Walk the 8 Fold Path
Online Meditations
Welcome ~ your heart and my heart are very old friends.
This meditation is an excerpt from The Ecstasy of Practice Audiobook. The healing meditation includes three traditional practices: a breathing experience, a classic meditation and guided imagery exercise, culminating with the Blue Medicine Buddha mantra. In just seven minutes enter into deep calm, insight and peace.
"At Home" Inner Arts Resources
click links:
Maha Bhanda (1).pdf
Welcome to the Garden
each month new
where nature meets nurture
& every moment flowers with meaning
Nestle into the Garden
October season we delve into:
🌿 The unique Language of Flowers from ancient temples to tea parlors
🌿 Seasonal Chrysanthemums, the flower of endurance & Timeless Blue Lotus
🌿 October Flower Journey: Tuberose representing depth & mystery
🌿 Gardeners' Gift ~ Quiet Beneath the Wind ~ qi flow video
The path continues for subscribers of The Conservatory, a deep respite where the inner arts meet nature’s wisdom. Join us for $12/month or pay as you wish via PayPal/ Venmo. Flexibility and belonging are at the heart of it all. All are welcome. October Conservatory Highlights: Embrace Transitions Yoga Flow, Beauty is my Duty 18 minute guided imagery film, Cleansing Breath, Healthy Emotions in the Organs meditation, Metal Meridian and Ying Yoga for October.
Begin in The Garden... Grow in The Conservatory... Let joy take root.
Enter October's Garden withThe Language of Flowers
The Language of Flowers, or floriography, is a cross-cultural legacy of poetic expression from ancient temples to tea parlors. In Egypt, the blue lotus, loved for its intoxicating scent and sunrise bloom, symbolized rebirth, awakening, and the divine cycle of life.
Greeks and Romans linked flowers to gods and power, with men often using floral garlands and arrangements to signify status, victory, or devotion.
In medieval Europe, blossoms bloomed with meaning, lilies for purity, roses for sacrifice, woven into religious art and ceremony.
The Ottoman Empire’s selam tradition allowed both men and women to send secret messages through flowers and rhyming verse, though women especially embraced it as a form of emotional expression in a society that limited their voice. When Lady Mary Wortley Montagu introduced this practice to Europe in 1717, it sparked a romantic revival.
By the 19th century, France codified the language in Charlotte de la Tour’s Le langage des fleurs, and Victorian England embraced it as a discreet emotional lexicon. Men participated actively sending bouquets in courtship, referencing floral meanings in poetry, and even publishing floral dictionaries like Robert Tyas’s The Sentiment of Flowers. Yet for women, floriography became a vital expression in a world that often silenced them, posies and tussie-mussies (small flower bouquets) became whispered declarations of love, sorrow, defiance, and hope... each bloom a quiet revolution in petal form.
Indigenous First Peoples
Among Indigenous First Peoples, the language of flowers is not symbolic, it is relational. Flowers are kin, carrying medicine, memory, and spirit. The Lakota honor the prairie crocus as a sign of spring’s renewal, while the Ojibwe revere the wild rice flower as sacred sustenance. In the Maxakali peoples of Brazil, the Tayra song catalogs 33 bee species, each linked to specific flowers and woven into oral storytelling. This is floriography not as a code, yet as communion, a living language spoken through seasonal cycles and ceremony.
Native Hawaiians
In Hawaiian culture flowers are living expressions of mana (spiritual energy), aloha (love and compassion), and ancestral reverence. From the fragrant plumeria symbolizing new beginnings to the sacred ilima worn by royalty, each bloom carries a story, a prayer, and the breath of the land. Leis are offerings, woven with intention to honor guests, mark rites of passage, and connect the giver and receiver in a bond of spirit. Hawaiians use flowers to express grace, strength, and identity. A flower tucked behind the left ear symbolizes the person is married, engaged, or in a relationship while a flower tucked behind the right ear symbolizes one is single and available. To wear a flower is to speak the language of the islands: one of beauty and a sense of belonging to the community and land.
Chrysanthemum
The Flower of Graceful Endurance
The chrysanthemum invites us into the quiet wisdom of cycles of letting go, renewal, and beauty that deepens with time. In its golden bloom, cultures across the world have seen longevity, truth, and heartfelt expressions of honoring the ancestors.
Chrysanthemum stands resilient through change, dignified in silence, unfolding gently in the amber hush of autumn light.
Imagine its petals opening slowly at twilight, filled with remembrance and strength. The air is cool, scented with the earthiness of dusk, your breath finds its peaceful rhythm in this wise presence. Chrysanthemum reminds you:
I honor the wisdom of my seasons. I bloom with grace, even in the most quiet light.
Blue Lotus
The Flower of Rebirth
The Blue Lotus rises each dawn from the waters of creation. Its petals opening to greet the golden sun. In ancient Egypt, it was revered as a sacred emblem of awakening, a bridge between darkness and light, a union between the senses and serenity.
This luminous bloom carries the essence of higher beauty and transcendence from effortless being.
Imagine Blue Lotus emerging from the Nile at first light, the hush of morning wrapped around its unfolding. The breath of ancient water stirs something deep within, and its radiance calls you home to your heart. In the presence of Blue Lotus, you remember:
I rise with the light. My essence is filled with grace.
Breathe with Tuberose
Breathe in your sensual nature,
breathe out authentic expression.
Like night-blooming beauty,
let your breath reveal hidden treasures.
October
Flower Journey
Tuberose for sensual depth and mystery.
Access the 18 luminous flower journeys anytime ~ filled with breath, reflection, a journey, yoga & qi moves.
Journey with Tuberose
through this rich sensory meditation
into great heights.
Gardener's Monthly Gift
Quiet Beneath the Wind ~ qi flow video
Yoga Flow
October invites us to stand tall in our truth, root deeply into the earth, and balance between movement and stillness. In the Ayurvedic tradition, this season is imbued with Vata’s airy, mobile qualities calling for grounding, warmth, and inner strength... read more
Transition's Embrace. October yoga flow video, guided by Shelley
QiFlow
October arrives with rustling leaves and dancing air. In the wisdom of Qi, this is a time to gather what’s scattered, to steady the breath, and to move with intention. This flow invites you to harmonize with the season’s rhythm... read more
Quiet Beneath the Wind : Qi flow video grounding, gathering energy, and listening to the stillness within.
Guided Imagery
Beauty Is My Duty
This 18 minute film offers a rare window into the luminous world view of Colette Aboulker-Muscat, 19th century healer , writer and psychologist from Algiers. Experience the imagery... read more
Enjoy the film"Beauty is my Duty" and experience the guided imagery of the Blue Lotus.
Emotions in the Organx
In Yin Yoga and the ancient wisdom of Chinese Medicine, the body is seen as a living archive of emotion. These emotions, when unacknowledged, can stagnate the flow of Qi, our vital energy, creating disharmony within... read more
Enjoy this meditations giving you exploration into health in the organs.