Rosicrucian Beacon Magazine - 2012-09 - AMORC

calming environment. They were oases with a spiritualquality and places for the restoration of spiritual,physical and community health.As the religion of Islam spread, so did Persian style ofgarden making. And in all the lands that were conqueredby the Arabs, artisans assimilated local traditions mixedwith impressions from religion. So today, we have evidenceof Persian gardens that spread from Moorish Spain andNorth Africa in the west, through the Middle East andwhat used to be the Persian Empire and then to the aweinspiring palaces of the Mughal-period in India, whichdate from the 16 th century. All are different but all arebased on the core values of Chāhār Bāgh and the originalconcept introduced in the Persian paradise gardens.And this style can be scaled to fit any space from a tinycourtyard to enormous palace complexes such as thosein Kashmir.“They bear witness to the rather extravagant hope ofinventing paradise on earth; of creating, despite therigours of the climate, a space far from the uproar ofcities and human unrest, where the splendour andprofusion of plants gives a picture of nature pacifiedand tamed. Is not this dream a nostalgic memory ofthe first garden, where man and woman experienceda golden age before being driven from it by the angelwith a sword of fire, condemned to wander in aridlands? Or should we imagine the reverse: Thatthe garden east of Eden is a buried memory of theparadises constructed in ancient Babylon?”(GerardGrandval in his preface to The Persian Garden: Echoesof Paradise, 1998 edition )The traditional Persian garden of Eram in Shirāz, the sixth mostpopulous city in Iran and the capital of Fārs Province in the south-westof the country.by Gregory Sablic, FRCNo-one lives on top of the mountain. It’s fine togo there occasionally for inspiration, for newperspectives, for greater vision, and for just plainpeace and quiet. But we all sometimes have tocome back down to the valley. Life is livedhere. The mountain is for dreaming whilethe valley is for working. That’s wherethe farms and gardens and orchardsare, where the ploughing and thelabour are done. That’s whereyou apply the visions you haveglimpsed from the peaks.40The Rosicrucian Beacon -- September 2012