Book Review by Kalisha Zahr
Title: Gardening with the Goddess: Creating Gardens
of Spirit and Magick
Author(s): Patricia Telesco
Publisher: New Page Books (a division of Career
Press), 2001
ISBN: 1564145751
For the avid gardener who happens to also love the Goddess, this book will no doubt be a delight. There are a lot of creative ideas within and I enjoyed reading it.
The author begins with a brief introduction to "Goddess spirituality" in Part 1. Then comes an overview of practical information (basic garden tools, information about soils, etc.). The text then covers a few metaphysical (land blessings, moon cycles, and so on) gardening considerations. Correspondences and plant meanings are discussed at the end of Part 1.
The rest of the book (Part 2) is concerned with ideas on garden areas dedicated to specific Goddesses. The information is well researched. The history and cultural information, plants, colors, stones, minerals, crystals, shells and other things associated with each Goddess featured are all covered. I especially liked how the author discusses patterns and directions for each Goddess garden, and she gives some great ideas on decorative touches and adaptations as well. The "after-harvest applications" are especially useful in informing ones magical and personal growth.
Goddesses from a generous sampling of various cultures and pantheons are represented – Amaterasu, Bast, Cerridwen, Fortuna, Hecate, Lakshmi, Venus, Tara - and even the Muses and the Norns are covered!
The appendix has some additional material on "theme" gardening and some brief ideas on "god gardens" to balance things out nicely.
Even if you are not a dedicated gardener, this is a useful book – some of the ideas within could even be used for creating an altar to a specific Goddess.