Be aware that, like a tree, you live a life on three levels.
The roots of your tree are the dark places. These include areas where your mind takes over, undertaking periods of study or quiet reflection and meditation.
The trunk of your tree is the life around you. Use your senses to experience this. It is the stability in your life, the sense of duty. It is the constant force, which allows others to depend on you for nourishment. It is the working part of your life, which itself draws on its roots to provide the strength it needs to grow.
The rowan tree is the mythological Tree of Life. It bears special fruit every month at each quarter of the year. This associates it with both the lunar and solar cycles. The berries of this tree were believed to stave off hunger month by month, to heal the wounded and to add a year to people's lives.
In another ancient myth, the Celtic God Lugh, asked the sons of Tuirenn to acquire for him, the apples, which grow in the Garden of Light over an ocean.
In Western legend, the apple orchards of Paradise were known as 'the Isles of the Blessed.' and they housed the Tree of Knowledge upon which three sacred apples grew. The boughs of this sacred tree pointed to the north, indicating the region traversed by the sun from spring through summer to autumn and also pointed south to the region of the dominion of winter, when the sun is beneath the horizon, the traditional place of the Underworld. The serpent, which guarded the tree and its saved apples, was seen as the goddess Ceridwen, guarding the knowledge of the seasons.
Shellmo has allowed me to use this prayer for the woods. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did.
