2001

Gardening
THE YARROW LESSON

You probably have thousands of experiences like this every day, but I am new to this (and am embarrassed to admit that, as I have been working in the field of consciousness for some time now). Something happened the other day, and I just felt like sharing it with you. It blew my mind, and I keep thinking about it.

I was working in our garden, which consists of a small strip along the walkway to our house; another area right next to the front steps that we refer to as the "cottage garden;" an 8' diameter herb circle surrounding a five-year-old dogwood tree; another strip along the south side of the house where we have roses and some bulbs; and a 10' x 30' strip along the driveway that is mostly our vegetable garden. That describes the layout.

Recently I began working with the Perelandra Essences. (I have known about Perelandra for a long time, but I just never "clicked" before. Now I am plugging in like crazy!) I got the garden books, intending to read them before we began working outside this spring, but never really got around to it. I feel with all my heart that this philosophy is right, though, and feel very comfortable with everything I've read. (I've been working with MAP for a little more than a month.) So, this particular day, we had decided that we wanted to transplant some of the plants that had been growing in what we called the "hedge row," where we had taken out a gigantic overgrown yew hedge that had dominated the sidewalk. (This is the narrow strip along the walkway.) What we had put there, two years before were a comfrey plant and a yellow yarrow. They had originally been in the herb circle, but soon grew too large and needed their own space. We had liked them where they were, in the hedgerow, but felt that this was not quite the energy we had wanted there. In fact, we hadn't been too sure just what it is that we did want there, just were pretty clear not comfrey and not yarrow. We liked the comfrey and yarrow, but we just didn't know where to put them.

So that day, we decided there was a good space at one end of the vegetable garden. We have flowers planted among the vegetables, too, and a few herbs, so we felt that this would work out okay.

Now, the yarrow had gotten completely overgrown with grass. It was a solid, matted clump, with the poor yarrow barely peeking out its little head. We had weeded all around it, so it was an isolated thing. I dug all around it and lifted it out with some effort, as the soil had gone almost completely to clay. It was a hefty little guy.

As I contemplated this thing I began to feel overwhelmed. I started to try to pull the grass out, but the stuff just would not budge. It was like glue! So then I tried hacking at it with the hand trowel to see if I could loosen the soil and then pull the grass out. No go.

After feeling totally defeated, I suddenly got the idea (inspiration!) to open a coning, which I did immediately. I first said that I didn't know how to do this very well but that I desperately needed some help. I asked to be connected to the deva of gardens, Pan, the deva of our garden and the deva of yarrow. I explained the situation and asked if they could help me to extricate the yarrow from the mass of soil and grass, and get it transplanted into its new home. I got a feeling that they would help me, and I then placed my hands around the clump. (This clump was about two feet in diameter and at least a foot thick.)

What happened next is nothing short of a miracle. I felt the earth shift slightly and was inclined to begin pulling on one side of the clump. As I did, the clump separated slightly, so that about one-third of it began to loosen and come apart. I saw that the third that was coming loose had mostly yarrow in it, and not so much grass. I set the big two-thirds piece aside and concentrated on the one-third. I saw where there were some single grass plants at the edge, and I took hold of them near the top of the soil and pulled, slowly but steadily. As I did, the roots emerged intact and smoothly from the soil/root ball, with no effort at all! It was as simple as unclasping one hand with the other, if a person had their fingers entwined, one hand with the other, and pulled them apart. I could not believe my eyes or my hands!

One after the other, I repeated this task, first finding an individual grass plant and then plucking it, root and all. Each one came up smoothly and easily, with not the least bit of resistance or struggle! Eventually, the yarrow came free, and I set it down into the new place where it was to go. I asked the devas if this was a good place for it, and immediately, a clear question came into my mind: "What is the purpose of this garden?"

I was thunderstruck. What a logical and intelligent question! Why didn't I ever think of that myself? (In a way, we had, but we were never this conscious with it until now.) We told the devas that this is our vegetable garden, to produce food for our family, and that it is also a place of beauty that feeds our spirits and nourishes our emotions. We also think of it as a healing garden, which is why we wanted the comfrey and the yarrow at the front of it. The devas then said, yes, this was a good place for it. And the transplanting went smoothly.

I was given to understand that I was to disconnect with the yarrow deva and to connect with the comfrey deva to transplant it. And all went very well with that. At the end, I thanked them all and closed the coning, just a little shaken. I went inside and took some essences. Thank you for making this experience possible. I am deeply moved (and more than a little humble).

— N.B., New York