Shamanic Gardening: Timeless Techniques for the Modern, Sustainable Garden by Melinda Joy Miller. Process Media, Port Townsend, WA, 2012. 321 pages, illustrated.
Honoring ancient wisdom is a way to look backward in time and to feel good about the ways people kept themselves fed, both physically and spiritually. Looking like that into a mirror of the past is entertaining, but it’s not the whole story. In our times, gardens may be a luxury or a pastime, since we don’t have to have our own gardens to keep ourselves fed. And yet, there’s the nagging question: What is the connection to the earth that many gardeners seek? And how does a garden fill that spiritual need? These and more spaces to dream about are discussed as possibilities in Shamanic Gardening by Melinda Joy Miller. Miller’s book supplies the reader with multiple ways to realize a spiritual place: our legacy from the ancients.
What struck me as true when reading Shamanic Gardening is that a garden is a place where growth and evolution result from relationship. Humans and non-human-but-alive entities share an affinity for communion; as gardeners are open to this truth in nature, they receive more knowledge about this essential ingredient to change, translating into a more profound gardening experience. Miller invites you to become a shamanic gardener, a gardener who listens and responds to nature, incorporating the conversation in a garden design.
One day we ourselves will be ancient history, and our lives and gardens may be up for scrutiny, if they survive. How did we choose among an almost dizzying array of objects available to us today? Simply because of their basic values, being emblems of heritage, or objects we can purchase, do the props represent success? And were we attentive to what worked in gardens as spiritual connection or as purely material effort?
The mirror of the past shows the garden as separate from, albeit an extension of, the living space. Farms and gardens of only one hundred years ago ensured that the necessities of a healthy and productive life were available and within reach, without having to barter or take life for them. Summing up a comparison between then and now, we could say that their gardens were essential while ours are a luxury. And yet, not quite so simply, gardens of the ancients had an essential ingredient not purchasable in a bag or can to be rehydrated towards fulfillment in the garden soil.
It’s true that in the process of creating a garden, many questions surface that need to be addressed. Just a few of these are: spatial harmony, views in and out of the space, choice of plantings, aspects of color, shape, choice of non-living materials like paving, etc., etc. The list goes on adding new layers of complexity to the process. With Miller’s approach, the reader is advised on multiple levels, and yet not overwhelmed, but led to examine one by one like petals of a rose, leaves of a tree, or layers of an onion. She looks at cultures of Asia whose traditions gave us healing plants; Native Americans whose knowledge of the land we live on gave us gardening and planting advice; and transplanted Europeans whose thirst for new edible species of fruits and vegetables set a wider gene pool and expanded the planting range for many exotic plants.
Fully half the book is dedicated to informing the reader on practical matters ranging from plant selections to feng shui to gardens for romantic encounters, and more. She gives instructions on making flower essence, healing teas, and mulches; also included are composting and diversifying your plant selections. There are eight chapters in all, plus glossary, resources and bibliography. The chapter “High Nutrition Edibles” introduces the gardener to the prospect of choosing the right kind of plant for your growing environment and supplies its detailed data. You’ll find each entry in this section contains the following: American English name, botanical name, plant family, origin, height, climate and habitat, light and soil requirements; its color, edible parts and culinary uses are stated, followed by health benefits, and propagation. “Interesting notes”, the last entry gives some cultural background on the plant, its historical uses or meanings.
A number of High Nutrition Edibles are also flower essences that have healthful benefits and can be found in culinary recipes as well. Basil is one of those plants; so are Borage, said to be medicine for the circulatory system, also goes well with cucumbers; Dandelion makes wine, salads, or is cooked in soups, etc., and symbolizes joy; Rosemary is good for the brain, can be a relaxant in tea, and a much-loved culinary herb. Comparing several chapters, Shamanic Gardening offers an abundance of facts.
A Shaman applies healing through knowledge of the spirit world and in Miller’s sense, shamanic is used to represent knowledge of sustainability, and alludes to the intuitive, vital, and energetic forces available to the gardener. Shamanic Gardening speaks of a dialog between what is tangible and what is spiritual in nature, both in human and other live beings. The process turns in cycles, beginning modestly, growing richer by the year. With its myriad species interacting in a given place and time, a garden develops, presenting us with gifts unbounded.
Throughout, Miller instructs in a sacred connection to the garden, the key ingredient if we are looking for longevity in the experience and satisfaction of a productive garden. Her advice to cement this connection is credible, as without a certain relationship with the land, it reverts to pieces and parts, and you have refused to hold up a link in the chain of life. She says to garden for 7 generations following you—to make your garden that good. One of the greatest losses is to wildlife and species diversity, qualities we help erase in our drive to make things easier and faster and cleaner. Do you know there are at least 50 species of basil and that one is commonly called Holy Basil?
See Shambhalla Institute for more on feng shui and sustainable gardening at wikpedia.org.
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