The Magic of Trees

The bamboo forest at Sagano, Japan

“What riches, what a blessing trees are! Particularly if you can sense that all that solid, compact matter is in fact condensed light. Yes, trunks, branches and foliage all feed on light and are condensed sunlight. How could we not be filled with wonder at the thought that the sun’s love is there in abundance? And trees are also our benefactors, as they purify the atmosphere with the oxygen they release, so those who live near a forest are truly privileged. A forest is a place naturally full of presences. As soon as I begin to walk through the trees, I sense presences. And so I speak to them. I know how to address them, how to commune with their soul, and they understand me. These trees are all inhabited, and humans would be happier if they were aware of this and tried to establish real relationships with them. What is an oak? What is a fir tree? What is a eucalyptus? You have to spend many hours with them to discover their soul and commune with it.  When you go into a forest, remember there is a multitude of creatures there, coming and going, busy doing different things, and that they can see you. Try to relate to them, and even speak to them to show them you appreciate their work.  Go up to an oak tree or a fir tree, rest your hand against its trunk, and say to it, ‘How beautiful you are! How strong you are! Give me some of your robustness and stamina… Also, I entrust a message to you for all the other trees in the forest. Tell them they are magnificent and that I love them. Say hello to each one from me; kiss them for me’, and then hug the tree. The entities living in it will then rush to give your love to the whole forest, and while you carry on walking the other entities that have received your message come out from the trees to say hello and dance as you go by. When you return home you will be happy, as if you had just met some friends. A tree is a reservoir of energies which come from the earth and the sun. And it is possible to capture these energies that constantly circulate between the roots and the tips of the branches. When you are in a garden or a forest, choose a tree – the biggest and most beautiful – and lean your back against it, placing your left hand against your back, with the palm against the trunk, and the palm of your right hand on your solar plexus. Then, concentrate and ask the tree to give you its strength… You receive this strength through your left hand and pour it out into your solar plexus through your right hand. It is a sort of energy transfusion, as if the tree was giving you some of its sap. And when you feel recharged, thank it. You may be wondering how a tree can really help you. It will help you if you think of it as a living, intelligent being and if you love it. Your understanding and your love allow you to create a harmonious relationship with it, and gradually you will feel that this relationship revitalizes you and brings you joy.”

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov 

Have you ever stepped into a forest and suddenly felt a sense of serenity overtake you? 

Have you ever walked around your neighborhood and suddenly found yourself attracted to a particular tree or grove? 

Have you ever had the feeling while hiking by yourself in the woods that you’re not alone, but somehow feel a gentle presence is watching you or is with you?

 

For me, check, check and check. 

I’m fairly certain that I had a former life as a forest guide or tracker. It’s a place which I have always felt safe and have spent hours happily hiking and never felt alone in the least. When I was younger I always wanted a treehouse and admittedly it was after hearing about Olympos, in southern Turkey, a backpacker’s haven where people stay in tree houses , which pulled me there. 

The “tree houses” of Olympos.

 

As a tomboy, I spent many hours climbing trees and reaching the top of the local linden tree and having a bird’s-eye view of the entire neighborhood. At an even earlier age, in Bangladesh, I recall playing hide and go seek with other cousins around a gigantic Banyan tree which seemed to be a house in itself.

A very typical Asian Banyan tree.

I will never forget the sense of awe I had when I entered an old-growth redwood forest in Northern California. It was like entering a natural cathedral. Lately, I’ve found myself drawn to a magnificent, ancient willow tree in my neighborhood, which has a perfect place to sit and lean against and is near-perfect for climbing as well as having great branches for quietly sitting on and meditating.

Not “my” willow tree but you get the idea.

I wouldn’t mind in the least, even now, living in one. Just have a look at some of the designs out there these days.

Not bad, eh?

 

If you want to check out even more amazing tree houses, have a look at this article.

Tree worship is nothing new. The fact that they are revered almost universally and have a prominent place in the mythologies of various cultures around the world are also a testament to their ability to calm us and even heal us.

Yggdrasil, the Tree of Life in Norse mythology

The Celts, ancient Druids and modern-day Pagans have a very rich and comprehensive understanding of trees and the properties of their wood as well as magical exercises for working with the them.

Africans have a very rich connection to the weird and wonderful Baobab tree.

The Baobabs of Madagascar

Indians have a myriad of stories around the Banyan tree.

Buddhists of course revere the Bodhi tree under which Buddha achieved enlightenment.

Buddha’s original Bodhi tree is long gone but it’s descendant is now a Buddhist shrine.

Japanese Shinto worshippers usually tie pieces of cloth to specific tree shrines, with each cloth-tie signifying specific prayers.

I love the Aivanhov quote because it reminds me of the dryads in C.S Lewis Narnia tales, where trees had specific spirits attached to them and that they showed themselves to us when we were ready.

Lucy Pevensie seeing a dryad for the first time in the film version of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”

There was a recent article about how actual tree hugging has been scientifically proven to be good for you and that it’s not some leftover idea by the hippies. I can believe it. (I recall watching an NFB film years ago in a “Women and Religion” college course called “Goddess Remembered” and there was a speaker in the film who mentioned an old pagan practice of standing against a tree, with your back against it, in order to alleviate menstrual cramps. It works.)

Go hug a tree!

In the meantime, if you find yourself in a concrete urban area with little chance of getting yourself to a huge tree, have a listen to this song, called “Sky Trees” by Swedish electronic artist Solar Fields aka Magnus Birgersson. It’ll get you into the right state of mind :).

What “Game of Thrones” reminds us

With the coat of arms representing the seven houses vying for the Iron Throne.

I admit it, like half of the rest of the planet, I have fallen hard for “Game of Thrones” (GoT) that fantastic, medieval fantasy show based on the books of George R.R. Martin’s series “A Song of Ice and Fire” (and which makes Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” look like Sesame Street).

All the titles in Georgee R.R. Martin’s series

It’s not just the ridiculously attractive cast members.

Dang! Richard Madden plays Robb Stark (photo from HBO Inc.)

It’s not the complex,morally ambiguous characters they play. Nice people who do bad things and then bad people who end up doing good things.

Normally a complete asshole, Jaime Lannister in a moment of decency returns to save Brienne of Tarth from being mauled to death by a bear.

It’s certainly not the equal measures of violence…

Khal Drogo giving Viserys Targaryen his “crown of gold”. (Photo from HBO Inc.)

…and saucy naughtiness.

…and Khal Drogo with the moon of his life, Daenerys Targaryen (Photo from HBO Inc.)

It’s not the lush, breath-taking locations filmed in Malta, Northern Ireland, Iceland and Croatia.

Locations in Croatia and Malta served as stand-in’s for King’s Landing

Though, indeed, they do all help.

I think, for me, there’s a deeper message in George R.R. Martin’s books.

(For fans, who have never read the books, serious spoilers ahead.)

The TV series is a rough interpretation of the original books. Just due to the sheer scope and length of each book (total five titles right now and Martin is hard at work on the final titles, number 6 and 7), basically means that each book is about the storyline of one season. If you’re a voracious reader like I can be at times, where you can easily lose an entire weekend of your life, on your sofa under blankets and endless cups of tea while totally absorbed in a book in the winter or sprawled out on a picnic blanket under the shade of a tree during the hot summer, completely oblivious to the world around you, then you can understand why after watching two episodes of the series, I went out and got the books and read them all in a span of three weeks so I could better understand and prepare myself for the series.

And I’m glad I did. (For those of you with no access to HBO, no access to public libraries which loan out box-set DVD’s, you can watch GoT here.)

Something I usually do.

I won’t go into too much detail about what GoT is about, the hundreds of characters and all their complex and intertwined histories. You can read the synopsis of all the books on Wikipedia or watch the animated histories on YouTube, and you’ll get it but what I want to point out is the spiritual element of that world and those books.

Executive summary: Two continents, Essos and Westeros. Westeros has seven kingdoms. Top families from all of them are vying for the Iron Throne, the throne which rules them all. Some folks have a better shot than others. Lots of heads rolling. Lots of people getting frisky with each other. Lots of lies, betrayal, head games, espionage, poisoning. Politics, war, sex, complexity, game theory. Dragons, fire made flesh. People are just trying to get by and live but the people at the top of the pyramid are too busy with their power plays and nonsense. Very few people pray anymore. No one believes in magic anymore. The old gods have been forgotten. The Children of the Forest, the original nature spirits have disappeared, some say completely, others say far, far north of the Wall. Few people worship at the Weirwood trees these days. Dragons have died out over three hundred years ago. The world the people live in now in GoT is about survival, pragmatism, practicality. Live by the sword or die by it (unless of course, someone poisons you first).

A weirwood tree, with engraven face and eyes which see everything.

But then something funny happens in GoT.

As you get deeper and deeper into the books, as the world of Westeros gets bloodier and bloodier, as more and more chaos takes over and even more despair sets in…suddenly, from ancient myth, from long-forgotten stories, magic comes back to life. The old stories end up being true.  White Walkers, the eternal undead from the frozen wastelands of the North, are no longer old wives tales to scare little children in their sleep. People have seen them now and they are marching south, by the thousands towards the Wall and towards the rest of Westeros.

An army of White Walkers marching towards the South. (Photo from HBO Inc.)

Bran Stark, now a cripple becomes a skinchanger, who can literally get into the mind of other animals and people and direct them. Bran also comes face to face with the few surviving Children of the Forest who tell him that the weirwood trees indeed see and hear all and communicate with each other even if they are leagues apart. They even see events of the distant past (think Akashic records), an ability called greenseeing . That is how the Children of the Forest know what is happening in the world.

A greenseer.

Dragons, thought to be long-extinct, have now come back to life. Three of them have hatched in the fire with Daenerys Targaryen, the true Dragonborn . As reality gets uglier and harder with each passing day, somewhere, somehow, to only some people, magic finally shows itself.

Khaleesi, aka Daenerys Targaryen, mother of dragons (Photo from HBO Inc.)

In many ways, it really is not all that different from our world and what we live in. The war drums have started over Syria, arrogant leaders and businessmen from elite families who have pocketed the politicians play their profiteering war games behind sky-high walls and exclusive compounds, luxurious penthouses, while engaged in debaucheries of all sorts, while the people on the street are the ones who suffer for it.

Do you honestly think the likes of John Kerry and John McCain give a rat’s ass about poor, displaced Syrians?

Who honors the benevolent spirits now? Who believes in the Little People or fairy folk? Who undertakes pilgrimages which may involve sacrifice? Who does ceremony to honor Cosmic Intelligence anymore?

We may very well be headed towards another war. It may very well escalate into a WWIII if these knuckleheads don’t get Syria and get their way eventually and go after Iran …and I wouldn’t put it past them to do it either (and like dominoes, Pakistan, India, Russia and China, all countries who I don’t need to remind anyone are all nuclear powers now).

Map of nuclear countries.

It may be over oil or pipelines or water or food or forests or currency control. Whatever it may be and whatever form it may come in, never, ever forget the Deeper Magic, the original magic of this planet, the magic which lies beyond this 5th dimension evil. Your magic and in whatever form that is. Some people call it love, others call it consciousness, the Little People, the Fey, angels, Sasquatch, Agartha, Shambhala, bodhisattvas, devas, sylphs, undines, gnomes, salamanders, Pachamama, the Green Man of the Forest and many, many more. Go back far enough and each of us have some tie to one form of it. All the peoples in the world once believed in it in some way. I have no doubt it may come back. It may not. Maybe not in a form we like or understand.

Maybe we need to ask, maybe not. All I know and all I feel, is that it’s still there.

Watching and waiting.

Lady Justice has become crippled

“Human justice judges only actions, but divine justice also judges thoughts, feelings and intentions. If you have consciously given someone bad advice, if you have encouraged them to rebel or driven them to despair, what court on earth will condemn such behaviour? None, for materially, objectively, there is nothing to reproach you for. If your victim goes before the judge and says, ‘See what despair this person caused me’, the judge will reply that provision is not made in law for such a case and that nothing can be done for them. Knowing there is no court to punish wicked thoughts, feelings or intentions or deceitful words, many people are clever enough to be impeccable in their actions and not get caught! There are thousands of ways of doing harm without offending in the eyes of human justice. But no one escapes divine justice.”

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

Justice was not served yesterday when Private Chelsea/Bradley Manning got sentenced to 35 years of imprisonment. Like the rest of the world, I have to shake my head in disgust at what’s happened. A conscientious objector releases the truth of the American occupation in Iraq and will lose the best years of her life in some prison cell while war criminals and the masterminds behind a war which has in effect destroyed an entire country and killed millions for absolutely no reason walk off scott-free, living their days on their ranch, painting deviant art of themselves in the washroom and hiding in the wilds of Wyoming or Idaho.

From what I understand, Manning’s case will now go to the court of appeals and there may be a chance of a reduction in the length of his sentence. Manning may even get parole after 7 years. Even then, even 1 more day in prison is 1 day too much. In a more just world and in an uncorrupted judicial system, the roles should be reversed. Mark my words, Manning is a martyr and will become a symbol of justice gone wrong, like another long-time innocent prisoner, Mumia Abu Jamal.

Solidarity statement with Chelsea/Bradley Manning from Mumia Abu Jamal.

 

The upside is that Manning’s case, like Edward Snowden, has now brought unprecedented attention to the inner workings of government and how truly violent and diabolical the state-system really is. People really see what’s happening now. Not just a handful of marginal concerned and committed activists but everyone. She’s not my cup of tea, but yesterday Lady Gaga tweeted her support for Manning and it made headlines over on the dumbing-down entertainment channel E! Online. Out of curiosity, I had a look at the running comments there and it was sufficient proof that the people who don’t want to see, won’t. People who are dumb enough to make channels like E! Online the centerpiece of their existence  are also dumb and blind to the truth of their surroundings.  

 

It reminded me of one of the last chapters in C.S Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, in “The Last Battle” when the dwarfs after realizing that the fake Aslan was an imposter and instead of joining the fight against the Calormenes  with good King Tirian, continued acting strangely, sitting in a tight circle, not looking around or noticing anyone around them. As it turns out, they believe they are in a dark stable and act accordingly. After many attempts to show the dwarfs that they were, in fact, in the great outdoors with flowers and grass and birds had failed. Without warning, the real Aslan suddenly appears before them. Lucy begs Aslan to do something about the dwarfs, but even Aslan is unable to bring their vision to them. He says that their prison is in their own minds and that their fear of being “taken in” keeps them from being taken out.

Some of Pauline Baynes’ illustrations for C.S Lewis’ “The Last Battle”.

As for divine justice, or karma, I have to believe there has to be some, somewhere out there. Hindus and pagan/Wicca types believe in The Rule of Three, that any action we take, any intention we set  and put out there into the Universe comes back to us threefold (which is why revenge spells are a really bad idea to begin with, the best you can do is ask for divine justice or karma and then let it be). If that’s the case, I do not envy those souls behind this fabricated “War on Terror”.

They’re gonna get it.

In time.

A White Wizard, a Seeress and the Nature Spirits they played with

Benjamin Hoff, is the author of the much-celebrated “Tao of Pooh” and the accompanying “Te of Piglet”, books which, against every publisher’s expectation and next to no marketing or promotion, became sensations in the publishing industry, bringing the basic principles of Taoism via “Winnie the Pooh “into the mainstream. Even today, both books continue to sell well nearly 30 years after they came out. Practically every person I’ve ever visited who was even remotely interested in spirituality or religion has at least the “Tao of Pooh” sitting on their self. Copies are found easily in the second-hand bookstore networks and are often grabbed up quickly.

 

 

 

Hoff wrote another, less well-known but equally fascinating book called “The Singing Creek, Where the Willows Grow” a biography of the enigmatic Opal Whitely. Much has been written and discussed about Whitely, a child prodigy naturalist who has been described as a genius or a fraud, depending on what side of the fence you sit on.  The controversy around Whitely sits around her book, “The Fairyland Around Us” where Whitely basically was able to communicate with Nature and nature spirits directly and she described these interactions in detail.

 

  

 

Opal led a very unconventional life, being able to memorize huge tracts of writing on plants and animals and grew up to be a charismatic lecturer and speaker on the natural world. She was in demand everywhere she went. She even spent time in India as the guest of the Maharaja of Udaipur. Suffering a head injury during the London bombings during World War II, Opal eventually was committed to the Napsbury Psychiatric Hospital where she died penniless and nearly forgotten in 1992. She is buried at Highgate Cemetery and her gravestone reads, “I spake as a child.” Nowadays, there are online memorials, a 2009 film, YouTube videos of tours through her stomping grounds in the Oregon wilderness, and even a hiking trail and bike path which follows the sites where some of the events in her books took place.

 

Opal Whitely as a young woman

 

Personally, after reading “The Singing Creek”, my own impression is that the diary is true. Diverse cultures around the world attest to the existence of nature spirits, whether they are called devas in India, the Little People among Native tribes, the Fairies of the Celtic world, the Sidhe of Scotland or the Djinn of the Islamic faith. There are books and volumes written on their characteristics, their organization, their different classes, (gnomes, sylphs, salamanders, spirits of air etc.), their areas of habitation, their manners and so on.

 

“Twilight Fantasy” By Edward Robert Hughes

“Midsummer Eve” by Edward Robert Hughes

 

My own thinking follows this: if we believe in a multi-dimensional world and we now know scientists have proven that up to 14 dimensions exist mathematically in theory (we just don’t experience all of them), then what is there to say that just because we can’t quantify something with our crude instruments (which are based on 4 dimensional mathematics and physics), that it doesn’t exist in a dimension we can neither quantify nor record in….yet? I also have to admit a small part of me would love these things to be true since I still have a fondness for fairy tales and I think, a belief in these beings helps to reinforce a worldview which is open, innocent, fluid and still full of wonder.

The Scottish mathematician and scientist Robert Ogilvie Crombie (1899-1975), better known as Roc, led a life of scientific inquiry until illness forced him out of a career in academia.  Roc is probably best known as one of the founders of the Findhorn Foundation, an intentional community and eco-village in northern Scotland. He was the elderly Scottish gentleman who claimed he spoke with nature spirits.  As a scientist, hermetic magician, and a researcher of the psychic realms, he was in many ways a key figure in the history of esotericism (white magic) in the twentieth century. He is not as famous as his darker counterparts like Aleister Crowley because he worked in solitude and privacy. He did not write books or manuals and he did not take students or attempt to found a group or an esoteric school. Imagine a modern-day Gandalf wearing tweeds and corduroy, walking through the Scottish Highlands with his walking stick. His friend, David Spangler had this to say about him:“Roc was a loving and gentle man, a wondrous story-teller, a musician, and an embodiment of the best of Scottish charm. He was the wise old man, the grandfatherly figure children adore and the magician who guides heroes and heroines on their paths to accomplishment. He was a man of culture who had one foot in this world and one foot in the world of spirits and mystery”

ROC, from the Findhorn page

At the age of 63 according to his book “The Gentleman and the Faun” (which is a delightful read incidentally), Roc had an encounter with Pan, the nature spirit of old Greek mythology at the Edinburgh Botanical Gardens. The book chronicles how Pan and the nature spirits went on to teach Roc about ley lines, power spots in the British Isles, both known (Isle of Iona) and unknown (The Falls of Rogie) which affect the natural balance of forces in this world and how man’s relationship to nature is of paramount importance.  

Robert Ogilvie Crombie

Pan explained that the reason why fewer and fewer people actually see or experience either the sight or presence of Nature spirits now is that they have simply retreated and are in deep anger towards mankind for what we’ve done to their world with all our man-made pollution, subdivisions, landfills, logging, deforestation, oil spills and mining (can’t say I blame them). That mankind needs to rebuild that trust by respecting nature again instead of exploiting it and needs to reverse the hierarchy of Man over Nature to Nature over Man.

Because of his involvement in the founding of the Findhorn community, he was also briefly highlighted in Louis Malle’s film “My Dinner with Andre” (from 3:38 onwards in the clip below ). Findhorn is especially known for their gardens, in a sandy, rocky and cold pocket of Scotland. They were able to produce vegetables and fruits in large sizes and quantities which normally should never grow in such a climate but did because the Findhorn community took their gardening and planting directions from the devas, the nature spirits themselves.

 

 

Roc wrote that Pan told him that the nature spirits are responsible for whether a plant produces something or not, that if the spirit was ill or angry, the plant it was attached to  would not thrive and fail to produce anything.

 (It’s enough to make you look at your trees, garden and houseplants in a completely different way….)

 

I’ll leave the last word to Roc….

 

“To anyone who may have expressed a wish to see and talk to nature spirits, whether or not they dropped a penny into a wishing well, remember it took sixty three years for my wish to be granted – so don’t lose hope.”

 

 

 

 

 

Links

http://members.efn.org/~opal/

http://www.findhorn.org/

 

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