Emotional Healing Through Tree Wisdom

The Symbolism of the Mother Tree Across Cultures

There are many cultures within the mythological, religious, and philosophical traditions that venerate the Mother Tree as a symbol of the root of their existence. As a tree of life, a world tree, or a cosmic tree, she is revered as a tree of knowledge that connects Heaven to the Underworld and to the adherence of all life.

The Central Role of the Mother Tree in Creation

Standing at the center of Creation, her roots are tapped deep into the great unknown, into the Underworld, and her branches extend to the farthest reaches of the universe of the Overworld. She is the symbol of life-ever-giving.

Human Life as a Reflection of the Tree's Cycle

As descendants and soul seeds of this tree, we land from Spirit to Matter, from Sky to Earth, planted into the ground of our being. Just like trees, our life cycle begins with conception (seed), to birth (sprout), to infancy (seedling), to child (sapling), to adult (mature tree), to elderly (declining tree) and finally, to death (decomposition of the tree), which then feeds and nourishes the soil in preparation for the next generation. We are a part of an intricate flow of coming and going and an interconnected part of the elemental world that surrounds and sustains us here on Mother Earth.

Lessons from Planetary Trees

Just like the Great Matriarch World Tree that stands as the central axis of our cosmos, planetary trees teach us how to live in accordance with the greater weave of this living matrix. They show us how to stand firm and securely by connecting our roots with our feet planted to the ground. They demonstrate how to stand strong in our trunks as we reach for the light of the heavens with our branches—our arms. They teach us to share our strengths and abundance with each other, just as the mother trees that are the biggest and oldest trees in the forest “suckle their young” by pumping liquid sugar into their young’s roots when they are too weak and small to reach the light in deeply shaded areas. Or they draw up water with their deep roots to make it more available to shallow-rooted seedlings and send neighbor trees nutrients that struggle nearby. Trees are connected to each other through the deeper lattice of roots that are laid down as a matrix of fortification, creating a living support system for one another.

The Cooperative Nature of Trees

Throughout our modern history, however, there has been a general consensus that trees compete with each other to strive and survive as disconnected entities competing for sunlight, nutrients and water. Studies made by modern scientists and foresters such as Peter Wohlleben and Suzanne Simard authenticate that this is not so. In their research, they have found that trees are not resource-grabbing entities that compete against each other, but rather, they demonstrate how to live in an interlinking system that can work in harmony and in support of each other. Instead, trees thrive in cooperation for the greater welfare of their species by communing with the underground fungal networks (the “wood-wide-web”) as they exchange sugar and carbon for water, and nutrients. (Peter Wohlleben, The Hidden Life of Trees and Suzanne Simard, “Suzanne Simard: Research,”)

Our Symbiotic Relationship with Trees

We are also woven into an intricate and vital symbiotic relationship with trees. For trees breathe in what we breathe out (carbon dioxide—our toxic waste) and we breathe in what they breathe out (pure oxygen—a life-giving property). They are the greater living lungs of the human world and of the Earth itself. We need them as much as they need us. Human civilization could well assimilate and acculturate how the trees have managed to preserve and conserve their species for over 350 million years. They are a simple, symbiotic template that we can adopt in order to remember the deeper connection we share with each other in sharing our resources for the betterment of the greater whole.

The Lessons of Trees for Human Civilization

No, we are not alone in the plight of survival. Trees remind us how to support and promote one another’s growth and progress in the human-wide-web. While at the center of Creation, the Great Mother Tree upholds the living template to flourish within our greater thrival.

Activation:

Grounding Your Energy:

Plant your feet on the ground or floor on which you stand and acknowledge the lattice of tree roots under your feet that remind you that you can be nourished by the Earth. Become cognizant of the symbiotic relationship that we have with trees so that when you breathe out, they breathe in and when we breathe in, they breathe out. Stand at the center of your universe—your creation—like the Great Mother Tree, and feel the greatness that you stand on, in and for.

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