Green Hermeticism by Christopher Bamford

Author:Christopher Bamford
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781584205456
Publisher: Lindisfarne Books

Are we interested in comparing all these various methods in a scientific spirit of experiment—or do we want to combine them all in the cause of an immediate and total praxis? The good alchemist would do both—solve et coagula—analyze and synthesize. Our astral garden will be an educational experience, not a guaranteed done deal. How much can we learn and discover?

For now the Astral Garden remains just another thought experiment. So it would be pointless to speculate on the exact form of this real world manifestation. The area around New Lebanon includes many polluted and distressed locales and many poor communities eager to help themselves (and especially their youth) by helping each other. Moreover, grant money is available for bioremediation and for art projects—and combinations of the two. Not many grants are awarded to self-professed alchemists in contemporary America, but “bioremediation art” is already a recognized hot new field. Given the real commitment of even a small group, the astral garden could become solid reality.

In that speculative spirit I'll end with a purely notional or conceptual grid design for an astral garden, one that could be applied to almost any actual physical space. Our garden would emphasize the Seven Planets and the 12-sign Zodiac, because these are the best known astral symbols in our culture. The Lunar Mansions will be present as an esoteric dimension such as they occupy in al-Biruni's Sufi Astrology or the Image Magic of Cornelius Agrippa. In China and India the Lunar Mansions play a huge role in romance and marriage; compatabilities and clashes are determined by elaborate systems of lunar divination. We want this romantic erotic aspect of our garden to flourish in a “Language of Flowers,” herbs and trees. So we must emphasize the Western Zodiac, which plays precisely this role in our occidental astrology—as any hometown newspaper horoscope column will readily confirm.

The four corners of the garden will be “protected” by Herms. The original form of Hermes was a heap of stones marking the boundary of a farm field—and here we return him to his most primordial function.6 The points on my “map” occupied by asterisms can be marked with stones, perhaps carved with appropriate sijils and symbols. Appropriate plants will grow around these symbols. Obviously we can't use Indian Nakshatra Signature-trees like the mango, the neem or the sacred fig.7 But local equivalents will be found, either in traditional sources like Culpepper and Agrippa, or by means of psychic empirical research.

The “squared circle” plan includes the traditional garden design of a) the Quincunx (center and four points) and also b) the foursquare or “Paradise” plan of Koranic heaven and Persian gardens:

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