Musings on the Sacred Garden

Last night I was shuffling the cards before bedtime, something I often do when I just want to sit and feel whats happening around me.

I was shuffling the DPO and I was thinking back to some of my original musings, on the plants and the idea of if ogham trees form a grove, then druid plants may form a garden. If they do then this is a place I can visit on the OtherRealms!

So, I sat back and continued to shuffle, occassionally looking at a card if it flipped over or when I wanted to peak at one and just got myself into a meditative state. I put aside all the real life stuff, all the thinkery that happens in my head and just relaxed.

I found myself walking along a path in the forest. The Hawthorn was in bloom and the Blackthorn deeply in leaf, the ash trees were chasing the oak leaves to see who would turn green first. I heard the odd buzz of an insect and just generally tapped into this very vibrant spring energy as I walked.

Soon the path came into a clearing with a small boothy and then a few people busy working at some flower beds. It was just off this sacred grove path and there were women tending to the plants. 2 were digging, skirts hitched to their waists, and the other one was on the ground thinning out some shoots. I stood for a while and just watched them work. I'm rubbish at actual gardening and they seemed so involved what they were doing that I didnt want to interrupt them.
As I stood and watched them working at flower beds and raised borders I noticed that there was a garden path, a wavey path that went through some of the beds and to an archway, so I followed the path.
The archway was made out of stone (I think I expected something made of climbing clamatis or something) which was covered in thick ivy. The stone was cool by dry to the touch, slightly crumbly under my fingers like sandstone but it wasnt a red stone. After touching it my fingers smelt of 'green' sort of freshly cut grass-ish. It seemed to me the archway was there way before the garden was, but Im not sure why I'd say that.

Walking through the archway was an area that was just wild. It wasn't a clearing from the trees, and infact I dont remember seeing any trees at all. There was the rush of water in the distance but I didnt see a stream or river. There was just plants growing everywhere. Some starting to bloom, bees greedily rushing from flower to flower. I almost felt like I was interrupting a very important conversation as I stood there soaking it all in, and after a while the tension seemed to ease in the 'wild garden' (I have no other word for it). I just felt deeply nourished by this place, it felt very old, as if the seeds from the new cultivated garden (in comparison to this older garden) had come from here. That these were the 'Oak Men' of the plant kingdom. Looking back on it, I should have looked close to the ground to see if there were any plant sized ents! (Ok slightly batty idea, but an interesting one!).

I stayed for as long as I felt welcome, but it was so blissful there in the sunshine. Birds singing, insects all over the place and plants just humming together. I wonder if deep within the groundcover of plants are some remains of standing stones or some sort of worship site?

Walking back on the path, through the archway and there again I saw the 3 women, only this time on what appeared to be a 'tea break' (I believe these are VERY important to gardeners, but being the worst gardener in the world, I wouldnt know LOL). One was keen to talk to me and called me towards her with a smile on her face, a smudge of soil where she had scratched her nose as she worked the earth.
I know that we communicated but I cant remember what we had shared, only that I am aware that somewhere in the Gardens there is another one to find! But it doesnt always come out to play. How exciting!

I then started to leave the realm that I was and felt myself returning to my body once again, still shuffling, still aware of the snow covering my house, my inability to drive anywhere because my car is frozen, and felt deeply honourd to have experienced something of the Sacred Garden and the folk that tend to it!