CONSCIOUSNESS IN NATURE THE GROWING BEINGS & US

TREES

“Trees and stones will teach you that which you can never learn from the masters.” St. Bernard of Clairvaux

The Ancestors

 In the soil messages are transmitted chemically via fungal networks which form “highways” for transportation. Trees "listen" to one another. The older, bigger, legacy trees, especially can receive, respond and send messages to their neighbors through trillions of interconnections- more so to their own species but to others as well to alert them. They can warn neighbors to upregulate their defense enzymes and chemicals while enhancing their own protective immune system and emitting protective toxins against aphids and other pests. Resources can be shared within a radius of 30 meters especially from the older legacy trees. Signals traveling via the roots and fungal networks can create a greater resilience against pests.

Researchers in North America in the Pacific Northwest - a temperate rain forest - using isotopes traced how Carbon, Nitrogen and water moved between Douglas fir and Birch trees They also noted that sugar could flow from one tree to  another tree that was challenged.

There is an impressive network between mycelia and mushrooms both below and above ground. Fungi and mycelia share water, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, nitrogen and lignen in exchange for sugar from the photosynthesis from the trees. These elders of the forest or legacy trees, their “tribes” and even their neighbors communicate and share resources. Fungal networks embrace tree roots and facilitate this exchange. 

There is underground communication between Burch, Douglas fir and Cedar. They share food underground – the bigger and older, the more so. Because of this intelligence, clear cutting is dangerous to the whole forest. White threads of mycelia are actually hollow tubes of fungi that branch and connect forming a fungal freeway to tree roots and each other. The fungi draw in water and the elements that the tree needs otherwise it would be stunted. Without them the tree cannot suck up water as easily. These fungal gardens wrap around the tree roots so they can do this exchange. Fungal tubes worm their way along releasing oxalic acid when needed which create micro tunnels in stones and rocks to help them break up and access their minerals. Mushrooms are also involved in this dynamic. In good times trees give the fungi sugar but under stress they retain it and in times of stress they also release chemicals giving a bad taste to browsers. Older established trees can dump sugar into new trees in times of stress. 

This intelligence goes beyond the species as with the bees. Paul Stamets calls it; 

"A perfectly functioning system - Divine intellect woven through nature."

Bees are fast disappearing. They have been considered the “mine canaries”of nature  –  the first to suffer adverse changes in the environment because of their fragility.

The Druids were regarded as the sages of the forest. The Druid Golden Triangle comprised the Druids, the Bees and the Trees. Celtic wisdom claimed that if one had a perplexing problem one could ask the bees who were connected to one’s guiding spirits. Druids, bees and trees formed this triad, each sharing in a relationship of cooperation and symbiosis. Bees pollinate trees, and trees feed and house bees. The Druids protected and nurtured both trees and bees as sources of health, wealth, wisdom, and access to the faerie world.                                                                     

A chapter of the Koran entitled "The Bee' (An-Nahl) says that; 

Allah gave revelation to the honeybee by sending bee prophets. "                            

Petrochemicals make bees aggressive so perfumes and deodorants are best avoided around them.  

Bee has insights into the secrets of nature, the secrets of creation, and a special connection therefore to the Creator. The bee is a cold-blooded creature like a reptile, but bees heat their hives to more or less the same temperature as human blood. Since the beehive has the same temperature as us, legend has suggested that the beehive is like a human being, and the bees are like the spirit that resides inside the body of the hive.                                                                                  

In San Bushmen culture bees have sacred power and can represent the ancestors. Their rock art is replete with bee images. Their hum was not only sacred but was also encountered by them and many other spiritual traditions during altered states of consciousness as a buzz, a roar, or even a whistle. Honey is a delicacy to the San and much sort after. The San have a close connection to the honey guide, a unique bird who will lead them to a hive. There are honey bird whisperers or shamans who can call the bird when they want honey. The harvest is always shared with the bird. San lore tells them that if they do not share the spoils, the next time the honey guide will lead them to a poisonous snake.                                                                                             The Tibetan Book of the Dead, recounts that after the soul of the deceased separates from the physical body, there may be a roaring, a thundering and a whistling. Astral projection, and out-of-body experiences, Near Death Experiences and rituals using entheogens are also said to be heralded by sounds such as buzzing, roaring or humming.

Hazrat Inayat Khan related that it was possible to hear the sounds of the Music of the Spheres in ten forms, one being, the buzzing of the bees. 

The San Bushman Creation Story

When the face of the earth was covered with water Mantis was sent out to find the purpose of life. Mantis asked Bee, the carrier of wisdom, to guide and carry him over the dark waters. After many days of searching  Bee grew tired and cold and flew slower and slower as Mantis felt heavier and heavier. As Bee sank lower towards the water he saw a great white flower half open floating in the sun's first rays.  He laid Mantis in the heart of the flower, and planted within him the seed of the first human being. Then Bee died.  But as the sun rose and warmed the flower Mantis awoke - and from within him - from the seed left by the bee - the first San was born.

The tree is an archetype for a link between heaven and earth. The Law of Correspondence – “as above so below, as below so above, as within so without.” The San Bushman call the Baobab, the Upside-down Tree because it appears to have its roots above and its branches below.

“Beloved gaze in your own heart – the Holy Tree is blooming there.” W.B. Yeats

The Druids, who were nature bound, and the Celts, had their own Tree of Life. The Tree of Life is seminal to Kabbalistic mysticism 

“It is a Tree of Life to those who hold it fast, and all who cling to it find happiness. Its ways are ways of pleasantness and all its paths are peace.” Maimonides

 Paul Stamets describes the interconnection between bees, bears and trees and the mycelial web of life as all being part of one interconnected field. Bears scratching on trees introduce mycelia and then fungi grow on these trees to acquire sugar. Bees carrying mites are attracted to the fungi and mycelia where they acquire antivirals which neutralize the viruses from these mites. 

Fungi and mycelia may be the future for humanity in finding effective antivirals. More pandemics, according to the experts. are to be expected after Covid 19.

Clear cutting disturbs this magical ecosystem where everything is interconnected. Agarikon. (Laricifomes officinalis) has been shown to have significant antimicrobial properties. Some mushrooms like Turkey Tail and Reishi can enhance our immune systems.

Magic mushrooms contain psilocybin which has powerful mind-altering properties, used by shamans for eons. Harvard university is now studying this entheogen and find that it has dramatic effects in alleviating depression, anxiety and fear of death in patients with terminal cancer.

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