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The Garden as Sacred Space, by Laurel Woodward

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

I am a magically minded person who looks at the world with an animist's perspective as I mindfully acknowledge and honor the lives of the others I encounter, from the large elementals to the tiny devic energies underfoot. I talk to my plants and hug the trees. I call out greetings to the geese as they pass overhead and stop to help the earthworm stranded on the sidewalk. There is a message in the visit from tiny hummingbird hanging on the breeze, the crow cawing loudly in the tree, the surprise sighting of a garden snake, and the colorful dragonfly lighting on a grass head. The outdoors holds both magick and mystery, and I immerse myself in its beauty whenever I am able to.

Our brains evolved in nature. When we leave our man-made environments and return to a natural setting, we are able to step out of the busyness of our lives and leave our worries behind. Being outside is a magickal, full-on sensory experience that quiets worry, eases anxiety, and grants the spirit peace.

When we immerse ourselves in a natural setting, it boosts health by strengthening the immune system. Step into nature and you step into beauty. The act of catching sunlight in your eyes, feeling the warmth of the sun on your skin, breathing in the scent of the green world from the smell of the dirt to the fragrance of flowers, or having natural sounds fill your ears, like the call of birds, the chatter of squirrels, or the rattle of the wind through the trees, are experiences that foster healing feelings of serenity and joy.

While forest bathing and hiking are popular nature therapies, gardening in your own yard, if done mindfully, becomes a vehicle to immerse yourself in nature and foster a relationship with the natural world. If you have never tried gardening you might be surprised by how therapeutic the experience is. When you take up gardening, working under the sky with the sun on your arms and your hands in the dirt, it engages all of your senses to create a place of refuge and solace. Being out in the fresh air doing yard and garden work lifts outlook and elevates mood. The activity tones muscles and makes the body feel good, and when done mindfully, the overall experience fills the heart with a joyful sense of purpose that inspires creativity and helps us rediscover our sense of wonder.

When we take an area of land under our care we nurture a reverence for nature that allows the heart to swell with gratitude every time we invest ourselves in the work, because it doesn't matter if you are a first-time gardener or a veteran—there is always something new waiting to surprise and inspire. The simple joy of discovering the seed that you planted sprouted, the surprising beauty of a mound of clematis that opened overnight, or the delicious taste of a ripe, home-grown tomato you plucked fresh from the vine deepens satisfaction and improves our sense of well-being. Step into the garden and we step out of worry and into nature's grace.

The wisdom of an ancient practice waits in the garden. If you follow an earth-based spirituality, you will find the act of gardening creates sacred space and puts nature back into the center of your practice. By caring for plants and being aware of their life cycles, we become aware of the turning of the seasons and sync with the natural rhythms. The garden becomes a window into the workings of the Universe and allows us to sense the thrumming webs of power. It is in the garden we connect to the deepest parts of our being as we become a witness to the miracle of life unfolding right before our eyes.

If you have never gardened before, you may want to start by taking a few chosen plants under your care. Identify and research each one, making note of their individual needs so that you may provide what each needs to thrive. Visit them often. Talk to your plants and shower them with attention, and soon you will find you have made a friend that may become a helpful ally in your magical practice. While some plant allies provide food or medicine, others provide ingredients to empower ritual, potions, incense, bath magick, candle dressing, and wash water. When we use ingredients from a plant that we help to grow, we delve into an ancient craft laden with wisdom and knowledge, a craft that deepens spirituality as it acts a bridge to the past to help us see beyond modern restrictions as it links us to a reality in which we are able to recognize and interpret the magickal connections all around us. The garden then becomes a liminal space where we may go to meet Deity or converse with the Universe.

My garden is my church. Step into the garden and I step out of time and into sanctuary. Being in my garden allows me to leave the troubles of the modern world behind and take up the practice of the old ways. In my garden I find peace and joy. It is in my garden where I find magick. You, too, can create your own personal outdoor sanctuary, a place of safety and wellness to nourish your soul and help you foster a relationship with your local energy web. For more ideas on how to design and implement a garden plan for your very own personal sanctuary garden, pick up my new book, Backyard Garden Witchery, a guide to help you manifest a magickal space outside your door. Backyard Garden Witchery contains a collection of meditations, exercises, and an extensive list of garden plants and their magickal properties with suggested uses to empower your magickal practice.

By designing your own unique garden setting, and implementing features that speak to you personally, you will manifest a sanctuary to nourish your soul. Keeping a flower garden, an herb garden, a vegetable patch, or even tending a collection of patio pots allows interaction with nature and opens a doorway for us to experience her amazing wonder. By working, and planting, and tending the earth, the garden becomes a liminal space to nourish our spirituality and connect us to the larger world. When you become a gardener, you become an artist working with nature to create amazing beauty, and as life sprouts and grows under your care, it opens the heart to wonder and solace as it provides flowers or herbs to use in your practice, or food to nourish your body, and the results bring an incredible sense of accomplishment. Gardening is a remarkable rewarding experience that has nourished mankind since the beginning of time. It has the power to change your life. If you have never gardened I hope you give it a try.

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2022. All rights reserved.

My grandmother's house gives me the creeps. As soon as I walk in, I just get this bad feeling. I also get that feeling that someone is watching me. It's not just at certain times, but as soon as I walk through the door and until I leave. My mother and sister feel the same. We won't even spend the night there because we're so scared. Is my grandmother's house haunted? If so, are these bad spirits? My grandmother talks about living in haunted houses as a child. Could these spirits be following her? My grandmother has had a very hard life and I feel these spirits may be causing it somehow. Is there any way to make them leave?

~Karen

Susyn:

Since others experience the same bad feelings you do, your grandmother's house may indeed be haunted. You didn't mention how your grandmother feels about the house. If she lived in haunted houses as a child, she may be used to the energy in the house and not notice it. You can evaluate whether an entity is harmless or evil by the emotions it brings up. The fact that you won't even spend the night there suggests that these spirits are dark and troublesome.

To determine if it is the house that is haunted or if these spirits have attached themselves to your grandmother, you must consider the history of the house. Has your grandmother lived in the house for years? Did your mother grow up in this house? If these uneasy feelings started when she moved into her current home, we can assume that these entities are attached to the house. On the other hand, if you or your mother have felt these same negative vibes in previous houses or in the home your mother grew up in, they may be spirits who attached themselves to your grandmother years ago.

If this bad energy first appeared when your grandmother moved into the house, a medium should be able to clear the premises. This will depend on whether the spirits are past residents of the house or if the location contains a portal through which any spirit can enter. Research the history of the house to see if previous residents died there or if other people experienced these negative sensations. If you bring in a psychic who specializes in hauntings, he or she should be able to identify where these entities are coming from and how to evict them.

Spirits have been known to follow a particular person wherever they go, which means that cleansing the location won't help at all. These spirits can cause trouble for the person they attach to, including health or mental problems and the chronic difficulties you mention your grandmother has experienced.

Try to get your grandmother out of the house for a week or more. If there is a shift in her health and outlook, you can conclude that the trouble exists mainly in the house. If her difficulties do not subside, these entities are attached to her. In this case, an exorcist or shaman should be called in to break the attachment of any negative spirits. Using one or more of the above methods should get rid of these negative entities. After that, you should experience a more peaceful atmosphere when you visit, and your grandmother's troubles should ease.

*****

Oceania:

Since homes are extensions and reflections of their inhabitants, the way you feel inside a home is a good indicator of how you feel about the person living there. If you feel uneasy in your grandmother's house, there's a good chance you feel uneasy around her. Values like loyalty, duty and respect for one's elders can make it difficult to admit we don't particularly like or feel comfortable around a family member, so it's easier for you, your mother and sister to excuse yourselves from spending the night with your grandmother by declaring the house haunted than to admit that you don't want to spend time with her.

The men in your family are notably absent from your story. Two explanations for this come to mind. In general, women are more empathetic and intuitive and can more readily pick up on subtle energies like repressed pain and anger, so the men in your family may be oblivious to the discomfort you women experience. The second explanation is that men feel less pressure to yield to social obligations and may simply excuse themselves from uncomfortable situations.

When you walk inside your grandmother's house, you become tangled in the web of energy emanating from her. You don't want to be there and feel relief when your visit ends. While you don't state her age, we know your grandmother is from a different era. Not so long ago, it wasn't acceptable for women to claim their feelings, express pain and anger directly, or complain about their roles in family and society. Your grandmother may be carrying a great deal of unexpressed emotional energy that oozes out indirectly through intrusiveness, sarcasm or passive-aggression.

Feeling as if someone is watching you may actually be your sense of feeling on edge if your grandmother can be critical, negative or scrutinizing. You make the disclaimer that she's had a very hard life, which may be the way you justify and excuse her bad behavior. (How can you possibly get angry at someone who has suffered so much?) You do feel angry, however, and may be coping by projecting your anger onto the house.

Your grandmother herself may have used the same technique growing up. It's easier to swallow living in a haunted house than it is to admit you don't like the energy in your family. I recommend you not concern yourself with spirits or the house itself; instead, focus your energy on setting healthy boundaries with your grandmother, being honest with her, or further minimizing your visits.

Astrea:

Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.