The Elder~ Renewal and Regeneration Part 2

 Part One can be found Here

Wisdom comes in all shapes

The woman stood up from her half-finished painting  and saw woven between the roots more shapes of animals. She would explore these in more detail when she painted them in later. But for now, she concentrated upon the trunk of the Elder, and the huge hollow, a Void within its belly.

 Her pencil had spiraled out around and around when she was drawing it and she was reminded of the first spirals and the Nautilus shell. She thought of the Golden Ratio  as her mind then flew  to Leonardo Da Vinci.  Argh, how easily our thoughts flit from one thing to another she thought as she picked up her brush and started to allow it free rein as she decided to fill in the hollow.

Heartbeat

 

Her thoughts flew the Tree and how like a giant Mother its limbs were outstretched in all directions as if embracing all the elements. It reached up to the sky, and all four corners of the compass, as well and reaching down. And she thought of the wonderful Oaks she visited along her walks.. ‘How mighty Oaks grow from little acorns’ crossed her mind. ‘Yes, she thought, great things often come from small beginnings’. 

Her thoughts took her to the acorn and the seeds. ‘Which came first? as she thought of the chicken and the egg’.. The hollow looked egg-shaped, as her pencil kept working.  She brought herself back to what she was creating and the shape of a Human fetus almost fully formed had been created within the womb of the Elder.

“It is Good to begin today with the creating of New Life” said the Elder. “For today we speak of Renewal and Regeneration. This time period you are now in like any other time period upon your planet has always been about Change.

The Standing Ones know all about Renewal. Have not their roots stood fast while all around them Change is constant?”

The woman thought on the wonderful Oaks she loved so much which were hundreds of years old and thought on what changes these Standing Ones had witnessed.

Hollow Oak

The Elder picking up the tread of the woman’s thoughts  continued. “Throughout your centuries, we the Tree Tribes are Life Givers. Yet you humans have taken and not thought of giving back. Do we not give you the very Air You Breathe? Have we not supplied you with your Timber to build your homes, for shelter and for warmth?

Were not your Empires conquered and continents discovered by the giving of our lives, as you cut Thousands of our Oak Tribe to build ships and to build your cities? Without our giving, you would not have had your carts and tools or great sailing vessels to fish and travel to prosper and trade”.

The woman looked down at the paintbrush, its handle made of wood now in her hand as she mixed the watercolour to paint in the fetus which was developing at a faster rate than she had realised as her mind came back to her painting.

“You would not have had Paper upon which to write, books to read by which you educate yourselves.” continued the Elder. “Let us not forget what else the Tree Tribes have given you humans”

Art-books

The voice of the Elder faded as the Woman looked about her small room she used for painting. She looked at the many books upon the shelves, the wall paper upon the walls, the printer loaded with paper and her oak desk full of her art papers, card and tissue.  She paused, and looked to what she was creating as she painted the fetus, she was one with the Elder.

Tick-tock of life

The woman was cast in that moment back throughout time, she saw the first carts, the galleon ships and the weaving looms. She saw the carpenters and their craftsmanship her attention was caught as  she looked at the old grandfather clock that had long-lost its tick  which stood in the corner of her study. ALL gifts of Giving from the Standing Ones and the Tree Tribes.

The sound of the Elder’s teachings came back into her mind as the Elder continued. “We have also given you Medicines, and Nutrition, Rubber from our bark, Cork for your wine bottles, Berries, Nuts. We are the Givers of Life!

Our Tree Tribes know all about Renewal and Regeneration For hundreds and Millions of your years we have thrived unhindered.  We not only have provided humans with shelter, but we provide millions of other species with food and shelter from those who creep, crawl, climb, slither and fly.

We teach about the importance of renewal as we shed our leaves, drop our seeds, and spread our pollen. We teach about Stillness, and Contentment, and letting go of attachments. We also teach how to be steadfast and ground yourself as our roots hold firm within our Earth Mothers soil. We bind her together for when we are removed her foundations are washed away by the rain.

You Humans are now washing away the very foundations beneath your feet and yet you do not see how each time you hurt another or scar our Mother, you are also wounding yourselves”

The woman dipped her brush into the crimson paint as the Elder stopped speaking. She looked down seeing the Fetus now finished, she added the paint to the opening blossom of a flower that had appeared from the Ivy bound around the trunk of the tree. She was puzzled. The flower did not belong she thought to the ivy. Her mind then thought of the Lotus Blossom.. How strange to paint a flower here within the womb. Yet as her mind explored more she thought why not. For did not the Lotus represent Rebirth also

Life Givers~  Partial Painting Magnified

Her mind thought of the placenta and the blood that flowed from Mother to unborn child. She thought of the birthing of her own children and the spirit from which we all came.

The Elder picked up again on her thoughts. “ Yes, each tree also has a spirit, a Dryad of Energy which radiates outwards. We have our Seasons too. Times of darkness and rest through the winter storms, but we never stop growing as we grow from the centre of our Being adding rings to our Earth years.”

The Woman looked down at her own ring upon her hand and skin, like the bark of the trees as they grew older they were looking worn and showing signs of ageing.  Yet she also knew her skin regenerated every day.. She looked now at what she had started to paint the scales of several snakes around the tree trunk. She thought of the dead and dying cells of her skin, and all the dead and dying trees upon the earth.. Each connecting like a huge skin around Mother Gaia .

The time for renewal was also a time for shedding and letting go. She saw how Mother Earth was also speaking to us and yet we were not listening. Renewal and Regenerating meant all things changed.. They had changed in the past, thousands of years before and the planet was changing now and the Humans were also changing with her. For we were One.

The woman put down her paintbrush as she studied the snakes she had created upon the Elder Tree. She thought of the prophecies of the Black snake across our Mothers land. And she saw again the Standing Ones strength had held stronger when linking together holding the fabric of the Earth together with their roots. Were we going to have to go back to our roots she thought? Like the Tree Tribes she saw much suffering through great changes.

 It was now  time for many skins to join together as One!.  

 © Sue Dreamwalker 2017

To be continued.