The Wild Wisdom of Willow

Tree Cycle: Willow

Ogham: Saille

Willow Tree Cycle Dates: January 24 - February 20

Key Words For Willow: Receptive, Feminine, Depth, Liminal, Awareness, Aliveness, Grounded, Wisdom, Dreams, Values, Spiral, Elders, Healing Well, Nurture, Acceptance, Adaptability.

Lunation: 4th

Souls Evolution Stage: Womb

The Council of Trees - Hidden Tree Cycles: Vine & Ivy

The Council of Trees - Hidden Tree Cycles Date: July 24th - August 20

Key Words of the Council of Trees:

Vine - Improvement, Fullness, Fruition, Abundance, Relief, Harvest, Attentiveness, Indulgence, Play, Destiny, Wildness, Beauty, Artistry, Blood, Development, Transformation, Abandon, Ecstasy, The Uncovering.

Ivy - Spiral-Dance, Listen, Spiritual Path, Whole-Body, Nourishment, Richness, Slow & Steady, Balance, Joy, Unwind, Entwined, Doorways, Labyrinth, Protection, Camouflage, Erase.

Spiritual Weather: Shallow Depths, Laziness, Acceptance of Lot, Beaten.

Celebration: Imbolc

Reflected Celebration: Lughnasadh

Animal Guide: Rabbit (Hare)

Willow Tree Cycle

Opening up into Willows wild wisdom is akin to an attunment within the womb space. We step into Willow season a little tender, it has been a challenging journey through Alder to get here. Willow season offers us a space to feel embodied within the secretive depth of the womb. We join with, and become this union, we open into this mysterious place. The womb space is warm, dark and shielded from noise and commotion. We may have a felt-sense of Willows womb space, a felt atmosphere, a thickening of our sensing field, like, we have extra padding around us. During Willow season we will be especially tuned into our attitudes and values at their deepest level, with the ability to view them from deep within, with an observant perspective. The complexity of 'all about me', reduced to simple ideas, yet with profound revelations. We will notice the rhythms and patterns of our everyday lives, and within our everyday relationships. We will notice repeated moments, the repetition in our behaviours and actions during Willow season. We will also notice how others respond to us, how they move when we move, how their facial expressions dance with ours. We may begin to also notice the stories we play out in our own life, the characters we have become and whether these characters are supportive for our deepening growth. The deepening growth of the roots we are always caring for. We cant expand our aliveness above ground if our roots are not being nourished below ground. We may realise that our lack of aliveness is not due to our roots being ill cared for by us, but could be due to where we are physically rooted. Our aliveness could be in the wrong place, a place that does not support exploration any more.

Willow draws awareness to our root system, focusing our attention, deep down into the roots of our life. Willow also speaks to us of liminal space. To join Willow at the boundary of liminality is to be present for contact with any other beingness. Liminal space is often thought of in spiritual ways as the space between worlds. In folk traditions, physical spaces such as bogs, ponds and healing wells are thought of as liminal spaces. Spaces from which magical beings pass through from one realm to another. We can expand upon this and consider this space more simply. Space through which magic passes from one place to another, or a space through which, magical exchange is occurring. Liminal spaces are any space that is between one aliveness and another. They are the contact boundary, where one, meets the other, effectively the meeting space. It is in this meeting, this contact, that magic is either created or already present. These magics passes between, through and back again in endless ripples. Willow wants us to be aware of this contact boundary, and the presence of magic. So that we can borrow the spirit of this magic and bring our life inline with our values. What do our roots need from us in the present? Do they need nourishment, do they need a different environment? Every interaction we have, each correspondence we endeavour to make, will be met in liminal space by the opposite aliveness. And enter into magical space, a magical exchange.

Spiritual Weather & The Council of Trees

Spiritual Weather during Willow season can be like having a major dampener on life. We can feel like we have a grey cloud over head, it is probably raining too. To top that off our wellies are filled with water now, throw in wet socks, and our legs can hardly move. So we are uncomfortable, soggy and stuck. Willow calls for us to be receptive and actively imagine our dreams into reality, but all we may feel like doing is wallowing in self-pity. These heavy feelings comes from within a part of us that feels stuck in an environment that can no longer provide nourishment. Willow is a wet dreamy season, not airy and awake like others. With water depth comes pressure and we can at times feel like we are sinking very far from the surface. Far aware from that liminal space, and our contact boundary. If we feel this way we can begin making those changes that support our root growth right away. Subtle changes can have wide roaming ripples. And these ripples, we can also include, as embodying the magic of the contact boundary. The ripples have to reach some other point, yes? Furthermore, if we create many ripples, they will all come into contact with each other and interact with each other, Think of dropping many little pebbles into water and how the water surface will respond.

So what small change can we make, what intention do we want to send out with our ripples? We might be needing more hydration, less sugar or more exercise. We need more mental peace or more mental stimulation. We may need to be more firm, more direct, more decisive, more persuasive. We may need to be more rest, more freedom, more spontaneity or become less rigid. Only each of us will know what it is that our roots need from us. We can make little changes that aren't scary or overwhelming, yet will still contribute to our ripple effect and support root strength and growth. This will contribute to an overall feeling of aliveness.

Influence - Vine

Vine supports us during the first two weeks of Willow season. Vine offers us the blessing of relief, from feeling the pressure of depth. Vine asks us to look our for opportunities to unwind and relax. To be present in the comforting womb space. Vine knows the changes we need and seeks to support our improvement and development in practical ways. Vine brings The Uncovering into our spiritual awareness. The Uncovering, an act of self expression, a revealing of many mysterious powers. There is a strong connection between The Uncovering and the wildish ways of the soul. The Uncovering will always reveal the aliveness within us. Vine offers us opportunity for The Uncovering when we need aliveness in our life. As our Council, Vine may supportively influence our decision making. We may experience urges to change our appearance. Or feel nudged into a direction we would not normally consider to explore. Vine is working with us on a soulful level to get us moving again, to get our blood flowing, to wake us up so that we can journey through Willow in a grounded, present and alive way.

Inspiration - Ivy

Ivy supports us during the second half of Willow season. Ivy reminds us of Balance, Whole-Body and Slow and Steady. Balance in everyday activities, not too much of that or too much of this. Taking it easy. We need to be in communication with our whole body, checking in with our felt-senses daily to know the truth of any matter. Ivy supports Willow in the nourishment of our roots by offering 'this takes time'. Ivy knows that we may be feeling a build up of pressure from things not happening fast enough. But Ivy reminds us that Slow and Steady still gets to where it needs to go, moreover Slow and Steady gets there with their sanity intact. Spiral is amplified by Ivy during Willow season. We are embodied in womb space and we continually spiral in and out of liminal interactions. Ivy asks us to move in a spiral dance while embodied in the womb space. Unwinding within these hidden depths. We can be both covered spiritually, in our mysterious places and uncovered and empowered physically in our everyday lives.

A Blessing For Willow

Willow, wander with me, through the rooting wetlands,

Willow, weave with me, primal magics of the liminal,

Willow, guide me, through the aliveness of each delicate contact,

Willow, spirit keep my integrity, rooted in the well of my dream places.

An Offering to the Council

Ivy and Vine are artists. Vine, the spontaneous, commits to bold and striking patterns, while Ivy, deep in thought will contemplate each delicate line affectionally. There is a form of art that is intentionally therapeutic. Using paint or another easily applied, or fluid medium. Pick a medium you feel comfortable with. Sit with the paper and tune inwards, to the deep well within. Allow colour to form within your being. Reach for that colour and begin to create. Sense into how you want to create. Do you want to be bold, possessed by each impulse to lay colour down. Or do you want to create slow and steady, using gentle touch and light strokes. Push the colour around, allow it to weave and entwine. Think on Vine and Ivy. Allow your inner being to speak through the colour. Avoid creating an image. Just play. After you are complete you will have, before you, a little piece of your being, you may see how you feel inside in the artwork you have created. Or the artwork may speak to you on an issue you are facing.

Yours in the heart of the woodlands,

Mags Black.