The past few weeks have been full of news of ecological breakdown.
From scientists saying that the earth had breached a 7th planetary boundary with the acidification of the oceans, to trees and forests having absorbed almost no carbon last year: it has made grim reading.
With UN biodiversity Conference COP16 currently underway in Colombia and the Climate Change Conference (COP29) taking place next month, there will be much focus on targets, nationally defined contributions and mitigation measures. All this is highly necessary and I hope that ambitious and tangible progress will be made.
However, thinking about these issues in such a mechanistic way - while important - can only go so far. If we really are going to protect our planet, we need to rediscover our relationship with her.
This is where the concept of the Mother Earth as Gaia, goddess of all life, can play an important role. I have been thinking about what this concept can offer us, including fostering connections with wild plants. In ths blog I explore:
The Gaia Hypothesis: A sense of belonging
I recently went on a deep time foraging walk, run by Stephanie from Networking through Nature and Jane, the Hitchin Forager. The walk mapped the geological and ecolgical development of the earth and our place within that process, tracking 4.6 billion years across 4.6km. One of the core messages of the walk was that if we love the Earth, we will protect her. She will be more than a commodity, more than a measurable target. She will once again be an intrinsic part of ourselves.
Every millimetre we walked represented 1000 years. This blew my mind. The entirety of human history only took up the last few steps of the whole walk which really puts things into perspective - but also highlights the improbability of billions of years of evolution leading to our existence. Yet, here we are, having emanated from and being part of this complex ecosystem.
The walk is based on the ideas of James Lovelock, who wrote We Belong to Gaia, which explores the earth as a holistic self regulating system. Lovelock’s work has long emphasized the deep connection between all life forms and the Earth itself, underscoring the interdependence that defines our existence.
“We are not the masters of the Earth but part of it. We are the product of a complex system that has evolved over billions of years.” - James Lovelock
I really think tapping into this sense of belonging can give us a feeling of rootedness that so many of us are missing within our current societal and cultural setting. It can be no coincidence that as our society has moved to consume more, and extract more from the earth we have also become increasingly disconnected from our commuinities and sense of place in general - with all the mental health implications that this has.
Mother Earth in Mythology & History
But where did the concept of Gaia originate?
Lovelock was of course using the name of the ancient Greek Goddess, of the the primordial deities, representing the life giving and nuturing aspects of nature as well as the personification of the earth itself. Gaia emerged at the dawn of creation and birthed Uranus (the sky), the mountains and Pontus (the sea) without a mate. She also founded the line of the Titans.
Historian Ronald Hutton maps how the portrayal of Gaia/Mother Earth/Earth goddess evolved throughout the ages, reflecting the prevailing debates and dynamics of the time.
While she was a critical part of ancient mythology (represented as Tera Mater in the Roman tradition), however she was not worshipped in the same way as other deities were. She had no temples, shrines or statutes in her honour and her role was mostly symbolic and allegorical.
This may be the reason that the concept of Mother Earth was able to survive as a powerful figure throughout the ages including in Christian thought. She was not competing with the monotheistic God, and could be portrayed as appointed by the creator Christian God to carry out his will. [1]
She was portrayed as being linked to the fertility of the land in early medieval times, and to portray the natural world as a source of beauty and inspiration in juxtaposition with the moral depravation of urbanisation during the romantic period.
But what of prehistory? Fascinatingly, a Cambridge academic named Jane Ellen Harrison proposed in 1903 that prehistoric Greek society might have originally been matriarchal, revolving around the worship of a powerful goddess with three aspects - the Maiden, Mother, and an unnamed third aspect. Harrison suggested that the goddess's authority was replaced by male dominance in both human and divine realms before recorded history, with the celestial father-god Zeus taking over her role in the latter.
This concept really took off and was for a long time considered historical fact - with many artefacts being discovered across the world linked to this prehistoric concept of the universal goddess. This theory is now generally discredited by modern historians, who have since found that actually this rather neat theory was perhaps too simplistic and unlikely to have been part of a cohesive sense of spirituality.
Yet I still find so many references to these ideas in the reading I do today - and I think the ideas have traction for a reason. They do reflect, mirror, a need many feel in our society to reconnect with feminine energies - whether that be cyclical ways of living, reconnecting with the wild in ourselves and in nature (see my blog on Witches and the Wild Woman Archetype).
A psychological lens: Archetypes & Attachment
Harrison's work was nonetheless noted by Jungian analysts who were looking into archetypes - universally recognized, primal pattern or image that resides in the collective unconscious. These archetypes manifest in symbols, myths, and dreams, representing core human experiences.
The Great Mother was one such archetype explored by Jung, and later in great detail by one of his disciples, Erich Neumann .[2] It is clear that in Jungian psychology, the mother archetype can either be the good mother, who is containing and nurturing; or the terrible mother who is diminuative or devouring. We clearly see both sides in our current relationship with the earth.
Just as a child depends on its primary caregivers and is totally vulnerable to their moods, rebukes and chastisement, we humans are totally dependent on the earth for our own physical and emotional wellbeing. Untold trauma happens from us not having a secure attachment, and I've often wondered what healing potential our relationship with the Earth can have if thought of along these lines.
In the Counsellling course I am doing at the Albany Centre, we have been learning about secure attachment and its main preconditions:
Containment: This refers to the caregiver’s ability to absorb and manage the child’s intense emotions, helping the child feel safe and secure. In the same way. Mother Earth certainly holds us in a similar way, through complex ecosystems, an atmosphere, gravity literally giving us ground to stand on.
Attunement: Involves the caregiver being responsive to the child’s emotional and physical needs. By reading the child’s signals and responding in a sensitive way, the caregiver helps the child feel understood and valued, fostering a secure emotional bond. The child learns to see themselves in the caregiver's eyes. Similarly, mother Earth is deeply attuned to our life cycles, what we need in terms of nourishment, resources and medicine. As we co-evolved with nature and wild plants, so many linkeages exist between us. As I often explore in this blog, leaning into and tapping into this relationship with wild plants can be one way to get a sense of attunement and connection.
Regulation: In secure attachment, a caregiver helps the child regulate emotions and stress until they can learn to do this for themselves. As per the Gaia hypothesis, the Earth has developed a complex set of self regulating systems which not only have provided us with an stable ecosystem, but can also teach us something about how to regulate ourselves. Our current rampant consumerism, pillaging of the earth and inabity to really act on the damage we are causing (which will ultimately harm ourselves), smacks of disregulation. By pausing, syncing into natural cycles, and allowing nature to soothe us - can we get back to a more balanced way of living?
Nourishment - tapping into wild food
Coming back to wild plants specifically, one of the archetypes Neumann looked at was "The lady of the plants", which naturally caught my eye:
"The Great Earth Mother who brings forth all life from herself is eminently the mother of all vegetation. The fertility rituals and myths of the whole world are based upon this archetypal context." - Erich Neumann
In my opinion, one of the ways we can really attune to and bond with mother earth is to consume the food she offers us on her own terms. By eating this wild food we really become one with our planet. Just as breast milk is best for babies, wild food is incredibly nutritious and doesn't suffer from the soil depletion that afflicts our farmed food.
That was why it was so powerful that Jane, the Hitchin Forager, showed us some wonderful wild edibles during our deep time walk. This gave the walk a really interactive feel, really driving home that we are part of this miraculous ecosystem on earth and by consuming these plants we remember how integral we are to the whole.
In his fantastic book, "Intuitive Herbalism", Nathaniel Hughes says that "Nettle, when juiced, gives a rich green mother's milk". He compares drinking nutrient rich nettle juice to the first act of nutritional self-nuture when a baby suckles at the mother's breast. Seeing eating wild foods similarly as a mother's nurturing can, I think, be a healing process.
For more about the benefits of wild foods, see my wild plant profiles and blog on how to start foraging.
Concluding thoughts
As we face the challenges of climate change and ecological degradation, it is clear that our current mechanistic and transactional relationship with the Earth is insufficient. The concept of Gaia, both as a scientific hypothesis and a mythological archetype, reminds us of our deep interconnectedness with the planet. This relationship is not just one of dependence but of belonging, nurturance, and mutual care.
Reconnecting with the Earth as a living, breathing entity—as Gaia—offers us a chance to heal. Whether through foraging, rewilding, or simply spending time in nature, we can rediscover the nourishment, containment, and regulation that the Earth provides. By embracing this symbiotic relationship, we can not only mitigate ecological destruction but also foster a sense of belonging that grounds us in a larger story—one that spans billions of years yet speaks directly to our modern need for rootedness and community.
Gaia is not just an idea or a hypothesis: she is a reminder that we are part of nature. We belong.
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