Closer to God in a garden

[hedgewizard]

Hey, Mandyz grows stuff! No-one's getting at anyone. Love and peace all round, man.

[Andy Hamilton]

Hey, Mandyz grows stuff! No-one's getting at anyone. Love and peace all round, man.

fairest of play my good man, I thought it is easy to inperpret stuff the wrong way sometimes and I was ensuring that mandz did not if she saw this. I try to administer with a a hard fist of good vibes

Back to the thread in hand, going back to my studies in abnormal psychology a certain amount of greenery is suposed to help aliviate depression, something like half hour a day of the countryside or in a park will uplift ones mood.

[hedgewizard]

A hard fist of good vibes. I like that!

Yes, I've read that too. A friend of mine who was a psychiatrist did a small study (unpublished, since he died before completing it) on the effects of lavender oil in a vaporiser in a mixed ward that was heavy on severe depression and free-floating anxiety. He found that mood scores went up a little, and ward use of benzos went down a little. I'm planning on having a little decked "lavender garden", although heavens only knows when I'll have the time to build it!

[Kfish]

I'm actually getting married in a garden for that very reason.

Although a nominal Anglican, I felt hypocritical getting married in a church I never go to. Getting married outside with fresh air and wildlife is a lot more consistent with my religious experience - I feel a lot closer to whoever it is that's running the universe when I'm in my garden, rather than when I'm in a building.

The minister who's conducting the ceremony is quite excited about doing an open-air wedding, he's never done one before. He recommended a small chapel nearby, but when we went to look at it we realised the most attractive thing about it was the garden outside!

My garden is the main source of my religious experience - the process of watching things grow and fruit and die and grow again convinces me there must be someone organising it all. Is this a common thing for members of this forum ?

[Shelle]

hedgewizard i really liked your short story ... makes you look at the bigger picture of life and our place in it all ... thanks for sharing

[Shirley]

Back to the thread in hand, going back to my studies in abnormal psychology a certain amount of greenery is suposed to help aliviate depression, something like half hour a day of the countryside or in a park will uplift ones mood.

Sometimes... I find than when I've been cooped up in the house be it on the computer or doing housework or studying.. whatever... when I walk outside it feel like someone has lifted a huge weight from the top of my head and I feel liberated - all by going outside.

We are lucky to have miles of countryside all around us and it is very easy to take it for granted. People that have lived here for years get taken aback sometimes when you point out something beautiful, and say that they hadn't really noticed it.

Let's all get outdoors today

[Andy Hamilton]

Let's all get outdoors today

Yes, yes. It is one of my days off today and have you seen the weather. Rain this afternoon but well nice at the moment and forecast to get better. I do feel closer to god

Kfish - The open air ceremony sounds fantastic.
hedgewizard - Are you going to use different types of lavender? I saw a thing on gardeners world a while back about lavender, he got an old lavender plant that had gone all woody and put it in a dustbin full of soil, ensuring that the woody stems were all submerdged. Each stem then make a new plant, so from one old plant you can potentially make hundreds of new ones.

[Goodlife1970]

Funny isnt it that the feeling of green-ness around you can lift your mood,I used to get so low during the winter that I felt starved of green,knowing that the arrival of the first new shoots would bring me out of it.I can fully understand Libbys tag line!

[Libby]

Funny isnt it that the feeling of green-ness around you can lift your mood,I used to get so low during the winter that I felt starved of green,knowing that the arrival of the first new shoots would bring me out of it.I can fully understand Libbys tag line!

It sure will beat looking at houses if I ever make it to a green space
I,ve been cold and depressed today

[Mandyz]

Hey Nev and Libby, I'm inclined to think that I have rather more in common with either of you than I would with a witch who doesn't grow anything!

hang on, Mandyz did say that she loves to watch her plants emerging and does grow stuff in doors. bit of peace and love on here please.

Thanks Andy.
I agree with hedgewizard though. I know plenty of Pagans and witches (and sometimes I'm tempted to put those in quotation marks) who are in love with the idea of being connected to nature rather than actually connecting themselves. KWIM?

As I mentioned in the beginning of my post, I don't think I love tending the earth just because I am a Pagan Witch. I would likely agree that I probably have more in common with non-pagans here than I do with some of the local Pagans in my community.

As an "active Pagan" - who walks the talk, lives as sustainably as possible and so forth - I am often frustrated by Pagan persons who just talk and/or lament that they "can't" do x. I am an urban Pagan and that does not hinder me in actively developing my connection with the earth. Even when I temporarily lived in a townhouse (for a year) with a cement backyard I had potted herbs outside, for example, and composted indoors. I have since learned even more ways I could have used the space. (Knowing I was there for a short time I hadn't really felt a need to develop past my pots).

Plus, I think connecting with the divine is beyond religious labels

And I am an "expert" in that field.
... halfway through my PhD in Religious Studies. 8 years of intensive academic study in the field should count for something. Two more years and it counts for a label: Dr.

[Goodlife1970]

.Plus, I think connecting with the divine is beyond religious labels I couldnt agree with you more,I think we suffer from far too many labels.

[hedgewizard]

Agreed. I am chastened.

Lavender... no idea, Andy. There's some already in the garden that looks really untidy but smells just divine, and I'd guess that will be the backbone of it all. I'll want to use lavender in cooking - I always go for lavender sauce or biscuits or whatever if I see them (yum). Anyone know what varieties you can use, or is it all of them?

[Millymollymandy]

I tried putting lavendar in my bread but it wasn't very nice. Now I don't know what to do with a whole tin of lavendar flowers that I bought.

[wulf]

I tried putting lavendar in my bread but it wasn't very nice. Now I don't know what to do with a whole tin of lavendar flowers that I bought.

Put them in an old sock and leave it in a drawer with your clothes? Lavender sachets are an old standby for keeping your clothes smelling sweet.

Back to topic, I'd say that there's definitely something wondrous about a garden; what is wonder but a brush with the numinous. That's not to say that these experiences can't also occur in plenty of other places but I think it is very healthy to practice the art of cultivation.

Wulf

ps. plenty of clues to my beliefs on my website... but gardens are definitely a point for meeting many people of other creeds, as well as a place to encounter God.

[hedgewizard]

I tried putting lavendar in my bread but it wasn't very nice. Now I don't know what to do with a whole tin of lavendar flowers that I bought.

http://www.hopshop.co.uk/lavenderrecipes.asp

http://www.astray.com/recipes/?show=Lav ... %20chicken

http://www.picnic-fayre.co.uk/html/prod ... ipes1.html

The lavender-honey gravy is to die for :-)