Some texts you read. Some texts read you. The Pṛthivī Sūkta — the Hymn to the Earth — belongs to the second kind. Composed in the oral tradition stretching back beyond reckoning and finally written down in the Atharva Veda around 1200–900 BCE, it is one of the longest single hymns in the Vedic corpus and one of the most quietly radical texts ever spoken in any language. Sixty-three verses. A single subject: Earth as a living, conscious being — Mother, Goddess, body, ground, calendar, sustainer, witness — addressed directly, in the second person, with the intimacy of a child speaking to a parent. This portal sits on a single line from this hymn. Verse 12: "I am the son…