Product Description

A walk in the woods makes it easy to understand the awe and reverence our ancestors had for trees. It speaks to something deep and primal within us-something we don't hear as often as we should.

By exploring a variety of mysteries and traditions of trees, Whispers from the Woods helps readers get reacquainted with the natural world and find their place in the earth's rhythm. Covering more than just Celtic Ogham and tree calendars, this book includes meditation, shamanic journeys, feng shui, spellcraft, and ritual. In addition, it has a reference section with detailed information on fifty trees, which includes seasonal information, lore, powers, attributes, and more.


Finalist for the Coalition of Visionary Resources Award for Best Wiccan/Pagan Book

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #224743 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Kynes, who has written about pagan spirituality previously in Gemstone Feng Shui and A Year of Ritual, helps readers to incorporate the wisdom of trees in this how-to guide. She begins with an overview of the biological and historical importance of trees, touching on multiple ancient mythologies in a breathless and rather unfocused introductory survey. Better are the subsequent chapters, which elucidate various techniques for trying tree magic. She begins by suggesting that readers forge connections with trees through means both physical (the yogic tree pose) and spiritual (performing "tree meditation," though it's not clear that this differs substantially from traditional meditation). She offers a tree calendar, discussing which trees are associated with which months and seasons, makes suggestions for using trees in spellwork and explores how to engage trees in shamanic journeys and quests. The book's second half offers specific information on 50 kinds of trees and their magical properties. Kynes's book is carefully researched and generally well presented, though sometimes she loses the literal forest for the trees. For example, her chapters on the Ogham, an ancient Celtic musical scale, can be overly detailed for the novice practitioner who may not be initially aware of how the Ogham relates to trees. Overall, though, this is a useful guide for druids and pagans. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author
Sandra Kynes is an explorer of Celtic history, myth, and magic, and is a member of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. Her curiosity has taken her to live in New York City, Europe, England and New England. Spiritually, her inquisitiveness has led her to investigate the roots of P agan belief and study ancient texts such as the Mabinogion. In addition to leading healing circles and women's rituals, she is yoga instructor, massage therapist and Reiki practitioner. Sandra’s writings have been featured in Llewellyn's Magical Almanacs, Spell-a-Day and Witches Calendars under the name Sedwyn. Her books include: Gemstone Feng Shui (2002), A Year of Ritual (2004), Whispers from the Woods (2006), and The Altar: Place of Meditation and Transformation (2007).

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
part

one

part 1 of this book contains a brief overview of trees and their biological importance as well as a survey of various beliefs from a range of cultures. It also provides an introduction to several methods of working with tree energy to help you bring the wisdom of trees into your everyday world and spiritual life. ;

Threefold wisdom of the tree:

Leaf wisdom-of change, ever releasing; Branch wisdom-of growth, ever reaching; Root wisdom-of endurance, ever deepening. Jen Delyth A Celtic Journal

one

Living Entities; Living History

If we take an environmental look at trees, we find that they help to moderate the climate. They give off water and oxygen, they cool their surrounding area during the day, and the soil around them radiates heat at night. Trees protect rivers and streams and conserve water by reducing run-off, securing the ground from erosion. They offer protection from the sun, rain, snow, hail, and wind for animals and human homes.

For city dwellers, trees are especially important because they act as filters, absorbing pollutants from the air, including carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and ozone. In a study on urban trees in 1994, the U.S. Forest Service estimated that the trees in New York City removed approximately 1,821 metric tons of pollutants from the air annually.1 It is estimated that a large tree can produce five pounds of oxygen a day and provide the cooling equivalent of ten room air conditioners.2 You can experience this cooling effect as soon as you enter a forest on a hot summer day.

While some trees are impressive in size, all trees are remarkable because they seem to defy gravity. A tree trunk can seem rather precarious to hold such a heavy load of branches and leaves. For this reason alone it is no wonder that ancient people considered them with great awe.

A tree trunk consists of three separate concentric sections. At the center of the trunk is the heartwood, which is not living wood. Its purpose is to give the tree support. However, it is not unusual to find an old tree that is hollow. This does not affect the tree because the heartwood that is gone was not part of the living system. Older trees that have become hollow have generally developed enough girth and heavy bark to assume the load-bearing role.

The heartwood is surrounded by sapwood through which water and nutrients flow up to the branches and leaves. This area of sapwood consists of the most recent annual rings.

The third section of trunk is the bark, which functions like a protective skin. As the tree grows, the bark stretches. In older trees, it is common for the bark to crack and form fissures when it can no longer stretch. The bark provides insulation against heat and cold. In addition to protection from the climate, some trees, such as blackthorn and honey locust, have prickly spines to keep animals from climbing them. Others contain their own insect repellent to guard against destructive pests.

While we tend to associate trees such as willows and birches with flexibility, all trees have enough "give" to move with the wind and not be blown down under normal weather conditions. The leaves also shift in such a way to present as little surface area to the wind as possible. The next time you have an opportunity to watch a tree during a storm, observe how it moves.

We think of spring and summer as times of growth, and they are for a tree's trunk, branches, flowers, leaves-everything above ground. When all this activity subsides in the autumn, the roots have their turn until the hard frosts arrive. There are exceptions, such as blackthorn and gorse. Of course, in climates that do not have a wide range in temperatures, tree cycles differ, but generally above and below ground growth occurs at different times.

Trees seem to hold some kind of mystery and fascination for everyone, mathematicians and numerologists included. In order to take in as much sunlight as possible, some trees have limbs that grow in spirals around the trunk to maximize positioning. In addition, many types of trees have leaves that spiral around the branches. Pine needle bundles also spiral, as do pinecone scales around the seeds.

Scientists have studied the spiral effect of branches and have found some interesting patterns. Spiral characteristics differ according to the type of tree. For example, beech trees have a 1/3 spiral, which means that if you placed a string at the base of a branch you would have to wind it around the trunk once and pass over the base of three other branches before you get to one directly above the starting branch. Oaks have 2/5 spirals, which means you would pass the string two times around the trunk and pass five branches until you get to one that is directly in line with the branch where you started the string.3

Spiral types are 1/2, 1/3, 2/5, 3/8, 5/13, 8/21, 13/34 and so on. As the numbers increase, the spirals get tighter. Nature loves mathematics: if you add two consecutive numbers (numerators and denominators separately), you will get the next spiral number.

Tree Rings The ancient Greeks discovered that tree rings correspond to annual growth. Over the two millennia since then, dendrochronology has become an important scientific tool that has aided other disciplines by helping to correct flaws in radiocarbon dating, which proved to be off by as much as a thousand years in some cases.

Tree ring "signatures" are shared by all trees living at the same time, no matter what type of tree or their location....(Continues)

Customer Reviews

Leafy Lists
This book is subtitled "The lore and magic of trees." When I opened the package it came in and saw that I became very excited. I have always felt that trees had a great deal to teach me and looked forward to learning what I could about their magic. You might call me a natural born tree-hugger. Even before I knew about the Pagan Path, I would commune with the trees in the woods behind my childhood house. I was thrilled to be able to read a book with trees as the focus.

Unfortunately for me, the book written by Ms. Kynes seemed to be dedicated to the usage, understanding and creation of Ogham. Ogham is a style of rune system based on lines and crosshatches that symbolize a limited number of letters. According to the author, Ogham's history, origins and even pronunciation is in dispute. I'll have to admit that the author was very thorough in including as much material on the many different Ogham as she could, but much of what she presented was very dry. The book consists listing of fact after fact with little to break up the endless listings.

If you are interested in either learning to use Ogham or want a book dedicated to properties and correspondences of many popular varieties of trees, this book is an excellent resource. Part Two of the book has entries in alphabetical order of 50 common trees. Each entry consists of a few paragraphs about the tree's history, uses and mythology. The entries also include Latin names, seasonal details, various attributes and correspondences as well as what ritual uses the wood is most often associated with.

There is also an appendix entitled "Tools" that I found very insightful. I would have liked to see this section enlarged and moved to the front of the book. The directions for making the various tools (in addition to creating your own personal Ogham) deserve more than the short section in the back.

Someone who is already actively practicing can best use this book. The listings can be useful for someone who is interested in making sure they have the perfect tools for their workings. However, for this old kitchen witch, I found little of interest to me or applicable to my needs.

W. Lyon Martin Author/Illustrator of "An Ordinary Girl, A Magical Child"

An in-depth guide like no other for wiccans, pagans, and students of metaphysics
Whispers From The Woods: The Lore & Magic Of Trees is an informed and informative guide to the spiritual, mystical, and metaphysical aspect of trees. Chapters discuss the basics of Celtic Ogham and tree calendars, the role of trees in ritual and spellwork, how to incorporate trees in one's meditative practice, and much more. The second half of Whispers From The Woods is an alphabetical catalog of dozens of common tree species, from Alder, Elm, and Hickory to Oak, Spruce, and Yew. Each entry discusses how the species is perceived in folklore, ritual, and pagan beliefs, and a list assigns each species special connections to specific zodiac signs, gods and goddesses of world mythology, celestial bodies, and the like. An in-depth guide like no other for wiccans, pagans, and students of metaphysics.

Excellent book!
This book is a delightful read- it takes the concept of incorporating the spiritual aspect of trees into our daily spirituality. It talks about using tree energy, and provides fifty types of trees with good references for each to start with. I love the fact also that the author includes a ton of excercises to try out as for how you want to incorporate tree energy, instead of just one or two. She even describes how to construct wands and walking sticks for those that have never done it. This book is chock full of ideas and info, and is a great read.