You can feel it, the Earth’s life pulse, Her heart beating on and on. Her fulfillment of Her mission to create and nurture life through billions of years on our planet. Sit in some wild place quietly breathing in rhythm with all the non-human life you can see, move your hands through the waves on the beach, open your heart and know yourself as a part of all Creation.
Miracles happen when we align ourselves with Nature’s ever-changing and abundant matrix of life — that dynamic force that coaxes a single daisy to rise out of the rock, that seeds fireweed after a forest blaze, that causes each generation of a disappearing bird species to multiply when they are given a chance. This revitalizing power has always been present on our planet, but for millennia, some humans have thought that we can rule and control Nature through domination and exploitation. In truth, as other humans have always understood and more are now coming to realize, a powerful way to be of service to the Earth as She seeks to heal Herself from all we have done to Her is to simply recognize, honor, and free this vibrant energy to create beauty, abundance, and wholeness for our wounded planet. This process is now being called “wilding” or “rewilding.”
In the words of Isabelle Tree, who wrote the book Wilding: The Return of Nature to a British Farm about working with her husband to wild their UK farm, Knepp Wildland, “Rewilding – giving nature the space and opportunity to express itself – is a leap of faith. It involves surrendering all preconceptions, and simply sitting back and observing what happens”1. They describe how with stunning speed plant, animal, bird, and insect species returned, filling their niches in the ecosystem, replenishing the soil, filling the land with blooms, trees, shrubs and the sky with birds and insects, and bringing vitality and abundance.
As I consider the dynamic power of wilding, I can’t help but think of the Earth Goddesses all over the world who have embodied this living spirit of generation and regeneration and how working with them has been foundational to many aspects of women’s spirituality over the millennia, whether through Earth-based prophecy, magic, rituals, or other means. Which leads me to wonder, can we learn from some of these Goddesses and their traditions how to be better partners with the Earth in healing the land in our own time, and can we bring the benefits of this kind of alignment with Nature’s inherent energy to our other work to benefit our world?
While Earth Goddesses exist all over the globe, let’s consider, for example, the Earth Goddess traditions of Europe that continued in folk culture and even in religious institutions even as European society became more and more isolated from and exploitive of the Earth. Max Dashu writes in her book Witches and Pagans, “In their day, people still openly invoked and venerated Mother Earth. One Anglo-Saxon manuscript reproduces chants directed to her at sowing, for example, with libations of milk, honey, and oil. Even ecclesiastical scribes painted her into their gospel illuminations, with verdure springing up around her, and sprouting between her toes. In the corners of ivory diptychs and church stonework, Frankish and German artists sculptured Mother Earth under the tree of life, or giving the breast to snakes, humans, cows, deer, and fish”2.
Among the Earth Goddesses were some who seemed to especially embody this vital and abundant spirit of the Earth, and, at least in stories, to evoke it in the untamed women who followed them. Diana, known for leading women in spirit rides, was one such Goddess. Says Dashu, “early medieval sources understood Diana as a forest goddess, a spirit of the wilds, who also sometimes appeared to field workers”3. And another Earth goddess, “Frau Holle, the Good Lady is the spirit of the Earth, who inhabits the ground, its waters, and the air around it. Holy mounts…were known as her sanctuaries and dwelling places—and they became renowned as places for gatherings of witches”4. To me, these stories illustrate the importance of centering our relationship with the Earth as we seek to “wild” ourselves, to find our own freedom from old ways of thought as we turn to new ways of being of service to our planet. Then, we must feature this relationship in all our work. For example, when we advocate for peace and justice we can note not only its importance for the well being of people, but also the environment and all the non-human beings who live on Her.
One primary mission of Frau Holle, as well as other Goddesses, was to ensure the proper progression of the seasons. According to Patricia Monaghan, Holle, “In German, Austrian, and Swiss folktales… was originally a weather goddess. Sunshine streamed when she combed her hair, snow covered the earth when she shook a feather comforter, and rain fell when she threw away laundry water”5. The weather and the seasons are how the Earth orders itself and makes sure that all things are done at the right time and are rightly arranged, and these have been greatly disordered by climate change. So, perhaps we begin to see that one way we can be of assistance in the Earth’s efforts to regain wholeness is to focus on climate change’s effect on the seasons in whatever work we do, including wilding. More broadly, we can work to make order out of chaos by advocating for humans being in sync with Nature’s rhythms and lifecycles both for our own health and that of the Earth.
The world of the Earth Goddesses was one where the relationships between humans and non-human species were complex and interdependent. According to Dashu, discussing the women who followed some of these Goddesses on spirit rides, “One speaks of a belief that the Fates ordain certain people with the power to turn into wolves and other animals”6. Later, the mythology of witches going by night with a Goddess “spread over much of Europe”7 and in Scandinavia it was adapted so that women were riding over the sea riding on “whales or seals, birds or animals, or over the great land”8. This ability to easily and positively relate to non-human beings echoes the sudden increase in species that come to live on wilded land and the understanding and respect that requires. When we broaden and deepen our relationships with non-human beings, we can ensure the health and well being of all through understanding and encouraging healthy eco-systems, enjoying the emotional, mental, and physical benefits of close relationships with non-humans, and, whatever our work, promoting an ethic of caring and compassion through all our culture.
Finally, we realize that like the Goddesses and their followers, we must perform our work out of love and joy. Dashu notes that Holda’s name (another name for Holle) is related to the Saxon word “holdan” which means ’to care for, to take care of, to cure’”9. Holle’s role as giver of life and abundance, exactly what wilded land does, is evident in her name of “Mother of All Life” and “the Great Healer”10. At the same time, rituals re-enacted the importance of assisting the Earth to do all it needs to do through celebration. Dashu says “In southern German-speaking regions, the holyday Perchtennacht occurs at the eve of Epiphany and is celebrated with masks of Perchta and goats, with bells, races, and leaping dances that were supposed to make next year’s crops grow high”11. Perchta was the twin sister of Holda/Holle. Truly, love is what holds Earth’s matrix together, and joy is the energy with which it grows and nourishes. Whatever love and joy we can contribute will benefit all.
It is clear from our current environmental, social, political, and spiritual crises that we must look forward to making our future in ways that are very different from our present. Perhaps aligning ourselves with the life-giving forces of the Earth, even when that means simply getting out of the way, is a model that can replace the current one featuring domination and exploitation. When we look at these elements of the European Earth Goddesses through the lens of honoring and working with the same force of Nature that makes such an impact on the wilding of our landscapes perhaps we can begin to see how we can better use the special gifts of humans to help the world heal itself, collectively and individually, in many ways. In wildness, may we find and finally fill our true mission in the matrix of the world.
Sources:
Dashu, Max. Witches and Pagans. Richmond, CA: Veleda Press, 2016.
Monaghan, Patricia. Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines, Novato, CA: New World Library, 2014.
Tree, Isabella. Wilding: The Return of Nature to a British Farm. London: Picador, 2018.
- Tree, “Wilding: The Return of Nature to a British Farm,” 9. ↩︎
- Dashu, “Witches and Pagans,” 251. ↩︎
- Dashu, “Witches and Pagans,” 235. ↩︎
- Dashu, “Witches and Pagans,” 256. ↩︎
- Monaghan, “Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines,” 287. ↩︎
- Dashu, “Witches and Pagans,” 240. ↩︎
- Dashu, “Witches and Pagans,” 242. ↩︎
- Dashu, “Witches and Pagans,” 243. ↩︎
- Dashu, “Witches and Pagans,” 259. ↩︎
- Dashu, “Witches and Pagans,” 256-7. ↩︎
- Dashu, “Witches and Pagans,” 259. ↩︎