Various Interpretations of Gaia

Dr Lovelock propounded the Gaia hypothesis in a scientific manner and never intended to indicate that the Earth as a whole was self-conscious.  However his ideas and his term were enthusiastically taken up by environmentalists and ecologists, neo-pagans, and "New Age" people in general, and the "Gaia-hypothesis" very swiftly entered the collective imagination. as a powerful new meme  The New Age movement thus adopted the concept and added a mystical and ecological element to it; the living Earth literally is the Mother Goddess.

I'm happy to accommodate both perspectives, and I don't see any contradiction between them.  Science describes purely physical materialistic facts concerning the objective universe, while "mysticism" or esotericism refers to realities beyond the physical.

My understanding of Gaia is that it, or she, is alive in the way that an ant hive as a  whole is alive;
as a collective organism with a group consciousness, not in the way that a single biological entity is alive or conscious.

The following are some interpretations of what Gaia means and is.  All are valid - although not all are acceptable to the polemical advocates of any one.  Click in the image to go to that page