We are just beginning to learn WHERE we are -- we don’t simply live on the surface of the Earth, we live within a living, breathing, spinning body, a body like no other, an immense sphere of rock, air, water, land and life known to scientists by the name of a Goddess – Gaia.

Science and Spirit agree, the Earth is the larger body in which we all dwell.

The powers of the Earth are so awesome, mysterious, and all-important to human life, it’s time we give our home the full-on devotion that it deserves – a devotion with all the power of spiritual joy and all the seriousness of a parent’s devotion to a child . . . increased ultimately by the life-and-death danger that the Earth and all of us now face from catastrophic climate change.

Gaia is one of science’s greatest mysteries. Over the last 3 billion years of life on Earth, conditions ideal for life have been maintained despite major external and internal changes. Gaia theory notes that there are feedback cycles connecting rock, air, and water with life, but these cycles have only recently been discovered. How they were established and kept in balance is not known, and may be beyond our ability to understand.

What we do know is that this mysterious balance has been severely disturbed by human activity. Carbon captured from the atmosphere by plants over millions of years has been released during the last 100, upsetting the balance of carbon dioxide, oxygen, and nitrogen that has kept our climate stable.

So what? Our current belief systems, religious and political, haven’t done enough so far to change our behavior. But it’s no one’s fault, we simply don’t yet understand what science has just confirmed – that life is majestic and mysterious beyond measure, in ways never before imagined. We live within a living body for which even the most powerful words are inadequate. In spiritual terms, we live within the body of a Goddess, given to us by Creator.

So let’s up the awe factor. We need to blow people’s minds with the facts that show our planet to be a living, sacred being. We need to create experiences that will help us all to feel this deeply in our hearts. And then we need to act! Earth Devotion

Like the cycles that keep Earth in balance, Earth Devotion is a feedback loop. It has always been with us, guiding hunters and gatherers to always give back, guiding early farmers to find places for their crops within the surrounding ecosystem as a whole, inspiring people to sing and dance with joy in the blessing of all the plants, animals, clouds and rivers who bless us every day. In the last few thousand years of spreading empires and the genocide of native peoples, Earth Devotion has always stayed alive in the hearts of people living close to Earth – the simple, natural reaction of awe, respect, and caring for what is both beneficial and powerful beyond all understanding.

Now, with the Earth Crisis in full swing – climate change and mass species extinction added to continued war, starvation, poverty and discrimination -- we have never needed Earth Devotion so strongly.

And it is coming back! Such are the ways of our planet. Like all of life, it has feedback processes to heal itself. Movements for Earth Devotion are growing all over the world. Let’s join in!

Honoring our common ground will bring us together.

This website will deal with several aspects of the situation:

INSPIRATION > How can we help more people to be motivated to take action? One way is through the many different kinds of ceremonies of Earth Devotion, secular and spiritual, done by both native and non-native people. For one example, see www.blessingmountainsinthesnow.org

GAIA THEORY > What must we know about the living being who we inhabit in order to inspire people in the best ways to take the most effective actions?

LET OUR ACTIONS BE OUR PRAYERS > What kinds of work needs to be done to give the ecosystems of this planet what they need right now to heal?
This will include descriptions of different kinds of work, such as ecological protection and restoration, and links to groups doing them. For example, “green jobs” provide a crucial link between social with ecological healing. Helping people get land to farm – so we can again eat fresh local food – might conserve more energy and reduce more carbon emissions than thousands of solar panels. The same is true for restoring forests and planting trees. See www.lomakatsi.org

SPIRITUAL CONNECTIONS > There is an important feedback loop between action and spiritual connection – the more of one, the more of the other.

From the beginning, the feeling of accomplishment that results from active service to Earth is its own reward. But in addition, many of us have found that our activism gradually opens us up to a connection with Earth that can only be called spiritual, a feeling of timeless support, love and appreciation, like an infant feels from its mother – Mother Earth. This connection is extremely powerful, and can lead to profound experiences that give direct evidence for friendly forces who cannot be explained in normal, physical terms.

A section of this website will be focused on these kind of experiences. In addition to science, they provide a second means of affirming the sacredness of Earth.