The hortus conclusus can also inspire some reflection on the current historical moment. What lies beyond walls of our homes is a suffering and frail world where nature has been caged, exploited and bent to fulfill our profit-driven desires for too many years. How could we think to stay healthy in a world that was sick? asked Pope Francis during the Urbi et Orbi blessing on March 27. To protect ourselves and others from a recently discovered disease, we were asked to find refuge in our homes, to live secluded, shielded by walls. This isolation will be economically and socially hard for many, but it can make us realize that our approach to nature must change.

We are not 'keepers' or 'onlookers' of nature but we, too, ARE part of the natural whole and cannot seek to dominate (because ultimately we can't), stresses Herbert McAvoy. Our homes might not be as peaceful and blossoming as the Medieval hortus conclusus, yet this artistic expression can still teach us something beyond the religious angle. Things that have been traditionally female coded (birth, care, nurture, communication, language, empathy etc.) are not things to be locked up, subordinate and appropriated by men when needed, explains Herbert McAvoy, but the very foundations (gardens) upon which our cultures still depend. We must make these things more visible, more openly influential by unlocking the gate to the gardens in which they are contained.

Read more from the original source:
Seclusion, Sin, and Sanctity: The Virgin Mary's Enclosed Gardens - Art & Object