GAIA (Gaea) was Mother Earth in Ancient Crete and Greece (the Greek common noun for "land" is ge or ga) . Her Roman name was Terra, she was Apia and Ghe in the Near East. Some of her alternate names are also: Ge and Ma.

Mythology: In the beginning there was only formless chaos: light and dark. Then chaos settled into form, and that form was Gaia. Gaia, the Earth was the firstborn from Chaos, the great void of emptiness within the universe. She gave birth to Uranus (the Sky), Pontus (the Sea) and Ourea (Mountains).

Gaia was honored on the Isle of Crete 5,000 years ago by the Minoan civilization. This civilization valued education, art, science, recreation, and the environment. They believed that the Earth is directly connected to its existence and daily life. The current theories of the Gaia concept stem from this ancient view that the Earth is a living entity. Gaiam (pronounced "guy-um"), is a fusion of the words "Gaia" and "I am" and represents awareness and support of the interconnectivity of ourselves with the Earth and all living things. At Gaiam, we believe that all of the Earth's living matter, air, oceans and land form an interconnected system that can be seen as a single entity.

Earth Mother

In Greek mythology we can track the cycle that archeology has now confirmed: the movement from the matriarchal to the patriarchal - from Mother Earth goddess Gaia, who embodies fertility and protects life, to a dominant male sky god who embodies vast power over the earth. As aggressive Achaeans invaded what would become Greece, their male-dominated religions fused with the existing female religions. The Hellenic invasion of Crete destroyed the peace-loving, goddess and Earth worshiping culture of the Minoan-Mycenaean. Gaia was supplemented and replaced by male sky gods in a patriarchal rise, when the immortal kingdom of Zeus was established on Mt. Olympus about 1400 BC. (The earliest buildings, even during the Mycenaean period on Crete, were still dedicated to Gaia).

The suppression of Gaia in Crete was part of the cycle moving away from a female culture to a male dominated society that started in fourth millennium B.C. This trend was further strengthened by the continued suppression of the sacred feminine during last two thousand years. The cycle is now reversing.

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."

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