I had a rather remarkable spiritual experience the other day. My client, Martin, is building a strawbale house on his land in Erin, Ontario (near Orangeville) and wants to use some of the wood that he has on the land for his new house. He had someone come to locate and identify how much and what types of trees he could use. Several were found; Ash, cedar, maple and even black cherry (a lovely, reddish toned, wood). Maple, a hard wood, can be used for stairs and a countertop. The ash or black cherry can be used for trim, kitchen cupboards, etc. and the cedar can be used for outdoor columns as it weathers the best. There are a lot of trees on his lot and there was plenty of the gorgeous black cherry that he could use as much as he needed for anything in the house.

Knowing that all trees, plants, stones and the earth has a form of consciousness through my own shamanic journeying experiences, I mentioned to him that it would be good to talk with the trees, ask permission for felling and give the spirit of the tree’s time to withdraw their energy from the tree’s that had been marked and chosen. Being trained as a Reiki healer and permaculturist, he was sensitive to energies himself and agreed with this idea.

So we went on a visit to his land to find a way to do this together. As it was the middle of February, it was a rather snowy, cold & blustery day. Martin has a quite beautiful piece of property. There is a very long, wooded, drive that follows a larger creek that is about a 75’ steep drop, below the level of the driveway. This drive is about over 1000’ long and takes several minutes to walk to the main, central area of the land. It is truly magical, full of very tall, mature and mostly deciduous trees and being located in contrast to lots of open farmer’s fields all around it.

In the winter, without the mask of the wind blowing the leaves, what you hear mostly is the crackling and friction-sliding of some of the trees rubbing against each other. It’s like they are talking in their own language as you walk along beside them. You immediately feel like you are in a Lord of the Rings movie, the effect is so striking.

When you get to the end of the driveway, there is instantaneously a very large open pond that greets you with an incredibly positive ‘AH HA’ and ‘TA DA’ feeling. It makes you pause and take in a truly spacious feeling, especially in contrast to the length of the wooded canopy of the long driveway. This man-made, body of water has been here for many decades and seems to generate a very positive chi or vital force energy. It is linked up with a series of creeks, so there is a constant flow and movement of energy through one side of the water that keeps it fairly fresh. Where the water flows out at the south-east corner/end of the pond, towards the creek that is flowing along the driveway, there is a small curved bit of land, hidden from the main path along the pond, after a little concrete bridge, waterfall area. This little area is extremely fecund in energy due to the swirling and strong curved shape of the creek here. I discovered this spot, in my initial visit to the land in the Fall, to be a very strong nature spirit area, where one can contact the fairies or other elementals quite easily. I plan to spend some time mediating there in the spring and summer when I visit the building during construction to see and hear what can happen.

The house is to be situated on the south-west side of the pond, a little in the edge of the woods, looking over the water. It is truly a wonderful siting. We went to the general house site area, to confirm the location of the house in regards to several conditions. One of them being some positive energy spots that we had found and marked in the fall by dowsing, that we where trying to find a good location for them in the initial house design and were fairly close to finalizing. There was one very large & strong spot, 3’ in diameter, that we were trying to locate in the living room, with the meditation room above, but there was also a very large, 4 trunk birch tree that would block the view of the lake in front of the 2 very large picture windows of those rooms. So it was a bit of a juggling act to find the precise location with these parameters.

Now I will be going back to the drawing board and will locate the geopathic earth energy lines, first by long distance, then on site, to finalize the exact placing of the building on the land. This way the building can be placed on the site with consciousness and awareness, much like placing a new heart into the body, with awareness of where those blood vessels are that you are connecting to. Our aim is to locate the house so that the energy flow and chi of the land can receive it and be integrated together with it.

Once this initial siting investigation was finished we then proceeded to find the trees that have been marked to be felled. I hugged the first tree that we found, a black cherry tree right where the house would be. I felt its energy as strong, vital and a little rough on the edges. Kind of like how venison meat would be stronger in a kind of pungent taste than regular beef. It was a distinct feeling.

I meditated with the tree and introduced Martin (who was also hugging the tree) as the new steward of the land. I said that he wanted to use some of the trees to build his house with and wanted their permission to use some of them. I waited, without bias, for an answer (this part is important to do) and felt an openness inside of me which was a ‘yes – you have permission’ (which doesn’t always happen and you have to be prepared for this), it came with a promise required from my client to honour, respect with great reverence and listen to the needs of the land when he lives here. Being a permaculturist, this was clearly what Martin always intended from the bottom of his heart. I explained this to him and he said so out loud as a verbal promise to the land. I feel that this is an important conscious statement to make to the land for any steward. I told the tree that in at least 3 days or more, the trees would be felled and they would need to vacate it energetically. This was enough time to do so and they agreed to this.

It was also important to do a kind of ritual marking this event and honouring the gift of these trees agreeing to be felled and be transformed into parts of the house. Normally, I would do this with a client right then and there on the land, but it was so, so cold and we were tired, being the end of the day – and I had forgotten my sacred cornmeal that I use for these kinds of ceremonies. So I checked with the tree and it was found to be acceptable to do this long distance, at home, as long as there was a piece of the tree to hold the resonance of this. And that as Martin was sensitive to energy himself, it was also fine and appropriate that he could do this by himself, in his own way. When this is possible, I like to encourage that, as the land truly wants a direct relationship with its benefactor and these events are one of the ways to begin this connection.

I also discovered that I only needed to say this to one tree only of each species, as they were all energetically tied to together as a collective mind and what was told to one was understood immediately by all. This was really helpful, as we were truly freezing our butts off.

We then proceed with the same method to the other trees. The cedar tree energy was kind of a longer, skinny/thinner quality and had something like more of a feminine, delicate kind of energy. Being an evergreen perhaps, there really was a different quality to it that surprised me. I had never hugged several trees in a row, feeling the differences between them. Tree hugging had always been a single, solitary and intermittent experience in my past that was more about me and my own healing journey, than in this kind of experience.

The maple tree was again very different. It felt more like smooth peanut butter energy that was also much a kind of larger, broader stronger energy quality and older or something (it was larger than the first two trees). It felt more like the King of the different tree species than the other two, or at least like an older brother somewhat. We collected small branch fragments or a very small piece of bark from the trees for my client to bring home and use for his ritual.

All in all, it was a very satisfying experience, it felt absolutely right and it is now part of my continuously developing repertoire of working with the land when building a new house on it. Both Martin and myself held a distinct feeling of awe and wonder as to what had transpired for both of us that we will always carry as something special in our hearts and also with each other. I truly feel very blessed and have much gratitude to have clients with his sensitivities who can respond to this level of listening with me.

May the world continue to grow and expand to this level of healing the earth with all buildings one day….