November 15 2008, Big Basin Redwood Park, California
The smart car is roaring up the eastern slope of the Basin, it’s tiny but powerful engine under the load of the steep ascent. The top is down and the temperature of the air is in the mid sixties…borderline cold but not enough to worry about. Brian is sitting next to me….. stoic….. eyes straight ahead and tuning in to what is approaching.
We ride in silence while the trees lining the road are getting taller and taller as we climb to the top of the ridge. Suddenly we crest the ridge and begin our descent into the ancient forest. The engine now under no load is nearly silent and there is a feeling like we are drifting down into a dream.
We reach the floor of the basin and the trees are magnificent. All around us red trees reach into the sky above us hundreds of feet. Most of the trees we are passing are actually larger than the car we are driving. There is a powerful and clean energy here that we have been sensing for miles before we arrived but now we are fully in it. I feel very connected with Brian and there is no need to speak as I know we are experiencing similar things at this moment.
The weather in California has been unseasonally warm and even here in this ancient rain forest it is dry and in the high sixties in mid November. We park and shut off the car the car…instantly we are enveloped in the smells of the forest at first, the smell of heat in the forest,the pungent medicinal smell of Bay Laurels, the acrid smell of redwood leaves composting all around us. Then the sounds….birds of many different species living their lives out loud in the forest canopy above us.
Brian grabs a jacket,we lock up the car and begin to walk. I have been here in this place many times but it has been at least ten years since my last visit.It is Brian’s first visit. We find a little box on the side of the trail head that say’s “MAPS” 25 cents. I grab a map as Brian drops in the quarter and we are off.
As we walk towards the heart of the old grove my sense of anticipation is rising. I have been feeling the call of this place for months, a desire to be in the energy of these old giants and now I am here. We walk a little ways and we begin to notice that the trees around us are in fact very large…some of them I guess to be at least 12 feet in diameter and 150 feet or more tall. There is a look of wonder and appreciation on Brian’s face as we stop and really take them in with our eyes. I can feel a shift in my energy to receptiveness and with it comes a feeling of calmness and gratitude.
We step over a small barrier and we climb into the center of this first grove of trees and look up. Brian’s say’s “Wow! now this is worthy of a picture” and he snaps one. Back on the trail and heading south we come to the next cluster of trees…they are getting progessively larger……
We arrive at a tree that is truly huge on or right. The bark on this tree is amazingly prehistoric looking and as we head around the tree we see that one side it has a large opening and the interior of the tree has been burned out to create a large hollow space in the middle of the tree. There is a plaque next to the tree that say’s “The Mother of the Forest” it say’s that she is over 329 feet tall and 20 feet in diameter.
The bark of redwood trees are fire resistant but the heart wood can burn altough it does so slowly. In history big forest fires have burned through this are and if there is a weak spot in the bark the heart wood can catch fire and burn slowly for years and years. It may have taken years to hollow out the center of this great Mother of the forest.
I snap a couple of photographs and we move on down the trail. The next tree we come to is called “The Father of the Forest” it is not as tall but it is larger in diameter around the base. Up to this point Brian and I have been essentially tourists but as we move on from the Father the call starts to become louder. I am wanting to sit with and connect with these great beings…to process…. heal …..communicate just to know them.
We pass a tree that must have burned for over a hundred years. As we look up inside of it there is a clear round chimney all the way up to the sky above that has been burned out of it’s heart. The tree is still alive.
As we near the end of the trail I see a cluster of trees to my right that create a sort of sanctuary in the middle of them and so I walk into them and Brian follows.
There is a small argument taking place inside of me as one part wants to sit and connect and another is saying things like..” people will see us what will they think? what if they say something, what if a ranger comes by and you are not supposed to be in here”
What if, what if…I snort with contempt and I find a place to sit and cross my legs and close my eyes. Brian comes crawling up through and opening in the trees behind me, sees me..I think to him “you should try this” and he finds his space on the side of another tree and closes his eyes.
I settle down and breath….I feel led to turm my palms down and place them on the earth next to me and the instant I do there is a jolt and I am enveloped in energy like a cocoon around me. I search downwards with my root chakra and I flow upwards through my head.
The tree say’s to me ” Ohh this is what we do” and I get a picture of a cord of light stretching down into the ground and high up into the sky.I see that they form themselves around this cord of light. I see also that this is like us too…as we stretch ourselves we grow and expand around this same light.
I sit for a while longer and then get up and walk a little bit to catch my breath energetically. In a minute Brian joins me on the trail. He looks at me and say’s Wow! I did not expect that”
I say to him “We should work our way back up the trail and sit with the Father and then the Mother” he nods his assent and we walk in silence back up the trail.
November 15 2008. Sitting with the Father.
We approach the great red tree with intent and reverence. I say to Brian as we approach “Let’s go around the back so as to not draw attention to ourselves” He circles the tree clockwise from the left and I the opposite direction. When we get behind the tree there are two notches or indentations that are about 6 feet apart from each other. Brian say’s “Like two spots made for us here” We both sit and cross our legs and close our eyes.
I breathe and settle in …again I am enveloped…..the energy here is much the same and yet much more ancient and much more powerful. I do not know for how long I was there or what was taking place but at one point my eyes popped open…not by any thought to do so on my part…they just opened.
There is a small tree in front me with small oval shaped silvery green leaves…it reminds me of an olive tree but it is not. I just sit there looking and then there is a wavering in front of my eyes…..like a shimmering and as I just sit there and look at this my vision begins to shift and the shimmering becomes like looking through a paper thin wall of water about ten feet in front of me. I think to my self “I must be inside the trees energy cocoon and I am seeing though the energy field of it. I relax and just flow with this and things start to shift in front of my eyes. The scene slowly changes to dark and it is now night time…looking at the same tree. Then it slowly shifts back to daylight.
The tree begins to sparkle in millions and millions of little particles and even the space, the air all around me is the little bubbles, sparkles of energy flowing, swirling down from the left and flowing across my field of vision. I have seen these sparkles many times before…this flow of energy… but never like this. The flow continues in intensity and speed and the scene in front of me changes from day to night to day to night in a rapidly speeding up sequence. There is a three dimensionality to the scene in front of me and the shape of the little tree is changing. It is like I am flowing back in time and now there are major jumps taking place, there is no little tree any more. In some scenes as they flash in front of me there are other large trees, then there is only a dirt plain with some boulders in it in from of me. The scene keep changing from day to night and it becomes a scene of sparkles that form into a tree and then dissipate only to reform into something else.
There is a tickle in the back of my throat now and I do not want to cough but try I as I can I cannot stop the urge to cough. I cough and the scene stops instantly and I am back looking at the little silvery tree in front of me. I must stand up and I do as I stand the tree say’s to me “see the little cone laying there in front of you?” I do see it and it is only about ¾ of an inch in size and has a small piece of a formative branch attached to it. I notice that there are hundreds of these all around me in a wide circle…all with the little formative branch attached…..each one nearly identical. “This is my gift to you” he say’s. I pick it up gingerly
He say’s to me “Give another to him” indicating Brian to me. So I pick up another one and place it into Brian’s right upturned palm…he is in the middle of something and I visible see a jolt in his body as I place the cone in his hand. His hand closes around the cone.
Then the Father of the Forest say’s to me “ Tell him when he awakens that this is how I began”
Some lessons from the Forest.
That great things start will small little bundles of potential..Intent.
That as you expand and grow your creative influence also grows and expands.
That we are all energy that flows into form and then flows out of form and that there are opportunities here in form that we do not have outside of form and vice versa.
That life is a fantastic mystery!
That form is an illusion and that awareness is not.
That our reasoning mind keeps us locked into a narrow perception of awareness.
Love and Light
Troy
November 15 2008 : Inside the Mother.
Brian and I are approaching the Great Mother. I say to Brian “this will be different, we sat on the outside of the last two but this one we will be inside of her” Brian’s eyebrow raise up and he say’s “like we are in the womb” I nod.
We step over the barrier and climb inside the great tree. We sit facing each other and close our eyes and begin. At first I am distracted by the noises outside the tree and the thoughs of people seeing us in here but I dismiss that and flow into the energy of this space.
Almost immediately I hear “Welcome, Welcome” …it is so familiar that I question out loud “Oracle?” but the only response is again “Welcome, welcome” I feel that I am to speak out loud but I resist for a while just listening….there is only a gentle urging to speak and I fianally allow this.
In the moment I decide to speak out loud Brian decides to lay down on the tree floor on his back and it begins.
“Welcome, welcome you are in one of our favorite places and with this great mother” then a series of images is all I can really remember. First an image of the being coming in was that she is beautiful and silver light, pure, clean, and there is a feature to her like the tail of a comet in space…a fanning out of energy flowing from her. She asks if there are any needs or requests and Brian responds that he is seeking a healing for something in his physical body.
I do not know how long we we’re in there or what was said or discussed…I do remember two more things …seeing smoke like flames rising up out of Brian’s chest and facing Brian with our eyes locked and the inside of the tree filled up with this white smoke.
After we stepped outside of the tree we noticed that the entrance into the tree looks like a vagina. We nodded to each other and walked out of the forest in silence.
Love and Light
Troy
