As springtime enlivens the world around us, the warmer temperatures and opening leaves and flowers invite us to spend more time outdoors. This time of year is referred to in many Pagan religious traditions as the “outward spiral.” We experience the seasons as a repeating pattern of times of turning inward toward hearth and home (the cooler, darker months) and times of turning outward toward the green, growing world and community (the warmer, brighter months).
Here in Maryland, we are blessed with an abundance of deciduous as well as evergreen trees. The springtime sweep of color across the Blue Ridge Mountains is visually stunning. The incredibly vivid bright green of new leaves stands in joyous contrast to the lingering browns and grays of winter. This time of natural transformation calls us to be present and witness the yearly miracle of life and growth after cold and darkness. Trees, and their seasonal shifts in color and foliage, are one of the hallmarks of our region.
One form of spiritual connection that is shared across many of the diverse religious traditions that fall into the category of Paganism is a kinship with trees. From mythology to divination to home protection to healing practices, trees play a diverse role in our traditions. In Curanderismo, a traditional healing system rooted in Mexican and Latin American cultures, the sap of the copal tree is used for cleansing and healing. In inclusive Heathenry, a belief system based on pre-Christian Scandinavian cultures, trees were used to create the first people and are regarded as distant relatives as a result. In Irish Druidry, trees hold a place of honor and are also associated with the letters of the Ogham, an alphabet and divinatory system. The Cruzo’ob Maya ritually venerate green crosses dressed in ceremonial attire that represent a world tree, a cosmological super structure containing all physical and metaphysical realms in Mayan cosmology, whose branches are the four directions. Continue reading…
