Handcrafted, Ceremonial Object for the Honor and Release of Death

Guardian Garlands are lines of hand-dyed textile triangles attached to hand-dyed hemp rope, and vintage buttons secured with sashiko thread created with the intention to mark moments of transition, remembrance, and release.  Designed to hold space where grief is carried along the winds, where absence is tangible, and where thought continues beyond form.

The earliest, unprinted flags were used in healing ceremonies, hung over mountain passes and rivers to protect against evil spirits and harmonize the environment. Beginning around the 7th and 8th century CE, Tibetan Buddhism adapted this practice, replacing, or accompanying, shamanistic symbols with mantras (Om Mani Padme Hum) to promote compassion, strength, and wisdom.

The colors symbolize kinship with the elements, pure lights, and guiding winds:
North : yellow : earth
East : white : air and clouds
South : red : fire
West : green : water
Aether : blue : sky and space
Transformation and Forgiveness : purple
Balance and Creativity : orange

The belief that as the wind blows, the prayers and mantras are spread, increasing fortune, health, and happiness. Traditionally, they are not placed on the ground and are allowed to naturally decompose or can be burned, signifying the impermanence of life.

A Line for Holding Remembrance

• memorial spaces and home altars

• rites of passage and endings

• seasons of grief, change, and transformation

• honoring those who have crossed, human and beloved animal

Design and Intention

The garland is fully reversible, allowing two expressions in one piece for light and shadow, holding and release, before and after.  This duality is intentional, reflecting the liminal nature of death itself.

Each garland is handcrafted and small batch dyed, carrying subtle variations that make every piece singular, just as every life is singular.

• Length:  10 feet, substantial enough for ritual draping and threshold marking

• Design:  reversible with two distinct sides, allowing shifting expression for different rites, seasons, or spaces

• Craft:  handcrafted and small batch dyed with purpose, care, and intention

• Use:  outdoor or indoor ritual, ceremonial, or memorial decor

• Details:  lemon yellow thread, vintage white buttons, cornflower blue sashiko

No two are exactly alike.  This is part of its underlying meaning.

Uses for Guardian Garlands

The Guardian Garland is both an altar tool and a boundary marker:

• draped around a doorway to mark a passage

• connected or pinned to a place and in a way that makes sense for you

• placed along an altar or remembrance table

• wrapped gently around a photograph, urn, or sacred object

• used and woven into rituals of quiet contemplative spaces, for grief, prayer, or reflection

• mark the beginning or ending of a rite, vigil, or remembrance

It can remain in place for a season, a year or much longer until the time is done.  It can also be returned to rest when the moment has passed.  This object holds solemn presence without claim to power or knowledge; it holds the space for containment and release.

Why Guardian

Because in times of death, something must stand watch.

The Guardian Garland does not fix, explain, or resolve.
It simply holds space that is steady, present, and reverent while you do what only you can do.  Guardian speaks to stewardship by witnessing, sheltering, and honoring.  This garland does not seek to explain or console; it stands as a companion in the liminal moment when we encounter loss, memory, and transition.

The Guardian Garland is a woven, liminal object for spaces of remembrance, ritual, and transition.  Crafted by hand with graceful intention, this 10-foot garland holds space for grief, ritual, and deep reflection. It is meant to be placed where thresholds are honored with home altars, memory spaces, doorways of passage, or areas set aside for ceremony.

This garland is reversible, offering two distinct expressions in one piece, acknowledging the dual nature of endings and remembrance.  The reversible design reflects the duality inherent in passage: presence and absence, becoming and letting go.

Care for Your Guardian Garland

Handle this piece with gentle respect.  If needed, you may fold or drape it when not in use.  Let it rest in a clean, quiet place when paused between gatherings or rites if that is needed.