On 26 November 2014, the Goddess Association in Australia (GAIA Inc) adopted a statement on water, affirming the sacredness of freshwater and of all waters. The statement was inspired by the adoption in August 2014 of a formal position on environmental issues by the US organisation Covenant of the Goddess.
In this year of 2014, the annual Australian Goddess Conference had The Wellspring as its theme. The Goddess Association in Australia (GAIA Inc) takes this opportunity to affirm the sacredness of freshwater in this, the most arid of the inhabited continents of our beloved Mother Earth; and the sacredness and unity of all waters in the cycle of transformation that leads from ocean to cloud to raindrop to stream and back to ocean. We acknowledge the traditional owners and ancestors of this land and seek to work with deep respect for the law and traditions held in the waters of this land.
Water, here as everywhere, is life. We honour the precious springs, rivers, creeks, lakes, billabongs, soaks and wetlands of this majestic continent. We stand in awe of the two-million-year-old waters of her Great Artesian Basin, the largest such basin in the world; and the glorious water-gardens of the Great Barrier Reef, the Earth’s biggest single structure made by living organisms. We delight in the beauty of waterfalls, the stillness of pools, the power of mighty rivers, the thunder of surf.
We acknowledge that the same flows that course through the land and around the Earth are carried in our bodies as blood, sweat, tears, breastmilk and amniotic fluid, lubricating our bodies and spirits, satisfying thirst and nourishing life in all its forms.
We cherish all water creatures. We appreciate in particular those ancient beings which are unique to this land, such as the platypus and the Queensland lungfish. We grieve for those species of water creatures which have become extinct over the last two hundred years. We commit ourselves to the defence of those which are endangered – freshwater fish, turtles, crayfish, frogs and skinks. We rejoice in the return of the whales, nearly driven to extinction by over-exploitation in the 19th and 20th centuries; at the same time, we acknowledge ongoing threats to these most magnificent of living creatures.
We stand with those who are taking action to prevent and reverse the poisoning and depletion of Australia’s freshwater, in particular from extreme forms of mining such as fracking and longwall mining. Also with those working to protect the Great Barrier Reef and the oceans in general from industrial pollution and anthropogenic climate change.
We support local, regional, national and global efforts to conserve and replenish all natural resources; to seek clean, sustainable sources of energy; and to rebalance our world. We know that this is urgent work we are called to by Goddess in this place, and at this time, for the preservation of our sacred waters, for the defence of Mother Earth.
We know it in our waters that another world is possible.
PaGaian Cosmology 