The Awakening

Reminder from Mano: Bless the objects in your house that serve you and give you pleasure (for example, the computer, stove, flower arrangements). All of these are composed of the elements of earth, water, air, and fire.

A friend joked the other day that perhaps this election was a great conspiracy on the part of the gnomes to wake us all up. From one perspective or another, the vitriolic campaigning, the great confusion about truth, the shock of the result, the fear and then new resolve the election has stimulated—most everyone I know considers this a new turning, remembering nothing like it in our lifetimes.

Where are the sources of hope and resolve? I am interested in imagining these for myself, and I am fascinated with what others have come up with. One nearly 80-year-old friend told me she has her tennis shoes at the door, ready to march. Two other women, established biodynamic farmers, want to make an impact by helping young women farmers who are worn down with tight money, raising young children, feeling isolated as they and their partners strive to live an ideal of organic, healthy growing. A recent acquaintance, having devoted himself to activism for many years, is now concentrating on beauty—through a poem, for example, that explores the sensual, spiritual essence of a tea ceremony. The uniqueness of the responses is beautiful; the ones I resonate most with are those willing to tolerate bewilderment, avoid blame, stretch toward authentic truth, keep working through fear to arrive over and over again at “dauntless courage of the soul”.

Uprightness is a gesture I keep reminding myself to live into, and that leads to connection with the divine. Then my feet go naturally into earth and communion with nature spirits. This acknowledgement, gentle, continual, that we can call on other realms of being for help, at small, intimate, personal levels and in larger worldwide arenas, is one that I often find missing in the public discourse. And it is the very one that keeps me going.

Barbara wrote last week about a friend’s request for help in relating with some small trees he must cut down on his property. “I learned a lot,” she said (she is always learning a lot). And her process is exemplary of how we can approach this great trouble (and glory) of a world.

“I went to the amphitheater Saturday morning to ask the trees your question,” she writes to her friend. “As I entered I went to the mother tree first as I always do. At the base of the tree my attention went to a configuration of energies: one shape of the bark looked like a gnome cap and below it was a gnome body. Then my vision changed to view a face with a big bushy beard (its body would have gone into the earth). I spoke to this form and recorded our conversation on the computer.” 

Barbara:
Dear Sir, I saw you at the foot of the mother tree, first as a gnome with pointed cap, then as a mature adult face with a big beard. I came to ask guidance on how my friend should communicate with the 5-foot-tall redwoods he has to remove. Are you the one to guide me? [I got a yes.]  I thought it would be Mano.

 Nature Spirit:
Mano knows and understands, but I wanted to take this opportunity to connect in person with you. I am one of the Master Gnomes who has represented the redwood trees in your Council of Gnomes. That is why I show myself to you as a gnome with pointed red cap—the personal code we have with you to identify the presence of an elemental. Others might have another image or feeling that identifies the spirit who is developing a relationship.

In regard to the question of communicating with the small redwood trees, the communication with any aspect of nature goes through the heart and feeling side of life. When a person’s heart and mind are in union, those feelings convert the concept into thoughts and words. Sometimes the reverse is true: the words are clear and convert to a feeling that communicates the content of the conversation.

Always begin a conversation by opening to the Great Mother—Mother Nature, Mother Earth, Angel of the Garden, Angel of the Land—whoever is in charge and guiding and protecting the area of land you are in, and whoever guards and protects the smaller trees you are wanting to communicate with. 

Touch the plant. Send it love. Tell it what is happening and what must happen. Express your feelings. Thank it for its presence on your land and in your life. Thank It for the contribution it has made to your life and the beauty of the land. Then tell it that the time for its removal has come and ask the larger trees around the area to absorb the energy of the little one. Ask that a special blessing be offered to it, like wearing a crown for being a sacrificial offering for the need of the area.

Be aware that the tree has learned and grown in wisdom by volunteering to interact with a human. Its service is complete, and it has been recognized and respected, even loved, by this human. Many of us come as emissaries to build the bridge of consciousness between human beings and nature beings.

The first step comes when a human hears the call to live in the forest, to live with trees. The second call is for the human and nature being to relate and interact. The third call is for them to grow together in consciousness.

In closing, Barbara assures her friend that he has heeded these calls through his concern and by reaching out for guidance on the correct way to relate and communicate. “Well done, friend,” she says, “and thank you giving me the opportunity to learn.”