Have you ever given a thought to the innate wisdom of trees and their relationship with humans? It might seem a strange question, but trees affect every part of our existence, creating stability and structure on many levels.
Every culture has their own depiction of a tree of life, showing the connection trees make between the earth, heaven and the underworld. Many cultures believe trees to be sacred, and that each tree has its own energetic spirit or soul. Of course, the ancients lived in heavily wooded areas with none of the concrete and modern structures that we have today, so they formed strong bonds with the trees surrounding them and enveloped them into their culture.
The ancients not only believed that trees had their own spirit, but that they also had a unique vibrational frequency, much the same as our own energy fields. We now know that everything vibrates at a cellular level, and that we also vibrate with our own unique vibrational signature, but the Celts recognised this way before science had proven it. To differentiate the trees the Celts created symbols to represent each type of tree, and even a symbol for a grove, where their sacred ceremonies took place. These symbols were carved on wood and stone and evolved into the Ogham alphabet, the beginning of our alphabet today.
Our ancestors also recognised that the different trees could help with ailments on every level – physical, emotional, spiritual and energetic. For example, the Birch tree was used to emotionally release old ways and patterns and was considered helpful with new beginnings. On a physical level Birch essential oils are an anti-inflammatory and pain reliever, helping with joint pain. The Hawthorn helps clear thoughts and blocked energy, offering clarity and the next step to take, and physically it strengthens and improves the circulation of the heart.
The Celts innately recognised the many layered relationship between us and trees. They were able to utilise their own ancestral soul wisdom and develop a path which saw humans evolve and prosper. Nowadays many of us have distanced ourselves from the natural world and have disconnected from that inner conduit of information.
In recent years we have discovered that trees have their own community, connecting below the surface in a network of fine roots and fungi, and that they use those pathways to send nutrients and energy to members that are struggling, and to alert others to danger. Trees talk to each other through the ‘wood wide web’ using electrical pulses, chemicals, hormones and sounds.
Through science we have learnt that trees are essential to the very air we breathe, taking out the carbon dioxide that is harmful to us, and providing us with oxygen, cleaning our air and creating the necessary environment for us to live and thrive. They also ground our earth, stop erosion of our soils, create an amazing home for animals, insects and birds, provide material to build our homes and furniture and provide shelter to the canopy below.
More recently the Japanese have pioneered Forest Bathing or Shinrin-yoku to assist with mental health. The exposure to the natural forest environment helps us find calm and deep relaxation. The compounds that trees release activate our parasympathetic nervous system and help us shift out of the fight and flight state that so many of us find ourselves stuck in with modern living. These compounds are the wood’s essential oils which protect them from germs, insects and disease, and which we can access from the leaves, roots, bark, twigs and resin. When we breath these compounds in, the cells within us which fight off illness, increase.
The Celts recognised this ability of trees by following their own inner knowledge and wisdom, as if they had a direct link to the trees themselves. We are told to follow our intuition, our gut feelings, but this feels stronger and more established than just a hunch as if the ancients had discovered something more.
I have worked with trees for several years and I have found them to be amazing companions. By connecting to their energy, it allows their vibration to shift mine and seemingly unclog that ancestral link. The experience is calming and balancing, and you can almost feel their beat or pulse. I always feel that there is another level to trees which we are not yet aware of, another aspect which the ancients understood, and we have not yet discovered. Just as in the tree of life I believe they create a structure to the energy around us which we mimic in our own energy fields when we work with them. This structure grounds, balances and steady’s us.
Maybe by working with trees, we can unlock and rediscover that connection which was so apparent in our ancient ancestors. If we find time to keep making that connection, we will see and feel a difference in the way that we move through our lives.
Maybe by working with trees, we can unlock and rediscover that connection which was so apparent in our ancient ancestors. If we find time to keep making that connection, we will see and feel a difference in the way that we move through our lives. The Celts believed that the fir trees increased their connection to ancestral wisdom, as well as helping them to see into the future from their own inner wisdom, and perhaps we need to utilise this knowledge more for our own health and wellbeing on every level. In my opinion the trees hold a well of wisdom ready for us to tap into.
Article by Natasha Joy Price
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