Musings on Trees

Lately my attention has been drawn to trees for three reasons. First, catastrophic events involving not only individual trees in yards of my sisters but also vast forests in the Amazon have me thinking about the roles of trees in our lives. Second, reading about a sacred image of a tree in the Bhagavad Gita led me to think about trees as symbols of the sacred. Third, in a recent visit to a redwood forest prompted me to see the interactions of trees as metaphors for human interactions.

Redwood (Sequioa sempervirens)

Source: Sandra Olliges

Two years ago a lovely tall and branching deciduous tree that was more than 100 years old split apart during a thunderstorm and fell to the ground in several directions. It damaged the surface of the roof at my sister’s house, although it did not break through to the ceiling. Within the past week, during a thunderstorm, a large tree branch fell on another sister’s roof, piercing through the ceiling. What might the trees be saying if they could speak our language? The Amazon rain forests in Brazil are burning at an accelerated rate since the current Brazilian president weakened environmental protection for these forests.

In the Bhagavad Gita, there is a symbolic image of a tree that has roots in the spiritual world and branches that descend into the material realm. This is different than the world tree of Norse mythology, Yggdrasil, which connects Nine Worlds, extends three roots far into two wells and a spring, and extends its branches far into the heavens. Sacred symbolic world trees are found in many spiritual belief systems throughout the world and from the earliest recorded times until the present. In yoga, there is a tree pose; while holding this pose, one can extend energetic roots into the earth below and into the sky above.

I recently learned that the roots of redwood trees extend laterally the same distance as the height of these trees, which can be 300 feet; the tallest known is 379 feet. Their intertwined roots hold each other up. Perhaps humans’ having greater interconnection with each other and with other life on the planet would provide a similar support system for us all. Sacred tree symbols suggest that all life is interconnected on a spiritual level. Through interconnected systems of air, water, sunlight, and soil all people, plants, and animals are interconnected on a physical level, too. Moreover, it has been found to be healing for humans to spend time with trees in both yards and forests.