Nature's Teachings

Words and Artwork

By Greta James

Mother of the Woods

In the depths of winter…..a beautiful display of regeneration

known as 'Blackthorn Winter' blossoms from the thorny thicket.

Since I was a young child, I have always loved the trees.   My family lived on a property adjacent to a state park full of vast beauty and wildlife splendor.   Our property, which sat just outside the forest canopy, was previously owned by the state agriculturalist and was satiated with lush botanical treasure and diversity.   Large stately oak, maple and birch trees served as the pillars of our homestead, under which beautiful fruit bearing and flowering trees, bushes and vines, along with plants and flowers of all varieties, invited a kaleidoscope of creatures to graze upon our bounty.   There is no doubt that this early fortune which I happened upon marked me forever as a lover of nature. 

Now that I am grown, I continue to live with the trees.   Not in the splendid woods of my youth, but a smaller more modest wood.   High on a hill, a crowned jewel sitting atop a sea of human development, our woods serves as a safe reservoir of immeasurable treasure for human folk and creature alike looking to escape the plague that rips through our land.

These woods that I now call home are a relatively young, struggling wood full of potential and hope, but not without its own enchantment and magic.   There are several old growth "spirit trees" that rule over the wood and many large stately trees gaining strength and integrity with each year, but for the most part, it is a wood of transition and regeneration.   Young trees fight to reach the light.  Perilous vines and invasive plants suffocate the weak, and gaping holes tear through the tree canopy revealing an impenetrable thorny thicket covering the forest floor.  I walk these woods everyday with my young son, and ponder upon this little forest.   I want so much for it.   I want to protect it and help it grow into its strength, beauty and splendor, just as I want my precious son to grow into his own character, beauty and integrity. 

It was at this time I came across the history of the Blackthorn, a shrubby tree not native to my Pennsylvania wood, but of great significance in the woods of my ancestors- the Celts.  Known as the Mother of the Woods, the Blackthorn reclaims the felled land, and creates a thick impenetrable thorny thicket that serves as a safe nursery for sapling trees and forest animals, which in time grow up into a beautiful healthy forest.   Because of its strong wood, and effective thorny density, it serves as an armor of protection for the precious life and growth beneath it.   It was these qualities that made the Blackthorn the choice wood to be used as a fighting stick for the Celts to defend their communities in the time of need.   

The Blackthorn is also the first tree to show the signs of new life in winter, blossoming white flowers on leafless black branches called "blackthorn winter" from February until April.  The dramatic appearance of this bright white flower on black branches also sends us a wonderful symbolic message.  The color black absorbs and conceals, it is the color of beginnings, womb space, center and source, full of potential and possibility.  The color white reflects all of the colors of the spectrum, so its white flowers represent this promise of new life and regeneration while the rest of the plants are still naked.  This tree symbolically tells us that it is restoring the forest in the color choices it displays.  With the juxtaposition of opposites, black turning into white, we also get a cosmic portrayal of the nature of the universe in this beautiful tree.   In addition, when we touch this tree it pricks our skin and draws our blood, reminding us of the precious magic that is life. 

The message of the Blackthorn was a timely blessing for me.  As a new mother, I see my son as the young sapling tree, which it is my job to nurture and protect, until he is strong enough to burst from under my canopy of care.  The thickets remind me that just as I am not in a rush to see my son grown, I shouldn't be in a rush to see this forest big and beautiful.  In this precious time of incubation thickets are replenishing the soil, regenerating the forest and healing the land.   They serve as nurseries for small animals, and create healthy biodiversity and a more balanced ecosystem.   Thickets are laying the foundation for the character of the forest, just as mothers and fathers lay the foundation for their children. The Blackthorn sets a beautiful example to us on how to nurture, how to heal, how to protect, and fight for the things that are sacred in our lives.   But the Blackthorn also has a bigger message hidden within its branches. 

Just as we where once young, and then grew up into mothers and fathers with young ones of our own, we were also born unto and mothered by the earth.  The earth, the ultimate mother, providing us everything we could need or want in life: food, shelter, resources and a wonderful world full of immeasurable treasure and beauty to explore and enjoy.  But in exchange we too are to mother the earth in return.   I feel the reason that our world is in such turmoil is because we are not holding up our end of the bargain, and following this basic code of giving and receiving.  

It is interesting that thickets, at first sight seem so undesirable to the human mind. We as humans hate thickets.  They hurt, they're annoying, they're ugly, and they're inconvenient and keep us from where we want to go.  We want everything landscaped, or to look controlled, neat, pretty, orderly.   But that is not nature's way.   Just as we don't like the site of a big black scab on our flesh covering a gaping wound, the Black thorn is a scab of protection for the earth, under which the most beautiful magic is going on inside.   This is the ultimate beauty of the Blackthorn, that it protects nature from us.

But just as becoming a parent takes an enormous amount of daily dedication; responsibility and commitment, so to will it take these things to heal the earth.   As with parenting a child, committing to living in a responsible way to give back the earth all that it has given us will take an enormous investment of time, energy and resources.   It will be inconvenient, we will have to change our pattern of living, we will have to start living outside of ourselves, and live as though we belong to the earth and the earth to us.  We will have to invest in the earth as we invest in our children, knowing that our efforts are nothing compared to the immeasurable treasure of the miraculous gift of life.  Nature cannot rush, and the value of it is not in the end result, but in so the doing of it.   By making this commitment part of our everyday life, we can heal in past, present and future and our efforts in nurturing and healing are timeless. 

The message of the Blackthorn is not just a message of nurture and protection, life and rejuvenation, but it is also a call to action and stewardship.  It is a message of power and action, based on deep rooted love and integrity.   It shows us the way to fight for and protect the precious and sacred, to reestablish the life giving power of the woods and in so doing healing our land.   Not only just our land, but in our world each of us has been given a portion of influence in our lives.  What a wonderful place the world would be if we could all tune in to the beautiful messages of Mother Nature.   What a wonderful thought, that mankind could work in unison as one consciousness to become Blackthorn, and reclaim the felled places and heal the land to regenerate and protect our sacred mother earth. 

 

 

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