Earth people and indeed people right to the times of the industrial revolution recognized not only the importance of nature for their survival but their own need to share ritually the cycles of the season.
The old nature Goddesses were incorporated into the saints of the Virgin Mary and the corn god sacrifices were overwritten by the supposed death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and by folks’ customs.
Indeed the May Queen and the annual cutting down and rebirth of the Green Man, the ancient lord of vegetation, in modern May Day ceremonies are reminders of these older connections.
In the 21st Century, the wheel of the year and our own personal life cycles continue to revolve.
Though we may no longer as a society physically see the links between rituals for a good harvest and the food that appears in the supermarket trolley at the wave of a credit card, never the less nature still governs harvests and the weather.
More than a third of the world’s population is hungry whilst obesity and the disposal of food packaging is a serious problems in westernized countries.
Humankind’s intervention or neglect of these natural cycles has contributed to ecological disasters on an unparalleled scale and the speeding up of natural processes like global warming so that “Gaia” mother earth, is struggling to keep the balance within her creation.