The first Earth Day occurred on April 22, 1972. Not long after that, the British chemist James Lovelock published the initial articles on what became known as the Gaia Hypothesis. Lovelock posited that the earth and its biological systems behave as a single entity, a synergistic and self-regulating system that sustains the conditions for life on planet earth. As a scientist, Lovelock was unsure how to title his new theory. His neighbor William Golding, author of The Lord of the Flies, suggested that the hypothesis should be named for Gaia, the ancient goddess of Earth in Greek mythology.

Surprisingly, the name Gaia can be traced back to even older roots in ancient India where Gaya or Gayatri appears as the ancient goddess of creation. Gaya appears in the Vedas or sacred texts as the source of all knowledge and wisdom. As the “mother of all,” she also had the power to heal all ills and nurture all of life, so that the wellbeing of the planet depended upon the presence and support of Gaya.

Originally, the Vedas existed in the form of chants and hymns with the root sound Om being the original tone emitted from the womb of the cosmos. The potent chant known as the Gayatri Mantra was considered the first hymn to come forth from the root sound Om. Thus, Gaya or Gaia whether in sound, in image or in name brings a long lineage that echoes back to the origins of life and resonates with the hidden unity of the world. In that sense, there was something truly intuitive in the idea of using the name Gaia in a modern attempt to revive the sense of the world being a living entity and all of life being secretly interconnected.

On one level Gaia stands for the Great Mother of all. On another level she appears as the common ground, the earth we tread upon, the soil we dig, both as garden and as cemetery. As the mother of all, Gaia is both womb and tomb, she excludes nothing from the tapestry of life as the great multiplicity of plants, animals and human beings appears as a secret totality. When the world becomes divided against itself and life on earth seems threatened, it is this underlying unity of soul and the relationship between the individual and the whole that is trying to be rediscovered.

The loss of the Earth as a living, supportive body and as the ever-living source of creation has left us cosmologically dislocated, psychologically bereft and literally unsettled within ourselves. Having, in a sense fallen out of the story and song of creation, we live in a growing separation from the inherent beauty and underlying unity of life. In such a bereft condition, it is the agony of Gaia, the suffering of the Earth itself that tries to call us back to a sense of being secretly connected to the living roots of creation.

The loss of the wholeness and sacredness at the center of life is part of the history of the Earth. And each time creation needs to renew itself Gaia plays her essential, archetypal role as source of knowledge and mother of all. In order to experience Gaia as a genuine living presence, we need to connect with the core imagination that rests at the center of our own hearts and souls. In doing that, we can also tap deep inner resources that are not just reassuring to ourselves, but that are also necessary for healing and renewal on Earth at this time.

In many ways, we are living in creation or re-creation times again and we must somehow reconnect to the ancient and recurring sense that the core dynamic of the cosmos exists as the mystery of life, death and renewal at all levels. We need to reconnect to the original source of life to restore the potential of our own lives, but also in order to reimagine and envision the ideas and practices needed to restore the balance and the potency of the Earth. Frail as we may feel, anxious as we may become, we are each and all woven into the ongoing story of the living Earth and can also become vehicles through which creation tries to continue.