“The Tree” in this series, represents the individual person or our society in general.
It’s the same tree over and over again. All the versions of my Tree as Symbol series have been relevant to the path of my particular journey, but I hope some of them will resonate for you too.
The meaning will be a bit different for everybody. Made long before Covid, war news, etc , it’s truer than ever for me now!
“The Tree” in this series, represents the individual person or our society in general.
If you can’t do what you’d like to do, do what you can! Who was it said , “If life gives you lemons, make lemonade!”
“The Tree” in this series, represents the individual person or our society in general.
“The Tree” in this series, represents the individual person or our society in general.
THE TREE IN A HOLY FOG. What does that mean? Why a holy fog? To you, it can mean whatever you would like it to mean ! I’ll tell you how it came about and some of its meanings to me. This tree is is one of my series, The Tree as Spiritual Symbol, and it has been the most popular one!
I made this one after a workshop in which people were invited to draw themselves as a tree, in a setting in which they felt they were right now . The results were as interesting as the people themselves! Later, I kept on drawing more versions of my own tree.
Why a holy fog? There are different kinds of fog.
This fog is not a fog which we are able, or not able, to see physically with our eyes.
It stands for not knowing and also the uncertainty in which we always live, but even more acutely so these days.
“Uncertainty” is mostly used about something specific, when we really want to know something exactly and we can’t. Something which we think should be calculable, like how long this pandemic will last, how long will I live etc? It’s a state of limited knowledge where it is impossible to exactly describe the existing state, a future outcome, or more than one possible outcome. In science, uncertainty is a useful concept!
“Not Knowing”, is a Zen phrase. According to Suzuki Roshi, “Not-knowing does not mean you don’t know. It doesn’t require us to forget everything we have known or to suspend all interpretations of a situation. Not-knowing means not being limited by what we know, holding what we know lightly so that we are ready for it to be different. Maybe things are this way. But maybe they are not.”
We cannot really ever know Infinite Reality, whether we think of that in religious, or scientific terms, or both, because we ourselves are NOT Infinite. But still we have to act.
In these Covid times, many of us, in our isolation and overwhelmed with decisions to make, find ourselves, off and on, in our own small local fog of needing to just tune out from the situation, by music, TV, the web, media, reading . . .whatever! And that is good . . . for limited periods. No one can exist in stress forever and these things reduce stress. But we cannot let ourselves be paralyzed by the pandemic.
In this picture, you may notice that the fog immediately around the Tree is lighter than further off. I didn’t design it that way; it just happened! Perhaps that shows that it is possible to keep a circle of “light” around you, even in stormy times. In a real fog, we do see what is immediately around us, even if we can’t see very far!
The fog is a holy one, because, as William Blake, Thomas Merton and others have said, “Everything that lives is holy”. The word “holy” has roots in ancient words meaning “whole, entire, complete, uninjured” and “sacred”, and we are part of a Whole beyond our imagination.
I invite you, too, to take out your pencils, and draw yourself as a tree, in this pandemic, or in any of your situations! Just for yourself. Lots of trees, if you like. It can be fun, even healing. A tree is easy to draw: it just has a trunk, some branches, and, most importantly ROOTS, even tho, as in this picture, the roots are not always visible above ground. But they are there!
Stay rooted!
“The Tree” in this series, represents the individual person or our society in general.
No comment! This is, after all, just “the Tree ” being Quiet!
“The Tree” in this series, represents the individual person or our society in general.
from the Tree as Symbol Series Wych Tree
In this series, remember, The Tree can represent the Individual and /or Society.
In this picture, it may apply to either or both, and speaks to the acknowledgement of the Truths of Nature alongside, or even replacing, old texts.
BUT on the green side, the texts have not completely disappeared! Nor should they. Our society increasingly acknowledges the need to work with nature instead of against it, and for many individuals, old religious or mythological texts are being reinterpreted in light of today’s understanding. However, to understand our past, we do need our old texts, perhaps alongside our new ones or new interpretations of the ancient ones, so we are able to progress; we need access to our history to be able to understand our present and to help us plan for the future.
We need both . . . you may notice the Y- Y dots on either side!
“The Tree” in this series, represents the individual person or our society in general.
We all have our stories, the ones we tell ourselves about who we are and the ones we tell other people about who we are! And they are not always quite the same!
The untold story is the one you don’t tell the world but carry around inside yourself, sometimes a painful story . Or perhaps it’s the third story to someones else’s two-sided story, or may be the imagined story you hold onto about someone else.
Maybe it’s “the real story”. Maybe it is not! It’s a good idea to take out old stories sometimes and give them a shake! (True of nations as well as people!!)
“The Tree” in this series, represents the individual person or our society in general.
The Tree sets sail; how absurd is that! Well, perhaps you remember that in this series, The Tree is a symbol for the individual and /or for our society, even our “world”. This is the world of myth, after all, so a tree can sail! Here, the Tree is not adrift; its own branches and leaves are its sails. It has left its safe harbour and is setting out on a voyage into unknown waters.
***
The real voyage of discovery consists not of seeking new landscapes, but of seeing with new eyes. – MARCEL PROUST
Every day is not just another assignment. It is a small but contained voyage of discovery- DAVID DOUBILET
There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. We must take the current when it serves, or lose the venture – WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
“The Tree” in this series, represents the individual person or our society in general.
