The Very Old Tree
Dream (11/13) I walk behind 4-5 friends into a large building that is dark on the inside. There is a lady at the counter. I tell her that we came late yesterday and weren’t able to stay long. She understands and is happy to let us in without paying. Instead of going to the main room on the right (where we were the day before), our teacher takes us to a small room, just to the left. The main hall is full of plants, this room has three trees growing in it. Our teacher walks around to the other side of the center tree. The room is cozy, but not tight. He says, “Check out this tree.” We look at the center tree. The sign says that it is 189,793 years old. The tree has small branches growing straight up from where the branches start–reminding me of Hawthorn. These small branches have been trimmed and the base of the tree has grown larger and larger. Though the tree is still medium sized, the base is very large, bulbous and twisted, like it has grown out rather than up. The light and dark (steele) gray striped bark curves around the tree. People have their hands on the tree to feel its energy. I can feel them feel the tree and just how intense the tree is from where I stand a few feet away. It certainly is old. I am a little leery of getting too close though I am aware I am in the presence of something great. I am tempted to just look at the tree to my right.
Wake: This dream was so exciting. The place seemed like a library for plants, like the Library of Knowlege, or a natural history museum of plants. The night before, I was working with Hawthorn a little–preparing some for a friend. For some reason this medicine which works through the heart physically and subtly, sometimes worries me. It seems mysteriously strong, even though it is a heart opener and seems so loving. Maybe that’s the scary part. In the dream it seemed to have an almost sinister edge to it. Even though I was nervous in the dream, I was so happy to go to the plant library and meet the tree. The teacher and students reminded me of Matthew Wood and some of my fellow students from the class I took with him this summer.
In addition to being a heart remedy, it has also been used for certain types of insomnia. I tried it the other night when I had woken in the middle of the night and couldn’t get back to sleep. I soon felt my heart soften and relax, along with my mind–which was way more active than I had realized. Aw, hawthorn, why do I question you?
