The Forest Primeval and Warren Dunes

Yesterday, David and I took a lovely getaway to St. Joseph, MI, as well as Warren Woods (aka “The Forest Primeval”) and Warren Dunes.

Warren Woods State Park was preserved by Edward Kirk Warren when he noticed all the old growth forests falling to the logging industry. It was sad to see so many of the majestic, virgin beech with names carved into them over the decades, reminding me of our Turkey Run State Park visit on Mother’s Day 2016, where kids were yelling in the “cathedral.” Even so, this place feels magical. Along with the carvings, you could see many faces in the trees, listening in silence to music in the leaves above.

Here Be Dragons ~ And Faeries, Too!

Like the otherworldly birch tree in my last post, I’ve been waiting to blog these photos and stories for awhile. Some over the top synchronicities at last Tuesday’s Township Board Meeting let me know it would soon be time. Background: a very active neighbor and I compared notes a few weeks ago and discovered that she, her daughter and I are really in this sidewalk battle to preserve our trees. Others love our mature tree lined streets, but for the three of us, it goes much deeper. Trees, nature spirits, the Fae … for us, these represent something spiritual, the link between spiritual and material realms. The passion fueling each of us arises from the core of our being.

On that evening, our neighbor showed me her nextdoor neighbor’s yard, the apparent center of an old apple orchard from 50 years ago. She pointed to circles of thicker, greener grass and said, “Those rings drive them nuts because they can’t get their lawn to stay even after mowing. They’re the circles around old apple trees that have been gone for half a century. The Earth remembers.”

“They’re faery rings!” I said, “Apple trees are sacred to the Otherworld.”

My neighbor said in a hushed, amused voice, “That’s what I told them! Faery rings. They think I’m joking.”

Cuteness Overload: Animal Encounters at Asylum Lake

Yesterday, my friend Heather and I took an enchanting walk at Asylum Lake Preserve in Kalamazoo. All photos are by Heather Horst, since I left my cell phone at home. As we entered the trail, a turtle greeted us:

We then said hi to David’s and my favorite tree there — the one we call Ganesha because it looks like an elephant on one side and a laughing old man on the other. Then we turned left and heard little squeaking and squealing noises, which we tried to identify. Moments later, it was me squealing at the cuteness overload:

These little ones not only posed for us, they made frequent eye contact and performed for us, chasing each other around the trunk of the tree, then pausing to make sure we continued to watch. They swirled around the trunk, climbed over each other and then poked their faces in hide and seek fashion for several minutes. They finally got so involved in their own play that they swirled their way up the tree, and we wandered on to find chipmunks, blue birds and red wing blackbirds.

We also came across these gorgeous mushrooms:

I always feel a strong Fae presence at Asylum Lake. David and I have hiked it many times in Fall and Winter, but this was my first time in late Spring. Everything felt lush and delightful. So grateful for such ever evolving beauty only five minutes away!

All three encounters offered wisdom relevant to current situations in our neighborhood.

 

Spring 2018 Update

Returning from some quite Otherwordly adventures, I wish you a belated Happy Equinox! I cannot even begin to explain how vastly my inner world (and thus also my outer world) has shifted in the past two weeks. Tania Marie just posted her epic Grand Canyon adventure overlapping some of that time, and I will just say that I’ve experienced something similar in terms of integration, timeline shifts, healing, courage and more. Maybe someday I will tell these stories as fiction, because few would believe them as fact. In any case, the internal shifts have created some lovely external manifestations, which I’ll share here.

During this same time period, I’ve noticed clients growing by leaps and bounds, too, so this energy shift seems available to many. I’ve witnessed people coming out of a fog, reclaiming sovereignty over body and soul, embracing an expanded life path, and many people finally clicking in with deep, nourishing soul mate romantic connections. My work

Fascinating Druidcast and a Quick Reminder

Oops! I meant to post the link earlier to Episode 106 of Druidcast, which contains a fascinating interview between Philip Carr-Gomm and A.T. Mann. I had not heard of A.T. Mann before, but this interview covers so much ground, including his book, “The Sacred Language of Trees.” I loved his discussion of the acacia tree, magical tree alphabets, and “God’s wife,” but was even more impressed with the mandala-like reach and spiraling of Mann’s research and art. Here’s someone who continues to learn and grow well beyond age 70, offering insights and synchronous twining to enchant and delight anyone feeling winter blues or too much intensity.

Also a quick reminder that the end of January fast approaches: January 2016 Specials remain available through the 31st.

Bees and Trees

Two inspiring links and messages today …

The first from reader Nikkoale:

Hi, Laura. I saw a facebook post that I wanted to share with you, so that took me off hunting for where it originated. I wasn’t able to find the photo from this website, but I did find this fantastic article.

I love the info I gleened from this. I don’t see that many honey bees out here, but we have hundreds of them on my mint while it’s blooming — lots and lots of different species. I’m glad to see that the pollinators are in good shape here. And we’ll work to keep it that way. 🙂 And, of course, I like the honey bees, too.

The photo/advice was how to make native bee homes. This guy cut grass/plant stems into 6-inch lengths and bundled them up (several dozen in a bundle) to make homemade/natural native bee nests. I thought it was pretty cool.

But here’s the link to his site. http://deepmiddle.blogspot.com/2015/05/less-honey-bee-more-native-bee.html

Blessings and love from here in the “south”. 🙂 Nikkoale

… and the second, from reader Karen:

Hi Laura,

I saw a facebook post today about tree sisters. Essentially, from my quick dive into their story and website, a woman crashed into a tree and was given the spontaneous download to reforest the tropics and reinstate feminine consciousness and make it as natural to give back to nature as we currently feel it is to take. I thought of you right away and wanted to share this with you. http://www.treesisters.org/

Then I thought not only of you but of all you do for both the trees and for women through your personal life and your blog, and I wanted to say thank you and show you a little bit of how much I appreciate you, so…. I bought you a tree!

Tree-Brother Change Perk
Thank you! We will plant a tree in the name of the woman in your life: your partner, mother, sister… and we will send you an invite to When 1000 Goddesses Gather to gift to her.

Sometime in November I’m supposed to get an email invitation to send you in case this gathering interests you – I believe it’s an online meditation. In the meantime, there’s a tree being planted in your name to help the rainforest, the animals who are losing habitat, and the women. yay!

Have a wonderful week!
Karen

Karen’s email happened to arrive just as I was outside playing tree tetris with a new order from Raintree Nursery — two more hazelnuts, three honeyberry bushes, kinnickinnic, salal, a third paw paw, and another goumi berry bush. Of course, they all have their own ideas about where they’d most love to live, which makes for musical plants on this fine autumn afternoon. I came inside to Karen’s lovely email. Yay, trees!

Do Trees Communicate?

On a lighter, more expansive note …

The Importance of Trees

Love Trees

Thanks to Julianne Reynolds of Romanski Films, who took this fabulous tree photo on Bainbridge Island. For those who don’t know, Julianne makes documentaries honoring and celebrating the Sacred Feminine. She’s a woman worth keeping an eye on, and how can you not love someone with such an eye and heart for trees?

Photo by Julianne Reynolds

Druid Tree Workings: Communicating and Connecting with Trees on the Inner Planes

Another excellent article sharing guidance for connecting with trees. Specific to trees, this information can also apply to connections throughout Nature, along with the very helpful “outer plan checks for inner work.” Great piece!

The Druid's Garden

Fairy Knoll in the forest

This post is third of a series of posts on Druid Tree Workings–ways of connecting, communicating, and working with trees. In my first post on the series, I described finding the face of the tree. In the second post, I explained some “outer” techniques to working with the trees through using your five senses. In this third post, I’ll describe some “inner planes” techniques–that is, using intuition, knowing, meditation, and senses beyond our physical ones to communicate. These are the techniques of the spirit and the soul, the deep inner knowing, and allow us to go deeper into the Mysteries.

On Inner “Listening”

One of my blog readers  asked me in the comments of my first post on the face of the tree about how you know that the tree is speaking or trying to send a message on the inner planes. I’m going…

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