Dear Friends,
Someone once told me the percentage of DNA human beings share with trees.
Unfortunately, my brain has not retained the exact percentage, but I do recall it
being surprisingly high and an inspiring piece of data.
This incomplete fact has been weaving itself into my thoughts on the Holy Thorn
recently, as we approached and passed the anniversary of its vandalisation. A phrase
has been ringing in my mind – “Be the Tree”. It encapsulates how I can continue to
honour the life and teachings of our beautiful hawthorn.
A turbulent and challenging year followed the damaging of the Holy Thorn, not
difficult for any of us to recall ! A year in which I was asked to sit inside my
oldest wound and really see it and its far-reaching, unconscious effects, perhaps
clearly for the first time in my life. I did not realise I was “being the tree” at
the time because I was too consumed with my own inner machinations. I do not believe
I was the only one doing this either, perhaps you did this too? Perhaps you
uncovered your wound to your awareness, exposed it fully to the elements? Perhaps
you were “being the tree” too?
If I could be any tree, I would choose the Holy Thorn, though there are many
beautiful tree beings to honour and cherish. Even in its physically damaged state
it is whole and embodies with complete integrity a powerful healing premis. It knew
the truth about our wounds (however well they were hidden) and through its strange
and difficult story of late, it speaks the truth to us. It reveals us to ourselves
for the sake of our own healing.
I would also choose to be the tree because it perfectly blends the purest energies
of both the Old Religion (Paganism) and the New Religion (Christianity), without
detriment to either, with natural affinity to both. No confusion exists within it,
only within us. The tree stands as a harmonious embodiment of the sacred masculine
and feminine. The hawthorn faerie spirit is female and (for me) emanates just as
frequently from the tree as the Christ Energy. The Michael and Mary lines both run
parallel along Wearyall Hill and converge upon the Holy Thorn. The Holy Thorn also
incorporates another important polarity, that of “up and down”. The physical form of
the tree is as a conductor both ways for earth and sky energies. All reasons why the
tree has a powerful channelling ability, why it is a power spot and concentrated
focus for the flow of energy around the planet. I sense the tree can serve as a kind
of junction box or router for global energy. I do not believe mine is a unique
observation. I know others have understood this about the tree too.
Why would I not want to “Be the Tree” ? It represents everything I am trying to work
towards.
The last time I connected with the hawthorn at Equinox, the tree spirit felt at one
with itself, whole and “unharmed” despite its physical condition. The tree spirit
however felt semi-detached from the body of the tree. The faerie stood beside the
trunk and was making stellar connections. At this point some of the new sprigs had
been taken, but two small ones still remained.
A few days ago on Solstice morning, no evidence of new growth remained. In a sense
we were back where we started a year ago, with no outer signs of reassurance and no
certainty about the future. A cycle has been completed. A grief cycle. A healing
cycle in fact, for something has changed inside me at least. I sat with my wound, I
gave voice to it and shed the pain of that part of me and love came back and filled
the space. Love and acceptance. I remember one of the first messages the damaged
hawthorn communicated to me was about forgiveness and our need to be more pro-active
with it than ever and to turn over the forgiveness cycle more quickly, but no less
deeply. In retrospect, I spent valuable time in 2011, learning to acknowledge in me
those things in ourselves we all find hard to forgive – the perceived weaknesses of
pain and fear. It is relevant to remember also that the attack itself was a huge
projection of unendurable inner energy that had not been processed or forgiven. If I
learn the mechanism and possibility of self-forgiveness, only then do I know how and
why to forgive and accept others. In this opened space, others also have the chance
to forgive themselves and reduce the venting of chaotic and destructive energy. Do
not think I deem this an easy process, but the necessity of it as a mechanism for
change seems ever more clear to me.
Many wonderful sacred energies speak to us through the physical world and offer
themselves to us for our guidance and transformation. The Earth offers us her rare
and beautiful textbooks for gracious change all the time. And the very nature of
flow dictates that we not only receive, but give back with grateful thanks, care and
responsibility.
As I gazed at the tree this Winter Solstice, I noticed for the first time the
human-like wrinkles in the bark where the remains of the branches start to bend out
at the top of the trunk. They looked so human. They resemble the lines that are now
appearing on my own neck! I felt a pang of sympathetic connection and then almost
instantly – peace. In that moment of plain reality, the tree also seemed “emptier”,
but I cannot tell you what that really means.
What I then noticed was how the energy of the tree seemed more blended with my own
energy bubble. How the process it symbolised had played out within my own being and
was now “unforgettable” on a spiritual level, a positive healing imprint. This was
where the inner peace came from, even upon seeing no evidence left of new growth.
Both the masculine and the feminine tree guides danced together gracefully inside my
bubble.
The tree also seemed to be making a connection with Tibet. A mantra that I do not
recognise seemed to flow out of the tree and was accompanied by an image of Buddhist
monks and nuns chanting whilst looking at me square in the face. The day before I
had bought a double terminated Tibetan quartz crystal and I felt it wanted to go to
the tree with me. While holding it lightly upon the trunk in a vertical position,
the connection with Tibet began. I said prayers for the monks and the nuns and felt
that even now the tree is somehow weaving connections into the great cosmic fabric
of energy, and that the flow was both ways, like the double terminated crystal
itself. It seemed as though some form of preparation was going on for a year of
profound challenge in Tibet, and the possibility of change, perhaps in a way we have
already started to witness with the Arab Spring. Please direct love and healing
according to Divine Will towards Tibet, her incredibly brave and steadfast monks,
nuns and citizens who nurture the soul of their nation against all odds.
I also want to mention here an interpretation of events that perhaps I have not
emphasised as much as I might. The wounded tree also speaks to me quite clearly of
the rift that remains in the “family tree” of our spirituality in this country. I
cannot help but draw some conclusions about the work that still needs to be done to
heal the wound between Christians and those of an Earth-based spirituality. I am no
expert on the state of inter-faith harmony in Glastonbury (or anywhere else), but
this was a powerful reminder that more can be done to heal our wound. When I say
“Our Wound”, I do not attribute victim or perpetrator status to either side. People
from both sides of the divide have no doubt experienced both shadow identities down
the centuries. So the wound is shared, both sides have an energetic relationship
with it.
I was encouraged this year to experience an amazing cycle of Inkan shamanic energy
teachings, held within the rooms of a building built by Jesuits, which is now a
college of Theology and Philosophy. Present within our number were a few
participants from different Christian backgrounds. What a profound honour to learn
together in sacred space. Long may these harmonising opportunities continue.
Quietly reviewing the past year and the shifts I am grateful to have experienced,
the current state of the tree speaks to me more and more of great healing in the
midst of woundedness and BECAUSE of our woundedness, for every wound holds the seed
of a unique transformational possibility.
Having nearly come to the end of my 2011 journey and come through some very thorny
issues to a place of greater peace and possibility, I also feel I can let go of the
Holy Thorn as an outer symbol of faith and focus on being “akin” with her, wherever
she resides in the universe. The combined energies of the tree smile on us eternally
with gentle kindness and trust in our own transformational power.
My prayer for those of you seeking the kind of harmony within which the tree
embodies, is that you are able to trust in yourselves in the way the Holy Thorn
trusts in us. Believe in your ability to meet your potential through constant and
courageous inner focus, no matter the apparent assaults and distractions of the
external world. May we stand, as energetically complete and harmonious as the tree.
May we be conduits for the healing energies of the Earth and the Cosmos. May we be
blessed by the love and wisdom of the sacred feminine and the sacred masculine. May
we embrace the story of the Holy Thorn however it may conclude. May we find our own
powerful and unique ways to Be the Tree.
Wishing you all a blessed, joyful, restoring and peaceful holiday time and many
beautiful and transforming experiences in 2012.
With love from
Rosemary xx
