I have observed in my life that many things come in threes and that when something crosses your path for the third time it is like a message from the ethers attempting to get your attention. The message is, ‘wake-up, there’s something here for you”. There are so many threefold relational associations. In the natural world there is the sun, moon and earth of earth, water and sky or germination, growth and decomposition and conception, gestation and birth in a larger context of birth, life and death. We have heart, soul and spirit or body, mind, spirit in our physical, emotional and mental beings. On a religious level one finds the threefold path of Father, Son and Holy Ghost or Jesus, Mary and Joseph or in Pre-Christian times the three fold aspect of the Goddess was manifest as maiden, mother and crone. These are referred to as trinities or relationships that exist within a matrix of three, meaning they are unique unto themselves and yet integrally related and inseparable. All of these relational trinities exist and yet where are we within a trinity? We humans don’t seem to have a trinity we are a part of. I find this odd given our place (for better or worse) on this planet. This has sent me on a search for the Original Trinity – our trinity – within which humans have a relational role.
I turn to plants and trees when I look for who originally joined together with us in our trinity. We are closely related and yet very different. We exchange breath, plants make up all of our food and medicine and we share bio-photons and phonons at the nucleus of our cells. Even though we are so closely related we still doubt our ability to understand their messages. I spend much of my time with plants and trees finding ways to communicate with them and since we are so symbiotically related to plants I wonder why it is that communication doesn’t come more easily. Why don’t they talk to us so that we can understand or maybe they do and we have just forgotten or been separated from their language. If plants/trees are one aspect of our trinity then what is the next? What is related to plants and us but, at the same time, very different? Perhaps this third aspect has fallen so far from memory it can be found only in myths or “fairytales”. The Fae or nature spirits often are depicted as having human-like bodies, being light-filled and usually living in secluded woodland glades or places known as “power spots”. They are said to be made of “etheric matter” which sounds like an oxymoron since ether is the energy or space between matter or what scientists would refer to as the unified field. So it seems nature spirits are of both the seen and the unseen realms existing in both simultaneously. Nature spirits are beings that build and maintain the plant kingdom and all that is necessary to maintain it. Ancient stories tell us they have been here since the beginning of time for without them plants and trees could not have thrived and become predominant on the planet creating the landscape of our reality. Is it possible that our original trinity consisted of humans, plants/trees and nature spirits? If so, humans have fallen into amnesia, nature spirits have gone into hiding and trees and plants are holding down the fort keeping life alive.
How do we come back into the threefold unity where we all support each other to thrive for Gaia and beyond? My own path has included seeking to understand how to communicate or find the common union thus stepping into the experience of communion with trees and plants as a way to re-member my place within the trinity. I have witnessed the practice of giving nature spirits their own place to live where humans are not allowed to go. There was a time when nature spirits were free to abide in all nature so why not now? Are we humans trying to oppress them and relegate them to reservations just like we have done time and time again with both indigenous peoples and places? It’s time to invite the nature spirits back ensuring them safety in sanctuary gardens and woodland areas.
At the Federation of Damanhur in Italy this trinity is referred to as the Three Mother Worlds and there is a movement afoot initiated by them for the unification of these three worlds, again, in order to bring back harmonious relations amongst this trinity. This is being accomplished by what they refer to as tree orientation. The concept of orientation has to do with the trees being aligned in a common direction working together to aid humans to take up their place within the trinity. In Damanhurian Esperide Ananas’s words, “This joyful, collective, ritual action of orientation to un ite the worlds and make peace between humans and “treeness” is needed to re-open a channel of communication with one of the fundamental kingdoms of our planet. Our species has destroyed the connection to this world, not only by destroying the majority of the world’s forests, but also through the loss of awareness toward the plant world, which is often considered in the same way as inanimate objects. Taking away the life and spiritual dignity of nature has also deprived us humans of an important part of our soul.”
As the plants and trees “turn up the volume” and urge us to take up our rightful place within nature once again, it is imperative that we respond to their call and renew our ancient pact with nature.
