God is Change.

EarthSeed is the Body of All Life on Earth. Another name for EarthSeed is Gaia. We describe EarthSeed as the Body of All Life when we just want to describe where to find it. We describe the Body of All Life as EarthSeed when we want to express the potential of Life to reach for the Destiny. We describe EarthSeed as Gaia when we feel the need to train our minds to serve Gaia, so that our striving hastens theDestiny. When we describe EarthSeed as Gaia, we describe the Destiny as the Great Birthing. We say,

the Destiny of EarthSeed is to take root and flower amongst the stars
the Desire of Gaia is to give birth to a family of living worlds

These are two parallel statements in different languages. The first is a statement of hope that our vision of the future will come true. It is flowery idiomatic language but, nevertheless, it is relatively straight forward. The second statement is entirely metaphorical. Gaia is not a person in any sense. She does not have desires in any straightforward sense. The new living worlds will not emerge from her birth canal as baby worlds in any sense. The language used in these two lines is like day and night. In fact, Michael Dowd would probably say that the first is “day language” and the second is “night language”. These are the terms he uses to distinguish between factual language used to inform and metaphorical language used to inspire.

God is greater than Gaia. God is Change as expressed throughout the universe. God pervades the universe. Gaia is local to the Earth (for now). The Earth is a pale blue dot in God’s great universe.

But Gaia and her kind are the greatest part of God. She is the best expression of God that we know of. Gaia has changed from a baby world goddess, expressed as bacteria floating in a young Terran sea to a fertile and even pregnant womanly world goddess, expressed as a complex ecosystem. As Carl Sagan said, “The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. … Recently, we’ve waded a little way out, maybe ankle-deep, and the water seems inviting.” In Carl’s mind, “we” may have meant humanity. But it could just as easily mean Gaia, the Body of All Life, for humanity is just one expression of Gaia. And now, Gaia is ready to take her first intentional swim out into the cold vacuum of space. She can see islands out there and some of them look very inviting.

Gaia has grown up. She is a very positive expression of Change. Living beings change on purpose. They act to shape Change. Gaia, as the Body of All Life, is the sum total of all that effort to change and to shape Change. She is both of the first two tenets of EarthSeed. She is our best expression of God, the best expression of Change in the universe. And we are her. If, when I say “we”, I mean myself included in the Body of All Life, then when I say, “we shape Change”, I mean that I can work in partnership with Life to hasten the Great Birthing.

EarthSeed is Gaia.
The Desire of Gaia is to give birth to a family of living worlds.
God is greater than Gaia.
Gaia is the greatest expression of God.
We are one expression of Gaia.
We are Gaia, the Body of All Life.
Gaia shapes God.
God is Change.
God shapes Gaia.

∞ = Δ