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This week, for Plant Meditation Club, we meditated on "Portland's Favorite Tree"! It is rumored to be Portland's largest tree and it is my neighbors (one of four clustered nearby). The meditation was a beautiful experience. Coast Redwood, Sequoia sempervirens, also known as the names below (image from the Decolonial Atlas--thank you!) is sacred.
The tree is believed to have human blood in it. It, like all of nature, is considered a living home. I feel this so much from the trees that live near me. I sense their joyful experience of the animals that live in their branches and how they enjoy being a home. The first message I heard from the Sequoias was 'where we're from, the greater you allow everyone to grow, the better it is for everyone'. They are not harvested in indigenous communities, but they are used when they fall. They seem to hold so much wisdom, but are down to earth. They remind me of grandparents. Grandparents who want you to be happy and have a perspective that allows them to see how they can facilitate that.
To gather tree medicine without harming the tree, watch for limbs that fall after storms, especially in the Spring when the fresh tips are growing and the sap is running. You can watch the YouTube short/video on how I made the tincture here. To make a folk tincture, chop up the herbs--I prefer fresh. In this case, I used tips from the fallen branch. Cover the herb with alcohol--use something that tastes good! Let the herbs sit in alcohol in the dark for 4-6 weeks. Shaking every so often. However, sometimes I forget, and they rest quite a bit longer.
This tree, whom I think of as a Grandfather, talks to me here and there. (Grandmother, on the other hand, talks frequently. hugs!) After four weeks, having nearly forgotten about the baby batch of Sequoia tincture, I am out walking Cutie, and I hear Grandfather asking 'So, what's going on with that tincture?' Well, I think 'It is time to drain it and call together a plant meditation.' I love these trees.
Tasting and Preliminary Experiences
Initially quite dry in the mouth. Fragrant, floral, savory, wine-like, woodsy, fruity, sweet! Super sweet with bitter waves. Light, lighter than I expected, it feels lighter than the brandy I made it with. A foamy feeling in the mouth. Champagne bubbly energy--effervescent. Calming, mildly numbing to gums. Dramatic! Warmth, especially across the chest, lungs; full and expansive in the chest. Satisfying. Feeling sleepy.
Meditations
•Several of us experienced energy shifts we considered the Kundalini moving upwards. I noticed energy going far above the chakras I am familiar with up to the 10th chakra (which I had not truly considered previously) and then the grounding came. Bubbling or shaking/activation of energy in the head/forehead/third eye (all participants).
•We commonly experienced peaceful, loving grounding. Feeling lower body and hips release tension. "Helping me get in my body more fully." Similar to jade.
•The first experience I had was the medicine explaining it could help both a should issue I used to have and a should issue described in a recent interaction. Mine was arthritis resulting from Rugby damage that was better with activity (ie bad first thing in the morning). I resolved it with homeopathic poison ivy (thus tox), but the tree said, "What if I told you I could heal that again?' The other shoulder issue was described as loose ligaments that were aggravated by certain up and down movements while doing letterpress.
•Many of us experienced sexual, creative energy opening up. "It is okay to be there for yourself, to open up sexually." Not an aphrodisiac but an activating and opening of vital energies.
•Tension releasing in the right brain.
•It feels antiinflammatory.
•Helpful for women's hormonal shifts for balancing emotions/stress. "It helped my breasts when I was on my period."
•Emotionally: Openness. Not allowing judgment, particularly about sex (multiple people). A sense that life can be joyful. Releasing the fears and judgments brings so much ease. I felt this in myself and in people I am energetically connected with.*
•After energy moved up and then grounded, then clearing the energies around the body came next (multiple people).
Summary and Tradition
The tallest living tree is a Coast Redwood. I often think of how a tree's roots go as far down as the tip goes up. This tree knows a great deal about traveling up and grounding down. The kundalini activation is telling about its spiritual state. Commune with the tree through being in its presence, connecting through literature, art, writing, tree essences (I will make one for the shop asap!) to ground and be spiritually more fully alive. This is an 'alive' that cherishes and fosters life (including sex and joy) rather than an austere spirituality. It does like the action--of birds flitting in and out, of people in the neighborhood, but also the underground connections that trees and other plants make. (*This may be a signature for I feel its strength can empower even those we are only connected to energetically.) It teaches all of this to us with its strong energy. It says we do not need to take it physically (like the tincture, it is a strong medicine) but, the essence can help if we are not near a Sequoia. Commune with trees.
The taste was so dynamic and complex! Try nibbling on fresh evergreen tips in the Spring and see for yourself. Many resinous plants have joint healing properties--like lomatium and knees I believe, gumweed (grindelia), and hips. So it is not surprising that this has shoulder healing properties. Think of all those strong branch connections that must move with the wind but not break over hundreds, if not thousands of years...this tree knows about holding those arms just right. Lungs also make sense, Osha, lomatium, and grindelia all have a similar intense resinous quality that opens the lungs.
I will have to tune in more to the hormonal properties of this tree. The kundalini energy moves through many obstacles that are related to old patterns and negative emotions that hold us back. I suspect this and its grounding ability may be part of why it is helpful for hormonal and other forms of tension. There is so much to learn about this herb, but I feel its wisdom, commitment to living together/the beauty of interdependence and growth, and energetics are the most important.
Grandfather says, "There are people who stay at survival (think chakras 1 and 2) thinking it will help them be more productive in life, but there is nothing better than being all the way up and all the way down (think up to chakra 10 and grounded down to 10 as well). But even though this is so stable, we live in a world where if a man wants to take you down, he can." We can learn energetic stability and expansiveness, knowing that sustaining life is not a given, can make it even more precious. Enjoy each moment of living.
Invitation
Hug a tree, talk to a tree, listen to kind beings who have experienced more than you, help someone in your community. Check out these sites for more information:
Save the Redwoods
STEM Humboldt Redwood Curriculum
Decolonial Atlas
National Park Services
Learn More
