Secret Garden of the Feminine

          Reclaiming the Garden

How do we stop this death-wielding power machine? Is it possible to maneuver our way through the traps the machine has laid and find a new evolutionary path? How do we weave together the disparate parts of our dualistic natures? Have we learned yet that strength is not equated with conquest and domination? How do we integrate the equally necessary qualities of strength and nurturing, logic and intuition, spirit and nature, mind and matter? Can we find the balance needed at this crucial moment in the preservation and life of the planet? Is it possible for males and females of all races, religions, and economic backgrounds to join hands and discover the goddess in each of us and pour forth the healing waters of balance from the never-diminishing grail of love? Can we make of this earth the garden it once was?

Francis Hodgson Burnett's book The Secret Garden is a brilliant tale depicting the deep healing that can take place with the retrieval of the lost feminine. Mary, the story's vibrant heroine, confesses early on, "I've stolen a garden. . . It isn't mine. It isn't anybody's. Nobody wants it, nobody cares for it, nobody ever goes into it."[1]  Much like the feminine in our society, which no one seems to want or care for, Mary's garden has been abandoned and neglected. Psychologist Dr. Gloria Avrech says of this classic story, written around the beginning of the twentieth century, "The problem it depicts seems to relate to the absence, neglect and disdain of the Feminine, Great Mother, and matriarchal consciousness in the psyche and in our lives."[2]

Mary, forced to play outside, begins to explore the grounds around the manor where she has been brought to live, and encounters a robin. "The robin, like a power animal, leads our young, wounded healer and future shaman to an enclosed garden behind a locked door. On an inner level, the wounded feminine ego, represented by Mary, can be seen as beginning to connect to nature and her instincts, which connecting process can bring about a restored connection to the Self."[3]  Mary, as shaman and healer, goes on to bring the same kind of wholeness to her cousin Colin and his father, Lord Craven, through restoration of the lost feminine.

An enclosed secret garden is a strong archetypal image found in countless legends, folklore, and myths. "A dormant garden can be a beautiful image for the potential life-giving, protective, containing, nurturing qualities of the positive aspects of the Great Mother archetype."[4]

Like most all fairy tales and fables, this story, too, has a happy ending. Comforting the crying Mary, Lord Craven declares, "You brought us back to life, Mary. You did something I thought no one could do."[5]  The lost feminine now restored, the garden is once again open, alive, and awake. Mary poignantly sums up her journey with "If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden."[6]