Earth Rites: Fertility Practices in Pre-Industrial Britain

In the polluted, highly urbanized world we live in today, all humanity is struggling for life, like palnts without roots. Those who lived here in the vanished past were well aware of the overwhelming need to nurture the Earth. They knew that without the fertility and fecundity of the Earth, they would surely die. Modern agriculture uses chemicals in great quantities. Our ancestors were not so reckless: they worshipped the Earth - the great Mother Earth. Although their ways have long been superseded by modern technological society, it is possible to gather together a fraction of what has been lost. Memories of fertility rites remain in the forms of rhyme and story; remnants left by our long-dead ancestors survive in the forms of sculpture and monument. This superbly illustrated book examines the ways in which our forebears might have channeled the Earth's creative energies to benefit all life on this planet. It shows a harmony between humanity and Earth which has become imperative to restore. --- from book's back cover