The Wisdom of Birch, Oak, and Yew: Connect to the Magic of Trees for Guidance & Transformation by Penny Billington

Author:Penny Billington
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: wisdom of birch, oak and yew, oak, & yew, oak & yew, celtic, druid
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide, LTD.
Published: 2015-03-24T00:00:00+00:00

[contents]

Lessons from the Oak

Nurture

The oak dryad speaks:

Nurturing others comes from a sense of wholeness within. First feel your strength, your integrity, your faith that all is right with your world, and expansion will arise within you and pour out to all around you.

First Thoughts, First Steps

You might have the personality type that thinks of “nurture” as sickly sweet, mawkish, or intrusive into the lives of others. If we’re responsible for ourselves, we might not welcome others’ nurturing attempts or want to express that energy to them. Honour that feeling; you are quite right. The nurture we’re discussing is on a different level entirely; there will be no awkward interferences into the autonomy of others on the physical level. There’s nothing wrong with a shy expression of sympathy or support at the right time—anyone with empathy will feel compelled to offer it—but trying consciously to be nurturing will always seem “do-gooding” and strike the wrong note.

The nurture of your tree cousin comes entirely from its essence, from its essential nature. So will yours. The stronger you feel, the more happy and grateful, the more alive and full of expectation, the more those inner experiences will translate magically into an expansive, loving, and supporting expression in your dealings with the outer world.

So start by just looking at your particular style of nurture, with your notebook to hand. Are you naturally soft and gentle? Are you brisk and no-nonsense, active and doing, showing in practical ways? Does your nurturing strength emanate from you in a way that makes people feel protected and happy when they are with you? Nurture is one aspect of love made manifest, and it can be expressed in a million ways. The job is to make sure that you express it in a way appropriate for you, and only you can work that out.

When engaged in this fascinating work, consider from whom you learnt your nurturing style. From your father, mother, or other significant adult? We all tend to, and then wake up thirty years later realising that we are duplicating behaviours that might no longer sit easily within us, and have no relevance to our present circumstances in a myriad of social and emotional ways.

A story (everyone with an open heart loves stories) illustrates this, on the most basic practical level:

For generations, a family has cooked the joint by cutting the meat into two, putting both pieces into the tin and roasting them. After this has become enshrined as an ancient tradition, an enterprising child asks great-grandma just why they do it. “Oh, that? I don’t know why your mum does it. I started doing it because when I was first married, I didn’t have a roasting pan large enough for the joint.” Instant collapse of family tradition!

The message is, don’t perpetuate anyone else’s style or tradition unthinkingly. Don’t rerun their emotional responses, or even their cooking style! Doing that is sleepwalking through life. Yes, like the oak, we are bounded by our environment and culture, but not to the detriment of our free will and creativity.

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