The Blessing Tree and First Community Blessing Ritual
Wild Wisdom Of A Young Green and Growing Oak and A Green and Growing ‘CommuniTree’.
Dear Hearts
Young and vibrant, green and growing, stepping forth, spreading out arms open to life a young vigorous Oak stands, it’s triple trunk echoes the Awen of the druids - Earth, sea and air; body, mind and spirit; love, wisdom and truth. This young ‘awenydd’, this inspired individual, stands strong, roots reaching into the earth and branches spreading outwards and up into the skies. Neither male nor female but both at once, Oak sets male and female flowers upon their boughs. A wonderful tree to honour both the feminine and masculine within each of us and out in the wider world. Humans regard longevity, strength, fertility, and robustness as blessings and Oak holds these in abundance. Fitting then that this young and vigorous tree should become our Blessing Tree, holding in their care blessings for our supporters and those within our community who need our support and loving care. May inspiration and love always pour from our hearts for each other, whatever race, culture, creed, belief, whoever we are, however we are.
You’re here because you signed up via: the Ancient and Sacred Trees groups OR Dragon group (on Facebook) OR the Ancient and Sacred Trees website OR via my personal Jack In The Green Website OR Wild Spirit Woods. Hail and Welcome!
The flags are Tibetan prayer flags which will release their blessings of goodwill and compassion for the world as the wind blows. These are the horizontal kind meaning they are strung sideways as you see below called Lung ta (Wylie: rlung-rta, meaning "Wind Horse". Blue symbolizes the sky and space, white symbolizes the air and wind, red symbolizes fire, green symbolizes water, and yellow symbolizes earth. These flags remind that our community is world wide and that all people from all cultures are welcome here.
The blessing tokens you will see are hand crafted by me. I used pyrography to burn the names onto the wood, then painted and tied with my homespun woollen blessing thread and hung with cotton string. Eventually they will weather and biodegrade, falling to the ground decaying, breaking down into the good green earth.
This blessing tree is inspired by the ancient time honoured tradition here in the UK, as in other places, by what we call here ‘cloutie trees’ traditionally sited next to springs and wells. So we can celebrate local traditions and culture here. Cloutie trees have rags tied to them with prayers for people to recover from illness and misfortunes. As the rags rotted away and disappeared so did the misfortunes. This is a type of banishing, and in the banishing of what is not helpful it creates space for good fortune to enter. There is also the blessing in opening our hearts and sending our goodwill, love and compassion to all those that need it. There is too, the petitioning from or own sacred beliefs for the bestowing of blessings from higher deities and from ancestors and local spirits who mean Only The Highest Good.
Naturally I emphasis ‘Leave No’ Trace’ out in wild woods and of course all offerings need to be able to rot away harmlessly into the earth. Of course all things hung must be kept short so as not to tangle and trap our wild friends. This beautiful young tree lives at the entrance to Wild Spirit Woods just next to the path down from the meadow to the tipi and wild woods. This is a fitting place for our friend, this young Oak being, to be a blessing holder, protecting and bestowing blessings upon all. The first thing all visitors will see is human love made manifest by our communiTree bedecking the boughs of our friend.
What you are about to see is a glimpse of our young friend Oaks’ initiation and their ordainment as our Blessing Tree here at Wild Spirit Woods, standing as a symbol for our communiTree of wild beings and human beings. We did not video the ritual however I had inadvertently switched on my phone which picked up some of the audio while in my pocket. So I have pieced together photographs taken at the time and some video and more photos taken later to give you a glimpse of the magic and love shared. As this young Oak grow so will our community grow in strength and unity and love.
Photographs of the individual blessings will be sent to both paid supporters and those who received the blessings. Each time someone takes up a paid subscription they will have a blessing hung on their behalf. Blessings are also hung for those in need with love and compassion.
For our ceremony first we all stood in circle and spoke to this young Oak and thanked them for their presence then we sang a chant together to honour this green and growing being. Four people were chosen to hang flags in Oaks’ honour to bless them and this sacred place. Once this was done we hung the biodegradable blessing tokens in their boughs for their safe keeping. We took it in turn to step forwards to hang each one with love and care. If you listen carefully you might just be able to hear voices as each person spoke the name of someone out loud and wished them well.
Community is not just about standing together it is about being immersed in tasks together. As I said last week about the Honouring Holly ritual we come together when we don’t just witness but actively participate. Sacred tending and befriending of each other, of the wild world and of ourselves is at the heart of true community. Beauty and harmony sing where love lies.
As we bless others we bless ourselves.
So long as we are here to keep singing, keep praising and celebrating all that is good, our world will not end. Just as this young tree has sprouted from a tiny acorn so it is that our community has grown from a small seed online planted 10 years ago and is now planted in the green meadow of love and land.
Never doubt the power of love for it is enduring and flows through us and this wild world of which we are a part.
Thank you so much to every single one of you for taking the time to read my letters to you and for supporting Forest Heart.
Wild wishes and blessings
Amanda Claire x
(Founder Ancient and Sacred Trees, and Wild Spirit Woods Custodian)
If you are so inspired you might like to buy me a coffee or support our growing Forest Heart community by taking up a paid subscription. OR if you aren’t ready for that just now please share and tell your friends on social media and elsewhere! Thank you so much for your support.
What a beautiful honouring of that splendid oak and our burgeoning community! Blessings of all kinds headed your way!
Such a lovely gesture, thank you! May your world and everything you bring to it go from strength to strength..