A Lady of the Forest watches over the well-being of all life within her realm. This lady has a heart-shaped face and is a spirit messenger: one eye is communicating with earth while the other eye, conspicuously absent, is communicating with spirit.

This Lady of the Forest resides in an oak tree overlooking Lake Marmot in Morton Arboretum, Lisle, Illinois. The Lake was named for the founder’s wife.

The Arboretum itself was set up to collect and preserve tree species from around the world. So it is appropriate that at the natural feminine heart of the property a Lady has her home and her address marker.

The Lady of the Forest guards and protects all the beings of the woods. She can be invoked for assistance, and if she wishes to, she will respond. The Lady is mother, warrior, priestess, maiden and crone – loving, nurturing, spiritually supporting – and fiercely protective.

I have photographed many of the nature types we hear of in folk tales and old Celtic nature tales. There are all sorts of personalities in both trees and rocks – the buffoon, the happy go lucky, the warrior, merchant, prince…the elves, gnomes and dwarves…less often the philosophical greenmen and greenwomen…and sometimes, more rarely, the very high level beings like the Ladies who guard and protect all and are experienced but not often seen.

CLICK HERE to learn more about the Lady.