THE EARTH AS GRANDMOTHER by Sara Wright

I have become increasingly uncomfortable with the phrase ‘the earth is our mother’ used by so many westerners.

Indigenous peoples have been in an intimate relationship with the earth since the beginning of time so for them calling the earth “Mother” makes perfect sense (they know how to treat her with respect).

 In my way of thinking westerners who appropriate the Native perspective, co -opting the sentiment to make it their own feels inauthentic and inappropriate.

The most glaring difference between the two perspectives is that Indigenous peoples consider all living beings their relatives, treating them with deep respect, honoring their individual and collective gifts and by NEVER taking more than they need, be it medicines, trees, animals, or plants for food.

Westerners USE the gifts of nature for their own purposes, have no conception of Nature as a living being, and believe that the earth’s purpose is to SERVE human beings.

Raping the forests of trees, understory, ground covers, using machines to crush the mycelial network beneath our feet, mining the earth for her finite resources, polluting her waters air and soil is of no consequence to most.

This year I have been struck by the American mushroom craze that is depleting our forests of fruiting fungi whose purpose is totally unknown. Mushrooms produce spores and spores have a function that serves the whole ecosystem, but we do not know what it is.

The underlying mycelial network that stretches around the planet just under our feet has had millions of years to perfect its purpose, but we know almost nothing about this complex structure except that Mycelial coordination takes place both everywhere at once and nowhere in particular (Merlin sheldrake). A fragment of mycelium can regenerate an entire network.  We do see that in places these hyphae produce approximately 20,000 fungi that appear like magic at certain times of the year. All we know is that  underground mycelial threads interpenetrate plants and trees etc, providing nutrients, water, carbon – support for the forest as a whole.

Most of our woodlands are gone and yet we forage for mushrooms for human consumption greedily hauling away baskets of precious spores. This American obsession is frightening because it reflects the hubris, the assumption that nature is there for the taking. This is the American Way, The Age of the Anthropocene.

I would argue that calling the Earth “Mother” encourages westerners to keep on taking because after all mothering is still considered the ultimate self – sacrificing act today. It’s too easy to unconsciously translate mother as the self-sacrificing function of the earth.

Grandmother Earth conjures up another vision. In this one Grandmother sacrifices whatever is needed (including children) in order that the whole might survive. This grandmother has surrendered the self- sacrificing mother and is only interested in Earth’s survival.

I think our shifting climate is beginning to show us that that we have moved from ‘mother’ to ‘Grandmother Earth’ who now refuses to sanction more mindless abuse. That she is striking back with weather catastrophes, insect invasions etc, some beyond comprehension, indicate that the time of Earth as Mother the ultimate giver is coming to a close

  I think Grandmother Earth always has her eye on the billion year old picture. The Earth WILL survive, with or without destructive humans, says She. We have had hundreds of years to reassess our treatment of this planet. And yet…

Humans have willfully ignored/dismissed warnings by scientists and Indigenous peoples. Native people continue to demonstrate a respectful way of being in relationship with earth modeling a sustainable way of life for all of us, even as westerners continue to rape…

Perhaps turning to mythology will help us to understand and inform us of the ‘Both And’ aspects of the Earth. Once she was light, now she embodies dark.

What comes to mind for me is the Slavic Baba Yaga, who has antecedents in the distant past. Baba Yaga lives in the forest with the wild creatures in a house than spins around on chicken legs. Baba Yaga is a fierce and unforgiving figure who refuses to sanction idiocy.

She is Guardian of the Waters of Life,  and is sometimes seen as embodying female empowerment and independence. It is interesting to note that this figure also maintains control over the weather.

Baba Yaga is not overly kind to put it mildly, often considered a mean old witch but this same figure also acts as an agent of transformation. The deeper one dives into her mythology the more obvious this quality becomes. It is important to understand that mythologies from all over the globe tell variations of the same basic story and are all based on ancient truths handed down through the ages.

 In one version Baba leaves her home in the morning, returning in the evening,  commanding a flock of black geese that circle the skies looking for children. In this version Baba Yaga’s Black Geese, two disobedient children, Olga and Sergei, sneak out of their house while their mother is at the market – after she has warned them not to go out while the geese are flying – and Sergei is snatched up and brought back to Baba Yaga’s hut for her dinner. Olga is able to save her brother through the use of magical items, and the two learn an important lesson about what happens when children are not listening to their mother…

Eating children is one of her more interesting characteristics to my mind especially when errant children do not heed warnings from their mothers.

 As a Grandmother, stripped of sentimentality and compassion she has little use for them. Because the western collective has been acting like a mass of irresponsible children/adolecscents, Baba Yaga seems to be wasting no time in redressing the wrongs that have occurred with regard to humans. No wonder she is seen as a witch! And no wonder we fear her.

Humans have no control over this ‘Grandmother’ who is wiping out people on this planet along with every other species. Heartbreaking as this is for those of us who love the earth we know, I think we must accept Baba Yaga’s radical transformation that has been brought on by humans. At the same time we must become accountable for the irresponsible children we have become.