The Earth
The Gods and Goddesses of Odinism
Copyright © 1996 The Circle of Ostara
Published with the kind permission of the Circle of Ostara.
This article must not be republished or reprinted in whole or
in part without their express written permission.
The Earth is of the utmost importance in the ethical, mystical and magical system followed by the Circle of Ostara. Not the Earth as a literary abstraction to be discussed in smoke-filled city rooms but the Earth as an actuality – our living planet.
To orthodox science the Sun and all the planets of our solar system, the stars that make up our galaxy and the other galaxies in space are mere conglomerations of chemicals. Some of these erudite professors have contemptuously called the Earth a “ball of mud” circling a mediocre star out in the obscurity of the galactic rim, a kind of stellar backwoods.
The observer of nature who can use his intuition, and by its aid fill in the gaping holes left by this ultra-rationalism, can only feel a wondering pity at the shallow, meaningless and self-degraded lives these scientists must lead – supposed seekers after truth. They must feel utterly worthless, these persons, utterly humble, small worms crawling in the mud, fitting successors to the meek and lowly Christian sinners who crawled on their bellies before the Great Liar, Jehovah.
As Odinists we see this scientific denigration of the Earth as the same blasphemy that was committed by Judeo-Christianity when it propagated the monstrous lie that the Earth was created by their “god” and given to his “chosen people” to play with. The same irresponsible attitude and behaviour results, for who could feel respect or love for a ball of mud? This is an example of the destructive perversity both of Judeo-Christian doctrine and the materialism that inevitably follows it. Once the idea of divinity has dwindled into monotheism, and the one remaining deity seen as totally separate from the Earth, it is no great step for “thinkers” to do away with him altogether. The perverse blasphemy remains.
Pagans of all races have seen the Earth as an archetypal Mother, the bearer and nourisher of life. All mankind when uncontaminated by Dark Age doctrines instinctively loves and respects the Earth and all the children of the Earth, plants and animals as well as ourselves, and Earth spirits and Earth gods.
We see the Earth as a great and divine being, alive and aware. A being who embodies both spirit and substance, our sustainer and nurturer in the World of Form. We do not see her as a mediocrity, standing low down in a galactic hierarchy of importance. She and all who live upon her breast are one with the Cosmic Mind, and yet unique and irreplacable. As part of the infinite, our Sun, our Solar System, our Earth, Ourselves, stand at the centre of All-Being.
The Circle of Ostara is dedicated to fostering the realisation that was once universally acknowledged among the peoples of the Earth: that human beings are not apart from the Earth but as much her children as any other life form. We have not “conquered” the Earth. We stand as much at her mercy as howler monkeys in the greed-devastated rain forests. If we sow her fields with poison she will feed it back to us in the grain that we eat. If we do not learn again to respect and love her we will see the Earth in her aspect of the “Terrible Mother” who is capable of consuming her wayward young.
The gods of the Earth, the multiversal Earth, we see as the progeny of the Sky Father and Earth Mother. The generation of life and the spirit to shape that life began many millions of years ago, when the Earth was young. We have a prayer to the Earth, modelled on an old fertility rite traditional with our pagan ancestors. We use it for the same purpose they did – to consecrate the land before we plant seeds:
Earth, Earth, Earth! Oh Earth our Mother!
Bring forth Life, in the love of the Sky Father!
