This room is also where Eve does private coaching and can be made available for other private healing sessions, meditation classes, and readings.

Goddess Tara, a female Buddha and meditational deity, is arguably the most popular goddess in the Buddhist pantheon. She is considered to be the goddess of universal compassion who represents virtuous and enlightened activity. The Mother Shrine of The Sacred Garden currently holds the White and Green Tara.

As a Bodhisattva, she made a vow is to continue to return to this world until all sentient beings acheived enlightenment.

White Tara is the "mother of liberation," and represents the virtues of success in work and achievements. Her love heals at the source of dis-ease, bringing health, serenity, strength, longevity and beauty.

The White Tara evokes the inate desire to share love with all, recognizing our oneness. She is the experience of oneness of all colors, all beings and her love and compassion for all comes from loving herself which is all. She has seven eyes, the two usual ones, one in the middle of her forehead and eyes in her hands and feet. This symbolizes that all of her activities are done with omniscient awareness. She is said to bring health and prolong life. Operating from the space of this compassionate love generates a long and fulfilling life.

Quan Yin is the embodiment of compassionate loving kindness. As the Bodhisattva of Compassion, She hears the cries of all beings. Quan Yin enjoys a strong resonance with the Christian Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and the Tibetan goddess Tara.

In many images she is depicted carrying the pearls of illumination. Often Quan Yin is shown pouring a stream of healing water, the "Water of Life," from a small vase. With this water devotees and all living things are blessed with physical and spiritual peace. She holds a sheaf of ripe rice or a bowl of rice seed as a metaphor for fertility and sustenance.

Quan Yin is represented in several places at The Sacred Garden—she overlooks both of the labyrinths and is in the Mother Shrine.

Like Tara, Quan Yin, as a true Enlightened One, or Bodhisattva, vowed to remain in the earthly realms and not enter the heavenly worlds until all other living things have completed their own enlightenment and thus become liberated from the pain-filled cycle of birth, death, and rebirth.

The Hindu Goddess "Durga," in Sanskrit means "invincible" or unattainable.

The word Shakti, meaning sacred feminine force, and Durga reflects the warrior aspect of the goddess, embodying a traditional male role. She is also strikingly beautiful and each god also gave her their own most powerful weapons, Rudra's trident, Vishnu's discus, Indra's thunderbolt, Brahma's kamandal, Kuber's gada, etc. Himalayas gifted her a fierce whitish golden lion.

Durga's Vehicle — the Lion
The lion represents power, will and determination. Mother Durga riding the lion symbolises her mastery over all these qualities. This suggests to the devotee that one has to possess all these qualities to get over the demon of ego.

If you would like to know more about Kali, The Sacred Garden offers a DVD called Worship of God Through Mother Kali.

When I tell people that I have a Mother Shrine at The Sacred Garden, sometimes they look at me like, “Why? What? A Mother Shrine?” So indoctrinated are we into the Heavenly Father concept that the concept of a Heavenly Mother image seems foreign or pagan or….weird. But let me tell you my why.

.In the little picture, on my personal level, prior to my mom's passing, she lost all ability to speak and write. While I cared for her, I had to learn to listen to her beyond words. As she was in the process of dying and I was devastated at losing contact with her, I suddenly realized that there would be no difference. The way she and I had had to learn to communicate was the same way God communicates with us—through images, dreams, intuition, ideas, signs… Mom and I spent a full year prior to her death learning to communicate that way. She had been teaching me the language of God.

When my mom died I had a sense of her merging with God. God became very personal rather than bigger than life and I felt heard and loved in a way that I had not experienced before. I had a knowing of my prayers landing on ears that were listening.

On Mother's Day, I wanted to honor her so I set up a Mother Shrine and pulled out all the images of God as Mother that I had in my home. Much to my surprise, I discovered I had quite a few. When Mother's Day passed, I just didn't want to disassemble the shrine, so I gave it a permanent home. Thus, The Mother Shrine at The Sacred Garden was born.

While that is how it started, I have since discovered the big picture level….
Our modern religions have focused on God in the form of the masculine, even to the point of denying any feminine aspect of God. Prayers are masculine both when referring to the Divine and the devotee. Women are denied priesthood in many religions, etc. So, for the female aspirant, this is problematic. If God is a male, and the predominant means of getting to God is delegated to males and all our prayers are in the masculine, it becomes very difficult for the girl/woman to feel like she is a part of this divine plan.

What I have discovered from praying in a Mother Shrine is a distinct difference that emerges than solely praying in a Father-based shrine and it stems from our cultural gender beliefs. While we think that we were made in the image and likeness of God, I tend to think that we have created our image of God in the likeness of us.

In our society, the father is the protector, problem solver, provider and disciplinarian and the mother is the nurturer, caretaker, and healer. When we, as a society pray to a father image we tend to focus our prayers on asking for things (from the provider), asking for God to keep us safe (the protector), get us out of a mess we are in (the problem solver) and believe that God should be feared (the punisher). Somehow when we pray to a Father God, we ask for things to come to us from the outside in, like we might of our actual physical father.

When we pray to the mother image of God, there is a distinct difference, at least for me. I offer my gratitude for the love and nurturing that I am receiving and for the beauty that surrounds me. I do not ask for things, I ask for qualities—compassion, kindness, wisdom, love and strength. I don't ask for things from the Mother, I want to be like the Mother. I ask to embody the serenity and healing qualities of Tara, the compassion and caring of Quan Yin, the nurturing and amazing perseverance and strength of Mother Mary and Mary Magdelene, I ask for the ability to see abundance all around me from Lakshmi, I ask for the discernment, strength and loyalty of Kali and Durga who protect their loved ones with the fierceness of a mother lion. When I pray to God in the form of Mother, I feel love. When I pray to a Mother God, I ask for things from the inside, out. Maybe this is just a “girl thing” but in any case, it is powerfully different for me.

One does not replace the other, nor is one better than the other. I just like being the child of both the masculine and the feminine and being included, as a female child, in the Holy arrangement.

Come sit in the Mother Shrine and see what it does for you!