Gardening Without God
by Tarenta
I ask you to follow me on a journey of timeless truths about
gardening, and I hope you will come to realize that God, the Creator of
All Life, should never be forgotten.
I
woke up at dawn to witness and participate in a sunrise ceremony during
an Intertribal Native American Indian-sponsored event to stop logging
of a virgin forest by educating all about the sacredness of the place
where we were camping, which was in Stein Valley in British Columbia,
Canada. Some years ago it was in the middle of August and the valley
was about 8,000 feet high. Before one descended into the valley after a
two-hour steep hike you could see several lakes feeding into one
another, surrounded by rolling hills and a variety of trees, grasses,
and flowers. It snowed a little during the descent and rainbows were
dancing amongst us. Native American Indian representatives from many
tribes were present as well as ecologists, environmentalists,
musicians, artists, and activists from all the cultures of this
precious planet. And here we were gathering to pray and learn what we
could do to stop another insane destructive act in the long history of
greed.
Several chiefs and leaders began their prayers first by giving thanks
to the Creator, the land, the animals, the plants, and the living
spiritual forces. They raised their arms towards the east as the sun
crested above the granite mountains. And then they honored all the four
directions as well as the sky/cosmos and the earth which they called
their Mother. Some shared stories and songs, and all had to do with the
sacred hoop of life, the interconnectedness and interdependence of all
living things, worshipping the Creator, and the miracle of creation. I
was in awe, and I felt transported into timeless truths my soul has
always known, but so little acknowledged. And even if I didn't
understand God's purpose or plan, I was assured that many in this
circle knew of a magnificent Creator.
Most of the elders who prayed made an offering of some special herb,
pollen, or grain with which their tribe had a deep relationship. This
is when I was introduced into gardening being sacred and a spiritual
path. The Hopi elder had brought some cornmeal and some cornpollen to
give away. He explained that their life depends on it, and they honor
and respect the seeds passed on from generation to generation, from
season to season. He shared creation stories, prophecies, and parables
of choosing the good road or the ones which lead astray by selfish
living outside of the original instructions given to them by the
Creator. Each day in their gardens they remember these stories with
sunrise and sunset ceremonial prayers and songs and, on occasion, with
dances where many clans meet and give of themselves in reverence. Other
elders brought the beans, sage, tobacco, ground pinesap, copal,
maplesyrup, cedar, seeds, gourds, sunflowers, pigment colors, and much
more—all of them telling us their creation story and way of life trying
to live in harmony with the land by divine instructions.
It was there that I felt my spirit urging me to simplify my life so I
wouldn't be such a big part of the problem of self-destruction. “Live
simply so others may simply live” was a bumpersticker I had on my
vehicle for many years and a philosophy which makes more sense now than
it ever had. Are we all supposed to go back to the land and grow food
like in the alternative movements of the seventies? Should we become
vegetarians or vegans? Should we go back in time? Should we renew the
practices of indigenous peoples and live without scientific inventions
and machines? Which religion should we practice, or should we practice
no religion at all? How should our society be structured: patriarchal,
matriarchal, hierarchical? Or, is anarchy and antiauthoritarianism the
answer? Should we grow monocultures or companion planting? The list of
questions goes on and on. Many of the answers have been tested and
tried for thousands of years, and some are just emerging.
There is one question which is as controversial as the beginning of the
Lucifer Rebellion on this and other planets: Should you garden without
God?
When you study gardening and agriculture in the universities of modern
cultures you don't hear anything about God's influence or design.
Science with all its advantages has eliminated the need for God's
blessing. We are now equipped with every machine, every pesticide,
every chemical fertilizer, every preservative, the newest and fastest
transport, every expert advice imaginable to do it ourselves without
God. We invent our own seeds by genetically modifying them in such ways
that seemingly most problems can be solved. We are in control. We can
change our food intake to fast and quick gratifications, and since we
have a many-trillion-dollar medical support system, we will be healed
or at least kept alive to enjoy some years of splendid retirement
without the necessity of ever having to learn about the Garden of Eden
or how to get our fingers into the earth, its soil, and its organisms
of which we are a part. Unfortunately, we as humans have become the
cancer of the earth, and she is erupting on all levels to heal herself.
What about the alternative movements, you may ask. When you live an
alternative lifestyle, educating yourself and weaning yourself from the
comforts of a technical society, there is a chance that you develop
your own religion. You just take what feels right to you: a little
Father God, a little Mother Goddess, fairies, divas, elementals, the
universe, the ley lines of the earth, Gaia consciousness, dolphin
intelligence, Schau-berger, Steiner, Albrecht, organic this and that,
and besides that: “All ways lead to God,” and “Who really needs one?”
“There is good and bad karma;” “All is an illusion;” “We are just
dreaming a dream within a dream;” “Sex, drugs and rock 'n roll;” “I am
a master, shaman, avatar, teacher, healer, intuitive, sensitive,” and
of course there are some who claim to be God since “We are all Gods.”
Isn't that convenient!!!!
In the beginning I asked you to follow me on a journey of timeless
truths about gardening in the hope you will come to realize that God,
the Creator of All Life should never be forgotten. Have you ever dreamt
of a harmonious world, where the fruits of the divine spirit which are
yielded in the lives of spirit-born and God-knowing mortals are: loving
service, unselfish devotion, courageous loyalty, sincere fairness,
enlightened honesty, undying hope, confiding trust, merciful ministry,
unfailing goodness, forgiving tolerance, and enduring peace? Can you
imagine that the rebellion of greed and selfishness could end soon?
Have you ever heard of Avalon Gardens in Sedona, Arizona, USA? Is it
possible that individuals like yourselves, reading this article, can
help change the world by creating a new Garden of Eden within
yourselves and joining the implementation of a Divine Administration to
unify all people under one God? Come and see, and ponder if you are
willing to become a gardener in submission to God's perfect plan for
all life forms.
There are many references in The URANTIA Book
about the Garden of Eden, agriculture, soil, and seeds. Take the time
and research it. It is truly a revelation on many more levels.
The
cultivation of the soil is inherent in the establishment of an
advancing civilization on the evolutionary worlds....Work with the soil
is not a curse; rather is it the highest blessing to all who are thus
permitted to enjoy the most human of all human activities.1
Labor,
the efforts of design, distinguishes man from the beast, whose
exertions are largely instinctive. The necessity for labor is man's
paramount blessing....Adam was a gardener; the God of the Hebrews
labored—he was the creator and upholder of all things.2
Adam
and Eve were gardeners, not shepherds, and gardening was an advanced
culture in those days. The growing of plants exerts an ennobling
influence on all races of mankind.3
And
now is industry supplementing agriculture, with consequently increased
urbanization and multiplication of nonagricultural groups of
citizenship classes. But an industrial era cannot hope to survive if
its leaders fail to recognize that even the highest social developments
must ever rest upon a sound agricultural basis.4
For
ages it was considered menial to till the soil; wherefore the idea that
soil toil is a curse, whereas it is the greatest of all blessings.5
Adam
and Eve exerted a lasting influence on all mankind; for the first time
in the history of the world men and women were observed working side by
side in the Garden. The Edenic ideal, the whole family as gardeners,
was a new idea on Urantia[/Earth].6
Sometimes
the planting of a seed necessitates its death, the death of your
fondest hopes, before it can be reborn to bear the fruits of new life
and new opportunity.7
1 (The URANTIA Book, p. 752)
2 (Ibid., p. 773)
3 (Ibid., p. 769)
4 (Ibid., p. 769)
5 (Ibid., p. 900)
6 (Ibid., p. 940)
7 (Ibid., p. 555)
Tarenta, one of the head gardners for Avalon Gardens, has gardened organically for 20 years. He has traveled widely, staying wtih and studying under indigenous elders. Tarenta lived for many years in a wilderness setting with no electricity or other modern-day conveniences.