What I Learn from the Trees

Trees have a way of talking to me. Perhaps Tolkien’s portrayal of the Ents was a way of waking us up to the fact that trees have spirits. Over the last week or so they have been talking more loudly than usual in both my dreams and waking life. All of it built up to two days of spirit work where I spent time connecting with the essences of a handful of trees in Southern Africa in the Platbos forest. (Visit www.platbos.co.za and www.africantreeessences.co.za for more information on the African Tree Essences).

Trees are a channel to the dream world. They connect the world of the sky where we find our dreams and aspirations to the earth where we have a solid base from which to act. Trees are sensitive to changes in the environment and adapt accordingly. When one of their limbs is severed they find a different path of growing. They move with the seasons, sensing what’s going on around them. When it’s cold, they withdraw into themselves, waiting patiently for the right time to come out again in full bloom. They know when it’s time to blossom, spreading their seeds for more of their own to grow.

When you talk to a tree gently, asking it to share its wisdom and holding your hands against its bark, you will find out about its own special power. They are more than just a shape growing out from the ground. They are the great transformers, breathing in filth and converting it to oxygen. They are the shaman’s portal to the otherworlds, the places where healing is found on an energetic level. The trees can tell you when you need to look at something in a past life to understand what’s happening now. They connect over space and time, talking to your soul through synchronicities and reminding you of your purpose in life. Journeying through the trunk of a tree, one awakens to larger cosmic perspectives, remembering that the reality we have now is not the only reality there can be. There have been many civilisations before us and there will be many more to come. If I want to make a difference to the world that I know now then I have to live my vision. Whilst I may have been persecuted in past lives because of it, all that is now over. Because I have the freedom to live as I choose, I have greater responsibility to be authentic.

The trees have taught me not only about unconditional love, unbending courage and perseverance when things get hard, but about the importance of intuition and living the magic within. They call me back to the world tree where my forgotten origins lie, asking me to claim my place as a shaman and have the courage to speak my truth.