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Three Rituals for Tree Magic · Remember Why You Are Here

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Trees have been at the center of our spiritual practice as land-based people
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since time immemorial. Trees are our elders. They are our ancients.
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They're often the source point for our rituals.
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So much magic can be rediscovered just by connecting to the tree realm.
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Hello and welcome back to Remember Why You're Here,
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a podcast for seekers and sensitives where you can relax, receive,
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reconnect to yourself and remember the most important thing of all why you're
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here. I'm Asia Suler, author, earth intuitive teacher.
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And in this episode today,
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I wanted to respond to a voice message that I got over on my website
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at asiasuler.com/remember.
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And in the voice message I was asked to speak specifically to the medicine of
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trees to do an episode about the medicine of trees.
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So that is what we're doing here today.
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And I wanted to share as well a recording that I made several years ago
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about three tree rituals for a rich life. These are three
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rituals that I do with the trees and that continue to just bring so
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much depth and magic into my life,
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even though I've been practicing them for many years now.
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So we're going to get into that recording in a little bit,
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but first I just wanted to talk some about the magic of trees.
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So I've been really kind of having a psychedelic experience lately with the
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trees.
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We are in the part of the wheel of the year right now where the trees all
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have their leaves, their big, beautiful, floppy, tender, green leaves.
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And it really is a bit of a psychedelic experience to go from
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having the mountains here be so open to the view of just the blue mountains
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and the curves of the mountains everywhere you look to suddenly being in this
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cocoon of green upon green, upon green.
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And I find myself often just laying on my back or even looking out the window of
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my car at the bodies of the trees and thinking,
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what a wonder. What a wonder that our earth decided to evolve these beings,
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that trees exist at all.
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I just think that they are so interesting and magnificent.
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I often find my brain kind of wandering back to
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the time when there were these primeval forests that covered
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so much of the world. And I think a lot of our memories,
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our deep human memories,
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our ancestral memories are still connected to those times. I think about,
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or I look at pictures of ancient force and it stirs something really
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deep in me to see these very old thousand year old or even
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older trees,
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these bodies of trees that are more like landscapes unto themselves.
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And so there's this love in which the medicine of trees really is the medicine
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of humanity,
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even though we haven't always lived with trees that we've lived in areas of
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the world and continue to live in areas of the world where there necessarily are
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not trees,
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but trees themselves are a huge part of the earth,
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a huge part of the unique environment here on this planet. So
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trees and the true first true forests appeared about 385
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million years ago. And what's really interesting to me about these early,
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early trees is that they were pretty different than our modern trees that we
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think of. A lot of them were more like giant ferns, giant horsetails,
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things that we wouldn't necessarily call trees now.
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Some other interesting tree facts is that there was a time before wood could
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rot. So when trees first evolved, lignin,
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the tough material that makes wood really rigid,
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noth on our earth knew how to decompose it yet. So for millions of years,
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these dead trees just piled up faster than they could decay.
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And these ancient forests are what became coal beds and fossil fuels.
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So in a very literal sense,
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a lot of industrial civilization runs on these
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ancient prehistoric trees.
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So they really are like at the bedrock and in the deepest,
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most hidden places of our world, including our current society. We know,
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of course, that trees help create the atmosphere that we breathe.
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So we very literally are breathing with the trees and trees
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as we know of now,
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they're diverse in their form. So there's different kinds of trees.
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We have conifers, we have tree ferns, we have palms,
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we have flowering trees.
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And what I love about trees is what really is defining a tree is being tall.
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This idea that being tall is like such a successful strategy that evolution kind
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of just kept reinventing it. So in this way,
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a tree is a litle bit more of an architectural solution in some ways than a
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single family. And of course,
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we know that some trees are actually entire communities like Aspen Groves that
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are really just one organism connected underground by roots.
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We know that some of these most ancient groves might be over 10,000 years
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old and cover more than 100 acres and that just absolutely blows my
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mind. So there's so much to say about the medicine of trees.
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Trees help us connect into deep time.
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They help us connect into great heights.
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They also help us connect more deeply into our
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rootedness here on this planet.
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Tree medicine is a common medicine in our cabinets.
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If you're an herbalist, you certainly have taken tree medicine before.
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Tree consciousness itself is it's deep.
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It's wide. Tree consciousness sees the big picture.
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It's why I always love going to trees when I'm carrying heaviness in my heart,
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when a lot's going on in my life, when I need perspective.
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They see the long line of history.
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I remember visiting a couple ancient trees when I was in England,
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trees that were there when my ancestors were there,
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trees that saw many, many generations of my own ancestors.
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And I remember being so struck by just thinking about how much that tree had
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seen,
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that tree had seen the flourishing of the
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cultures that created stone circles,
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that tree had seen the rise of the Celtic civilization,
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that tree had seen the Roman invasion of the British Isles,
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the series of invasions by the Anglo-Saxons. I mean,
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it really is mind blowing to think about.
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And so there's something with the medicine of trees around seeing the long
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perspective of life connecting into a deep time kind of view
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of your own life and your own existence and really having the
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patience to grow into the blueprint that is here for you in this lifetime.
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Trees really help us recognize this blueprint that exists within us.
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Trees are sometimes our first friends.
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The willow tree that was planted for me when I was born was one of my first
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companions and really one of my first teachers.
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So there's a reason why the ancient Druids,
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this class, the society within the ancient Celtic world,
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this class of intellectual,
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spiritual and ceremonialists who are responsible for the wisdom
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keeping of these ancient societies,
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why they kept their sacred temples in groves.
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For these people,
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these groves of trees were considered to be the places in which knowledge was
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kept. And this is repeatedly described by the Romans who witnessed this,
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who came in the Roman occupation,
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seeing druds practicing in these sacred groves.
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And the word for this in the Celtic languages was Nemitan.
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And so these Druids would carry out
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their rituals, their knowledge keeping,
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their practices of law and wisdom inside of
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these groves.
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And there's evidence that the word Druid itself derives from a proto
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Indo-European roots. Daruch means oak or tree and wid to know or sea.
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So Druid roughly means oaknower or one who knows who the oak or tree-wise on.
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And I got the opportunity to visit some of these Nemotons when I was
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in the British Isles and I was really blown away and I could feel it was like
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entering a force field walking into these Nemetans.
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You could really feel why these ancient societies and
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cultures revered trees.
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Why their temples themselves were the trees because trees are record keepers,
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they're record holders,
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they're wisdom keepers and we can connect into trees to connect into the
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long line of wisdom that is inherent to humanity,
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that is inherent to our own ancestors and that is living within the earth. So
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there's so much that I could say about trees and tree medicine. But with that,
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let's hop into this recording where I talk about three tree rituals for a
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rich life because these three rituals really are still rituals
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that nourish and feed me and that I think are really rituals that are at the
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heart of human practice.
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So let's jump into that now and learn about these three rituals to create a
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rich life.
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Why have trees been at the center of our worship as human beings?
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Well, they are really at the center of our life.
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Trees provide essential food.
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Back when animal protein wasn't a given,
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the mast years in which trees would drop a whole load of nuts
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were things that fed the community for a harsh winter or even for
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years to come.
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Trees have also provided us the fuel that has literally grown our
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brains. Scientists hypothesize that human beings discovery of
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fire is a huge part of what actually helped our brains become the size that they
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now currently are and the capacity that they now currently have.
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If it wasn't for wood and fire, we really wouldn't be who we are today.
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Trees also give us the most essential building blocks of existence,
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including shelter.
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Anyone who's taken shelter underneath the tree in the midst of a storm knows
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this intimately and the very air we breathe.
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Trees inhale carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen,
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literally giving us the air that we breathe.
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Trees can also help to anchor and bring water into an ecosystem,
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not only by anchoring the soil,
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but also through their process of transpiration.
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They actually release water vapor into the environment,
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creating clouds of moisture and calling in the rain.
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When I first moved here to the Southern Appalachian Mountains,
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I knew that the smoky mountains were called the smoky mountains because there
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was beautiful clouds that floated among the forest,
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but what I didn't know is that the forests themselves were creating those
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clouds. Trees have also been part of our medicine cabinet since
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time immemorial. Probably most of us, whether we realize it or not,
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have actually taken medicine that has come from a tree. Aspirin,
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as we know it, was originally derived from the salicylic acid in Willows.
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And this is just one example.
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Trees and their medicine have become a part of our daily existence and they've
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kept us alive for eons. On a more spiritual level,
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the concept of a world tree sits at the center of many different belief
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systems throughout the world.
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As someone of European descent connecting to the concept of the world tree that
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is really central to many different Indo-European tribes and cultures
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has really helped me understand my relationship to trees and why they feel
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so profound to me. In this cross-cultural concept of the world tree,
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the tree is seen as a primordial connection between the realms,
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the underworld, the middle world,
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and the upper world. Through engaging with the world tree,
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we can not only connect to the realms of the gods and the goddesses and the
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spirit realm,
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but also connect into the souls of those who've passed and the beings who
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live here in the unseen on earth.
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Trees were thought to be an antenna for divine energies,
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a way to interact with the unseen and a map for
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the universe,
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both what we can see and what lies just beyond our perception.
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So I have a few key rituals that I do to interact with trees and tree
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medicine.
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The first ritual is to find and honor your local guardian
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tree. You'll probably notice that there is a tree around you,
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perhaps around your house or in your ecosystem that really stands out.
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I think a lot of us look to our heritage or cultures that we admire to find
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out about which trees they esteemed and then we have a tendency to enshrine
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those trees as well and that can be beautiful,
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but what I found is that your local ecology, your backyard,
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the place where you live has a very particular energy and there will be
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one tree there that is what I call the guardian tree. Guardian
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trees are often visually prominent in the area where you live.
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It could be that they have a particular formation or they're quite large or
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they're in an important place within your backyard or in your community.
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You might even be surprised about who this guardian tree is.
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I know here where I live in Appalachia,
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there are certain trees that have been esteemed in the past as these powerful
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emblems of place, including the hemloc, the chestnut and the oak. But for me,
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the true guardian tree around these parts is Tulapoplar.
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Tulapoplar is a relatively young tree.
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It moves into ecosystems pretty quickly after a system's been
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destabilized or after a clear cut and it grows very fast,
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very tall, very quickly. And so over time,
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these tulip poplars after these great forests of Appalachia were cut down have
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become the elders here.
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I like to approach the tulip poplars around my home as the guardian
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trees here. Now,
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I think it's a good practice to find one particular tree to approach in this way
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and then honor in this way because why I call these guardian trees is that I
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often find they kind of work like gatekeepers for the ecosystem as a whole.
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If you want to connect to a place, even if it's not the place where you live,
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any place you go on the earth,
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if you find that one tree that feels like the guardian of that place and you
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communicate with that tree, you say, "I love you. I'm here to connect.
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I'm here to listen," then that tree will really help open the gateway between
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you and all of the unseen energies that are there in that ecosystem.
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So try finding your local guardian tree and leave an offering this spring
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or go and sing a song,
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perhaps water the roots and notice how your relationship to the environment
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changes. The next ritual is a logical continuation.
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Once you've found your guardian tree,
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you can ask that tree to become a prayer tree for you.
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We are right in the midst of Beltane season. In the Celtic wheel of the year,
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Beltane was when spring really hit its fullest flush.
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It's when the trees started to leaf out and we began that tip into summertime.
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Beltane was also the time where the veils between the worlds were felt to be
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quite thin.
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One traditional practice of honoring Beltane was to have a may tree.
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Oftentimes these trees were Hawthorne trees, but any tree can be a maytree.
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In certain maytree rituals, ribbons were tied to this tree, offerings were left,
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weddings took place underneath the tree,
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but the tree itself became a place where prayers could be left
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and prayers could be answered.
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If we go back to the concept of a tree as this antenna to the divine and an
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ability to travel between the realms,
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then it makes sense that we would leave our prayers with a tree and that they
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could be heard. To this day, there are still prayer trees around the world,
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trees where people leave offerings, ribbons, coins.
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Find a tree in your local environment that wants to be
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a part of your ritual.
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Go ahead and ask this tree if you can enshrine its being and
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you can honor it by turning it into a prayer tree,
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a place where you go and you leave prayers and you trust that they are being
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heard. I have found this to be such a beautiful experience.
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Trees love to be honored in this way and as long as the things that you're
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leaving are biodegradable or if you tie ribbons to the tree,
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tying them loosely so the tree still has space to grow,
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then the tree absolutely loves it.
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Trees love being bedacked with honor and joy and
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creativity.
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So this exercise will really help bring you closer to that particular tree and
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open you up to the magic of tree consciousness in general. The very
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last practice and one of my favorites is to take a journey to the world
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tree.
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I first went to the world tree in a journey before I even
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knew what the concept of the world tree was or the fact that it was central to
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my Germanic ancestors. I remember showing up in the journey,
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I started drumming and all of a sudden I saw myself with this gigantic tree,
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the biggest tree I'd ever seen in my life with roots that looked like tree
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trunks and branches that went so far up in the sky I couldn't even see how high
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they went. Now through my studies,
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I understand that this was actually a traditional way that Norse and Germanic
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shamans would move through the realms, through interacting with the world tree.
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I truly believe that this concept of the world tree is something that is innate
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to all of our human psyches and no matter what your background,
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you can connect to the world tree as a way to move between the
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realms. Traditionally, if you went down into the roots of the tree,
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you'd be going into the underworld or the lower world,
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the place where you could talk to the souls of the plants,
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the souls of the animals, and perhaps even your own ancestors.
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If you stayed with the trunk of the tree and you explored right around the tree,
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perhaps it's branches that touched the ground,
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you'd be exploring the hidden world that is right here with us on the planet,
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including the realms of the dwarves or the fairies.
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If you climbed the tree and went all the way up into the topmost branches,
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this was the way to reach the upper world,
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the place where you commune with spirit guides, gods, goddesses,
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and your own wider self.
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My experiences of working with the World Tree through my shamanic journeys has
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been incredibly profound.
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No matter what time of the year or what time of my life I'm moving through,
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every time I go back into a journey with the world tree,
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I receive something essential. So if you're new to shamanic journeying
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or you're not sure how to undertake this, head on over to my website.
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On my blog,
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I have an article about how to undertake a shamanic journey and I will walk
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you through step by step how to go into the journey,
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how to interact with the elements that come through,
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some tips on troubleshooting and how to come back home. At its heart,
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shamanic journey is not leaving our body.
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It's actually going deeper into our awareness and all of us know how to do this.
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Shamanic journeying is just like entering into a kind of trance state or a
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focused meditation. So even if you've never tried this before,
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I guarantee you that the ability to journey is part of your skillset.
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Sometimes all it takes is a little bit of perseverance and a whole lot of heart.
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So if you want more information like this,
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definitely make sure to check out my catalog of online classes. I have both
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shorter programs and more in depth programs to really learn how to use these
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intuitive tools and connect to the consciousness of the living world.
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On my website,
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I also have a totally free quiz to help you understand what your
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earth healer archetype is.
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All of us are meant to bring healing to this planet and you have a really
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special gift to give.
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This quiz and free class will help you understand that gift in a much
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deeper way. So if you practice any of these rituals,
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if you gave them a try, I would love to hear about it.
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You can leave me a voice message over on my website at asiasular.com/remember.
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And if you would like to go deeper into the community here,
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then remember why you are here community and receive more on each
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episode essays, expanded posts,
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poetry,
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revisiting of the intuitive readings. I expand the intuitive readings and
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definitely head on over to my Substack. Remember Why You Are Here.
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I just started this space last month and it's been really magical and special to
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connect with you all there. So I'll leave the link for that here,
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but you can also just look up, Remember Why You Are Here on Substack.
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So as we move into at least where I live, these green months,
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these months of the tree beings really taking the stage
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once more, may you find the rituals that nourish you in life?
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May you have those moments of looking around you and getting that long view on
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your own existence and may you remember that most important thing of all,
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why you're here.