Invoke these deities for rituals involving all aspects of the environment and for healing the planet.
Gaia
Gaia is the all-embracing and all-nourishing goddess of the Earth. It is said that she supplies in her
bounty all the necessary plants to cure any disease and, in spite of human pollution, she constantly
heals and renews the planet. She is also a goddess of marriage.
She is the natural focus for all green rituals.
Tellus Mater
Tellus Mater was the Earth Mother of the Romans, the alter ego of Ceres, the grain mother, and
guardian of the fertility of people, animals and crops. However, Tellus Mater is also the mother who
receives the dead in her womb to comfort and restore and so, like Gaia, she is a excellent goddess for
all green magick and rituals for healing pollution or deforestation.
Wophe
Wophe, or White Buffalo Calf Woman, is the sacred creator woman of the Lakotas and other peoples
of the American Plains. Legend says she fell from a meteor and as she began her Earth walk, she was
discovered by two young Lakota scouts who were hunting for buffalo.
She wore a pure white buckskin dress, her long hair flowing behind her like a sea of corn. She sang
into the souls of the men that each should act on his thoughts. Eagerly the first, not recognising her
sacred nature, hurried towards her and a white mist covered them. The sound of rattlesnakes was
heard and when the cloud lifted, there were only the bones of the young man. She told the other to
inform the elders of the tribe that she would come to them next morning with a great gift for the
people.
A huge ornate ceremonial tepee was erected and in the morning she entered, carrying a special bundle
on her back and singing a holy song. The men kept their eyes lowered when she entered, as she had
instructed. She unfastened the bundle and took from it the buffalo calf pipe, which is still the most
sacred religious object of the Lakota today.
The woman instructed the men in how to smoke the pipe, which in its smoke symbolised the visible
Spirit, in the bowl Mother Earth and in the stem Father Sky, so that it might be used for prayer
offerings to her and for bringing peace to divided nations. On her visits she also taught sacred
ceremonies for restoring balance and healing to both Earth and people. She then set off to leave the
camp, walking towards the West.
When she reached the outskirts, she rolled over on the ground and was transformed into a buffalo,
changing colours several times. Finally, she changed into a white buffalo calf, rarest of the species,
promising that when she was seen again she would restore harmony to a troubled world. The people
followed her teachings, the corn grew, the seasons continued to flow in succession and they were
hungry no more, as buffalo became plentiful.
By the end of the nineteenth century, however, there were in reality fewer than 200 buffalo left, where
only years earlier it was estimated there had been several million. In the summer of 1994, a white
buffalo calf was born in Jamesville, Wisconsin. As the prophecy had told, the white buffalo has
changed its colours since birth, going from white to black to red to yellow and back to white. Since
each colour represents one of the four directions, the buffalo is seen by many Native Americans as a
symbol of the rebirth of hope. One visionary interpreted the birth of the white buffalo calf as
signifying that the human race will be united, in spite of differences in creed and colour, and join
together in peace.
Wophe is therefore an important symbol not only of the revival of the Native American wisdom, but
also of healing and reconciliation of all people and of the land and all its creatures
