One of the parts of the awakening process is gaining a deeper appreciation for the natural world. This happens seemingly by accident, as guides are sent our way to reveal the true majesty of the environment around us. It’s no accident though. These are planned events set up by our Higher Self to wake us up to the deeper reality that envelopes us constantly.
I must confess that, at the beginning of 2020, I didn’t have much love for woods or forests. They just didn’t seem like inviting places to be. They were dark places, filled with insects and mud, branches that could take my eye out and roots to trip me up everywhere I went. I’d much rather go around them than enter into their depths.
If we go back further still to 2014, quite frankly, I couldn’t give a damn about Mother Earth. Concrete, asphalt, glass and steel was the way to go. Anything made with human ingenuity and I was down with it but going outside and connecting with the world? No thanks. I even had a plan to astroturf my garden, such was the deep desire to never have to cut a lawn again. What actually emerged was a beautiful haven filled with lots of plants, flowers and herbs; a heaven for the wildlife, insects and birds, with not a patch of grass in sight.
So, here we are back in the present day and I can safely say that I’m a changed man. Nature has a strong pull for me, however, I’m also a homebody which means that I spend a lot of time safely tucked-up in my shell. When I go out though, something rather delightful happens, I get an expansive feeling. The colours of the world hold more beauty now and, rather than ignoring it, I relish the opportunity to feast my eyes on the abundance of flora and fauna in my locale.
This is especially true when it comes to trees. For I have found that, amongst these particular beings, I have a certain affinity. The otherworldly forest in the previous chapter opened my third-eye to the peculiar capabilities of the arboreal realm.
Before I came to this place, Pickering in North Yorkshire in the UK, I had always taken trees for granted. They seemed like nothing special at all. They held nothing deeper than just being made out of bark and sap. I was dead wrong about that and I found this out when a friend encouraged me to hold my third-eye against the trunk of one particular tree. She announced that the tree had already revealed that its name was “Treeva”.
This, I thought, was rather silly at the time but I went with it. When I connected my forehead to the body of the tree, it was a revelatory experience. Colours began appearing in my mind’s-eye, very similar to those experienced during a Reiki session. I was astounded! I threw my arms around the mighty being and gave it a big hearty hug with a massive smile on my face. The energy received from the tree came in pulses; wavy concentric circles of purples flashing through my mind. I knew something amazing was happening. I had finally discovered something that has been hidden from us for so long. Trees can communicate with humans.
The more time that I spent in the forest, the greater this acuity grew. Each time I went out for a walk, I would select a tree to connect with. Initially, there was some embarrassment about being caught by a passer by whilst performing the ritual but that lessened over time. Now, the fear is a mere whisper.
There’s a beautiful park just through a gate behind my twin brother’s house in Nottingham. I often went out walking the dog with my family to get a breath of fresh air in this wonderful place. A particular tree called to me only after a few walks, it was on its own in the middle of a large grassy area. I approached it with my niece and instructed her to throw her arms around the trunk, close her eyes and place her forehead on the bark. This I did too. I said that if she listened to the tree closely it would reveal its name. What she said next made my jaw drop to the floor. The name of the tree, she announced, was “Treesa”. Immediately, a rush of pleasure filled my body, the hairs on my arms stood up on end and I felt tingles of joy all over. The tree had passed a message on to my niece. Just before I asked what the tree’s name was, I had been thinking about “Treeva” and my initial wake up call.
Trees talk to each other through the mycorrhizal fungi network. This is like the internet for trees. They’re also aware of their family members and will send nutrients to those in need. There’s a much greater communication going on between them than we currently imagine.
What I’ve also discovered is that connecting with your chosen tree is a healing experience. Every time I perform my routine with them, I come away feeling refreshed and revitalised, more grounded in my current reality, happier, more focused and clearer of mind. The action of placing the forehead against the trunk releases ‘The Spirit Molecule’ called Dimethyltryptamine or DMT. Energy healing sessions are also responsible for this occurrence in large quantities. Life’s a trip right?
I’d encourage you all to reach out to our vegetative cousins and commune with them. Their wisdom is ancient, their energy is beautiful and they have so much to offer us as a species. They are without doubt vital to our evolution and are part of a symbiotic circle with us.
From the book From Darkness Into The Light by J.J. Flanagan