Spirit Garden: Explorations in the Spiritual

Author, artist, and spiritual advisor Catt Foy shares experiences and knowledge on a wide range of spiritual topics.

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A World of Trees and the World Tree

One of my homework assignments for my shaman class was to talk to a tree.  That is, go stand next to or sit under or hug a tree and let it speak to you in your mind.  Commune with the tree. 

I have been communing with trees for some time, but I do it only rarely.  I had a special relationship with the grandmother oak on my property in Iowa.  In Colorado, I spoke with the aspens who have light, airy voices.  In Ojai, California, I talked with the sycamores there, the ones that are twirled into a dancing couple by the vortex energy there and they told me that all the trees commune with one another through their roots and are part of the Dreamtime.

It was through those sycamores who relayed the message to the aspens who relayed the message across the mountains and prairie to my grandmother oak in Iowa.  I sent her an “I love you” and I could feel its transmission through the earth to her beloved heart so far away.

Yesterday, I decided to take my homework assignment in hand and stepped outside to the sole tree in our little lot.  I did not even know what kind of tree it was.  But I stood and leaned my forehead against her.  I felt her moving in the wind, something that surprised me because she seemed so sturdy that I had never thought of her flexibility.  Her trunk very subtly swayed with each gust of a light wind.

Curious about her nature, I took a leaf sample (with her permission, of course) and went to a tree identification web site where I learned that my “home” tree is an ash.

I admit I didn’t know much about the ash tree—or really any of the magical properties of trees, except what I have picked up from my Celtic Tree Oracle.  But I was thrilled when I discovered that the ash tree is considered the Tree of Life, Yggdrasil, the Cosmic Ash at the center of the European shamanic world.

Here is what else I learned:

The Ash is associated with the third month of the Celtic Tree calendar, February 18th through March 17th.  It is also the third letter of the Ogham alphabet.

The Ash is used in herbal medicine as a diuretic and a mild laxative.  Magically, its leaves attract loves and prosperity.  It is said that sleeping with the leaves under your pillow will produce prophetic dreams.

b2ap3_thumbnail_Ash-leaves.JPG

Ellen Dugan in Herb Magic for Beginners gives instruction for creating a solar amulet.  So I did just that.  At sunset last night, I retrieved a long stick from the yard that I knew had fallen from my ash.  I cut it in two, and fashioned the two sticks together to form an equilateral cross.  Dugan recommends tying it together with a golden ribbon but I didn’t have a gold ribbon.  Instead I used a yellow rubber band. (I figured the spirits would understand—after all, magic is all about intention, isn’t it?)  I recited the recommended prayer and hung it up over the door to the RV, next to my feng shui coins and horseshoe.  Here is the link to the prayer and other information on the ash:  http://www.thegoddesstree.com/trees/Ash.htm

The Ash is also associated with the goddess Saga.  Scandinavian for “seeress,” Saga is a “student of the Universe” and associated with the goddess Frigg.  Saga encourages creative expression, psychic ability, sensitivity, and attention to details through observation.  She encourages us to write about what we observe and experience. 

I am grateful for Ash’s presence on our little mobile home lot.  I appreciate that Saga sits in my yard, encouraging me to write, serving as a muse for me. And what a pleasant unexpected synchronicity that I have such a connection to the World Tree in my shamanic journeys only to discover I have a real representative of it so close to my front door. 

Stay aware of the signs around you.  Look at that tree, this flower, which animal, insect, bird has flown into your awareness today.  What does that mushroom mean?  What are the signs and symbols in your dreams?  Spirit talks to us all, every day, if we will but take the time to listen.

 b2ap3_thumbnail_Ash-buds.JPG

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Catt Foy has been a professional psychic and astrologer since 1978 and a freelance writer and photographer since 1981.  She is the author of Psycards: An Oracle of Archetypes, Rune Stones & Their Interpretations, and the novel Bartleby:  A Scrivener's Tale.  She holds an MA from Western Illinois University and an MFA in Fiction from Spalding University, and is currently Queen (CEO) of Psycards USA.  Catt likes to garden, paint, and make jewelry, and is currently working on several other novels.  Catt is also an ordained minister and certified hypnotherapist specializing in past-life regression.

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