What Harm Can Befall Thee?
"Go east of your dream and farm
Let peace and silence spin your yarn,
What harm can befall thee
In yon wilderness of clove?"
(From Seals & Croft East of Ginger Trees)
It was Laura's post about one of the Contrary Goddess' that provoked me into starting this blog, although I had planned to for some time. It never ceases to amuse how different people can read the same thing and view it so differently. I remember reading a description once of Van Gogh's Starry Night as the universe writhing in cataclysmic throws of destruction. Really? I had always though it conveyed a very deep sense of peace and well being. So when I read about the Heaven/Hell duality and assigning them alike to the infernal and not mourning their passing, I nodded in ackowledgement.
You see, one does not mourn their passing because they are only illusions, fabrications of our own making, tales told by a sock puppet, signinfying nothing. What does God really think of all the ills with which we so much concern ourselves? What does She think about injustice, inequality, bigotry, discrimination, and all such? I went to ask.
The photo is the entrance to the 3/4 acre "flat" shelf where the Free Man's Garden is located. Flat ground is very rare here in the mountains and so this spit of ground presented itself from the onset as the place for the gardens and most of the orchards and vinyards. Once one passes into this realm, Nature alone sets the reality. Using only hand tools and only organic and biodynamic methods the gardener must persuade Nature to yield enough food for a large family each year. What does She respond to?
First, what does She NOT respond to? I have never found Nature to care a wit whether the gardener was male or female. I don't mean that She respects the unique qualities that are male, or honors the female. I mean She is absolutely indifferent to it. A beet seed planted by a man behaves exactly like a beet seed panted by a woman. Exactly. Mulch suppresses the weeds absolutely the same whether a man or woman applied it. In fact after a days work and the gardener's shadow fades from the plots, the observer is utterly unable to discern whether it had been a man or a woman there. Nature is not sexist, but that doesn't mean she respects men and women alike, it means that for Her, the distinction does not exist at all.
Nor have I found a difference whether the gardener was young or old, tall or short, fat or thin, of any nationality, any language, any religion or none. Nor does She care how much money the gardener has in his or her pocket, what education they have, how attractive they are, what their opinion is.
Nature only responds to what the gardener chooses to do, that and nothing else. Now with all the tales told by sock puppets I've heard, I have yet to consider one to trump what God has to say directly through Nature. The example of Nature is not that we are to respect the sexes alike, or nationalities alike, or religions alike. The example is that those distinctions do not exist once one enters the garden. And the world outside the garden is insubstantial by comparison and fades farther and farther from God as one gets farther and farther from the garden.
Why mourn the passing of things that from the Gardener's point of view do not exist at all?
Let peace and silence spin your yarn,
What harm can befall thee
In yon wilderness of clove?"
(From Seals & Croft East of Ginger Trees)
It was Laura's post about one of the Contrary Goddess' that provoked me into starting this blog, although I had planned to for some time. It never ceases to amuse how different people can read the same thing and view it so differently. I remember reading a description once of Van Gogh's Starry Night as the universe writhing in cataclysmic throws of destruction. Really? I had always though it conveyed a very deep sense of peace and well being. So when I read about the Heaven/Hell duality and assigning them alike to the infernal and not mourning their passing, I nodded in ackowledgement.
You see, one does not mourn their passing because they are only illusions, fabrications of our own making, tales told by a sock puppet, signinfying nothing. What does God really think of all the ills with which we so much concern ourselves? What does She think about injustice, inequality, bigotry, discrimination, and all such? I went to ask.
The photo is the entrance to the 3/4 acre "flat" shelf where the Free Man's Garden is located. Flat ground is very rare here in the mountains and so this spit of ground presented itself from the onset as the place for the gardens and most of the orchards and vinyards. Once one passes into this realm, Nature alone sets the reality. Using only hand tools and only organic and biodynamic methods the gardener must persuade Nature to yield enough food for a large family each year. What does She respond to?
First, what does She NOT respond to? I have never found Nature to care a wit whether the gardener was male or female. I don't mean that She respects the unique qualities that are male, or honors the female. I mean She is absolutely indifferent to it. A beet seed planted by a man behaves exactly like a beet seed panted by a woman. Exactly. Mulch suppresses the weeds absolutely the same whether a man or woman applied it. In fact after a days work and the gardener's shadow fades from the plots, the observer is utterly unable to discern whether it had been a man or a woman there. Nature is not sexist, but that doesn't mean she respects men and women alike, it means that for Her, the distinction does not exist at all.
Nor have I found a difference whether the gardener was young or old, tall or short, fat or thin, of any nationality, any language, any religion or none. Nor does She care how much money the gardener has in his or her pocket, what education they have, how attractive they are, what their opinion is.
Nature only responds to what the gardener chooses to do, that and nothing else. Now with all the tales told by sock puppets I've heard, I have yet to consider one to trump what God has to say directly through Nature. The example of Nature is not that we are to respect the sexes alike, or nationalities alike, or religions alike. The example is that those distinctions do not exist once one enters the garden. And the world outside the garden is insubstantial by comparison and fades farther and farther from God as one gets farther and farther from the garden.
Why mourn the passing of things that from the Gardener's point of view do not exist at all?
posted by Eleutheros at 3:27 PM
4 Comments:
My mountain garden gives me peacefulness. I look forward to each morning, rising up and wandering in Nature's midst, seeking out what she has chosen to show or teach me that day.
looking forward to more inspiration, eleutheros
what a beautiful picture. It does look very peaceful.
I have the greatest respect for you Eleutheros, and for the way you've chosen to live your life.
You are one of the most interesting and accomplished people I've ever encountered.
True, the seeds don't know if you are male or female. Neither does The Word of God. It works if you will. The angles are waiting on us to speak the word. It will aork regardless of our race, gender, or age. The Word works, our problem is that we are just to lazy to work the Word.
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