In Chrysalis Tarot, as with Greek mythology, the Mother Nature archetype (left) is called Gaia. She is the personification of Earth itself. As far as I know, she also is the only archetype that lends her name to a scientific theory.

Gaia Theory, which was formulated by scientist James Lovelock in the 70s, posits that Earth is a self-regulating, evolving, conscious system that maintains optimal conditions for sustaining life. Gaia, the archetype/goddess/system, regulates the salinity of oceans, the processing of carbon dioxide and the oxygenation of the atmosphere, among other conditions necessary for life to thrive on planet Earth.

We have life on Earth not because of a mythologized supernatural act of creation but because of evolution. Gaia effects her life-giving ministry via a complex system that facilitates the exchange of information between animate and inanimate matter. It’s known as a cybernetic feedback loop and is the same type of complex system that allows us as individuals to exchange information or communicate with organized, coherent energy fields such as archetypes. Without having this effective two-way exchange of information, the universe hasn’t been around long enough to randomly evolve even a blade of grass!

We can appreciate the importance of cybernetic communication by using a Rubik’s Cube analogy.

Let’s say we hand a Rubik’s Cube to a blindfolded person and ask that person to make one random move every second, which is pretty fast. Probability dictates it will require something on the order of 100 billion years longer than the universe has existed before the cube could be ordered by random chance alone.

Now, let’s add simple binary feedback, i.e. someone who communicates to the blindfolded person by responding either yes or no after each move. How long do you suppose it would take to order the cube correctly? The answer is surprising – less than 5-minutes!

Today, it is more important than ever to increase conscious awareness and gain knowledge through critical thinking in order to evolve a more rational understanding of how our world came into being and how it actually works. We should also embrace the co-creative role humanity plays in cosmic evolution. It’s important to remove our rosy blindfolds because our present way of living is unsustainable. A dramatic paradigm shift – a new worldview – is essential to the survival of our species, if not to the survival of Earth itself.

Put bluntly, Gaia urgently needs our help. Each year, humanity consumes one-and-a-half times what Gaia is able to regenerate (source). This fact alone paints an excellent overview of what the black clouds of unsustainable living imply. The consequences of our doing nothing are unimaginably horrific.

If the Mother Nature archetype has formed in your psyche, as it has with most Chrysalis Tarot users, this indicates you are a nurturing, healing, questioning individual who strives to maintain harmony and balance in all aspects of life, including the environment.

The Gaia worldview regards our evolving world and cosmos as a unified, dynamic, conscious organism with its own collective divine mind. Since human ingenuity is integral to this complex, evolving divine mind, we should accept our co-creative response-abilities.

Link to a 6-minute YouTube video on global population growth.

This is the 5th in a series of blogs titled “The 12 Faces of Humanity” and inspired by the artwork of Tammo de Jongh (below). The 1st blog in the series is here. Next week, the Patriarch archetype or Green Man.

© Toney Brooks