Elements

I came across a suggestion that life on Earth did not originate from the stars, but from the ocean depths. I like the notion that the Earth herself gave birth to life, that she is, in fact, the Mother of us all. From her we arose, and to her every one of us returns.

Many myths talk of the separation of the Earth from the Sky. Usually this is the Earth Mother and the Sky Father, but in the Egyptian pantheon this is reversed, with Nut the sky-goddess whose image decorates the inside of many a sarcophagus. It is in the separation of the Earth and the Sky that we humans are given a space to live.

The simplicity of the elements is so powerful and beautiful. Each of them give us life, and in turn can snatch it away. The earth on which we build our homes might tremble and erupt and swallow us whole. We can scarcely survive a week without water - but it can swell and rush and wipe out entire cities. Air, we cannot do without for even a few minutes. It animates us, gives us spirit, rips the roofs from our houses. Fire...without fire, nothing we have become would be possible. It gives warmth, light, protection; cooks our food, wards off predators, heats our shelters. We stare transfixed into its dancing flames, and it seems impossible that it is not alive.

Well, it is alive. It requires food and oxygen, just as we do.

The elements give us life; the elements are life.

Gaia Theory suggests that living organisms and their inorganic environment have evolved together in a single living system. That the Earth itself is alive - not merely the conduit of life, but a living being in its own right. Mother Nature, a living goddess...Gaia.