Environmental Issues
the law & the practice

Getting Started Organically
start with the basics

Edible Garden
for food, drink & medicine

Trees & Shrubs
Mother Nature's way

Traute Klein, biogardener
Webmaster's background & work

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Honor & Protect the Earth

Herb Teas from My Garden
You can find ingredients for a healthful herb tea anywhere if you know what to look for.

Tasty Weed Salads
A healthful salad is at your fingertips anywhere. Learn to recognize the ingredients.

Creating Your Own Garden of Eden
In my garden paradise harmony reigns among plants and animals, because I allow nature to dictate the methods of gardening.

Naturalized Gardens: Legal but not Desirable
Sandy Bell in Toronto and I in Winnipeg are battling the bureaucracy which attempts to keep the beauties of nature from invading city gardens.

Cats in the Garden of Eden
Allow my cat Dusty to explain to you how my garden has become every cat's dream paradise and how the cats repay me.

Tune Your Ear to the Earth
The love of the earth unites people of all races.

Paradise Lost, the Tyranny of Conformity
The illegal destruction of my naturalized garden by the City of Winnipeg in 1998.

Webmaster's Bio
Meet Traute Klein, biogardener.

The Name Book

Over 10,000 Names, Their Meanings, Origins, Spiritual Significance

Environmental Gardening Books

The Old Woman Who Walks Close to the Earth

by Traute Klein, biogardener

Names define who we are. Given names are free, but spirit names have to be earned. I received my given name at birth, but it took me 65 years to earn my spirit name.

Types of Names

Names are one of the most important guides in life which parents can bestow on their children. I believe that names are prophetic. The Romans also believed that, hence the proverb "Nomen est omen." Yes your name is "a prophetic sign."

Most of us received our given name soon after birth. It was one of the requirements to be registered as a citizen of our country of birth. Some of us may have received another name at baptism, our Christian name. Many Chinese people received a Chinese name at birth and a Western Christian name at baptism.

Similarly, the Aboriginal people of North America give their people a spirit name later in life, a name which needs to be earned.

I participate in a drumming circle for women. When we go around the circle to introduce ourselves, the Aboriginal women proudly tell us their spirit name. It is far more important to them than their given name, because it defines their mission in life.

Spirit Names

I do not have an Aboriginal background, but I have always considered my given name to be my Christian name as well as my spirit name. My mother chose it carefully. The name "Traute" is the feminine form of the German adjective which describes a person whom you trust implicitly, a person who is as close to us as an identical twin, a person with whom we feel at ease, a person to whom we are bound in love.

It never occurred to me that I needed another spirit name, but I did receive one as a present from a woman whom I respect highly, Marion Gracie. This woman is not of aboriginal background either, but she has taken on many of their best practices and is respected by them as an elder. When she observed me, she saw something in me which my mother had not been able to predict, but of which she would be proud.

Love of the Earth

Marion is the leader of our drumming circle. Her gentle loving spirit inspires us. She shares with us a deep respect of the earth and her healing powers. She lives in the country and in 1999 she invited us to spend a day in her wilderness. We had a wonderful day of sharing, hiking, and eating, finishing with drumming and singing. It was a memorable experience to walk with Marion, to have her explain the properties of some of the North American plants which I did not know, to tell us about the animals of the area, and to observe the signs of their presence.

I recognized many plants which Marion did not appear to know. I grew up with some of those plants in Europe and learned about their healing properties from my mother. Others I had observed or studied during the many years which I have spent in Canada. Marion and I were able to learn from each other, enriching each other's cultural heritage.

When I next met her in the city, on August 29, 2000, she shared with me that my visit to her had left an indelible impression on her. She saw that a European woman is just as capable of relating to the Earth with understanding as an Aboriginal woman. On that day which I spent with her in the country, she saw me as "the old woman who walks close to the earth."

A Name is a Sign of Acceptance

When my mother named me "Traute" I became part of the Wollenberg family. When my father registered that name at the "Standesamt," I became a citizen of the society into which I was born. When Marion named me "the old woman who walks close to the earth" I became a citizen of the global family which is dedicated to upholding the values with which the creator has endowed this earth.

I will wear the name with pride.

Earned Names

According to Marion, I earn my spirit name. In the left column, I have linked some of the articles which demonstrate my devotion towards the earth as God intended it to be.

Note: The graphic on the right is on of my watercolors on Chinese rice paper which was small enough to fit on the scanner. Various varieties of the "Yellow Coneflower" can be found in in abundance in the North American prairies, except where it has been eradicated by herbicides.



© Traute Klein, biogardener