Natures Hidden Teachers

The Personalities Of Trees. 

     We all know the story. In this modern age we are faced with increasing problems caused by our rapid consumption of the planet's resources and our disconnected and impersonal relationship to this place we call home.

      You don’t need to go far to see the immediate effects of this; discarded plastics, city smogs, noise and light pollution and this is just our immediate environment. What to mention of the bigger problems that maybe don’t affect us directly; deforestation, fracking, war and poverty on an ever increasing scale. But these things do affect us, sooner or later the emerging crisis on this Earth will touch each and everyone of us.

   More and more people are turning towards the different spiritual and ancestral cultures, the mystic traditions of the world, to rediscover ways of living which are more holistic and friendly in  approach to Mother Nature than the current paradigm currently allows.

    More and more people are trying to find where we lost the thread of our sanity in relation to each other and the Earth.

    One of the models for sustainable and holistic living that has been held up in recent years is the image of the tree. Completely in tune with its environment the humble tree never moves very far from the spot it takes root. It never takes more than it needs and  it gives back to the very environment in which it lives. Rather than degrading its surroundings it improves and even beautifies it.

     One of the things I learned researching my own native Celtic heritage tradition is the importance of trees in the lives of the people and our brother and sister animals. 

     Even more evident was the fact that our ancestors, and today's indigenous peoples of the world, had and have a much more personal relationship to the land and the teachings to be found there.

For them it was not only home and place of resources but also a Sacred environment to be learnt from, to be nurtured and respected. A place where myth and landscape, culture and reality are inescapably bound together. Trees are a doorway to connect to the divine.

   In the coming blog posts I’d like to delve deeper into the mysteries of nature and explore the personalities of the trees on our doorstep here in northern Europe, to see what they are trying to teach us.

   We will explore  some of their qualities and characteristics, spiritual and immediate, to see what and how we can learn from them.

     Indeed there is something of an inner teacher or hidden guru to be found in these beautiful beings that we take for granted on a day to day basis.

    A tree is a humble being. Even though insects gnaw at its roots and leaves, people cut with axes and saws, extremities of weather beat down relentlessly,  it is always ready to give shelter to other living entities, is always ready to offer its fruits to the hungry.

    It is a very giving position of servitude and one from which we have a lot to learn if we are to create a sustainable and pleasant future for this planet and the generations to come.

So let’s walk together in the forest of consciousness and meet the guardian trees that live there.

We won’t leave a leaf un-turned as we explore our arboreal friends from root to branches!