We are seeing a resounding ground-level swell in the recognition of the interconnection and unity of all life forms – nature, sky, people, animals – and all variations of the human condition. It’s a struggle that is well worth the extraordinary effort people are making in all avenues of society.

Mitakuye Oyasin

The Lakota have a well-recognized expression for this: “Mitakuye Oyasin” – “We are all one.” You can see it, and a Lakota-style medicine wheel, carved next to a highly conscious portal guardian (right), who I photographed some years ago at Messenger Woods Nature Preserve, Homer Glen, Illinois.

I often wonder who these unseen nature loving compatriots are who leave these thoughtful or mysterious messages that I encounter on my travels. For me, it is a reassuring affirmation that others see as I do.

These compatriots sometimes leave a colorful plastic ribbon marker – just one – at what seems to be a barely distinguishable path to – somewhere they consider significant.

Here these compatriots are connecting to the nature spirits of the area, who utilize all resources to ground and balance energy. This includes the body of trees, who even when “dead” by our human standards – are intensely alive with earth power, as here.

This tree spirit lives at the mid-leg knee point of a forked tree trunk shaped as a female birthing channel. The tree is now in existence only from the waist down and the birthing canal is clearly visible. The spirit is portal guardian to this triangular portal. Notice the difference in color and texture between the portal area below him and the area above him.

The trunk itself is positioned at an energy-rich three-way path juncture point in the preserve. Its full length, when first fallen, would have stretched across all sections of the path. It’s form was cut up, but the central birthing area still survives. The tree must have been there many years as all the bark has disappeared.

Mitakuye Long View