Trees Archives – Rebecca-Anuwen

What purpose does this gate serve?

“If you go down into the woods today, you’re sure of a big suprise…“

…Okay I didn’t come accross a Teddy Bear’s pic-nic, but I wouldn’t have been at all suprised if I had!

Yesterday after my little boy’s swimming lesson, instead of going straight home we decided to go for a walk in the woods.

Where we live we’re lucky enough to be surrounded by beautiful countryside and lots of trees!

Our walk started like this:

We have a lot of native British woodlands where we live, but this particular one is dominated by the tall spindly pines, and surrounded by fields and more forests.

I love how the paths sweep around and you never know what beautiful things you may come across around the next corner. Even though I’ve been here before, nature is always changing, so it always looks so different.

Each time I enter the forest, she always seems to give me what I need.

I’m showing you these photos in case you needed a little bit of forest therapy. Breathe in the fresh, damp air of the forest,

Feel the spring in the forest floor beneath your feet.

Inhale the woody-green fragrance of warm pine trees and an abundance of ferns and nettles.

I’m also showing you these photos because of what we came across next… It made me pause for thought:

What a gate taught me about threshold moments

We came across a gate.

That’s right a gate.

A gate with no fence or boundary around it.

Just a gate.

I’m not sure what the purpose of this gate was. But it did remind me of the importance of honouring the thresholds.

This gate made me stop. Pause. And consider my next very literal steps.

I chose to walk through the gate.

I stopped and silently asked for permission to step into this part of the woods.

Permission was granted, and it felt special.

It felt I had entered a different world. I actually looked around as I expected to see unicorns and goblins (she says only half joking… 😉 )

Walking through the gate, honouring the threshold changed how I felt. It changed how I experienced the moment. It brought me into a deeper presence within myself and my surroundings. It brought greater intention to what I was doing.

I was not just arriving and wandering around admiring the view.

I was present, connected and aware.

Threshold place, spaces and moments are important.

Whether it’s the threshold to your home, or threshold moments in your life.

As a society we have seemed to push thresholds to the bottom of our to-do list, often too busy to notice them.

Your turn…

But right now, take a moment to pause, to take a deep breath and become present.

Let this be a threshold moment.

What are you consciously going to choose to do next.

It may be exactly what you were going to do anyway, but now you can do it a little more intention.

After the storm has passed

Inspiration, Nature Connection

“Storms don’t come to teach us painful lessons, rather the are meant to wash us clean” – Shannon L. Alder

The other day I was scrolling through facebook, when something caught my eye.

It was an article about a prehistoric forest that had been uncovered after a recent storm.

When I first saw the photo, I thought, “Wow, I’d love to see that”, and was about to scroll past, when curiosity (and a little voice inside) got the better of me and I read the full article:

“A prehistoric forest which was buried under water and sand more than 4,500 years ago has been uncovered by Storm Hannah.

The petrified trees lie between Ynyslas and Borth in Ceredigion county.

The forest has become associated with a 17th Century myth of a sunken civilization known as ‘Cantre’r Gwaelod’, or the ‘Sunken Hundred’.

It is believed the area was a once-fertile land and township protected by floodgates.

The remains of the forest’s trees, preserved in the local peat, have been exposed by low tides and high winds.” – BBC Website

Borth! I couldn’t believe it, for some reason I’d assumed the photo had been taken abroad, but Borth is my closest beach – it’s still over an hour away, but it’s an area I’ve visited regularly the whole time I’ve lived in Herefordshire – about 7 years now.

I quickly looked at the date of the article, it was only a few days old, the chance of the trees still being visible was high, so with the call of trees and the beach, how could I resist a trip to see for myself!

Even low tide aligned with a perfect day to the beach.

It was incredible to see.

I chatted to a few other people walking around the forest remains, one woman had travelled three hours to visit, and another 2 hours.

I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve visited these beaches, and I had never known about the trees.

Yet a chance scroll through facebook, a trust in the curiosity to read more, the divine timing of coming across the article and the perfect time of low tide, allowed me to combine a few of my favourite things; trees, beaches and adventure.

The uncovering of the trees reminded me of the power of the storms to reveal what we didn’t know was right under our noses.

The same is true for life-storms.

Not all storms are here to destroy us or tell us to turn back and seek shelter, many are here to reveal more of our truth to us.

In the SHEro’s Journey, the second stage of the four part journey is the Significant Challenge. It’s during this stage that we can feel as we’re in the eye of the storm, feeling tested to our limits.

Some people see this as a time to turn back, or a sign that they’re on the wrong path.

But like storm Hannah and the prehistoric forest, sometimes the storms are here to reveal the treasure that lies within.

The challenges of life storms give you a chance to review your choices, to decide how committed you are to what you’re after. They offer you the opportunity to grow and become stronger, to deepen your resolve so that you can move closer to and achieve what you desire.

Storms can reveal to you what was once hidden, in the case of the beach it was the prehistoric forest, but what treasure do the storms reveal about you?

Listening to your intuition and sacred yew groves

My Story

I’ve always ‘heard’ my intuition, but not always listened to it…

But over the last few years I’ve felt even more connected to my internal compass than ever before, and it’s becoming harder to ignore, or even push to oneside.

So when for the past week I’ve had a strong pull to go and visit a place that I’ve visited many times before, I had to go – and I’m so glad I did!

This afternoon was a lovely walk and I spent some time hanging out with the ancient yews in the nearby church – I’ve always adored trees, but it’s only recently that I’ve been connecting with them in a much deeper way.

After our walk, I started to drive us home, and something caught my attention. I reversed back up the road, and saw what looked like a secret grove.

I pulled the car over, left my boys (pretend hubby and our little boy) in the car and went for a quick investigation.

It was amazing!

I really thought I was going to be spirited away by the fairies.

Through the thick yew trees, was an inner space that had the most incredible fallen yew tree, on it’s side it was still taller than me – the tree was amazing.

There was also a small ring of trees within the grove, I stood in the centre of it, and just knew I had to go back and sit in this space some more.

I took a few photos (that don’t do it justice), and then went back to my boys and drove home.

I was only in the sacred grove for about 10 minutes, but still hours later I can feel that something shifted within me.

Tree’s are showing up more an more for me. As I said I’ve always adored them, it was a standing joke with my ex-husband about how much I loved trees… – often these messages/passions/interests, can run as a theme through our life, but we don’t understand the significance until much later, when we can see a bigger pattern emerging.

(My growing collection of tree books and divination)

I’m currently on a Priestess training in Glastonbury, to become a Priestess of Cerridwen. Since I started this training last year, so much has been opening up for me. One of these things has been that I have felt very much called by another Goddess, the Goddess Nemetona, she’s the goddess of the Sacred Grove.

It wasn’t until recently that I realised how much both Cerridwen and Nemetona are both connected with Druidry – and of course the Druids are very much connected to the trees and nature.

Then just yesterday a very good friend of mine Kris Oster did a card reading for my business (she’s amazing!), and one of the key images that showed up in the reading was the Tree (well of course!)

So I’m not sure how this is going to play out, bit it’s certainly leading the way.

What are the breadcrumbs that are making themselves more known to you?

Come and share your thoughts and own personal experiences over in our very own sacred space the SHEro’s Red Tent Temple free Facebook Community