Month 3 - Alder

Not a tree I am overly familiar with, so I was fascinated to see how I would connect with Alder. 

We did a guided meditation to the Fairy World to make our first connection and, very unusually for me, I lost the thread completely and didn't actually make to the Fairy Realm at all.  I was having huge problems focusing despite having had 5 good nights sleep in a row for the first time in over 2 years - I spent most of the day feeling very spacey and woozy, and not quite 'all there'. 

The journeying later was much more visual and I felt a strong, if unexpected, connection, this time via a 'Green Man' who opened the portal to the Middle World for me.  Once I was in the Alder grove, I was very confused (again, unusual for me on a journey) and didn't know what to do, so I went and hugged one of the trees.  After a while the Green Man came to the far side of the tree and caught hold of my hands.  I was a little surprised but didn't resist, then was startled when he told me to "Be Brave!", grabbed my wrists and pulled me right into the centre of the tree.  Not all of me would go in, my outer skin was caught on the bark and got left behind so I got a sense of shedding the old to make way for the new - once inside the tree, I was completely merged with it and felt like I was following the sap of the tree up the trunk and right out to the tips of the twigs and leaves. Lots of growth and transformation!

Meeting with the Alder trees was another very different experience.  It was very wild and windy, and after lots of rain, the river was also quite a turbulent flow of energy right next to us.  I found a nook amongst 4 elder trees that had split away from each other and wrapped my arms around the largest one.  The tree felt very vibrant, quivering, although it was somewhat unnerving to feel as though its roots were lifting as the strong winds flexed the large tree (my arms didn't meet around its trunk).  I felt like I was being rocked, felt much more engaged with the tree, it was much more interactive than Birch or Rowan had been, and more so than I ever find my Oak or Copper Beech to be.  Several branches had been shaken from the trees, presumably in the winter storms, so I collected some to bring back with me to make my wand.  I also found a branch that had all 4 elements represented, with old catkins, old cones, a few old leaves clinging on and the start of some new purple catkins, so there is a very dramatic collection of branches in my living room right now :-)

Reviewing Rowan and moving on to cycle 3

So the full moon was on the 16th January and as usual, the skies were cloudy and she hid from me.  I saw her on the 15th and 17th, but somehow the fullest version always eludes me.  Perhaps in February :-)
I chose to try scrying in a bowl of water as my divination, since I am already very familiar with using Oracle cards and wanted to try something a bit different.  I wasn't sure exactly what to do, so built a ceremonial fire, added some of my Rowan bark chips to the fire and lit a charcoal disk and put Rowan incense onto it.  I also lit several candles and it was only after I had arranged them that I realised I had chosen 7 which is a magical number for me. 
I couldn't find a bowl large enough at first and ended up with a metal mixing bowl, which gave me interesting reflections in the water.  It was also a little awkward holding the bowl and the wand I had made (from the Flying Rowan) at the same time. It took a long time of gazing with soft focus before anything really appeared, then three dimensional shapes seemed to come up out of the water towards me, quite spiky like crystal shards or harsh mountain peaks.  And the mystery man also made another appearance.  I also saw several symbols of interlocked arcs and circles, and got an image of a design I need to try and draw or recreate somehow of a woman dancing on the edge of a circle, with ribbons flowing out behind her.

My pyrography kit arrived and I had fun practising with it, though it's easier to make straight lines with the chisel tips than it is to create spirals or write freehand with the fine pointed tips.  Since I only need straight lines for the ogham stick symbols, that worked out fine and I marked the two Rowan ogham sticks, as well as all 3 wands.  I also played a bit with the wooden hearts I had bought as templates and created a stylised version of my name on one of them :-)

The manifesting has been intriguing.  I have started a new project with 3 of the ladies I've met online through the Sassy SHE group.  It was very much a random flowing connection, very spontaneous and we have a lot of complementary skills.  The plan is to create a women's event of some kind in the autumn, a gathering where women can come together to share, connect and feel nurtured, though the actual structure is still very fluid and we haven't yet decided what format it will take or who our target audience is.  We tried a Google+ web meeting, then when that didn't work too well, tried to move to Spreecast.  We also struggled with that so we will have a face-to-face meeting which I am hosting on 22 Feb :-) 

I am finding that the energies of my two Rowan wands are definitely very different - it will be interesting to see how that changes the way I use them. So far, I'm mostly bound up in creating the wands, I haven't yet found any Rowan trees near to me.  Or at least, I don't think I have.  I need to take some pictures and collect some berries to take with me to one of the sessions to see if Ros and Jon can identify a couple of trees I've found that I suspect are hawthorn but could possibly be Rowan, or maybe something else entirely!

It's been a very short period of time since we finished with Birch (3 weeks) and we're still a little way from the new moon so although I will be starting work with the next tree this weekend, I have my suspicions that Rowan is not quite done with me yet :-)

We shall see if I have anything to add when I come back to this post to put in the photos, lol.

Month 2 - Rowan

Well, Birch definitely got me off to a dramatic start - I have now finished the birch wand that I was making and am waiting for my new pyrography hot iron to be delivered so I can burn the ogham symbol onto it (currently just pencilled on!).

I bought a birch-handled rattle from Ros and love the soft 'shush-ing' sound it makes from the tiny snow quartz crystals, as opposed to the more usual rattling which always sounds too harsh to me. The reindeer hide is decorated with red chamois trim and reindeer fur and I have added a little red heart charm tied on with red ribbon :-)

So we have moved on to Rowan, a tree that amongst other things provides the quickening after the new beginnings from Birch.  It is also the wood for divination, protection and contacting spirit guides.

I found it more difficult to communicate with the Rowan trees than I did with the Birch trees, they were more reserved, less forthcoming.  However, I found a couple that were willing to converse with me to a limited extent - a very old tree with a hole through her trunk, which is also partially hollowed out on the far side kept tapping me on the head with twigs and gave me a piece of somewhat soggy deadfall to bring home and dry out.  It will make a series of small ogham sticks that I plan to give as gifts as part of an art exchange I have just committed to :-)

I also talked to a much younger 'flying' Rowan that was hanging out of the river bank over the water.  It was difficult to reach her trunk from the bank itself, so I waded into the river (in my wellies, that water is cold in January!!) to hold onto a couple of her branches.  Her bark was very cold and damp, the sun doesn't reach down into the valley in the winter and I only got fleeting images from her.  I sent her lots of images of warmth from the sun and heat from my body and her aloof demeanour softened a little.  She gave me a branch that was mostly detached and I left my rowan berry amulet in exchange.  It will make an awesome and very magical wand as well as more ogham sticks!  I will keep those as a special set :-) 

I have already made a plain wand and 2 ogham sticks from the wood that Ros and Jon gave us during the day.  One of the ogham sticks is for my dad for protection and also for communication with his guides; the other is for a friend who is planning a Vision Quest later in the year.  I'm hoping my pyrography kit will arrive before Thursday so I can engrave the symbols in time - they're currently marked in permanent marker. 

I'm fascinated and a little nervous to see what Rowan will bring this month.  Ros used selenite wands on the altar to help with our journeying and I had very strong images from the Middle World and found it much easier to stay with the journey than I did last time.  My guides obviously have a lot of work in mind for me - not sure I'm going to get the restful month that I was planning, lol.  I am somewhat intrigued by the fact that I had an image of scrying in the river (I'd actually forgotten that part when we went to visit the trees, I've only just made the connection!) and was shown an image of my new partner who will be making an appearance in April!! Umm, not if I have anything to do with it, he won't, ha ha.  Like I ever have any choice in these things.... so much for staying single for a while!  We shall see.....

I shall be scrying at the Full Moon so watch this space :-)

A Year of Celtic Trees - Month 1 - Birch

I've just embarked on a new adventure - this time exploring the Celtic Calendar through trees and the lunar cycles for a full year. 

We started in November, with Birch, the tree for new beginnings.  Very appropriate in my case, as I've just quit my job, left my relationship, moved out of the flat I was sharing and come back to my home in Berkshire, having been in London for the past year. 

So I spent a day in Exmoor with Ros Simons, her husband Jon and some fellow explorers where we learned about birch trees, did meditations and journeying, had a go at starting to carve some ogham staves and visited some trees :-) 
I have never seen birch trees that were big enough to climb before - my impression of silver birch is that they are very slender trees, with trunks I could easily reach my arms around.  A big surprise then, to be amongst many silver birches that were more reminiscent of oak trees in size.  I clambered up into one (no mean feat in my wellies!) and was supported enough that I fell asleep laid out along one of the branches. 

Individual branches thicker than I expect the trunks to be :-)

The branch where I went to sleep!

These trees look entwined but actually aren't!

Sunset

Since coming back from that weekend, I have found silver birch to talk to in London near the office where I was working (actually in an open space near More London at Tower Bridge!) and also just down the road from my house. 

Protected enough from the wind to still have leaves in December!
 

How many silver birch at More London??

There were also silver birch forming a protective half-circle around the healing glade that I helped to plant on the Friday morning before heading down to Exmoor later that day :-) 

Digging the holes

The mayor of Henley-on-Thames came to help

Making sure the tree is straight!

Lots of compost, then topsoil

Watering the roots with mead

Tree standing tall - supports will be added tomorrow :-)

Hawthorn, Rowan and Alder within Birch trees



Blessings for all the trees