Introduction to My Space

These "gardens" have been on my mind for years. I have lost myself in them while falling asleep or walking to work. Originally i imagined them as possible realities, but in the back of my head i know that such grand designs would take much time and hard work to make real. I'm not sure i'll ever have a life where i can pull all the necessary elements together, but i continued to dream.

During a time when i was particularly focusing on my spiritual growth, i realized that i could formalize the garden elements as a mandala, almost. And for a handful of months now I have moved into these mental spaces to pray and to meditate. I've had a few moving realizations here, as well as found that this was a good manner for me to center.

I've sketches at home and my own notes in my notebooks, but, inspired by the nonlinear nature of the web, by my fantasy of putting Mary Daly's _Wickedary_ on the web, and by Feorag's Temple Courtyard ( http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~feorag/temple/mainhall.html), i decided i would begin to set my gardens out for view. While i will find pleasure in maintaining a record of such a mental space, i hope that others may find something they enjoy here as well.

Blessed Be!

Maintained by Elaine

The Herb Garden:

Center Sundial Circle

A grey gravel path encircles a sundial on a pedestal. The base of the sundial is surrounded by herbs familiar and fragrant in a wonderful profuse mass. The bronze flat of the sundial, tarnished to a dull rich brown, is larger than a dinner plate, but not by much, and does not have some bon mot inscribed around the perimeter. Instead the arm can easily be slipped out of its mooring and hung on an unobtrusive hook embedded in the grey stone of the simple pedestal. Clearly, an altar space for offerings.

The path is wide enough for two to walk arm and arm. Paths spoke out from the circle to the four cardinal directions and to the points in between, connecting with a broader slate paved path -- a wheel to this hub. A wooden wall marks off the garden to the east, too high to see over, with a door with a clever rope latch in the center of the wall at the end of the eastern path. To the south there is a low hedge of blooming white roses and blackberries, with an orchard beyond, and a simple garden gate at the end of the southern path. A rambling rock wall with steps into an adobe ranch home is at the end of the path west. And marking off the garden to the north is a high hedge of boxwood, with a simple door -- similar to the eastern door -- framed by an arch. In the north west corner there is a wooden garden bench, and in the south east corner there is a modern sculpture, much like a Henry Moore.

Map of the Herb Garden

The problem with the reader guided journey is that the author must provide a map. Maybe, in a few decades, we will have developed an aesthetic sense for how transitions of this nature are to be provided. A graphic interface -- one of those sensitive maps -- is probably the most elegant solutions. Yet, i retain a certain faith in words. Can i not, though my associations of texts and the precise choice of words, create a collection of documents which reads as seamlessly as a novel yet allows branches where a novel does not?

So here is a simple map to all the places from which you may make a choice as to the direction in which you may go. Hopefully the links are quick for you, and you may progress as if turning a page. IF NOT, you can at least BACK up to this page from each of the garden segments OR you can choose to be guided around deiseal [ which means? ]by me through the entire wheel.

	    _____________________________________ 
           |       . . . . . N . . . . .         | 
           |      .	     :           .       | 
           |   NW    	     :	  	NE 	 | 
           |  .  .           :          .   .    | 
           |  .    .         :        .       .  | 
           |  .      .       :	    .         .  | 
           |  .        .    _:_   .           .  | 
           |  .            /   \              .  | 
           |W... .. .. ..   HUB  .. .. .. .. ...E| 
           |  .            \___/              .  | 
           |  .        .     :    .           .  | 
           |  .      .       :      .         .  | 
           |  .    .         :        .       .  | 
           |  .  .           :          .    .   | 
           |   SW 	     :	  	SE       | 
           |       . . . . . : . . . . . .       | 
           |_________________S___________________|

deiseal

From the OED

deiseal dye.Sl, de;sl, , adv., sb. Also deisal, deisul. Gaelic deiseil (deiseal, deasal) adj. and adv., righthandwise, turned toward the right, dextrorsum, f. deas right hand, south, in OIr. dess, des, Welsh dehau, cognate with Lat. dex-ter, Gr. dec-io'j. (The meaning of the latter part is unknown.)

Righthandwise, towards the right; motion with continuous turning to the right, as in going round an object with the right hand towards it, or in the same direction as the hands of a clock, or the apparent course of the sun (a practice held auspicious by the Celts).

E

At the end of the eastern spoke, you may go round the slate path in a deiseal or widdershins manner, pass through the wooden door, or return to the hub.