GaeaGenesis: Life and Birth of the Living Earth

April 20, 2010

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photo courtesy of woodleywonderworks via C.C. License at Flickr GaeaGenesis: The Book

The "Gaea Thesis" has now been in circulation for more than a third of a century since James Lovelock and I first proposed it independently of one another. This book will be the first to fully integrate the spiritual, biological, and social history and implications of this profound revelation -- one as significant to our understanding of the world and our place in it as the heliocentric theory of the Solar System and Darwin's theory of evolution.

The book will be organized into three major sections. The first will present the history of the idea that the Earth is a great living being -- from Hesiod's "Theogony," through Plato, the medieval alchemical concept of the "Anima Mundi," the poetry of Algernon Charles Swinburne and others, various little-known scientific papers written in the 19th and early 20th centuries, through the more recent work and thinking of James Lovelock and others.

The second section will include reprints, contextual narratives, and contemporary commentary of the original series of "TheaGenesis" articles first published in Green Egg magazine from 1971 through 1972.

The third section will be devoted to explorations of the implications of the Gaea Thesis for a new and deeper understanding of the origins of complex life on Earth since the "Cambrian Explosion" 570 million years ago; significant turning points in geological and human history; and the future role of humanity in spreading the "seeds" of Gaea to other worlds -- in our Solar System and beyond. Central to this section will be a Vision of the Awakening of Gaea through the emergence of planetary consciousness.

Appendices will include a Chronology of the key elements of the Gaea Thesis through history and a full Biography. The book will be well-illustrated with appropriate charts and diagrams, as well as visionary imagery depicting Gaea as seen by various artists through the ages, and today.

Oberon Zell co-founded the Church of All Worlds (CAW) in 1962, an eclectic Neo-Pagan church that embraced visionary modern and futuristic values. He was the first person to apply the terms "Pagan" and "Neo-Pagan" to the previously scattered and isolated groups that were beginning to revive and practice various forms of Earth-based spiritual traditions. Zell served for over thirty years as the founding Publisher of Green Egg*, the legendary Pagan journal that, more than any other single force, was responsible for the coalescence of the Neo-Pagan renaissance of Earth-centered spirituality. Zell is the sculptor of the famous Millennial Gaia and the author of numerous books, which may be perused at* Oberon Zell.

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4/20/2010 4:00:00 AM

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