When everything is going pear-shaped, it is time for another Goddess word. Another brick in the foundation.
I had to go back and check my list twice, like Santa Claus, because I couldn't believe I hadn't already examined this word over the last four years, but it appears that I haven't.
There are so many nuances of meaning to this word...in essence, a life force or catalyst for change.
So, looking back almost twenty years, how did I think this word related to the Goddess? I consider Her the indispensable creative force, that the Great Mother is literally the energy that birthed the Universe -- yes, in active partnership with the male God energy worshipped for generations, but, unlike him, largely forgotten. Out of Her energetic body came all of it, stars, planets, galaxies, life of all kind, including on earth. This energy or life force is constantly renewing, never fully ebbing or ending, just transforming and transitioning into new forms.
In day-to-day usage, energy can be about what one does (or does not) have it in them to do. Do I have the energy (at nearly 70) to go out and shovel snow? To take a long road trip? To take the city bus half an hour to do errands? To go through my boxes and make decisions -- again?
Then there's the "energy" we notice about other people or situations, almost an aura. If we are sensitive, we can walk into a room and immediately pick up whether a person is angry, or scared, or elated, or "shut down". We can sense uncomfortable energies between people, or their hatred for (or conversely, their attraction to) one another. There are people's energies individually, and then how those energies interact with other energies. (I hope it goes without saying that I am taking a really unscientific look at energy. I couldn't do otherwise if my life depended on it!)
Lastly (and this is something I think I can say as a layperson), "energy" is the word we use in the context of the materials we use to power modern life. Many of these materials ("natural resources") are substances extracted from the earth. The extraction and refining of these resources are expensive and complex -- but the actual resources have been free to mankind, whether they be trees, wind, water, sun, coal, natural gas, or oil. Gaia has literally gifted us these energy sources all through history. We have taken this "free" material and alchemized it into power and money -- huge amounts of it, for some. What I find fascinating is that I think we are entering a time when aligning to Goddess/Love energy will allow humans to travel, communicate, and create outside our current human limitations. We won't always need these old-fashioned physical resources which cause so much conflict.
Our processes have sapped Gaia's life energy in so many ways. If we were to listen to Her, we would probably hear Her begging us to honor Her energy, Her power, Her creativity. She can survive without our honor -- indeed, Earth will go on and eventually prosper even if we humans destroy ourselves. The energy of the Goddess is indestructible. But I also believe it would be Her preference that our human energies align with Her. She would love to co-create a better future with us!
