Here in the northern hemisphere, April heralds the advent of spring when the Fire of Aries impregnates and awakens the dormant seeds with promise and possibility. These ‘messengers of hope’ enter the soil of a new season and, through an earthy embrace from the constellation of Taurus, the light of the future is firmly anchored in matter. This natural pageant of unfolding Life continues through the Zodiacal procession with the mercurial touch of Gemini quickening the germinating seeds causing a twin movement: diving downwards into Mother Earth to deepen the roots and thrusting upwards in an act of striving towards the light of the sun.
The magnetic waters of Cancer nourish and call forth further growth that culminates in the summer sun of Leo as the fire of fulfillment blazes and crowns the process. The promise of the flower that was hidden inside the seed from the very beginning has now blossomed to reveal its full splendor.
It is reassuring to know that the pattern and promise of fulfillment is already contained as a blueprint and a potential within the seed. The Principle of Essential Divinity declares that the perfection of the One Life lives inside us – awaiting the right conditions that will reveal this sacred promise.
Do we truly understand and appreciate that deep within the heart of the Self there is a fiery seed of immense and immeasurable hope and beauty that contains our unique gift to the world?
The hope that dwells within the spiritual seed is not the hope that laments, “I hope there is more to life than this” but a bold declaration of hope that affirms the promise of the inevitable burgeoning of the immutable Self.
Like the flowers, the seed of our Essential Divinity utilizes the field of time and space as the garden in which to express. Despite all the available plant material and advances in the fields of biocoenosis and genetic engineering, it is still impossible for our human ingenuity to reconstruct a living flower from the outside. The natural path of birth and manifestation for the flora of our planet is from the inside out.
What if this principle also holds true for our human development? Instead of amassing ideas, techniques and belief systems in an attempt to assemble an identity from the outside, what may be required is an act of individual daring: to place ourselves in the soil of worldly experience with a trust and an unwavering faith that our Essential Nature will unfold from within in ‘right timing’.
There is a great difference, however, between growing flowers and unfolding our own human destiny. As a gardener, I am extremely grateful to the seed companies for printing clear instructions on the packets that tell me how to sow and tend the plants. Alas, frequent inspection of my own human ‘packet’ has failed to reveal the same amount of information. Someone, somewhere, has omitted to label and print precise instructions for my care and spiritual wellbeing or to offer a few well-chosen words telling me who I am, where and with whom I am best planted and what fruits I have to offer.
Unfortunately this earthly garden of ours is often over-grown with choking weeds of negativity and tangled briars of discord that separate us from the innate and essential truth of our divine nature. To plant a garden fit for the soul in such adverse conditions requires great horticultural acumen. First we have to clear away all that hinders the growth of the human spirit and then introduce the needed nutrients.
Knowing which nutrients our ‘divine seed’ requires each day for its growth and flourishing is our primary task as responsible gardeners. Perhaps an extra dose of love, compassion, forgiveness and goodwill would be a helpful start in establishing a positive nutritional regimen for our spiritual development.
The promise of hope that we each carry in our heart can only be known and shown to be real by being sown and grown day-by-day through right relationship with our inner Self, others and the world around us.
A handful of pine seed will cover mountains with the green majesty of forests.
I too Will set my face To the wind And throw my handful of seed On high.
–Fiona Macleod