Symbols of GAIA

Only one symbol of the ancient cosmic mother survived the displacement of her original worshippers: the snake. In her myth, Gaia is served by the great snake Python, who was resident in her shrine at Delphi. The snake is often misinterpreted by casual readers today, who often read serpents in light of the Judeo.Christian Eden Myth. There, the snake appears only to tempt the primeval parents away from the sky god's single cammandment. But to our foremothers, the snake..with its ability to shed its skin and thereby seem to be reborn..was not a symbol of evil. The connection of the ever.renewing serpent with the goddess of earth would, to them, have seemed quite fitting.

When the Greeks worshipped Gaia, they left her offerings of honey and barley. Both are symbols of feminine abundance: honey, because of its rich sweetness and its connection with the matriarchal Bee; and barley, a seed that looked to the ancients lik a tiny vulva, with its conch shape and little central slit. Both are appropriate to employ today in calling down the beneficence of great and fertile Gaia.