This part of my blog is an ode to my love affair with Gaia. I have always been awkward around people, not really understanding the machinations of what it means to be in a body, and how to feel comfortable in the physical form. Growing up I never felt like I fit in, always on the periphery of the action looking in. A situation not helped by my profound shyness and my inability to acknowledge the good things in my life. Despite all this, I was intermittently aware of this powerful optimistic force within my belly that felt only happiness and gratitude for the simple gift of being alive. It was this part of me that I sought to understand, first looking at religion, and then different forms of spirituality, to see if I could find the answers to the divine force hidden there. I knew that there was something out there, I just didn’t know what, and didn’t know how to connect to it. I felt it in the warmth of the sun’s rays, in the scent of a blooming rose, in the big landscapes of foreign places. And deep down I knew that the life force that flowed through all these living things, flowed through me too. But it remained elusive, fleeting, and became drowned out by my need to keep up with the responsibilities of growing up and finding my way in the world.
Fast forward a few years to a fistful of university degrees, a husband, two kids, a mortgage, and a steady job, and I found that I couldn’t live the lie anymore…I just didn’t know how to get out. Sitting on a train one day, watching the people fighting to get on, I wondered to myself if this was it, if this was all my life was for – to be a good citizen until I keeled over and died, making way for some other obedient worker to step forward to take my place. Was I really put on this earth for this. To lead an utterly forgettable life that held no meaning. Was this to be the legacy of the latent divinity I so desperately wanted to bring alive within me.
And then she came. Mother Gaia stepped forward and gently held my hand. First with my daughter’s croup, and then my son’s eczema. One simple elderberry syrup, followed by a herbal salve made with weeds I’d been taught to fear and dig out of my lawn. Intrigued, I followed the golden thread. Signed up for a seasonal course on herbal medicine. Learned how poking around in the dirt could reveal treasures unseen to the modern eye. I made salve after salve, foraged for flowers and leaves, tinctured, brewed, and read everything I could get my hands on. What was this mystical art that turned plants into medicine. How did it work, was it safe, and what could it do in my hands. My family and friends became guinea pigs for a medley of concoctions as I tried to make sense of what these green things could do.
Mother Gaia’s voice got even stronger then. Now she clamoured for my attention, and introduced me to the world of Spirit. And that is where my learning really began. It cracked my heart wide open, healing me from the inside out while I cried out my pain, shared intimate details with strangers in circles and workshops, and learnt the art of the alchemist. A little of this, a pinch of that, and an energy healer was born. I have learned bit by bit to trust the loving voice that whispers within. Much quieter than the insistent clamour of the mind, it takes stillness and surrender to let her speak her truth. And for me, she speaks of a passion for being a conductor of the healing forces of nature. A force that has expanded to fill every corner of my life, and that now spills out into the world around me. I am sharing my gifts as best I can – trying to wake people up to the power they hold in their hands and in their lives.
Things moved up a gear when the call of Spirit urged me to uproot my family from their beloved home and to bring them to a farm of cows and trees, where we would find solace and healing of a much deeper kind. It has not been easy. Mother Gaia and I have entered another phase of co-creation that is demanding an expansion of being that I have not experienced before. Together we are creating an oasis that I call The Sacred Garden. The name may change, but the intent remains the same – a nurturing, nourishing, healing place that supports all who interact with it. Whether that be through time, food, medicine, or space. The Sacred Garden anchors into the land the sacred geometry that underpins all life. Its orientation serves as a place for the spirits of nature to sing their song, in a melodious harmony that rings out across the dimensions of the Earth.
As I have been working the land, so the land has been working on me. I have cleansed, purged, and purified more levels of emotion than I thought I could handle. And I have survived. The garden challenges me to an extent that I find unbearable at times, yet I am transformed, and with the reorganising I can feel the flow of the divinity that I have been searching for all my life start to flow through me. It is early days in the composing of our green symphony, but Mother Gaia and I invite you to walk with us, to dip in and out of the journey. And from time to time, I will tell you about the remedies that we make together at the behest of the beautiful plants that have welcomed me into their realm.
To the angels and devas of the Earth, we thank you.