The
Gardens
(Herbal,
Floral, Vegetable and Meditative)
The Gardens Themselves
Gardening is another medium, like
Yoga or The Dance, in which we cultivate
both inner and outer Sacred Space.
The way of the curve of the garden
path, like the way of the curve of the dancer's neck,
imparts much to both the witness
and gardener or the dancer.
So too, the line of the raked sand
or the line of the pieces of grass in a raked walkway,
like the line of a hem or a neck
line or a dash of color on an article of clothing,
imparts much to the witness as
well as to the one who rakes or who wears the clothing.
Gardening, for many reasons, is
both an inner and an outewr activity---
both a personal and a social, tribal
or environmental activity.
We are not an estate. Our history
is as a working organic market garden.
Our gardens reflect this.
They can be, albeit warm feeling,
rather scruffy.
As well as open fields in which
we will grow much of our commercial crops,
there are the landscaped gardens.
These are comprised of a number
of thematic gardens.
There is the
Meditation Garden,
which plays with light and dark
as well as with reflections.
There is
The Medicine Wheel Garden,
a grass circle about eighty feet
in diameter with a fire pit in the center and doors to the four directions.
During the dedication ceremony to this garden, in which I was alone at
midnight, five black bear showed up. These were the first bear seen on
our farm in thirty years.
There is the
The Caudeuses or Thematic Herb
Garden,
This garden has aboutforty
bedsseparated by intertwining paths
that mirror the cadeuces, the medical
symbol, the symbol of the staff carried by the Crone's of the Neolithic
Temples.
It signifies to some the two serpents
of the kundalini entwining up the spine.
It is also known as Hermes Staff..
Each bed is somewhat thematic following the spine and the body.
Near the top of the Herb Garden
are is the
Vision Quest Bed.
The herbs in this bed were traditionally
sacred to one culture or another.
This bed contains Yarrow (of the
divinatory Chinese IChing). Woad (sacred to the celts the druids and the
neolithic Shiela Na Gig), The Sactred Sage - Artemesia species -(of the
Native American plains tribes), Datura (of the Mexican Brujo), and true
Wormwood (sacred to both the Hebrews and the Palestinians when they were
one people, before the two sons of Abraham), as well as other herbs.
Further down there is, for instance,
the
Female Tonic Bed
which, of course, has raspberry,
feverfew, ladies mantle and the like.
There is
The Triple Goddess Garden
(a set of three circles thematically
Maiden, Mother and Crone.)
The Moon Garden is a sunken sand
garden about 60 feet in diameter. Much of our dancing occurs here.
Though wonderful for moonlight
dancing, this sunken sand garden is a challange to grow anything in except
perhaps chamomile or ambrosia and the such.
There is also the large, traditional
Ceremonial Labyrinth,
planted each May during our annual
Planting Party of corn and sunflowers.
This is a half mile walk in and
out. It is, of course, most wondeful during August when the sunflowers
and corns are rich and full and towering high above the heads of thoise
who walk the labyrinth.
Then there is also the
'Working Labyrinth',
a smaller traditional christian
mystic, celtic or creten labyrinth which, for its smaller size, makes it
more accesable for daily meditations.
Unfortunately, I have not yet
scanned pictures of these gardens.
Now that Winter is upon us,
though, perhaps I will find the time to do this.
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The
Summer Program
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Yoga, Sacred Dance, Music, Herbalism,
Herbalism, Wholistic Diet and Healing,
Wildcrafting, Gardening and Creating
Sacred Space
are all a part of the day in which
we create our Lifestyle Integration.
Participants may come for a day,
a weekend, a week, a month or two
or for the full cycle (May 1st
through October 1st)
More info on The Summer Program.
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For more information
on Touchstone and Her activities
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