***Taken from "Earth Magick" by Scott Cunningham
Earth is our only home. It is that from which mythologically we sprang, and in it's moist soil we bury our deceased. From its surface we pull verdent vegetables and healing plants. Animals graze atop it, and within it lie riches of gold and silver, precious stones and oil. Until recently, no living thing - save birds - left it's surface for more than a few moments.
The ancient goddesses of the Earth have survived to this day in the guise of Mother Nature, a diety being reclaimed by nature-conscious souls in the dawning of the 21st century. The Earth was once worshipped for it's own sake, and today it is newly revered as our home and sustenance. Without it we would perish.
Ecological movements have sprung up to fill the need of protecting our planet. Spaceship Earth, as it came to be called once we succeeded in leaving it's atmosphere and gazed at it's blueish mass from space, is Gaia, our Mother, our home, our all. It always has been.
As such, it has entered into religious and magickal thought and practice for thousands of years. Some of the spells and techniques presented here are as ageless as the thrust of a mountain. In these earthy spells lie the roots of all magick, for if all forms of magick are not of this element, they are certainly performed upon the Earth.
Think of a freshly dug handfull of earth. Smell the richness of the fertile soil. See the strinking color, from whitest clay to volcanic red to blackest black. This is the fertilizing nature, the storehouse of vitamins and minerals essential to life. This is also an excellent arena on which (or with which) to practice magick.
Here is some of that magick.