RCG-I Seasonal Salon Fall Equinox 2006

Weisse Frauen: Dancing in the Harvest through the Trees

Dancing Harvest
I stood in the darkness of the gathering storm;
Covered in the mists of ocean breezes
Wings of salty spray brushing against my face.
Standing in the dusk, I closed my bright eyes
To better appreciate the deep healing breath
Of tangy scented virgin redwood forests.
I opened my eyes and watched as a
Million stars flickered in the deserted sky.
With thousands of creaking branches
Swaying in the indigo midnight shadows
I heard the dancer through the canopy.
The dancer reached for my hand and led me,
Waltzing joyfully to the song of swaying saplings.
I matched the bewitching hour watery ballet,
Until thirst quenched from tender tree tangos,
From sensual sorrel sodden salsas,
I rested in the quiet embrace of the dancer’s arms.
Sighing with the contentment of matched bliss
We watched the cloudburst tempest pass and
Lifting our faces to the fullness of a mystic moon
The Weisse Frauen consummated for another year,
The Tree of Life renewed, we slept as the
Harvest of our ballet burst forth in our footprints.

One of the most beautiful sites in my new world is the towering redwood forests. I have a love of trees. Tall and majestic the trees of Northern California are most beautiful in their strength and in their amazing adaptability. They redwoods of the western coast of the United States are survivors. They have survived the years of fires, cuttings, spikes in their bodies, storms and they still stand proud and sturdy.

Both the German and the Celts celebrated the sacredness of trees. Trees are most magical, they form a bridge that provides food, shelter, water, tools, warmth, medicine and oxygen to our world. From the Hagasuzza to Runes, trees played an important part in the spiritual and physical lives of people. Trees also change with the season giving us a symbolic reminder of the rhythms of nature. They are the cycle of life.

Heartbeat and Loving Giving

Trees, like all living beings have an inner life. The Dryads live and dance in the forests of our lands. At a workshop we once took stethoscopes and went to different trees and listened to their heartbeat. It was truly transforming. Each tree had a different rhythm. Each tree had a specific sound. For me this was a reconfirmation of my belief in the power of trees. Trees are our cathedrals.

In numerous cases the spirit of trees is personified, usually in female form. In Ancient Greece, the Alseids were nymphs associated with groves, while the Dryads were forest nymphs who guarded the trees. Sometimes armed with an axe, Dryads would punish anyone harming the trees. Crowned with oak-leaves, they would dance around the sacred oaks. The Hamadryads were even more closely associated with trees, forming an integral part of them. In India, tree nymphs appear in the form of the voluptuous Vrikshaka.

In Ancient Rome, a fig-tree sacred to Romulus grew near the Forum, and a sacred cornel-tree grew of the slope of the Palatine Hill. Sacred groves were also found in the city of Rome.

The linden tree was worshiped by the Germans and was associated with Freya, Her trees were considered the tree of peace and were often the central meeting place for communities. Originally, local communities not only assembled to celebrate and dance under the linden tree but they also held the judicial proceedings under her leaves. It was believed that the tree would help unearth the truth and that no one was able to lie maliciously without attracting Freya’s rage. Thus the tree became associated with jurisprudence even after Christianization and verdicts in rural Germany were frequently returned sub talia (under the linden tree) until the Age of Enlightenment.

In German cosmology the earth (Midgard in Norse) is surrounded by a hedge. Certain women have the gift for riding the hedge, finding the secret doorways to the other worlds of Germanic cosmology. This experience was done through the trees and hedges as the way to shamanic and altered consciousness gifting us ways to heal and speak.

The Tree (Yggdrasil in Norse) of the World is made up of nine worlds. The Tree is the sacred connection to the other world. Rooted in the earth the Tree is fed by the Well of the Matrons. Therefore, it makes sense that so many Goddesses are centered on the forests of Southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Runes are the mystic language of the Matrons. Runes were cut from the branches of linden trees and used to divine for the community. The worlds of Tree of Life in Norse are Asgard (leadership), Alfheim (nature), Vanaheim (fertility), Jotunheim (chaos), Midhgard (body, self, earth), Muspellsheim (fire energy), Niflheim (ice energy), Svartalfheim (deep mystery), and Hel (unconscious transformation).

Trees and Their Sacred Aspects

Tree Goddesses

Alseids
Nymphs associated with groves.

Buschfrauen
Goddesses who lived in hollow trees and guarded the forests. From their name I also believe that they are the hedge Goddesses, watching over the hedge and guarding its entrances.

Dryads
Forest nymphs who guarded the trees, they sometimes were armed with an axe. Dryads would punish anyone harming the trees. Crowned with oak-leaves, they would dance around the sacred oaks. The Hamadryads were even more closely associated with trees, forming an integral part of them

Frau Holda
Southern German, Austrian and Swiss Goddess of spinning and Sun Goddess who regenerates Herself and is addressed as “The Mother of All Life” and the “Great Healer”. (Gimbutas) She is the union of all patterns and therefore to me, She is the pattern of the Tree, the Worlds, the Web, and all of life. She is the Crone Goddess of wisdom and wonder.

Hathor, Isis and Nut
Within the concept of the mortuary cults of Egypt, Hathor, Isis and Nut are all considered Tree Goddesses because of the representation as trees with arms or of them emerging from a tree.

Malidthu
Malidthu is a Canaanite Goddess of Love, Fertility, Childbirth, and the fragrant Myrrh-tree.

Vrikshaka
In India, the tree nymphs appear in the form of the voluptuous Vrikshaka.

Weisse Frauen
Forest Goddesses who help lost travelers, danced in the fruits of the Hertha (Mother Earth), and foretold the future.

Hug a Tree

Trees have out lived us by hundreds and like some redwoods, thousands of years. Their bodies have gathered information and scars from our living with them. They survive. They heal themselves and continue to grow. They are potent symbols for our lives. Go hug a tree and thank her for all that she gives us.