From Anne today: "The soul is the gardener who tends the flowers of life. The weeds he leaves to themselves." I then asked, what happens when the weeds choke out the flowers. The answer: "The gardener doesn’t let that happen."
This all got me thinking about the green man, the gardener and what the flowers and weeds of life may be. During her life, Anne taught often about the green man. She always said that Jesus had a wonderful sense of humor, and to illustrate that she would tell the story of Mary Magadalene at the tomb.
She would quote John 15, "Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Then she would laugh and say, "see, here he was Jesus risen out of the tomb and she says ‘hey, gardener, where’s Jesus?’
Anne took as the emblem of her life the "Green Man." He represents both fertility in pagan tradition and the resurrected Jesus in Christian belief. Anne was not particular about one belief over another. What interested her was the truth, and wherever she found it, there she went and was happy.
So the garden is life, but I know my wife’s teaching well. I lived by it and learned from her for many years. To her, the flowers are what in our lives we regard as lovely and pleasant, not only that. To her, the flowers are what is true and what we will take with us when it is time for us to climb Jacob’s Ladder.
To her, there were two kinds of love, sentimental love and spiritual love. She always used to say "I’m not sentimental." Recently she said that love is the basis of being. It is the foundation of reality. The universe exists because of this other kind of love. She lived in it. I come to it sometimes, and when I do I understand how it is that everything, the good, the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, is cradled in the hands of this love.
The gardener is both us and the master who lives within us all. The flowers, dark and light, are our gathered truth, faced with clear eyes. The weeds are the illusions of hate, anger, lust, greed, all of that stuff.
"Regard the lilies of the field, see how they grow."
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What a wonderful entry! Thank
What a wonderful entry! Thank you Whitley and Anne.
I have been wondering, now that she is on the other side of the equation so to speak, if Anne still understood that Jesus and the Green Man are the same? Or, if there was a different understanding of that correspondence we need to take?
Christ the re-generator and re-integrator. The first among equals.
Green Man the personification of that energy. “The force that through the green fuse drives the flower”.
All operated upon life by the gravity of love. The Eye, the Sun (son), draws life from the womb of the fields.
Oh, this is excellent,
Oh, this is excellent, lovely. Thank you for this.
“wherever she found it, there she went and was happy.”
I mentioned to Anne at your
I mentioned to Anne at your first Nashville get-together, that there is a wonderful song by the English band XTC. The title of the song is Green Man.
This is just lovely, and
This is just lovely, and resonates so deeply! Thank you, Anne and Whitley.
Beautiful. Thank you, Anne
Beautiful. Thank you, Anne and Whitley. The two of you are so blessed to continue your union, bridging the gap and piercing the veil with your shared love. I admire both of you so much, and recognize and acknowledge the level of love you are bringing to the world. Thank you.
I, too, have twice had the direct experience of love as the foundation for all reality; once when I was 6, my mind or spirit connected with the cosmos for a brief second, and I saw that it was all love, a living, conscious love. The other time I was meditating when I was 17, and I saw and moved through a beautiful three-dimensional latticework or matrix, comprised of gleaming, silvery strands of living love energy, criss-crossing and connecting everything to everything else. Reading this latest entry from Anne, it is good to be reminded of the flowers of our lives. Sometimes I feel lost in the weeds, and it is so good to remember the flowers we have cultivated, so thank you for the reminder.
My grandfather very recently passed, and lately, I have had some form of contact with him. I could hear his voice in my head, his inflections, tones, mannerisms, everything. He was always a very curious and inquisitive man, an engineer, and a really neat guy. I knew he’d be seeing and exploring all he could after he passed. I asked him, a couple of days after he had passed, if he could see other worlds with life on them. He said “Yeah!” just exactly the way he would say it, and continued enthusiastically, “the universe is teeming with great multitudes of life! It is so beautiful! God is truly great!” I think he’s moved on and up to new things, I don’t hear much from him anymore. I think he’s happily exploring and enjoying being reunited with God. He always was much more spiritual than material. Although, just last night, I saw in my hallway a brief white fluttering, as if a white sheet were being waved for me to see. When I looked in that direction, it vanished. Perhaps he’s still hanging out here and there. 🙂
Anyway, thanks again for a beautiful entry, both of you.