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The Mary Garden: Cultivating the Earth and Spirit
Blessing of the Gardens of Festival Hill
"Mary is the most beloved woman in all of the planet," writes David Richo in Mary Within. Who was Mary? Who was this Miriam, Maiden of Nazareth, the Mother of Christ? Mary, who became the inspiration to so many, from great world leaders to poor country peasants; she is a humble, yet extraordinary woman who said "yes" to the angel and is now a special patroness to believers everywhere. Rooted in Egypt, Sicily, Greece, and the Middle East, she is mentioned more times in the Koran than in the Bible. How did she come to be associated with gardens, flowers and the month of May? In the beginning, Mother Nature was the most powerful of deities, a goddess remember in clay, ivory and stone statues, thousands found throughout the world. From India to Great Britain, Anatolian Turkey to Mexico and the lands below, many images of her were depicted without feet, suggesting they were stuck in the earth, and as if she was emerging from it. This Mother was the source and giver of all, the tellus mater, the great Earth Mother, later called Gaia, Ishtar, Artemis; the Mother with a thousand names. Fertile and green, her origins were in the humus of the earth itself. Sometimes a Black Madonna, like Isis and Our Lady of Guadalupe, she signified a deep connection with the rich earth and the darkness in which the seed germinated. As a result, flowers and plants carried a mystical meaning for the people of these cultures. The Greeks and Romans and others named flowers after their deities and created stories about them. Flora was the Roman goddess of flowers, vineyards and olive groves; her festival was celebrated in early May. By Medieval times, the symbolism of herbs, flowers and trees in Europe had a Christian overlay. Therefore the fragrant white Lily, once sacred to the Greek Mother goddess, Hera, as well as Aphrodite's Rose, became sacred to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the new Earth Mother, and May became her special month. I fondly remember the May Fetes of my Catholic girlhood, where one lucky girl each year was chosen to crown Mary. All the boys and girls were dressed in their finest to honor her, and as we processed, we sang:
Oh Mary, we crown thee, with blossoms today.
The first real mention of a Mary Garden was made in the 15th Century, in the written account of a plant purchase made for the Norwich Priory of England. In the 16th century, the Mary Garden at a Cistercian Seminary in Scotland included Our Lady's Smock (Bittercress), Our Lady's Thistle (Blessed Thistle), Our Lady's Keys (Yellow Primrose), Our Lady's Thimble (Harebell), and Our Lady's Tears (Lily of the Valley). Lily of the Valley is associated with the soul, as are all white sweet-scented flowers. Also in many Mary Gardens are Our Lady's Bedstraw, Our Lady's Cushions, and Our Lady's Tresses. Lady's Mantle became known as a Mary's plant because the leaves looked like her cloak and it collected droplets of dew, thought to be healing water from Heaven. The deep blue Morning Glory, opening to the sun, has also been named for Our Lady. The Monks from the New World took it back to Spain and called it Mary's Mantle. Teasel, once called Venus' Basin, for the way the leaves held water in their hollows, was Christianized to Our Lady's Basin. The Marigold, or Mary's Gold, became the floral emblem of Lady Day, March 25th, the day of the Feast of the Annunciation. Legend had it that the Calundula was born of her tears, that the color cheered her on the journey to Egypt and sprung from her footsteps. Lady Day was a day when statues of Mary were hung with crowns of Marigolds, just as the Greeks and Romans had decorated their deities. But it was not until the 20th century, hundreds of years after the Reformation and Protestantism that the idea of the Mary Garden reappeared. In 1932, the first modern Mary Garden was created around a figure of Our Lady of Annunciation beside the bell tower of St. Joseph's Church in Cape Cod. A restored version of that garden still exists. Many more gardens have been created to reinstate devotion to Mary and to create gardens of prayerful worship. A Mary Garden is a place of quiet reflection, a place of retreat and solace. The moment we gaze upon her, we begin to breathe better; we relax and know that we are heard. Let's recall Guadalupe's words to Juan Diego when she appeared to him on a rocky hill in Mexico:
Have you forgotten?
Most of the Medieval Mary Gardens were symmetrical, designed according to the Eastern notion of Paradise, where two rivers divided a garden into quarters with a fountain or pool in the center. Mary was thought to be an overflowing fountain of love, and water is often present at her shrines. Today we will use the Holy waters of Ephesus, Lourdes and the Shrine of the Virgin of San Juan in our own Texas Valley to bless these gardens. We find her image today in many gardens, shaped from tile, concrete, even aluminum cans. I have seen old claw foot bathtubs turned over to create a blue alcove to house her, surrounded by blooming Roses in coffee cans and White Madonna Lilies in washtubs. I have prayed in magnificent grottos dedicated to her, as well as Medieval enclosures like the one we stand in today. Mary is our confidant, advocate and our holy ground. She is all that is loving and wise, giving and embracing. She is our consolation, our Mystical Rose, the Queen of Peace; she is a source of hope. Just as she shelters humanity, so do we care for our garden plots with a maternal love. When we dedicate our gardens to her, we acknowledge that gardening itself is an act of nurturing. I think of Madeline and Gwen, and all of the love they have poured into these gardens here at Festival Hill. This past February, one crisp and blue-sky day, after a particularly wet and dreary January, I was working on my four herb plots in the community garden; one of those four plots is a Mary garden. A few weeks after I installed the statue of Mary, I heard there was a little talk, a little grumbling about a religious icon in a public garden. And as I weeded on that clear cold day, around the blooming Dill, the healing grey Sage and the fragrant Rosemary, I thought about Mary, Mother of Earth and Heaven, and I remembered her roots: Gaia, Isis, Flora, Ishtar. She is not just a Catholic Mary, or even a Christian Mary. Doesn't everyone need a mother? Are we not mothers to our gardens, as we plant in the Mother Earth herself? No, she is not exclusive to Christians; she belongs to all of us. -Lucia |