushee January 23, 2007 The evangelicals who signed on to this statement to save the environment do not represent a consensus of the evangelical world, nor did we purport to do so. We know what we believe however, and are moving ahead with our alliance between leading scientists and evangelicals to address threats to the well-being of God’s creation. Fritzof Capra/Schrodinger Lectures The Maya-Gaia, GAIA PROJECT NATIVE GEMS (Under Construction) will showcase the native endangered habitats, plants and wildlife of my region of Florida and feature artwork by a group of local artists concerned about preserving our environment. Heather Bowers watercolors, Victoria Hunt primsmatic pencil, Munk Munkhauser acrylic and oil paintings, Ida Stinger ceramic sculpture and Ed Fisher photography and digital imaging. A painful recounting of my slow growth to Gaian Consciousness- and belatedly discovering how to live the end of my life more purposefully. I chronicle these shameful details to illustrate that an environmental consciousness does not necessarily manifest full blown- but may accrue in punctuated fashion over a number of vagarious episodes until finally it is realized as a holistic responsibility. Now- thankfully- there are well-publicized paradigms that encourage kids to adopt enlightened ethics regarding all nature so fewer adults wind up as ignorant and insensitive as I was and won't require a samadhi experience to embrace a Gaian ethos. BACK TO MAYA-GAIA INTRODUCTION & SITEMAP email> smalltownsATusaDOTcom All contents © 1997-2009 Ed Fisher This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page