In December 2017, I had the pleasure and the privilege of training to be a Death Midwife through the organization Earth Traditions under Reverend Angie Buchanan.
I was in the midst of grieving for my mother, whom I had lost several months earlier. My devotions with the gods led me to take the training, one of the first held via Earth Traditions. Five years later, through the same organization, I learned of the Parliament of the World Religions at a psychopomp workshop in Wisconsin, where I asked about a gorgeous mask of Hekate. I was curious and wanted to see how I could get one, even as I suspected that it was probably out of my budget.
While I did not purchase that mask, I would see it and eleven more when Earth Traditions held a ritual presentation called “The Goddess Speaks: Our Earth Has a Voice” at this year’s convocation of the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago, Illinois from August 14-18, 2023.
Hekate at the Goddess Speakers, 2023 Parliament of World Religions. Credit: Rev. Drake Spaeth – Earth Traditions
Although I have lived as a Witch for nearly two decades, and a Heathen for five years, I can’t remember anyone talking about or mentioning the Parliament of the World Religions when I first entered. Perhaps this is because the event is not held annually, is filled with eight or ten thousand people at a time, and is not always held in the United States. It is the ultimate interfaith paradise for those who truly seek connection, knowledge, and understanding of what and how others practice their traditions. It is not to show off why our traditions are the most important, but to visibly stand as proud members of a religious grouping that includes many smaller traditions.
As Pagans, Heathens, and Polytheists, we should make attendance a must if we can afford to go. Why?
Because it is one of the best ways to bring a shining example of our faith traditions to the world in a positive and progressive light. While the United States has been fortunate in having hosted the Parliament of the World’s Religions (POWR) several times, this particular event in Chicago will stand out for me simply because it was my first time.
While I saw maybe one percent of the hundreds of presentations and vendors, the one that stood out was my very reason for being there: The Goddess Speaks, which was held on Tuesday, August 15 at 3:00 PM.
Preparation included virtual meetings with a large gathering of women scattered throughout the United States. Sometimes a simple Doodle poll worked; other times Facebook proved useful for suggestions and comments posted while many of us were traveling, living, and working in a variety of time zones.
I was very nervous, as I was not able to make the first meeting in April, where we chose, or perhaps were chosen by, the Goddesses whose voices we would convey to the world. Although the first mask and my heart were with Hekate, I was in awe when a week later I chose and most definitely was chosen by Gaia. Since the presentation was all about the climate, our home planet Earth, and how we can choose to express the voice of Earth proper, then the ultimate goddess – Gaia herself – felt rather important.
During the four months prior to embracing her publicly before a large audience, I worked on building a closer relationship with Gaia. In my home tradition, the gods are real, and when we have conversations, it is the same as speaking with a neighbor, a friend, or a family member. In this case, I had been so busy with my life and an increasingly stressful work environment that I limited my devotions to small daily prayer practice, what I did in preparing for a virtual full moon, dark moon, and sabbat rituals for our small group, and my prison ministry. To be honest, from the gods’ perspective, I was getting a bit stale.
My talks with Gaia and our walks about her territory on a regular basis inspired me, terrified me, and reminded me that our Earth, our planet, is a precious gift that many, myself included, take for granted far too often. The clean water that I presume will come out of the tap every day for the simple act of brushing my teeth filters through the Mississippi River with the understanding the City of St. Paul will treat the waters thoroughly to ensure the best health outcomes for the many who drink from it daily.
The ground that supports the trees, farms, plants, and animal life is delicate, and can still suffer from groundwater contaminated by pharmaceuticals flushed down the toilet, toxic fertilizers soaked into the soil when it rains or when people water their lawns, the remnants of a former army munitions plant that still leaves the land toxic more than a decade after soil remediation measures began, and more than four decades after volatile organic compound contamination was discovered in the water system.
While I live a few towns away, the reality of mistakes made 80 years ago, in the 1940s, and discovered 40 years ago in the early 80s, haunts human existence in my community.
The Goddess Speaks Rehearsal, which included the following (not particularly in order) 1. Hecate – we are at the crossroads 2. Demeter – mother of Earth. Grain provider 3. Persephone – fertility and death 4. Iris – breath air color 5. Amaterasu – Fire. Sun. 6. Yemaya – water 7. Sophia – wisdom 8. Veritas – truth 9. Gaia – planet Earth 10. Quan Yin – compassion 11. Spider Woman – weaving the web 12. Lada – Ukraine/Communion. Credit: Rev. Drake Spaeth – Earth Traditions
During my preparation with Gaia to find what she wanted to say, I found the need to explore myself. Divine possession is not a one stop, one moment ecstatic experience. Gaia, instead of speaking directly to me in voice, used the filter of where and what was happening around me to communicate.
In May, Gaia spoke through the stories of immigrant women as we gathered for a headscarf tea. As these women spoke of how they struggled to come to this land and to make a living for their families, including conservation of resources – because they had to do so to survive – I saw how life does not need much to survive and thrive, but that it does need cooperation from the humans who live on the planet.
I began to look at my own conservation efforts at home, including how long to use household items and what do to with food scraps that could still be cooked. I reconsidered my food waste and purchased more items that I could use to prepare food from scratch at home. This was a lesson I had previously learned from Depression-era grandparents, but followed less as modern conveniences made it easier to waste more, and not less.
The Mendenhall Glacier and my time in Alaska for work was when Gaia used the sparse area where once ice covered as a reminder that what we take for granted as humans can slip away as easily ice melts into water as temperatures rise. I stood in front of the area where I spent happy moments with my mother in 2015 and let the tears fall at seeing the now-brown soil with no vegetation. I knew that all was not lost, but for those few hours, I felt the pain of the surroundings by noticing what was missing that I had seen just eight years earlier.
Just as the watery portion of our bodies eerily matches the land-water ratio of our planet, trauma that affects one impacts both. Gaia appeared in at a trauma conference I attended to star the month of June where we wrote and shared what we inherited from our ancestors both in memory and in traumatic pain. Through shared dance, song, reading aloud from what we could not ordinarily share with others, Gaia reminded me that the wounds we make to ourselves as individuals and to each other are no less than what we are doing to her, to the Earth as planet and to our home as foundation.
Masks: Spider Woman, Sophia, Kwan Yin, and others. The Masks of the Goddess, masks crafted by Lauren Raine. Credit: Rev. Drake Spaeth – Earth Traditions
As soon as I began to process the connection between the trauma of the body and the trauma of the planet, Gaia showed even more about what was important during a Pride event in early June through the vibrations and joy of those who spoke about acceptance for the non-binary, trans, queer, bi-sexual, lesbian, gay, and asexual among us during a rainy Saturday afternoon. Their voices remarked upon the life choices and transitions such as falling in love for the first time and realizing the joy of that love while walking home. While these are ordinary events, the melodic rhythm of their voices made me realize how much each of our voices as humans are necessary to speak for those who cannot speak: other humans, animals, bodies of water, species that are disappearing due to human modernization and grasping of land or resources to the detriment of all life on Earth.
Gaia reminded me that, during the pandemic period, which sears through our memories even as COVID has marked our bodies and cellular structure, we changed as a species.I began to get a bit nervous at this point as Gaia had given so many images, feelings, and considerations as to what she wanted to say. I put off writing anything down because my body and mind were having a bit of difficulty processing what came at me. It was too quick.
By the Fourth of July holiday weekend, seeing and hearing large hail flow sideways as it pelt at a Denver hotel window in the midst of rain while sunny skies radiated in the distance only reminded me that Gaia speaks to us through unusual weather events in so many ways. Two days prior had been rain that never seemed to end, while the previous day was hot with temperatures in the nineties.
So the weather clearly was on the agenda for addressing Gaia’s concerns with humanity; however, there was a second item that I needed to do that was equally important. I needed to craft Gaia’s net.
We discussed this in the larger group that the world would be sitting in a web. As a crochet person, I volunteered, but what seemed to be easy on the surface was not once we got started. First, with 12 Goddesses, there needed to be enough room. One person estimated a need for 26 feet in circumference with an eight foot diameter. Later, I realized that while I could get enough yarn to create such a web, the actual particulars of colors, where to store it when not actively crocheting, and how to finish the outer portion were still a mystery.
Since Gaia’s colors include the oceans, the base of the net was ocean blue, with 12 edges for each goddess in the greens and yellows that represent life’s vitality. I left Gaia in charge of when enough would be enough. I spent time at talks, on airplanes, watching television, where found myself listening more carefully as I crocheted each row. The finished version took up more than half of a king sized bed with plenty of space for the world that it would shelter during the performance.
At the start of August, when I could not put it off any longer, I faced my fears, went into ritual space, and asked Gaia to guide me for what she wanted to say. I got silence. After several days including a series of tarot readings, the indications were that the words would come and that I would need to record them.
Gaia’s voice within me felt crusty, hard, and loving, like my grandmother’s wisdom. I got the impression she had spoken with many about her warnings before and was a bit tired of having to do it yet again. I also felt that she was pleased that some of her children continued to value the earth and fellow humans enough to want to give fair warning to avoid any further damage. She was willing to give it a try because we, humans, were willing to listen. From Gaia’s point of view, we who follow the earth-based traditions are especially open to the understanding that we are truly the caretakers for the planet. We only have one, and since we do not have the capability to go to another suitable location at this time, we might as well husband it well.
Finally, the day for the rehearsal and performance came. In addition to 12 goddesses, there were five drummers, a harpist, a helper to assist in getting to the floor, and about five others.
Drums echoed the start of the performance, with each goddess choosing to appear to the beat of drums, the melody of the harp, or silence. We each wore robes or outfits that matched the goddess being portrayed.
The only problem left? The mask.
Masks: Demeter, Gaia, Hecate, Persephone. The Masks of the Goddess, masks crafted by Lauren Raine. Credit – Rev. Drake Spaeth, Earth Traditions
Like the other women, I would be wearing a mask that left little room to breathe. It also took away my depth perception, so when I moved I could not see the floor or my feet. When one is on a stage with 11 other individuals, this could be a problem. During rehearsal, I completely forgot where I was, as Gaia realized that she would and did easily view her realm through my body.
While I did not ask the others if they had the same experience, during the actual ritual performance, from sitting on the stage, to the gathering and lifting of the earth into the protected web, to the end where Lada passed out the blessings through bread, it looked as though we were truly and fully possessed. Those who came up to us at the end honored the deities we represented as well as the spoken words heard while we moved.
What I did not expect, and what was the most joyous aspect, was Gaia taking over to see the humans who were present. She truly wanted to connect with each person through my eyes, to hammer home the notion that her message, as read by a narrator while my physical body moved, was truly what she wanted to have heard by all.
While I have invoked deity before, this time was different: I could feel the emotions of love, concern, frustration, anger, and compassion emanating from Gaia through me toward all who gathered. I remember shedding tears to the point of not being able to see. Gaia reminded all that we are her children, and despite our hard headedness, she will continue to care for and embrace us. She endures the trauma even as she warns against doing further damage to the planet and ultimately, to ourselves.
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