Master of Tree Art

I am in awe of the artistic achievements of many old trees in the Brandywine Valley. They are extremely sophisticated in their crafting ability and there are many with very subtle complex images. 

I have been living in this area almost three months now and go out several times a week to photograph the many beautiful forests and formal gardens of the area. It took me some time to get adjusted to how the nature spirits work in this area. As a general group, they are the most complex and subtle I have come across in all my travels about the USA.

Harmonizing the Land

I have to really focus on identifying with the image the nature beings have alerted me to photograph. They are sophisticated, subtle and understated. This is an area that has been home to many peace-loving people including Native Americans, Quakers and Amish. It is a nature-loving area with a great deal of open land and so the influence of nature is still strong.

This area saw some of the first major conflicts of the Revolutionary War, including the Battle of the Brandywine in which thousands of young men lost their lives. The imprint of that violence is still in the land and there are a variety of trees showing the effort of nature to balance out those land-locked enmities, honoring the energy of all sides of conflicts. In doing so, the trees use many areas of their bark, forming images that contain other images and that transform from one face into another. 

Cartmel Tree Long View

Time and again I will photograph an image, pull it onto the computer screen to process it, and discover other images weaving into a complex story or a series of stories. The trees themselves are not as old as the stories. Hence it seems they are pulling the images from the earth grid of that area.

Healing the Earth

The sophistication of the nature beings realm is on display here at an entry tree at the Cartmel Campus – an over-50 community. This venerable maple tree stands at the back of an entry road. He has carved many complex images on his trunk. A few days ago I showed you his carving recognizing the adherence to spirit of Native Americans and Quaker Pioneers –  a bison (Great Spirit) and a candle (the Quaker Inner Flame of Spirit). Today I am showing a different part of the trunk, down near the roots. Adjust your sight as I tell the story. Move your vision back and close, look carefully at different sections. I also graphed the images.

Protectors Diagram

Cooperation Between Dimensions

Beings from the nature realms, and this tree spirit himself, are grounding here their efforts to balance out the conflicts that occurred during the Revolutionary War and that still remain embedded in the earth herself. Today the energy of this area is peaceful, a result of the continual work of all occupants in all dimensions. 

At the largest scale (dark green) there is an earthy nature spirit with bulbous nose emerging from beneath the ground – perhaps the over-lighting spirit image from the realm of the gnomes. Inside him (light green) is a gnome. Gnomes care for the health of the dirt and its beings and are good luck signs on a piece of land.

Inside these, when the nose is revisioned, is the head of a baby – human or nature being or a combination of both (blue). To the left side (pink) is a Revolutionary War era Hessian soldier in his defining tall helmet. On the right (pink) is a Native American warrior in feathered headdress. Peaking out from behind the Indian is a timid tiny nature being (white). The baby’s body stretches down from the head into the ground (blue); it is also an open hand.

Thus the entire bas relief is the efforts of the nature realm to unite competing energies to create a new life form (baby) who holds an open sharing hand to all.