Gaia| Greek Goddess of Earth
- Layshaianae
- Oct 28, 2021
- 7 min read
#Divinefeminineseries #Gaia #Goddess #GreekMythology #Spiritual #MotherEarth #FeminineEnergy #DivineFeminine
In Greek mythology, there is a personification of Earth as the primordial, 1st generation deity, goddess Gaia.
Gaia or Gaea is known and worshipped as the ancestral mother of all life including: plants, animals, and the gods that come after her.
Gaia alongside Chaos (God of darkness & void) ruled over the universe.
Even today Gaia is used as a scientific term to refer to the Earth as a single self-sufficient system.
Not only is she the embodiment of the Earth, she is also credited for the creation of the heavens in her son/ husband Uranus.
Thus making Gaia the origins of the heavens, land, sea, mountains, and everything else in between.
-Mythology Time-
Gaia vs. Uranus
On her own, Gaia created Uranus ( The god of light and the heavens).
Eventually Gaia and Uranus had several significant children such as: The titans, the cyclops, the hecatoncheires, and many other gods and goddesses.
Gaia prophesized to Uranus that one of his children would take over his throne, but Uranus refused to accept his fate.
Uranus hated his unsightly children, as hecatoncheires were a monstrous beast of 50 heads and 100 hundred arms.
He did not want the prophecy to fulfill itself and forced his children back into Gaia’s womb, which caused her great discomfort.
Gaia felt the agony of both herself and her children and fashioned a scythe of iron to be the downfall of Uranus.
Gaia asked each of her Titan children at the time to aid her in overthrowing the tyrant Uranus, but it was the youngest Titan Cronus who would be up for the task.
All other titans were still frightened by their father, so much so they could not fathom rebelling against him.
Cronus was the youngest titan, but he was also the strongest and most powerful of all of their children.
Cronus and Gaia’s plan was to lure Uranus to Gaia so that Uranus may lay with her.
Once distracted, Cronus would be able to take on his father and replace him as king of the gods.
As planned, Gaia lured Uranus down to earth and as he began to lay with her Cronus used the scythe to castrate his father while still in the womb.
Immediately, Cronus and his siblings were released from their mother’s womb where they chained up Uranus and successfully took over ruling the universe.
The dynasty of the Titans was upon us under Cronus rule.
The blood of Uranus mixed with the clay of the Earth and created the 2nd generation of the giants and the nymphs.
The giants themselves were creatures of amazing strength as they were capable of shaking the universe and causing earthquakes.
Whereas, Uranus’ member was used in combination with seafoam to create the Goddess Aphrodite.
Gaia vs. Cronus
Cronos (God of time) took his sister Rhea to be his wife.
His thirst for power drove him to not like the giants walking around freely and locked them away in a Tartarus, where they could do no harm.
Gaia hated that her children were locked away again and she gave Cronus the prophecy that he too will be overthrown by his own son.
Terrified of this prophecy, Cronus would swallow his children whole upon birth.
Rhea was distraught about her children being taken from her, and sought guidance from Gaia.
These children came to be known as the Olympians.
Gaia advised her to privately give birth to her next child and to trick the God Cronus into believing that he would swallow another child.
When in reality Rhea had given Cronus a bundle of rocks to swallow in her child’s place.
Rhea did as instructed and privately gave birth to her son Zeus in a secret cave located in Crete.
It was the Nymphs of the trees who raised Zeus and shielded him from being found by his father Cronus.
Now all grown up, Zeus was ready to fulfill his destiny and overthrow his father.
Zeus went undercover as a cupbearer and filled the drinks of the titans with a mixture that would put them to sleep so he could get his father alone.
In Cronus' cup however, there was a nectar mixture that forced him to vomit up the now full grown Olympians.
Cronus was still dazed and Zeus took this opportunity to free his uncles from Tartarus so that they could help overthrow Cronus.
Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades made the trip to Tartarus where they freed the cyclops and the giants.
Their uncles rejoiced being freed from their prisons and gave their nephews gifts that would support them in battle.
Poseidon was given the all mighty Trident, to Zeus they gave the lightning bolt, and to Hades they gave the helm ( the gift of invisibility).
Originally these gifts were hidden away by Gaia but made its return for the rebellion that would change the Titan dynasty to be the Dynasty of the Olympians.
The Olympians came back to the battle and they fought their father Cronus for the throne.
With the help of the giants they were able to overthrow their father and the Olympian rule began.
Gaia vs. Zeus
Zeus was in fear of the power the giants possessed and because of their unmatched strength, they were again locked away in Tartarus.
Gaia’s children were locked away again and she used all of her efforts to try to get her children free.
Similarly, a lot of religions cover a cosmic battle of light and dark, but especially of masculine and feminine energy in the form of God and Goddesses.
Zeus, aware of Gai’s motives, visited the fates where they gave him the prophecy “whoever feeds the bull to the flames was destined to beat the eternal gods”.
The bull, in reference to the fate prophecy, was a monster child of Gaia that had the head of the bull and body of a serpent.
Gaia had many serpent-like children who were guardians and protectors such as in the Oracle of Delphine.
Zeus used his lightning bolts and engulfed the world in flames from above.
He was overwhelmed with guilt as he watched Gaia be engulfed in flames.
He rained upon earth from the sky and took pity for the now destroyed earth.
Up until this point, Gaia had been successful in overthrowing tyrants although her plans did not always unfold in the way she thought.
Gaia was continuously betrayed by her own kin who would lock away her “monstrous children”.
It is said that even today Gaia stays in the bowels of the earth weeping for her children, imprisoned in the darkest corners of the underworld, Tartarus.
The ancient Greeks evoked Gaia’s spirit so that she could oversee oaths, marriages, and divinations as she was known as the original prophetess.
-Honoring Gaia-
White candle- for Protection
Purple Candle- for Divination and divine wisdom
Green Candle- for fertility
Amazonite- to balance male and female energy
Moon Water -for charging and transforming
Rain water-For cleansing and new beginnings
Indoor Plants - to tap into nurturing energy
Homeric Hymn to Earth mother of all
There are so many ways for you to embody or attract more divine feminine energy into your life.
You have the opportunity to connect and reach out to Goddesses that you feel embody divine feminine energy and build a meaningful mentor relationship with them .
Or you can honor these goddesses another way by being inspired by their journeys so that you can develop your own balanced divine feminine qualities.
I quite enjoy the inspiration as I find the synchronicity of my life and the passages of my learning to almost always perfectly compliment each other.
Learn shadow work 101 | Inner Child
Do not feel limited to these methods as there are so many ways for you to tap into your own inner goddess, however these are the two methods that have made significant physical and spiritual improvements to my own life.
Gaia was worshiped as the all nourishing mother and had temples in a multitude of areas in ancient Greece so that practitioners could show gratitude to the giver of life & dreams.
Quite literally Gaia is the reflection of Uranus; as Earth is a reflection of the heavens.
In reference to qualities of the divine feminine within Gaia is that she is the complete embodiment of structure. .
Not only in the personification as Earth, but in her foretelling of the future, and her literal guidance of all encompassing life.
As the all nurturing mother Gaia has shown unmatched determination for her children.
There is no lengths Gaia would go to for the liberation of her children and Mother Earth still weeps today.
Gaia used her wisdom and connection to divine knowledge to her advantage and is hyper aware of all resources that essentially come from herself..
Gaia has inspired me to not just be in touch with my intuition but to be one with my third eye.
Meditation has become a key tool in supporting my divination practices , and I am fully capable of letting the free flowing energy of divine knowledge make a home in my vessel .
As above and below , Gaia has also shown me the importance of staying grounded.
To be aware of my place in the world but also to be grounded in the present moment as it is almost too easy to get lost into the rabbit hole that is the mind.
I am able to take advantage of the resources available to me with the confidence to bet on my own dreams.
As opposed to feeling stuck within my situation suffocating on spiraling thoughts; sometimes you need to find different ways to comfort yourself and mythology as a source for some of life's lessons is what soothes my soul.
Even gods and goddesses go through their own trials and tribulations and they are divine beings, so of course by nature life can be difficult.
The journey is learning how to go out in a way that satisfies your own personal beliefs.
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