Emma Clark
Islamic Garden Design

Testimonials after our Sacred Gardens Workshop May 2014

FROM ANNETTE, GERMANY:

Dear beautiful Sacred Garden Creators,

I would just like to join this enchanted choir of participants and again give my Thank You to all of you for the Inspiration and Love and Sacredness flowing. 

Yesterday I imagined how it would be to live in this kind of energy not only for a few days but more or less continuously – in the sense of knowing that there is a community of like-minded and like-hearted people around me who is celebrating, acknowledging, creating and sustaining the sacredness of nature and life as a whole and more than that – creating life together. 

This is such a powerful idea and I don’t think that it needs to stay an idea only. I feel this is absolutely possible and I will look deeply into what I can do to live like this and to participate in it!

Thank you thank you thank you!

FROM TARIQ, SOUTH AFRICA:

Dear Emma, Adam and Tom (and all my fellow course participants)

Now that I’m back in the Cape and have better connectivity, I can at last email to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the priceless opportunity you afforded us to learn from you. I can only echo what others have said, namely that participating in the course felt like entering a sacred circle in itself, where there was the most refreshing absence of competitive ego and instead only a simple and gentle joy in shared learning and wonder as we focussed on nature, the spiritual language of geometry and the potential of gardens to become sacred spaces that are healing and evoke remembrance of God. I am now convinced, more than ever, that gardening has a unique ability to connect people to nature and the sacred reality that lies beyond this material world. I have the greatest admiration too for the work you are doing in recovering what is positive and vital in the concept of ‘tradition’, a much-abused and much-misunderstood term in our modern world (and on this note, thank you Emma for inviting me to that wonderful lecture at the Prince’s Trust School the day before I left!). Inspired by this experience, I’m now trying to re-enchant a part of my garden that I think went horribly wrong in its design, and so am in the process of creating a little four–fold garden that mixes food and ornamental plants, in the Islamic tradition I hold so dear, where once there were only the sharp edges of an angular pond surrounded by clipped hedges and lawn. 

Insha’Allah I will be able to put some of what I have learnt to good use in gardens I create for others in future, so that they too may benefit from your teaching. 

Last but not least, I want to say thank you to all the wonderful fellow-seekers I had the privilege of meeting on the course. I learnt so much from you all and only wish there had been more time to get to know everyone better. I hope we will stay in touch and share our various journeys in the field of sacred gardening.

With love and best wishes, Salaam

FROM TANYA, HAMSHIRE, UK:

Hi Emma,

What a beautiful quotation … thank you so much for sharing it … and a “BIG” thank you to yourself, Tom and Adam for organising such a wonderfully enriching weekend.

Sometimes things happen in life that enable the soul to move forward into an expanded dimension and although the focus of the weekend was about the study of Sacred Gardens, I know that it also affected many of us at a life changing soul level and for that I’m truly grateful.

I’ve never been with so many likeminded people in one room before, in fact mostly I’ve thought I must be a bit weird to have such deep feelings about nature, the garden and the Spirit, so for me it was an immensely confirming experience which has given me renewed confidence in my onward journey… thank you, thank you, thank you.

Love, Peace and Blessings to everyone … it was such a pleasure to meet you all

FROM CLARE, CAMBRIDGESHIRE, UK:

Dear Emma,

Thank you SO very much for allowing a non designer out of her corner and mingle with such lovely and vivacious people and also allowing me to listen you, Tom & Adam express and describe your passions.

I did do a garden in praise of the tree ( 4 trees) and I will plant it one day God willing for my grandson Blake.

FROM ALICE BREE, LONDON:

Dear Emma, Adam (and Tom!)

It was lovely to meet with everyone at the weekend, and to learn about gardens and gardening.  In future I would like even more about wholistic garden wisdom like the silica content of equisetum to use soaked in water.  I love to know more things like that and put them into practice. The talks about water were so enlightening, and we, maybe like others, have water in our garden, and it was good to think about it and realise the full significance of it. And of course I do take on the underlying geometry of life, in gardens, in art and in the universe.  You were a great team, so balanced, all with a different wisdom, but all relevant to sacred gardening.

Thank you so much

FROM ANNESOPHIE, Danish Landscape Design Student with Adam Hunt at PU&H

Dear Emma and Tom,

I just wanted to say thank you so much to the both of you, for letting me participate in the workshop. I feel like I learned a tremendous amount, both to use in my studies and in my personal development! 🙂 

After having spent the past 3 months reading and writing about sacred geometry/sacred gardens/islamic gardens, it made the world of difference for me to actually try and “work” with it during the course.

I feel very lucky to have had this experience and the timing in relation to the finish of my bachelor project could not have been better. So again thank you both so much!

FROM LILY, LONDON, UK:

Dear Emma, Tom and Adam,

 Thank you for the wonderful course and it was a great pleasure to meet and be with all. I feel refreshed and excited about the prospect of some actual gardening! I have a small front and back garden here in Clapham and the Bishop’s Garden poppy ‘Papaver Somniverum’ became immediately accepted and at home siting among the buttercups and forget-me-nots. Pictures included and do let me know if anyone would like some seeds, a nice memory of the course I think.