Tim Zell. Theogenesis: The Birth of the Goddess. http://www.ladyoftheearth.com/religious/theogenesis.txt. Accessed 18 April, 2013.

Originally published in Green Egg Volume 4, Number 40 (July 1, 1971): 7-10.

Conceptualizations of Divinity vary from religion to religion, with adherents of each faith misunderstanding, often grotesquely, the nature of the Divine as understood by the members of other faiths. Thus conservatives of a given religious system often tend to feel that all other religions are "false" but their own, while liberals will go to the opposite extreme and contend that all religions essentially worship the same Deity, under different guises and customs. Both of these points of view grossly misrepresent the fundamental distinctions among the various religions, and try to adapt alien world-views to fit into their own frameworks of experience. It may be said that all religions are "true", as indeed are all sincerely held opinions, in the sense that personal reality is necessarily subjective. In other words, what you believe to be true, is true, by definition. A Voudou death-curse is as real to its victim, and as effective, as being "saved" is to a Christian fundamentalist, or the kosher laws are to an Orthodox Jew. A flat Earth, with stars and planets revolving around it, was as real to the medieval mind as our present globe and solar system are to us. Hysteric paralysis and blindness are as real to the sufferer as their organic counterparts. The snakes and bugs of alcoholic and narcotic deliria are real to the addict and so is the fearful world of the paranoiac. From the standpoint of human consciousness, there is no other reality then that which we experience, and whatever we experience is therefore reality therefore "true". We can only distinguish the experiences of the objective world from those which lie entirely within our own minds when we compare notes with other people and arrive thereby at a consensus of reality. This consensus, however, is also subjective within the entire community, and is also liable not to be synonymous with objective reality (as in the case of the Geocentric cosmos). The question then arises, "How can we know objective reality?" and the answer, of course, is that we can't, not totally. However, we can arrive at very close approximations of objective reality by careful applications of the scientific method combined with creative insight, and by refusing to fill in the gaps in our knowledge with 'blind leaps of faith'. Thus, religions may be considered more or less objectively true (while recognizing that they are all subjectively true) by evaluating how much they depend on blind faith and belief over scientific understanding (and recognizing that we only speak of belief in the absence of knowledge); no one would say "I believe two plus two equals four"; how much they depend on traditions and authority over intellectual curiosity and honesty; how much (or how little) they are able to accommodate new discoveries in science, and how much (or how little) these discoveries substantiate their theories and worldviews. These are the

criteria for objective validation of religious viewpoints. No subjective validation is needed (or even possible). The Paleo-Pagans, diversified though they were, held among them certain common viewpoints. Among these were: veneration of an Earth-Mother Goddess; animism and pantheism; identification with a sacred region; seasonal celebration; love, respect, awe and veneration for Nature and her mysteries; sensuality and sexuality in worship; magick and myth; and a sense of Man being a macrocosm corresponding to the macrocosm of all Nature. These insights, however, were largely intuitive, and science had not yet progressed to the point of being able to provide objective validation for what must have seemed, to outsiders, to be mere superstition. Twentieth-century Neo-Paganism, however, has applied itself and the science of its era to that validation and has discovered astounding implications: A single cell develops physically into a human being by a process of continued division and subdivision into the myriad of cells eventually required to make up an adult body, groups of cells specializing to become the various organs and tissues needed for full functioning of the organism. Now, when a cell reproduces, the parent cell does not remain intact, but actually becomes the two new daughter cells. Since the same protoplasm is present in the daughter cells as was in the parent, the two daughter cells still comprise but a single organism; one living being. The original cell ceases to exist in that form, but its life goes on in the continuous evolution of the growing organism. Thus, the billions of cells of the adult human body continues to comprise a single living organism, even though different cells may be highly specialized, and some may even be mobile enough to travel independently around in the collective body. No matter how complex the final form of the adult organism, no matter how diversified its component cells, the same thread of life of the original cell, the same protoplasm, continues in every cell in the body. Since the sex cells are also included in this ultimate diversification of a single original cell, the act of reproduction carries this same thread on in the offspring, combined with the equivalent thread of protoplasm from the other parent. Thus your children, while spatially distinct from you, are in fact as much a part of your growing, evolving organism as your blood cells (which can easily be extracted and survive independently of your collective body) or tissue cells (which can also be extracted and grown in independent cultures). Your children are still "you" your own living protoplasm continues on in their cellularly-diversified bodies. And in your children's children for all generations to come. All the cells in all your descendants will still comprise but ONE LIVING BEING! Tracing our evolution back two billion years, through mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and so on, we eventually wind up with ONE SINGLE CELL that was the ANCESTOR OF ALL LIFE ON EARTH. Even though there were undoubtedly many proto-cells formed in the early seas, the first one to develop the capacity to reproduce would have quickly consumed all the available free proteins and amino acids floating in the sea, effectively preventing the development of any

competitors. Cell reproduction occurs at a fantastic geometrical rate, which, unchecked, would result in all the planet being buried beneath the progeny of a single cell within months. Obviously, what checked this fantastic reproductive potential was a limited food supply, which would have included any not-yetformed or newly-formed competitive cells. But when this cell reproduced itself, and continued to do so for eons, some of its daughter cells mutating and evolving into new forms, it still, as in the human body, continued to comprise but a SINGLE total organism. When a cell divides and subdivides, NO MATTER HOW OFTEN, the same cellular material, the same protoplasm, the same life, passes into the daughter cells, and the granddaughter cells, and the greatgranddaughter cells, FOREVER. NO MATTER HOW OFTEN or for how long this subdivision goes on, the aggregate total of the new cells continues to COMPRISE ONE SINGLE LIVING ORGANISM! Literally, we are all "one". The blue whale and the redwood tree are not the largest living organisms on Earth, the ENTIRE PLANETARY BIOSPHERE is. Let us consider the following corollaries: An organism is composed of many organs more, obviously, in complex organism and in simple ones. As an embryo develops, groups of cells specialize into each of the organs that the adult organism will require. At early stages in cell differentation, unspecialized cells can be moved from one part of the embryo to another, and the transplanted cells will still develop into whatever organs are needed in their new locations. Just so, the planetary Organism (to which will hereby give the scientific name of Terrabios) needs various organs in order to function properly. Continuing the analogy with the human body, each animal and plant of Earth is the equivalent of a single cell in the vast body of Terrabios. Each biome, such as pine forest, coral reef, desert, prairies, marsh, etc. complete with all its plants and animals, is the equivalent of an organ in the body of our biospheric Being, sub-organs and tissues consisting of types of plants and animals, such as trees, insects, grasses, predators, grazing herbivores, etc.. ALL the components of a biome are essential to its proper functioning, and each biome is essential to the proper functioning of terrabios. If a biome is missing some essential elements, it is possible for relatively unspecialized "cells" of plants and animals to differentiate out by adaptive relation to become all the required components. The most classic case of this is the relation of marsupials of Australia to fill all the ecological niches occupied elsewhere by placentals with creatures virtually identical in structure and habits with their placental equivalents. Moreover, recent papers and books of the genetics of evolution, including BIOPHILOSOPHY, stress that modern Darwinian theory has abandoned the notion of individuals determining the direction of the evolution of a species. Rather, the entire species migrates towards a fortuitous ecological niche as if it had a sense of whether it needed to go. If all the mutations in the direction of such a change are destroyed, the species will produce more.

The non-living components of the planetary structure of the Earth itself serve the developing organism of Terrabios much as the non-living components of the human body serve it. These components are the Geosphere, the Aquasphere, and the Atmosphere. The Geosphere, the rock and mineral foundation of our planet, functions in the body of Terrabios much as the skeleton functions in the human body as foundation and structural support (like the Geosphere, our skeleton is largely mineral). The Aquasphere, the water of oceans, lakes and rivers that covers three quarters of the surface of the globe, functions homologously with the plasma in the blood of the human body, which, incidently, has the composition very like the water in those primeval seas wherein life first appeared. The Atmosphere serves the great organism of Terrabios much as it does us, as individual "cells" in a carbon-cycle repiratory process, involving breaking carbon dioxide down into carbon and oxygen by plants and building carbon and oxygen back up into carbon dioxide by animals. What is the ultimate source of energy for Terrabios its "food?" Sunlight which through photosynthesis in green plants, converts materials of the Geophere, Aquasphere and Atmosphere into the materials of life. Now it follows that if a biomic component occupies a particular ecological niche in a given biome, it does so because it belongs there and is necessary to the proper functioning of that biome, and hence of Terrabios. Further, if some plant or animal is missing from a particular biome, it is because it doesn't belong there. Now, everybody realized that the human body will not function properly if one removes, replaces or rearranges parts of it. You will survive if you leg is amputated, but you certainly won't walk as well as before. This same principle of coherency apples to Terrabios, as we are beginning to learn only too well. You can't kill all the bison in North America, import rabbits to Australis, cut or burn off whole forests, or plow and plant the Great Plains with wheat without seriously disrupting the ecology. Remember the dust bowl? Asustralia's plague of rabbits? Mississippi basin floods? The present drought in the Southwestern U.S.? Terrabios is a SINGLE LIVING ORGANISM, and its parts are not to be removed, replaced or rearranged. Just as in the human body, the brain and nervous system is the last organ to develop, so in Terrabios the last biome to develop in the Noosphere, composed of Earth's aggregate population of Homo Sapiens. What function does Man, as the Noospheric organ, perform? It would seem that at the present stage of evolution, the function of a biome of awareness would be to act as steward of the planetary ecology. Man's purpose in Terrabios, his responsibility, is to see that the whole organism functions at its highest potential and that none of its vital systems become disrupted or impaired. We might judge the state of Man's functioning in the macrocosmic realm by evaluating his performance of this organic responsibility. When in the human body some cells start multiplying all out of control and

excreting toxins into the bloodstream, we have a cancer. One of the ways cancer can be controlled is by radiation treatment. At this moment, Man himself is multiplying out of control and excreting vast quantities of deadly pollutants into the air, water and soil. If Man's cancerous population growth is not halted, his numbers and poisons will severely cripple or kill our planetary organism Terrabios. Perhaps nuclear war a global "radiation treatment" will be needed...but it is still to be hoped that it is not too late for us to wake up to our responsibility of stewardship. Terrabios is nearing maturity. All the physical ecological niches have been filled, and the recently developed Noosphere now extends over the entire globe. Even the extinction of the dinosaurs, until now a total mystery to science, can be explained by an understanding of the maturation process of organisms. For just as certain organs, such as the thymus gland and baby teeth are essential in early phases of human development, but disappear as we approach maturity, so certain organs in the organism of Terrabios must disappear when they are outgrown (in the case of the dinosaurs, when it was time for mammals to move into the position of their ecological destiny). But Terrabios has still not reached the adult stage of its species (Biospherus Planetarius). Projecting a bit, it would seem most reasonable that Tellhard de Chardin was correct in his vision of an emerging planetary consciousness, what he called the "Omega Point" (The Phenomenon of Man) and Carlton Berenda calls "The First Coming Of God" (The New Genesis). The maturation of a Planetary Biosphere requires the evolution of total telepathic union among "cells" of its Noosphere (its most intelligent species: Man). When such an intelligent species ultimately develops telepathy to the extent that it eventually shares a single global consciousness, a PLANETARY MIND awakens in the "brain" (noosphere) of the Biosphere. This is our human destiny our ultimate function in the organism of Terrabios. And just as the brain in the human body is capable, via the conscour mind, of controlling virtually everything that goes on in the body and a good deal that goes on outside it, so a planetary consciousness would be in complete control of everything that goes on in the planet from earthquakes to rainfall to ice ages to mountain building to hurricanes and perhaps influence the rest of its local stellar system as well. At this point it becomes necessary to define Divinity: Divinity is the highest level of aware consciousness accessible to each living being, manifesting itself in the self-actualization of that being. Thus we can truly say, "All that groks is God". Divinity is a cat being fully feline (as all cats are!), grass being grassy, and Man being fully Human. Collective Divinity emerges when a number of people (a culture or society) share enough values, beliefs and aspects of a common life-style that they conceptualize a tribal God or Goddess, which takes on the character (and gender) of the dominant elements of that culture. Thus the masculine God of the Western Monothesis (Jews, Christian, Moslems) may be seen to have arisen out of the values, ideals

and principles of a nomadic, patriarchal culture; the ancient Hebrews. Matriarchal agrarian cultures, on the other hand, personified their values of fertility, sensuality, peace and the arts in the conceptualization of Goddesses. As small tribes coalesced into states and nations, their Gods and Goddesses battled for supremacy through their respective devotees. In some circumstances, various tribal divinities were joined peaceable into a polytheistic pantheon, being ranked in status as their followers' respective influences determined. In other circumstances, one particularly fanatic tribe was able to completely dominate others and eliminate their own deities elevating its God to the status of a solitary ruler over all creation and enforcing His worship upon the people. However, no matter what rank a single tribal deity may be exalted by its followers, it still could be no other than a tribal divinity,e xisting only as an embodiment of the values of that tribe. "Gods are only as strong as those who believe in them think they are". (Alley Oop) When the planetary conscousness of Terrabios awakens, it too will be Divinity, but on an entirely new level. The emergent deity Berenda postulates in THE NEW GENESIS. Indeed, even though yet unawakened, the embryonic slumbering subconscious mind of Terrabios is experienced intuitively by us all, and has been referred to instinctively by us as Mother Earth, Mother Nature (The Goddess, The Lady). Indeed, this intuitive conceptualization of feminine gender for our planetary Divinity is scientifically valid, for biologically unisexual organisms (such as amoeba or hydra) are always considered female; in the act of reproduction they are referred to as mothers and their offspring as daughters. Thus we find that "God" is reality Goddess, and that our Paleo-Pagan ancestors had an intuitive understanding of what we are now able to prove scientifically. Thus also we expose the logical absurdity of a concept of cosmic Divinity in the masculine gender. These few pages, however, have only been the briefest of introductions to the implications of a discovery so vast that its impact on the world's thinking will ultimately surpass the impact of the discovery of the Heliocentric structure of the solar system. This discovery is that the entire Biosphere of the Earth comprises a single living Organism.