Sacred Groves traditionally sat between two places: domesticated landscapes of cities, towns and farms on the one side, and the wild wood and mountains where the gods lived on the other.
Domesticated places are fascinating in themselves. They are where most of us live. They are, today, cities, towns and largely sub-divisions. Domesticated places are places that we have made home: apartments, mobile homes, condominiums in large high rises, free standing houses. Domesticated places are places that we have MADE. We make them by carving them out of the wild places. While the Sacred Grove stands between two places, its true purpose is to remind us who live on the domesticated side that all that we have created came out of the wild divine.
What are the components of our domesticated lives? Living space. Water source. Power source–which gives us control over darkness, weather and to some degree, time. Connection to technology–which gives us a virtual sense off extension and connection into the rest of the world. All of these things have been created by our ingenious hands OUT OF what was once the wild, untouched world.
The Grove invites us to stop and remember each of the things that we have, spaces that we enjoy, technologies that serve us as arising out of the wild divine of the Earth. If we remember that we have these things and spaces FROM the wild divine, then we are likely to appreciate them and feel gratitude. Gratitude always softens and transforms strife toward peace. If we lose touch with where our things and spaces have come from, we become shallow and strife-making people.
The Grove calls us to the edge of our domesticated spaces to ponder. To remember. To offer gratitude.
Bob Patrick
