I’ve been building a garden. It’s something I seem to do over and over, so this one is the result of years of experience. But this one is not just about growing food. This garden is about creating planetary change. It is a way to put shamanic, magical energy into my vision of what I think would make life on our Earth better. The principles are broad, and for the most part, I trust deity to move us toward greater health and well-being, although I do continue to educate myself as best I can.

The four areas I am working with are: agriculture and food production, sustainable finance, communication and human connection, and entertainment.

For anyone who has read my blog, you’ll know that the first is my strongest area. How we produce food, and what we eat affects EVERYTHING. And the fact that we are so isolated from our food is unhealthy for both physical and spiritual reasons. This blog is about bridging the world of spirit and the world of the mundane (food is great for this). And the process has become more and more difficult as we become more technological and isolated by our individual choices. This reality led me to the third and fourth and fourth areas (I’ll get back to money in a moment).

Communication and recognizing our connections to each other are what allows us to find solutions to problems that work, as opposed to creating the political divides that are chewing us up. Face to face speech and body language are the ultimate grass roots experience. Want to convince someone of something? First you have to listen. Listen deeply and without an agenda. People have real concerns, and reasons why they hold the position they do. Until you listen, they won’t hear yours. Listening is a spiritual practice, and couldn’t we all use more of that?

Entertainment is about joy, about what makes it good to be human. Telling stories -whatever the medium – goes right to our brains. We are built for myth, for music, for laughter, lets have more of that! And this is something I need to work on. As a Capricorn with my moon in Virgo, I’m terribly serious. Thank the gods for my beloved husband who makes me crack up on a daily basis and fills my life with his music! Couldn’t we all use more of that?

As for money, money is trust inscribed in metal (or whatever you happen to use as currency). I’ll be writing a more detailed post about this later, but for now, money is not the demon it’s made out to be. Trade is preferable to war even in cases where people are perceived as being scary or unclean. Trade, and the coin that facilitates it, is a great unifier of humanity. Sustainable finance is a money system that is equitable, and allows for growth via human ingenuity, while being stable enough to prevent inflation.

So what does my garden have to do with these ideas?

Like a grounding rod, each of the four concepts is represented by a fence post. As it happens, the posts are recycled, which suits both my budget and my reuse/recycle ethic. These posts were pounded into the ground during the blue moon this summer, and sygils scribed on them. They are passive magic, pulling the intended energies from the air and putting them in the earth where they can gestate and bloom like sprouting seeds.

In the center is a small well. In the drylands, such small wells are called French drains and are used to collect more water so that it will seep slowly into the soil. This well is for healing the Earth. I serve an ancient oceanic goddess who tapped me as a child, and this is her alter, a place to pour my desire for a vibrantly healthy planet.

Between the posts and the well are my plant beds. Here, I have already put garlic for next summer, singing a song of encouragement and offering to a plant that is one of my allies.

My garden is my bridge. What’s yours?