Having just finished another plant diet, this time with the magnificent Oak I thought I would share some insights about this tree that at first may not be very apparent. As you know, this tree is the most beloved of our lands and is probably the part of nature that is most entwined with the human psyche. Our ancestors relied so heavily on the Oak for shelter, warmth, tanning leather, feeding animals, healing infections and building ships that the consciousness of the Oak is already alive within us, we actually already know it on a very intimate level. This became apparent to many on the Oak Initiation (plant diet) that we ran in May 2019 and so the qualities of the Oak were easier to perceive as we were simply remembering an old friend.
One of the more surprising aspects of the Oak that became apparent on the retreat was it’s cleansing quality. I had dried some spring leaves for smudging everyone and was already aware of the purifying effect of them, what I had not looked into was the energetics behind this quality. Throughout a healing ceremony it is essential to manage the psychic debris and the cleanliness of the energy in the room, however, each time I went to cleanse the space with my spirit team my awareness was pulled to the Oak in the centre of the altar and I got the strong sense that I did not need to do anything, the Oak was already managing it’s sovereign space and knew exactly what was present within it and when to remove it. I double checked with the pendulum and sure enough there was no toxicity that needed transforming.
This awareness of personal space and psychic hygiene also filtered down to attendees in the ceremony, some people were aware that they had arrived with unhelpful energies or non-physical beings attached to their energy field and so immediately asked for clearings. This is the first time this has happened, many people’s inner senses are being awakened to perceive energies more clearly. Perhaps it is a sign of the shift in human consciousness happening on the planet right now but it was almost certainly facilitated by the Oak and it’s strong sense of space holding.
The more sociable side to this is that the whole group of 32 people held their own space throughout the weekend with openness. Despite many people going through deep transformational processes, everyone managed their own sovereign space with dignity, without pushing their energy onto anyone else. It is during this held space that the Oak’s qualities of joviality and celebration can come through and while we were within the deep dream of the Oak we were also open enough for there to be plenty of warm hearted jokes and a lightness of spirit.
In modern Welsh the words for both ‘wisdom’ and ‘trees’ are strongly related and by spending three days only consuming the Oak we were shown exactly why. One of the participants of the weekend explained his general sense of ‘completeness’ throughout the ceremony, the understanding that he has everything he needs in his life, nothing else is required. When we have the wisdom to see, and more importantly to feel that everything we need is right here we don’t need to be searching outside of ourselves for that elusive key to all our problems or that final bit of information that will make everything alright - we are enough. This wise perspective allowed participants to look at their lives with new eyes, to see their path with a renewed sense of confidence in a world that is constantly telling us we should be aspiring to something different than ourselves. This self-assuredness is grounding, confidence boosting and allows other leadership and motivating qualities to emerge also.
Oak grounds us in our familial and spiritual lineages, allowing the qualities of our heritage to be firmly rooted in our being. The positive aspects of ourselves that we have been cultivating are held as part of our natural self and our purpose in this life can arise naturally without force or outside influence.
The Oak was revered by the Druids most likely because they knew it as the doorway to the 3 worlds - the upper, middle and lower worlds and that it stands as the rainbow bridge between them all. We journeyed into the shadows of the Otherworld to meet our true selves and flew within cosmic consciousness to receive the inspiration and insights of the ascended ones, while being grounded in truth and noble ethics in the middle world. This tree holds the sacred dream of our land and if there were any tree that embodies the ancient ways of these magical islands that we are blessed to live on, it is the mighty king of summer, the Oak.
- Emma Farrell