Author: Sulis Sunrise Sophia

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Spring has Sprung

This year for the first time I started seeds in a greenhouse!  They are all doing very well.  Tulsi and Lavender are coming along as well as some colorful calendula, lupines, nasturtiums, morning glories and more.  I was hoping for some fiery Galliardia plants for the beginning of the rainbow pathway, but it’s difficult to get started. . . so we’ll see.

I hope that you got to see some of the very first flowers a few weeks ago.  The white drooping Snow Drops, Glory of the Snow and yellow, purple and white crocuses or also purple croci.  I was able to make some flower essences of these special flowers at the full moon.  They really embody the energy of beginnings and pushing through. . . pushing through those hard cold places.  I’m seeing parallels in my personal life right now where there have been some stuck places that I just have not really wanted to look at all that squarely before now.  Always lingering below the surface. . . there, but too scary for me to actually shine the light on.  But now, finally it’s time to embrace the hard things, the cold things I’ve been keeping hidden in the back of the freezer for so long.  We are thawing out and ready to bloom now.

snowdrop-flowers-spring-flower-plant.jpg    Snow drops have an energetic signature of threes.  Three petals make up the tube and then 3 more are drooping down.  I’ve also been working the dynamics of threes lately.  For me the old pattern of the three was one of being left out or feeling the energy of two against one, but these days that we’re living in now are days of radical evolutionary change where people are coming together and healing old patterns and I can say for myself that I am learning about the beauty of relating in groups of three.  Functional threes that are supportive of one another.  I’m currently in two writing groups that have 3 people each.  It gives us the intimacy of a very small group and very personal attention, but maybe a hair less intense than say two people. They say that the most stable tables have three legs and we have long been indoctrinated into the concept of father, son and Holy Ghost. . . a triangle with the apex at the top is like ascending into heaven and with the apex downward is like bringing the holiness to the earth. . . when these two triangle combine together we get a merkaba. . . which is seen as a symbol for creating heaven here on earth.  There are many flowers that combine the patterns of differentiated threes, like when we look at the crocus or an iris we see the contrast of the shape of the inner 3 petals overlaid on the outer 3. …. but the snowdrop is the trailblazing first of the symbolic 2 in the flower world that comes up in the Spring and as such it has a gentle energy of being coupled with the energy of that first emergence and penetrating the soil. . . as the pioneer, the snow drop uses a gentle force. . .its not like the daffodils which says, “hey everybody, I’m here”. . . snow drop is unassuming. . . you really have to get down to earth and underneath to see the center of this flower and in a way that’s what its doing, it’s pulling us down to earth to bring that awareness to our ground cover once again that has been covered by snow for so long.  Here I am, let’s ease into spring together. . . be gentle, be penetrative but in a soft gentle way.

29570330_10155748442778882_2093040096864264505_n     The Glory of the Snow is a blue flower that has 5  blue petals with white centers. Its almost a little like that Maxfield Parrish blue. A little more audacious than the snowdrop, it provides a beautiful contrast to the white snow. Little stars on the ground reminding us of the stars in the sky bridging heaven and earth. Five is the star, at least the traditional star in our culture.  The five pointed star shines on our flag and when we look at that daVinci sketch of the man in the circle  For me 5 is reminiscent of family.  I have 3 sisters and one brother. I’m still learning how to work with the combo of 5.  Five also reminds me the 5 Chinese Elementals. Five can seem a little overwhelming to me at times.  I dream of fields of saturated colors and there are some places where I’ve seen a good showing, but always on the lookout for the beauty and welcome you to share your sightings of flowers.  Hopefully we can continue to create more and more beauty around us and inspire others to see the beauty that we see.  This world certainly could use more beauty  in it.

29595565_10155748442793882_7311747528650994330_n     Most of us are pretty familiar with croci.  We mostly see these as the first flowers in Spring.  Usually 3 or six petaled, they usually have 3 stamen.  Stamen are the pollen producing parts of the flowers that rest at the center of the flower.  I think it was the end of March when I was walking through Smith College here in Northampton and spotted a huge patch of purple crocuses under a big oak tree.  They are a gentle flower often emerging along with snow bringing us joy and happiness as we are reminded after a long winters rest that Spring flowers are nearing.

I will make the essences and Rose Petal Elixir available for sale as well as selling some plants at a local farmer’s market.  Please stay posted for what we’re cooking up here in the garden this summer.

Much love!

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Welcome to the Garden

“And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden.” ~ Joni Mitchell

One of those iconic songs from the sixties rings true today. Really the garden is timeless, all the way back to Adam & Eve. Even the wise book of the Christians and Jews refers to the importance of the garden. It’s such an essential backbone of our existence, put on our planet to nurture us. Some people grow vegetables, others herbs and flowers.   I’m focusing mostly on Tulsi, Rose and Lavender.  What is Eden? How do we get back there? I see it as heaven on earth and one of my main missions here on this planet is to live each moment with conscious loving kindness to create that heaven on earth once again. That is what this blog is about: The places that our consciousness connects with the spiritual and how to bridge our inner world with this world we live in that we may shine our lights so brightly that we inspire others to shine and sing their own soul’s song.

I started this blog to chronicle the events  and magic of the plants and the culture of people that grow around it. I’ll talk some about the actual growing process, but will also muse on our connection to spirit, our own and the thread of loving kindness that connects us all. That almost unnameable force that connects us all is how I got to be here on this piece of land with this garden. Mind you, I’m not a landowner, yet somehow spirit has conspired to help me bring forth this vision into the real 3D world.  Thank you great Spirit for bringing me here. Everyday I count my blessings and am so grateful.

You might ask how a person with no savings and nothing to her name could manifest this dream. My only assets are a car and a dog, well not sure if Taka is technically an asset, but to me she is my biggest one. This is the story of what happens when you really, really, really believe in your dreams. I imagined this garden, I drew this garden regularly for over a year. I talked about it to everyone I knew. I was excited about it. I enlisted the thoughts and imaginations of others by sharing the vision. I really think others could almost see it too. I prayed a lot. I asked source, the oneness, Great Spirit to show me where and I trusted my gut.

Around 2011 we had this snowstorm around Halloween that caused a lot of damage. The leaves were still on the trees and a lot of power lines went down. I was living alone in an apartment in Northampton, Mass. when my power went out I had no heat. I could cook on the gas stove top, but it was cold in there. That’s when I made the decision that I wanted to live somewhere that had a wood stove and some better resources to handle those kinds of things.

I thought maybe Montague or Shutesbury, but then I started having a magical connection with Shelburne Falls. I could just feel inside that it was the right place. So I rented a small office in Shelburne Falls to bring myself and my energy up there while I looked around. I was studying with a rabbi at the time because I wanted to learn about Judaism and he had invited me to sing at a Passover dinner at the synagogue. I went over to TempleIsrael in Greenfield to volunteer to help set the space up and at some point between putting out plates and silverware I got myself locked out of the building. I knocked and pounded and tried to get their attention, but to no avail. Luckily it was a full moon and as I was standing there I could see the beauty of her fullness and I started singing. The acoustics in this little vestibule were so strong that my voice really resonated beautifully. I think that the vibration of the singing helped to raise the consciousness of what happened next.

Someone finally heard me and opened up the door.  I was working with this lovely woman Janice, whom I had just met. As we were setting up another table she told me that she was from Shelburne Falls.
“I’m interested in moving there,” I said.
“Well, what are you looking for?”
Inside I thought, really? Can I really ask for what I want? Well here goes nothing!
“I’d really like to find a house sit.”
“Oh, well we’re looking for a house sitter in August, “she said.

And that’s how I got here to this beautiful piece of land nestled in between the hills and near the river. There are goats and chickens and when I first moved here there were several greenhouses that were still standing from a farmer who had been running a CSA. Just like home!

Then there was asking about the garden. I had told Janice and her husband, Michael about my idea for the garden after a couple of months of living here. But asking about planting it here was a whole other trust exercise. Inside, again, I thought… ” I can’t ask that, they’ll just say no.”

But somehow I convinced myself that I had nothing to lose in asking the question. The worst thing that could happen is that they could say, “no thanks.” But they didn’t, they said yes!

And with that yes, I put a shovel in the ground and just kept on digging, trusting that the vision would be revealed.