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The Secret Garden: Chapters 19, 20 and 21

#59: Dec. - Jan. 2009 (Fiction)
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giselle

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For thousands of years humans have lived so cruelly that all wild creatures fear and avoid them, so the influence of the animal kingdom upon humanity is practically confined to that of the domestic animals.
This quote from the article that Tom referenced above helps to highlight how significant Dickon's relationship with the robin and with other animals is and how his charm with animals is seen as a form of magic. His gentleness and understanding toward the animals and plants creates an aura around him, which I think would draw people toward him. For Mary and Colin the curative power of this magic is clear and they want to believe in it.
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Thomas Hood
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realiz wrote:
And weve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
OK, but I want to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, or at least hang around it and learn by absorption.
Well, as I remember, there were two trees -- the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (worldly wisdom) and the Tree of Life (the Qi Tree). And this second tree is the one that gives health and vitality, so Mary and Colin were partaking of this second tree.

Tom
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giselle wrote: . . .how significant Dickon's relationship with the robin and with other animals is and how his charm with animals is seen as a form of magic. His gentleness and understanding toward the animals and plants creates an aura around him, which I think would draw people toward him. For Mary and Colin the curative power of this magic is clear and they want to believe in it.
A stray cat I took in added, I believe, a year to my elderly mother's life. She had pretty much given up on life until the cat showed up. And this magic doesn't require a prescription from a Dr. Craven.

Tom
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Robert Tulip

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Thomas Hood wrote:
realiz wrote:
And weve got to get ourselves Back to the garden
OK, but I want to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, or at least hang around it and learn by absorption.
Well, as I remember, there were two trees -- the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (worldly wisdom) and the Tree of Life (the Qi Tree). And this second tree is the one that gives health and vitality, so Mary and Colin were partaking of this second tree. Tom
The Two Trees, by WB Yeats, provides a good symbolic description of the tree of life and the tree of knowledge, and it seems clear that The Secret Garden is about the Tree of Life, which of course is also known as Ygdrassil in Norse myth, features in the Kabbalah and is mentioned in Genesis and Revelation. The second verse is quite a good description of the delusory ideas that The Secret Garden aims to address.

THE TWO TREES

by: William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

BELOVED, gaze in thine own heart,
The holy tree is growing there;
From joy the holy branches start,
And all the trembling flowers they bear.
The changing colours of its fruit
Have dowered the stars with merry light;
The surety of its hidden root
Has planted quiet in the night;
The shaking of its leafy head
Has given the waves their melody,
And made my lips and music wed,
Murmuring a wizard song for thee.
There the Loves a circle go,
The flaming circle of our days,
Gyring, spiring to and fro
In those great ignorant leafy ways;
Remembering all that shaken hair
And how the winged sandals dart,
Thine eyes grow full of tender care:
Beloved, gaze in thine own heart.

Gaze no more in the bitter glass
The demons, with their subtle guile,
Lift up before us when they pass,
Or only gaze a little while;
For there a fatal image grows
That the stormy night receives,
Roots half hidden under snows,
Broken boughs and blackened leaves.
For all things turn to barrenness
In the dim glass the demons hold,
The glass of outer weariness,
Made when God slept in times of old.
There, through the broken branches, go
The ravens of unresting thought;
Flying, crying, to and fro,
Cruel claw and hungry throat,
Or else they stand and sniff the wind,
And shake their ragged wings; alas!
Thy tender eyes grow all unkind:
Gaze no more in the bitter glass.

"The Two Trees" is reprinted from The Rose. W.B. Yeats. 1893.
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So what about the ghost? Is the ghost of Colin's mother there in the garden?
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realiz

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So what about the ghost? Is the ghost of Colin's mother there in the garden?
I guess it depends on how you see a ghost. The 'spirit' of Colin's mother is there and also she seems to be with Mr Craven on his hike when he starts to lose some of his bitterness when he sits down by the flowers, which gives us the sense of both the magic of growing things, nature, and the spirit of his wife are working.
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I'm so excited by the interesting directions this discussion has taken. For those interested in the Theosophy link Thomas posted, there are many current (as in our "now" rather than Burnett's) texts and "New Age" books and approaches that are descendents of this strand of metaphysical thought. Some are fanciful and some brilliantly observed and experienced insights.

It seems hardly "magical" to me. I think that anyone who goes into a natural setting for any length of time is affected by the patterns, chemistry, ecology -- in shorthand, by the subtle energy of that place. This can be healing or it can provide one with the "precious bane" of a challenge, leading to constructive action and renewal, as in the case of my poison oak, without which I would not have cleaned my house and every piece of fabric I wear or touch quite as thoroughly as I just have this past week. My interaction with this plant species initially appeared to have sucked, granted, yet our home is now very comfortable and clean. But I digress.

The idea of getting "back to the Garden" in the green movements of the late 20th century to present, the connection between the individual's emotions and nature we have been discussing in the poetry strands at this site, and the science-influenced metaphysics of Theosophy and it's children -- all are instances of an attempt on the part of Western culture to come to terms with a living environmental matrix that resists the crude treatment of it as a mere object. Also of other living beings as objects. Mary's healing comes in finding her own "bit of earth," a place which like her is neglected and shut out of sight of those who might care for it; in caring for this bit of life outside of herself, she heals herself. The process demands that she care also for others, sometimes holding them accountable or using them as mirrors for self-discovery, but never will it do simply to shut them out or pretend they are objects for her to use at will. Life cannot be in isolation. It needs nourishment, light, water, sun, love. Nothing lives in and of itself. This is the reality of connectedness, wholeness, which people mistakenly label "spiritual" although it is simply a fact at every level of our experience including the physical.
"Where can I find a man who has forgotten the words so that I can talk with him?"
-- Chuang-Tzu (c. 200 B.C.E.)
as quoted by Robert A. Burton
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Hi GR9. Yes, the theosophy article by Leadbetter was good. I read about him in a biography of Krishnamurti, and he had a strongly telluric sense of the energy of natural rocks as a result of meditating in the bushland around Sydney, where I also grew up, and where I had favourite spots such as Whale Rock in North Epping. In Australia the energy of place is a strong theme in Aboriginal dreaming spirituality and art. Australian bushland is much less affected by human disturbance than in Europe, and there is a sense of ancient undisturbed complexity and sensitivity about it.

Re the 'back to the garden' idea from Joni Mitchell, I had an exchange with the distinguished theologian NT Wright about this at a conference in Canberra. He lambasted the new age movement, citing Woodstock for its supposed line 'we are starlight' which he said was false. I pointed out to him that in fact the song says 'we are stardust' which is empirically correct. I have no respect for him as he is an apologist for many untrue ideas in conventional Christianity.

You are right that Burnett is part of a strand of thought that I would call natural wisdom, but it remains the case that this entire way of thought is rejected by mainstream opinion. I think The Secret Garden is a diagnosis of this pathology of rejection of nature. Other books I like in this theme include the work of Carlos Castaneda and James Redfield.

Your comment about magic is well put. I think this area is riven with confusion, as clearly it is not possible to break the laws of physics, but within natural law there are complex events, such as Dickon's conversations with the robin, which are highly unusual and rely on a rare attunement to nature which by ordinary standards can be called magical.
Last edited by Robert Tulip on Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Thomas Hood
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GentleReader9 wrote:Mary's healing comes in finding her own "bit of earth," a place which like her is neglected and shut out of sight of those who might care for it;
That is an insightful observation -- the correspondence of outer and inner, the secret garden and the hidden self. And that's what I think magic is. It's the basis of all creative endeavor.

Tom
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Robert Tulip Posted: Tue Dec 23, 2008 8:17 pm
Hi GR9. Yes, the theosophy article by Leadbetter was good. I read about him in a biography of Krishnamurti, and he had a strongly telluric sense of the energy of natural rocks as a result of meditating in the bushland around Sydney, where I also grew up, and where I had favourite spots such as Whale Rock in North Epping. In Australia the energy of place is a strong theme in Aboriginal dreaming spirituality and art. Australian bushland is much less affected by human disturbance than in Europe, and there is a sense of ancient undisturbed complexity and sensitivity about it.
Hello, Robert Tulip,

And Merry Christmas; as I recall you do celebrate it. I hope it is a warm and beautiful day full of whatever kind of magic is best for you and all the others who visit this site and read this message now and in the future.

My wishing this is a kind of "magic" based on the concept of magical words or powerful writing, forms which can hold my emotional, intellectual intent and "content." The strange idea behind this used to be that you could make marks on stones, on papyrus -- or on nothing but the air, for you can speak, chant or sing certain sounds into a moment -- and others, present or absent, would be affected by it. It was true then and it's true now, to the degree that people choose to learn to participate in the process.

You can look at this post, know that I mean you well, that I wish you warm and happy, and choose to feel that. But look at the improbability! You are on the other side of the world, reading electronic patterns of energy and feeling how you feel about it. Human beings are powerful and intense creatures, each with ancient and deep connections to the physical world and to each other, no matter where they are. Like Mary and the others in the book, we have power and we get to decide how to use it, with what kind of spirit.

I open my heart to the spirit of the ancient dreaming around you, written on the Australian part of the earth and I breathe in the awareness of it with respect and love for the people who left it to us. I believe they meant us well and remember them as grandparents, great-aunts and uncles, with love and high regard.

I have to work now. More later.
"Where can I find a man who has forgotten the words so that I can talk with him?"
-- Chuang-Tzu (c. 200 B.C.E.)
as quoted by Robert A. Burton
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