Gaia ...The Living Entity...

This post is here as result of a request, from another, to learn about Gaia. It has nothing to do with the intimate details of the daily trials and tribulations, and sometimes comical and whimsical moments stored in my memory bank. It does, however, pertain to my life, in that it pertains to Life, itself. That means, of course, that it does have something to do with me, just as it has something to do with each one of us who inhabit this Planet Earth and exist in this Universe. The idea that we are ALL connected becomes even stronger, in my mind, as I begin to view Gaia, from an organismical view. (I like that word. If it didn't exist before, well, now it does!) By that same token, we should respect all that we are connected to, just as we would respect each of our own individual body parts, that are connected to the totality of who we are. In the words of Brook Medicine Eagle, whose chant songs continue to ring in my ears, "The Earth is our Mother, we must take care of her."

GAIA

It has been said that truth is stranger than fiction

Scientific View
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Gaia hypothesis is an ecological theory that proposes that the living matter of planet Earth functions like a single organism. An early recognition of some of the core assumptions of the Gaia hypothesis was given in the book Lives of a Cell by Lewis Thomas. It was first scientifically formulated in the 1960s by the independent research scientist James Lovelock, as a consequence of his work for NASA on methods of detecting life on Mars. He wrote an article in the science journal Nature, before publishing the concept in the 1979 book Gaia: A new look at life on Earth. He named this self-regulating living system after the Greek titan Gaia, using a suggestion from the novelist William Golding. The Gaia Hypothesis has since been supported by a number of scientific experiments and provided a number of useful predictions so is properly referred to as the Gaia Theory.

Since 1971, the noted microbiologist Lynn Margulis has been Lovelock's most important collaborator in developing Gaian concepts (Turney 2003). Encouraged by Margulis, the theory was first publicly mentioned in the article by Lovelock, "Gaia as seen through the atmosphere" in the Journal, Atmospheric Environment 6 (1972) pp.579-580.

Until 1975 it was almost totally ignored. An article in the New Scientist of February 15th, 1975, and a popular book length version of the theory, published as The Quest for Gaia, began to attract scientific and critical attention to the hypothesis. The theory was then attacked by many mainstream biologists. Championed by certain environmentalists and climate scientists, it was vociferously rejected by many others, both within scientific circles and outside of them. [1]. Lovelock draws comparison with the resistance to the introduction of the idea of plate tectonics within geology, noting that it took about 30 years before it became universally accepted as true.

Today the Gaia theory is more commonly referred to as earth system science, and is a class of scientific models of the geo-biosphere in which life as a whole fosters and maintains suitable conditions for itself by helping to create an environment on Earth suitable for its continuity.

Gaia "theories" have non-technical predecessors in the ideas of many cultures. Today, "Gaia theory" is sometimes used among scientists on the basis that the earlier Gaia hypothesis has withstood rigorous scientific testing. It is also used by non-scientists to refer to hypotheses of a self-regulating Earth that are non-technical but take inspiration from scientific models. At the second Chapman Conference of the American Geophysical Union, at Valencia in Spain, for instance, Lynn Margulis in her closing address "Modes of Confirmation of the Gaia Hypothesis" conceded that despite being elevated to "Gaia theory" in the 1980s, there was still confusion about what Gaia was in reality. Among some scientists, "Gaia" still carries connotations of lack of scientific rigor and quasi-mystical thinking about the planet Earth. Lovelock's own reframing of the hypothesis as "Geophysiology" and the growing acceptance of "Earth system science" has silenced many of these critics.[citation needed]
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GAIA

It has been said that myth is more potent than history

Mythological View
From Encyclopedia Mythica

Gaia: by Ron Leadbetter

Gaia or Gaea, known as Earth or Mother Earth (the Greek common noun for "land" is ge or ga). She was an early earth goddess and it is written that Gaia was born from Chaos, the great void of emptiness within the universe, and with her came Eros. She gave birth to Pontus (the Sea) and Uranus (the Sky). This was achieved parthenogenetically (without male intervention). Other versions say that Gaia had as siblings Tartarus (the lowest part of the earth, below Hades itself) and Eros, and without a mate, gave birth to Uranus (Sky), Ourea (Mountains) and Pontus (Sea).

Gaia took as her husband Uranus, who was also her son, and their offspring included the Titans, six sons and six daughters. She gave birth to the Cyclopes and to three monsters that became known as the "Hecatonchires". The spirits of punishment known as the Erinyes were also offspring of Gaia and Uranus. The Gigantes, finally, were conceived after Uranus had been castrated by his son Cronus, and his blood fell to earth from the open wound.

To protect her children from her husband, (the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires, as he was fearful of their great strength), Gaia hid them all within herself. One version says that Uranus was aghast at the sight of his offspring so he hid them away in Tartarus, which are the bowels of the earth. Gaia herself found her offspring uncomfortable and at times painful, when the discomfort became to much to bear she asked her youngest son Cronus to help her. She asked him to castrate Uranus, thus severing the union between the Earth and Sky, and also to prevent more monstrous offspring. To help Cronus achieve his goal Gaia produced an adamantine sickle to serve as the weapon. Cronus hid until Uranus came to lay with Gaia and as Uranus drew near, Cronus struck with the sickle, cutting the genitalia from Uranus. Blood fell from the severed genitals and came in contact with the earth and from that union was born the Erinyes (Furies), the Giants and the Meliae (Nymphs of the manna ash trees).

After the separation of the Earth from the Sky, Gaia gave birth to other offspring, these being fathered by Pontus. Their names were the sea-god Nereus, Thaumas, Phorcys, Ceto and Eurybia. In other versions Gaia had offspring to her brother Tartarus; they were Echidna and Typhon, the later being an enemy of Zeus. Apollo killed Typhon when he took control of the oracle at Delphi, which Gaia originally provided, and then the "Sibyl" sang the oracle in Gaia's shrine.

It was Gaia who saved Zeus from being swallowed by Cronus, after Zeus had been born, Gaia helped Rhea to wrap a stone in swaddling clothes, this was to trick Cronus in to thinking it was Zeus, because Cronus had been informed that one of his children would depose him, and so to get rid of his children he had swallowed them, Gaia's trick worked and Zeus was then taken to Crete.

Gaia being the primordial element from which all the gods originated was worshiped throughout Greece, but later she went into decline and was supplanted by other gods. In Roman mythology she was known as Tellus or Terra.