The Imaginal Garden
Where Flowers Speak and the Heart Learns to Listen
I ran across a quote recently from a book I read about fifteen years ago, and I love how it directly applies to this work I do today with flowers. Teaching this simple process of connecting with flowers to others is something I believe everyone can do—it is not a special gift. In fact, the crazier this world gets, the more important it is that we find ways to access these realms that ground us and allow us to see our next steps more clearly. The flowers are great teachers and when the world is too loud, the flowers offer another way of listening.
Cynthia Bourgeault is an author, a modern day mystic and an episcopal priest; and this quote struck me as describing the space we enter when we open our hearts to the world of plants and flowers. She says,
“The imaginal world is a real world, not a world of fantasy or imagination in the usual sense. It is an intermediate realm between the sensory and the spiritual,…This world is perceived not by the senses nor by the rational mind, but by the heart: understood as an organ of spiritual perception. To awaken this capacity is not to escape the world, but to see it more truly.“
The imaginal world—this is the place the flowers speak to us from. The place where our heart resides and perceives the true nature of the world and of ourselves. The place where our intuition springs from. Learning to lean into this space and begin to trust it is the first step to clarity in our modern day busy world that pulls us in so many directions. And this is what we do in my workshop starting Tuesday, January 27th.
I have been looking over many of the messages the flowers have shared with me over the years and it is fun to read several together, giving a broader sense of what the flowers have to offer us. Some give insight into things we are struggling with. Some speak to our ancient journeys through time together. Some feel like messages from the other side. Some offer wisdom for relationships. Some simply make us feel deeply alive and full of joy. In each case, they are gifts that I am so very grateful for. Gifts that have helped me slow down and see the bigger picture of my life, and the long story of our souls, as Perdita Finn talks about.
This one from Rhododendron let me feel into this long evolutionary love story we have shared together: “We are the ancient voice of these oldest of mountains. The stone itself sings their songs of joy and celebration through our flowers each year at mid-summer, and that song is Beauty. Come sing with us as we celebrate the joys of all the beings and lifetimes of the Earth.”
As well as this one from Rose: “We have grown together out of the stardust. Only my deep fragrance carries all the memories of our history together. We dance our dance together on this Earth, bringing out what is most beautiful in each other as we grow and bloom from our Mother’s dirt, drawing from Her strength. My petals anoint the ground I grow from as they fall in gratitude for having been able to share all my beauty with you.”
Chicory was like the big bright smile of my grandmother when they said to me, “My bright blue face welcomes the sun, letting you know you are worthy of being loved for who you are, just as the sun loves me each morning.”
When I was feeling homesick for my beloved Appalachian hills, Hibiscus said to me: “My tropical lushness is an offering to you each day as I unfold myself to the morning sun. Let me soothe your fearful heart and ease it open alongside my own. We are travelers, you and I, longing for our one true home, yet finding it over and over again right here where we are in this moment.”
Calycanthus, or Sweetbush, said to me when I was facing a surgery, “Your exuberance, your determination, are your strongest tools to face your fears. Be big, grow big, let nothing stop you. Never fear the pruning—new opportunities will always arise.”
Pearly Everlastings connected me directly to my great-grandmother when they said, “Dance with us, lighten your heart and allow your voice to bubble up as you feel the joy of your ancestors around you, holding you on their shoulders. When you catch a glimpse of the long story of your soul, your natural resilience will always return and bring you much comfort.”
Goldenrod and Ironweed know my deepest heart that wants to be deeply connected to the natural world as our ancestors once were. They said to me as they danced together in the long rays of the autumn sunlight: “We see how you long to be wild and free—to grow with abandon and let your seeds go where they are called and will flourish. Come, be feral with us. Let go of the desire to control, so the wildness can happen to you. Stand tall, hold your head high. Never forget that your roots draw their strength from our Mother Earth. The secret is never losing your wildness. This is the way of the wild—we are the ones you cannot contain.”
As the year turns toward the ancient threshold between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox—a season honored across cultures as Imbolc, Candlemas, Brigid’s Day, and Groundhog Day—I am offering a five-week, live, online workshop called Awakening with the Flowers: Rekindling Our Intuition and Wonder to Connect with Our Ancient Elders.
This is not a course about learning about flowers, but an invitation into relationship with them—as elders, allies and teachers. Together, we’ll slow down, listen deeply, and explore how flowers communicate with us—through science, imagination, intuition, and shared experience.
If you find yourself longing for slowness, for beauty, for a gentler relationship with yourself and the Earth—this may be the doorway you’ve been waiting for.
We begin this coming Tuesday, January 27th.
I would be honored to walk into the garden with you.
In this live, online, experiential workshop you’ll be guided into relationship with the flowers—not as objects of beauty, but as wise, sentient elders with stories to tell and guidance to offer. Through science, imagination, intuition, and shared experience, you’ll discover how the flowers communicate with us and how we can open ourselves to their support, presence, and ancient intelligence. This is a space to reconnect with your inner knowing, deepen your joy, and revive the timeless bond between humans and the flowers that have always loved us.
“This class opened my eyes to the evolutionary history of flowers and their capacity to communicate clearly with us if we listen. Mary is a knowledgeable and sensitive teacher, encouraging and supportive, and provided many opportunities for class interaction. I recommend this class highly.” – Carolyn
Mary Porter Kerns is the author of the forthcoming book, The Flowers Are Speaking, A Million Year Love Story (Tarcher-Penguin Group, 2027) that is an intimate journey into the entwined evolution of flowers and human beings—weaving together science, history, stories, and earth-based mysticism to offer a radical vision of how we can best reconnect with the intelligence of plants and the ancient guidance of the earth. In fall of 2022 she self-published the first edition of her oracle cards, also called The Flowers Are Speaking, that sold out in three months.
Her highly acclaimed workshops teach participants how to experience the flowers as she does through their senses, intuition and imagination.
Love the reminder of heart perception.
I took and enjoyed this class. It gave me a broader sense of what was going on outdoors around me. What happened was that it woke me up to the possibility of not just talking to (or rather listening to) flowers, but also trees. I have 3 huge oaks in my yard, and before Mary's class, I talked to those trees, but never realized that if I would get quiet and listen, they were talking to me, also. However, I don't have your recall, Mary, and must immediately write our conversations down, or those gems disappear from my brain.