How and why did we first lose “Right Balance” with Mother Earth? With one another? What do we need to do to restore “Right Balance”?
I have studied various books and articles, talked with like-minded similarly struggling seekers, and I have meditated on these questions.
I have attempted to imagine my way into the world when humans were still in harmony with the rhythms of Mother Earth, when there was still an “I-Thou” relationship between humans and Mother Earth. The following “story” told itself to me:
Once upon a time, when humans were still fairly new to living on the earth, they had a common language with Mother Earth. There was an arrangement and understanding between Mother Earth and humans.
“I will let you live here,” she said, “but we must stay in close communication. We are interconnected, and must breathe in and out together, or neither of us will survive.” Back then, humans still knew how to listen, and were attentive to the wisdom from Mother Earth.
“I will shelter you with my trees, and let you drink from my streams,” said Mother Earth, “but you need to stay in close touch with those trees and streams. Do not pollute the streams, or you will not be able to drink from them. Do not take too many trees, or you will not have enough oxygen to breathe. Do not be greedy, or you will not survive.”
“There are other living beings here too,” she said, “but you must honor them and live in close harmony with one another. If you take from the buffalo, to eat or to stay warm, you must honor the buffalo. And do not take more than your share.”
“I have given you your senses,” said Mother Earth, “that you may stay close to me and always remember our connection.”
“Your eyes allow you to see beauty. You need to stay close to beauty or you will lose contact with your own soul.”
“I have given you the capacity to hear. Listen to the birds sing. Listen to the ocean, and the wind through the leaves. Feel the awe and humility you feel when surrounded by silence – and when silence is punctuated by nothing louder than the melodies of the birds. Create nothing so jarring that it interferes with your ability to listen to the birds – or you risk losing your connection to your soul.
I have given you the capacity to taste and smell. Never lose the wonder you experience upon tasting a raspberry. Never lose the capacity for the sensual delight you experience when you smell jasmine in the evening.
If you lose your capacity for wonder, you will sacrifice the intimacy of our connection. And the intimacy of our connection is necessary for my survival and for yours. Breathe in and out with me; there is no other way for us all to stay alive.
So how and why did we first lose “right balance” with Mother Earth? How did we lose this intimate “breathing with” connection? How did we lose our connections with other species, and with one another?
The ancient Goddess cultures retained connections with Mother Earth. Most Indigenous practices have retained connections with the Earth, but all too many of us “modern” peoples have entirely lost this kind of deep I-Thou connection with Mother Earth.
Writings about the Goddess cultures:
Archeologist Marija Gimbutas posits the idea of a Western society before patriarchy, a ‘Goddess Culture’ based on excavations of goddess sculptures unearthed between 1973-1974. As the aesthetic nature of these excavations differed from the works of the Bronze Age, she believed that this culture was distinct from the known Indo-European culture and called this subsect of Southeastern European Neolithic culture ‘Old Europe’ (Murdock 11).
Gimbutas did not use the term “matriarchy” but rather “matriliniarity” because unlike women in patriarchy, men were not suppressed. Men were very important in society in trade, architecture, shipbuilding and crafts. There was no marriage; the mother had a consort but no husband.
Was it egalitarian? Houses and graves of similar sizes.
Peaceful? Weapons recovered but they could be ceremonial
The Destruction of “Old Europe”:
This culture was slowly destroyed, according to Gimbutas, during a period that stretches from about 4200 B.C. until the end of the third millennium B.C. Elements of the culture survive on in parts of the Mediterranean world, particularly in Minoan Crete. When the Minoan society was destroyed through the Mycenean invasion in about 1450 B.C., Old Europe has in principle completely disappeared.
That great and dramatic changes happened towards the end of the Neolithic period is a fact that Gimbutas was not the only one to establish… But while the general opinion during the last few years has been that these changes happened as a result of inner social, economic and demographic processes, Gimbutas believes that the major reason for the changes was the expansion…of “patriarchal, socially stratified nomad tribes.”
Around 4,000 BCE the “Kurgans,” who Gimbutas describes as a patrilineal, patrilocal, militaristic, and seminomadic group originating in the steppes of Russia, embarked on a series of invasions or migrations across Europe that radically transformed the region’s language and material culture. The “Kurgan” incursions displaced the earlier, indigenous Goddess-focused, egalitarian, earth-centered societies of the Neolithic, but vestiges of this gynocentric culture managed to survive.
References:
1) http://www.jungatlanta.com/articles/spring16-marija-gimbutas.pdf
2) 7000 B.C.-3500 B.C.
Somehow when the Goddess Cultures were destroyed, connections to the earth, to community, and to one another in peaceful interdependent ways became (nearly) destroyed as well.
When Patriarchal, Patrilineal, patrilocal, militaristic invasions sought to stomp out the more peaceful cultures, our connections WITH the earth were ruptured, and a practice of exploitation and violent greed – exploiting the earth, “owning” the earth, raping the earth, and exploiting and raping other people and other civilizations – took over.
At the current time of climate crisis, everything MUST be re-examined and re-evaluated. The wisdom of women, and the wisdom of indigenous cultures have become more and more urgently important.
A myth (one of many passed down in Indigenous cultures around the globe) speaks these sentiments:
Chumash story on “The People of the Heart”
Lewis, Dale. “Woman Is Medicine: An Interview With CheQweesh Auh-Ho-Oh.” Woman of Power (Winter 1987)
The concept of “People of the Heart” comes from a Native American (Chumash) story about how the “People of the Mind” will have nearly destroyed the earth, and the “People of the Heart” need to step forward and re-awaken the spirit and hearts of humans, so that we can save the planet in time…
