We live in a society that is losing its spiritual way. We find it hard to find inner peace and the extra dimension to life that gives us joy, energy and strength. We want to turn back to the land to rediscover that spiritual dimension.
I work with energy to encourage harmony and balance, strengthening it all with specific plant combinations for rest, healing, protection, stimulus, psychic work or ceremonial use.
If modern elements, such as busy roads, detract from the serenity of an ancient place, then native trees (e.g. oak for strength and permanence, elder for spiritual protection) can sometimes be planted to provide a screen. Soft sounds from moving water, grasses and bamboos can also divert the mind from unwelcome noise.
How do the different aspects of a spiritual garden work?
Trees
Trees are the strongest link to earth, and they encourage the flow of those energies through the other plants. After all, in more spiritually aware times, trees were often important landmarks and meeting places.
Water
A watercourse is a natural channel for the energies in a garden, providing both stimulus and serenity.
The sound of rippling, trickling water can aid meditation, and a still pool of reflected light, plant shadows and sky can add another whole dimension to the landscape.
Often a pool will become the spiritual focal point of the garden, just as springs and wells were sacred in earlier times. Pets, birds and wild animals also find them irresistable.
Lawns and Paths
Walking on soft, silent grass is a wonderful feeling, and I like to use turf in healing gardens. Grass is the foil for planting schemes and can be important in inducing a sense of calm.
However grass is not suitable for all gardens, and paths made of local materials like bricks, cobbles, stone or wood, serve to divide the space, channel energies and lead the eye to a focal point, a monument, a water feature or a seating area.
Seating
Being still and giving ourselves the chance for contemplation is central to the restorative power of a lovely garden. In order to encourage an enhanced sense of the spiritual in an outdoor space, seating is carefully placed for maximum peace, privacy and vision.
It might be a scented, shady place looking out over a garden filled with colour and light; it might be a private corner framing a vista; it might be a simple linear view ending in a special feature, a pool, an ornament or a monument.
Plants
Colour, perfume, texture, sound, flavour, all the stimuli we need to awaken the senses in our spiritual search. Native flowers and trees link us directly to the land. They flourish in this climate and encourage a balance of insects, birds and mammals to build a healthy ecosystem.
Herbs and medicinal plants add strength to the spiritual links in a garden, as the sun releases their healing oils. Some well-loved flowers have rich healing properties too;
- Foxglove- to treat heart and gall bladder; calming
- Geranium- to treat depression
- Honeysuckle – to treat poor circulation, lungs and bowel
- Hypericum (St John’s wort) – to treat stomach problems such as ulcers
- Lavender – to treat sleeping disorders
- Lilies – to strengthen the immune system
- Marigolds – to aid in healing tissue
- Rosemary – to stimulate memory
- Snowdrops – to aid in grieving and depression
In addition to the special properties of chosen plants, colour combinations can be planned to achieve a particular effect in healing, meditating or spiritual work and ceremony.
Tags: Spiritual Gardens