Blessings from the trees: Ash
Guardian and protector of the liminal ways. Venus of the Woods hail and welcome!
All hail Ash
Weaver of mystery
Tree of life
Seer of destiny. ( Antlered Path ).
In honour and awe of Ash - Fraxinus excelsior.
**Note - This is a tricky post to share as it involves sharing on Ash dieback, the horrendous disease that has spread like wild fire across the UK killing thousands of Ash trees (and many of the species they support). To find out more about this disease, click here.
I met this local Ash tree pictured below some years ago and she has gifted me much to muse on. She guided me through a misty, moss laden, fern guarded gateway deep through her trunk, her roots and branches into the sacred spinning, weaving, parts of my ever present Soul and the worlds around me.
I will be sharing insights on Ash further down into the belly of this post, but as Ash has this medicine and wisdom that brings reflections and memories to the fore for me, I am drawn to wander with these first.
For many years I did not know Ash trees intimately. For many years I did not know many tree species. I have been developing my tree ID skills and connections more in the past 15 years or so. I just wish I had had more conscious awareness of Ash in my younger years (I obviously knew Ash trees but did not know that is what they were, if you see what I mean!).
Which leads me to feel sad about the fact that as a child, like many folks, I was not taught about the different trees and their stories, their folklore. Recently in my other ‘job’ I coordinated a workshop for people to attend at the Children’s Forest Community Tree Nursery in East Sussex. Their whole philosophy is aimed at supporting children and their families to have deeper and clearer awareness of individual tree species and the folkore, stories and wisdom associated with them. They offer exercises called ‘Meet the trees’ as part of their tree group work. Where the young and older members of families interact with different trees and make those deeper and sacred, timeless connections. The ones that tingle in the meridians of the body for a long time after.
I found myself wishing I was 7 years old or thereabouts again and going to the Community Tree Nursery to meet trees and to honour them. (I was ‘sent’ to Brownies, guides and Sunday School instead! None of which encouraged meeting the trees or knowing them in any way really).
You see this kind of tree connected wisdom is so vital in nurturing us, because through our relationships with trees we are opened with ease to understanding the wider ecosystem, the weaving of the landscape, the flow, the different worlds and the cycles of the seasons. Whatever landscape we live in, wherever that may be, trees and plants cultivate vitality, provide life and diversity.
Ash has helped me to make so many connections within and around me, across time and into those parts of my being which I may choose to look away from. Ash spirit spins threads of reality, emotion, spiritual growth and deep truths. She is a weaver of wyrd and a space of transformation. She brings the energy of ‘facing up to the mystery and the unknown’ for me.
So this special local Ash friend……
She heaved a sigh of mourning when I first really SAW her, (which is always tangible to me when I go to her). The mourning of the Ash dieback and of illness in the land (she has only just succumbed to it though, previously I sense she was aware of it in the other Ash near and far. They know you know). I could really feel the waves of emotion and my chest felt heavy and weary. It can be such a visceral experience when you meet with a potent tree ally. This is not easy to write but it needs to be shared. Illness and disease is not easy to face up to, not easy to write about especially on a Substack where I aim to cultivate a sanctuary - yet what better way to face certain such challenging issues than in a safe, protected space? To find out more about Ash dieback click here.
The elephant-grey bark begins to gleam in a light rain shower. I love this skin of ash, almost human in its perfect smoothness when young, with an under-glow of green. It wrinkles and creases like elephant skin at the heels and elbows of old pleachers where they have healed . . I love its natural flamboyance and energy, and the swooping habit of its branches: the way they plunge towards the earth, then upturn, tracing the trajectory of a diver entering the water and surfacing. In March the tree is a candelabra, each bud emerging cautiously, like the black snout of a badger, at the tip of every branch. 1
The blessing from Ash spirit, a short chant dedicated to Ash and some folklore follows……
