The Wild Wisdom of Vine

Previous Tree Cycle: Hazel & Apple

Tree Cycle: Muin Vine Vine Tree Cycle Dates: July 11 – August 7 Key Words For Vine: Improvement, Fullness, Fruition, Abundance, Relief, Harvest, Attentiveness, Indulgence, Destiny, Wildness, Beauty, Blood, Development, Transformation, Abandon, Ecstasy, Inhibited, Rejection, Frustration. Lunation: 10th Souls Evolution Stage: Experience The Council of Trees - Hidden Tree Cycles: Alder & Willow The Council of Trees - Hidden Tree Cycles Date: January 11 – February 7 Key Words of The Council of Trees: Alder - Signs, Elemental Synchronisation, Prophecy, Activity, Shapeshifting, Challenge, Discord, In-sync, Truth, Exposure. Willow - Receptive, Feminine, Depth, Awareness, Grounded, Wisdom, Dreams, Values, Spiral, Elders, Nurture, Acceptance.

Spiritual Weather: Attachment, Attraction, Temptation, Tension, Expectation.

Tree Cycle Vine

Vine opens up for us a world of beauty. We suddenly feel present and alive. We feel our life force radiating out from within us and we become acutely aware of our blood pulsing through our body swelling our erogenous zones. Vine can be an intimate experience. We are highly sensitive through the fullness we now embody from our journey of integration through the wild elements within Hazel and Apple season. Our body is active and aware and we feel a need to create meaningful sensory experiences for ourselves. This may be an internal journey and we might like to create relaxation and pleasure for ourselves. We will be called to detox our bodies, choosing to cleanse through water and avoid toxins such as alcohol or tobacco. We feel more determined to lay of our guilty pleasures. Lustral bathing, soaking in salts or blossoms and enjoying the sweet simple pleasures of conscious living. We may also express ourselves in an external way choosing to extend our need for connection and engage in sensual experiences with a trusted person or tender and meaningful moments with family or friends . There is a sexual element to Vine that comes from the stimulation of the plants sexual organs, the transfer of pollen and the successful development of ripened fruits. We might want to explore our own sexuality, acknowledging what we enjoy or don't. Considering how we express our sexual energies and understanding if there are blocks there and how we might create movement in these areas. We might feel freer to discover how our sexual encounters affect our life force energy flow. We might feel more in line with the attentive harvesting side of Vine and sink into developing our care giving role by giving attention to loved ones with all of the vitality we have to offer them. We may want to make delicious meals and savour the taste of food with others, or create wonderful and meaningful memories through adventure and excitement. Vine offers us the opportunity to live fully, step into the wildness of our spirit and relish in the wonder of living in ecstasy each day. We will want to share our wisdom, sharing the beauty of nature with loved ones. We are artful in drawing attention to the mindful experience of life, highlighting to others the subtle sensations of single moments that might otherwise be missed, the smell of smoke in the air from a far of camp fire, the colours illuminating the sky from a sunset, the taste of wild fruits forages from the bush, the song of a bird. We are teacher and student during Vine season. So much for the picking, where to start?

Spiritual Weather and The Council of Trees

Influence: Alder

Inspiration: Willow

Spiritual Weather during Vine season can be intoxicating at times, with energy infused air supercharged with solar light and dripping with vapour. Nature is nourishing her burgeoning fullness, ripening and swelling with sweetness. 'Milk drunk' can be a term to describe spiritual weather during Vine season. This weather can be supportive for us in many ways fuelling our developing ideas, projects or creative endeavours. This weather pattern however can also amplify our inhibitions or disinhibit us in unhealthy ways if we are living incongruently. Without an anchor to the earth we might get lost in our insecurities or the lure of self indulgence or destructive habits.

Alder can be a strong influence in our lives during the first half of the Vine tree cycle. Alder offers us a prophecy. We see with clear sight our habitual behaviours, routines and regular crutches. We also foresee our potential transformation, what we can become, if we choose to, in this moment. We are witness to the radiant beauty we hold within us. Spiritual weather energises the truth to be told. We suddenly acknowledge that yes we might have got into unhealthy habits and we can see how these are affecting us longer term. We feel a sense of time in front of us and we consider how we want to choose to move consciously forward. We think about the best version of our selves and what that looks like for us personally, this will be different for each of us and we look at active ways in which we can transform ourselves. Alder encourages us to open up to the fullness of our expression of spirit, wild and free, disentangled from layers of outworn identity. When we are handed our destiny by nature, we can't not accept. This is a stronger time for shapeshifting. The goddess of Alder season in midwinter is The Cailleach. The Cailleach is the hag of winter, the witch, the wise woman. She is the lashing rain and howling winds and she is the shapeshifter, and the shaper of land. She rests during summer months but her influence on us to transform is her gift during Vine season. She is very stern though, she tells us that if we reject our opportunity for evolution and don't head our prophecy, we have only ourselves to blame.

Willow is a great spirit and wonderous inspiration for us during the second half of Vine season. We can begin to feel hot within Vine season due to the increased heat, we feel a little flustered and very sweaty due to the extra blood flow and fullness within our experience. Willow offers us to open wider and receive our fullest capacity, she supports us to relax into our vulnerability, she cools our back with damp cloth and dabs our brow. Willow inspires us to spend our time in nature, to remain grounded and wise. She hands us the key for the lock of the door that we need to step through. We might have felt locked out of our secret garden for many months, struggling to find a way back in. Willow nudges us into a natural flow of being within Vine season, she offers us that wildness does not equate to foolishness. We can look to our dreams for messages from spirit and to enjoy the wild abandon of the spiral dance of life through our unfurling authenticity. Willow supports us to feel safe in ecstasy, Willow encourages us to be less inhibited in healthy ways, to release stored or blocked energy and let it pour out of ourselves. Willow also offers us strength to sever attachments, feel the depth of our primal instincts and to satisfy our basic needs. We may be a part of a family, a parent, a partner, an employee or employer, always a something to someone. We can become unseen by ourselves within the many values we hold and roles we inhabit often neglecting what we require to feel alive. Willow speaks to us, our essence, the wild and unique personage of our spirit and tells us that we are an individual, there is no other like us and this is to be rejoiced. She challenges us during Vine season to identify and satisfy our needs, to experience the vivacious pleasures of our senses and to celebrate the beauty of living.

A Tree Blessing For Vine

Curvy girl let your body move.

Cork screw curls with nothing to prove.

Cheeky fat fruit sweet and swollen.

Beneath summers skin a spicy explosion.

Sunshine soaked beauties hot to the touch.

Don't stop, juicy ripe fruit, ready to pop.

Between spiralled tendrils, sticky syrup dribbles.

Wildling be free.

Dance in abandoned ecstasy.

Offering to the Council

Alder offers us prophecy of our own tomorrow and supports us in making conscious evaluated choices that are good for us and shape our future selves. Willow offers us to lean closer into spirit by exploring our own sensuous nature. We are reminded that we have the right to feel alive, stimulated and free and experience sensuous pleasures. When we allow ourselves to feel this way we ourselves are nurturing our own fruition and enjoying the fruits of life, lust and abundance. If you think that the Council have supported you on your journey you may like to make an offering to them to show your gratitude and deepen your connection with the trees. You may like to find your own unique way to express your appreciation or you may like to try my suggestion.

Over the course of a few nights or longer if you wish try incorporating some space into your bedtime routine to try this Dream Weaving exercise. You will need some paper and something to draw with. When you are comfortable and relaxed spend some time thinking about your Council and when you feel moved to start, begin to make some marks on your paper. You do not need to be an artist. It is more helpful to let your intuition guide you. Think of this in terms of automatic drawing. Automatic drawing asks you to feel and sense the next line and where this line takes you. You might like to try closing your eyes and let your hand guide the pencil. You may feel like drawing a complete tree capturing the curves or shape and form, or focusing through your macro lens sense to find details, such as the texture of bark, the shade and light of nooks or hollows. The aim of this exercise is to create an unconscious connection between you and the trees. In the dream world we can have conversations with trees, we may receive signs, synchronicities and messages from them. This exercise aims to develop and strengthen your connection with trees. And also supports you in creating your tomorrow, because are dreams impact our day and our day informs our dreams. Through intentional dreaming we can paly an active role in shaping our future.

Next Tree Cycle: Ivy

Yours in the heart of the woodlands.

Mags Black.