Reflections on Song of Solomon 8:11–13: "My Own Vineyard IS before me"

The Contrast Between Outer Obligation and Inner Ownership

Song of Solomon 8:11 opens with an image of Solomon’s vineyard at Baal Hamon—leased out to tenants, each required to pay a thousand pieces of silver for its fruit. This is not merely agricultural bookkeeping; it symbolises how the outer world works. The vineyard is fruitful, but access to its produce comes at a cost. There are terms, conditions, and structures—a price to pay.

This external vineyard reflects a mindset tied to the world’s systems: manifestation and creativity governed by effort, transaction, and expectation. It’s a state of consciousness where value is conditional and creative return is regulated by outside forces.

But the next verse shifts everything.

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My Own Vineyard is Before Me

The speaker declares, “My own vineyard, my very own, is before me.” This is a moment of spiritual clarity. It reveals an awareness that one’s true creative power is not external, leased, or dependent—it is internal, personal, and immediate.

There’s a striking intimacy here: my own... before me. This isn’t something we have to search for or earn. It is already present, already available. The phrase “before me” adds a sense of immediacy and presence. The creative field—the imagination—is not in the distance, but right here, waiting to be recognised and engaged.

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Eden, Pleasure, and the Rivers of Abundance

The speaker’s vineyard is not just any garden. In biblical symbolism, the garden often refers back to the Garden of Eden. The word Eden means pleasure—a state of delight, wholeness, and spiritual ease.

In Eden, four rivers flow. Rivers in Scripture symbolise ongoing, unending abundance—streams of provision that nourish and expand. So when the passage speaks of “dwelling in the gardens,” it calls to mind a state of consciousness rooted in pleasure and connected to divine flow.

This is not about returning to a lost paradise—it’s about realising Eden is a spiritual condition, one we can access through awareness. When the vineyard is before me, I am already in the garden. I am already in the state of pleasure and abundance, if I dare to see it.

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Let Me Hear Your Voice

Verse 13 continues, “You who dwell in the gardens, the companions listen for your voice—let me hear it!” This is a plea for the creative self—the indwelling “I am”—to speak, to imagine, to declare.

“You who dwell in the gardens” is a poetic address to that part of us already abiding in the inner world of imagination and spirit. The “companions” listening could be seen as the faculties of the subconscious—the aspects of being ready to obey the spoken word.

The request “let me hear your voice” is a call to intentionality. It’s not enough to simply exist within the garden. One must speak, imagine, name, and declare. Creation begins with the voice—inner speech, feeling, and focused awareness.

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The Inner Power is Already Yours

This short passage holds a profound truth: the real creative power is not something you rent from the world. It is not owned by Solomon, nor is it tied to transaction or performance. It is already yours.

When you realise your own vineyard is before you, you awaken to a state where pleasure (Eden) and abundance (rivers) are not distant ideals but living conditions of consciousness. The invitation is to recognise this inner world and speak from it—to use imagination as your voice and let it be heard.

Song of Solomon 8:11–13 reminds us that manifestation doesn’t come from negotiating with the world but from claiming our own spiritual inheritance, and choosing to dwell—and speak—from within it.