The Healer’s Tree A Bible-based resource on ecology, peace & justice
Annie Heppenstall
WILD GOOSE PUBLICATIONS www.ionabooks.com
Copyright © Annie Heppenstall 2011 Illustrations © Annie Heppenstall Published 2011 by Wild Goose Publications 4th Floor, Savoy House, 140 Sauchiehall St, Glasgow G2 3DH, UK www.ionabooks.com Wild Goose Publications is the publishing division of the Iona Community. Scottish Charity No. SC003794. Limited Company Reg. No. SC096243. ISBN 978-1-84952-077-5
The publishers gratefully acknowledge the support of the Drummond Trust, 3 Pitt Terrace, Stirling FK8 2EY in producing this book. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including photocopying or any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. Annie Heppenstall has asserted her rights in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Overseas distribution Australia: Willow Connection Pty Ltd, Unit 4A, 3-9 Kenneth Road, Manly Vale, NSW 2093 New Zealand: Pleroma, Higginson Street, Otane 4170, Central Hawkes Bay Canada: Novalis/Bayard Publishing & Distribution, 10 Lower Spadina Ave., Suite 400, Toronto, Ontario M5V 2Z2 Printed by Bell & Bain, Thornliebank, Glasgow ®
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The Healer’s Tree
contents Introduction 9 Reflections 14 1. Garden of Eden 19 2. The Tree of Knowledge 24 3. The Tree of Life 29 4. The Healer’s Tree 34 5. Kevin and the otter 40 6. The tamarisk tree 44 7. Silent witnesses 49 8. The gardener 54 9. Sun, moon and stars 59 10. The olive tree 64 11. Tree stumps 69 12. The woodwose 74 13. The cedar trees 78 14. Hazels of wisdom 84 15. St Columbanus and the bear 89 16. All that breathes, praise the Lord 94 17. The Green Man and the three hares 99 18. Jesus in the wild places 105 19. St Melangell 109 20. St Aidan 114 21. St Hubert and the stag 119 22. The lion and the lamb 124
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23. St Kevin and God’s mercy 129 24. The forests of Badenoch 134 25. The Beast 139 26. The greatest law 143 27. Elijah in the desert 148 28. Along the riverbank 152
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Reflections Form of reflections Each reflection includes a biblical quotation, a passage of prose, a prayer, questions for reflection, often relating to further biblical passages, and a closing thought. Some reflections, such as the Tamarisk Tree, are suitable for use as visualisations – an exercise where one person reads while others imagine the scene described in a state of relaxation, or where a person alone imagines the scene after reading it several times. They are not written with the expectation that everybody will wish to use them in this way.
Suggestions for use The reflections are suitable for individual or group use. The most straightforward use is to read one reflection a day in order, over a month, perhaps as part of daily prayer and Bible study time. (There are 28, which allows for missing a day or two most months without feeling guilty.) The reflections are written in a ‘journey’ sequence, and this is the clearest way of taking part in that journey. Alternatively, they can be spread out over a longer period, one a week in a group for example; or a selection can be made on particular themes to form a series for Lent, Advent, Creation Season and other times, or for a retreat on a particular theme. To facilitate customised sequences of reflections, the following list suggests themes and relevant reflections. Please note that most reflections feature more than once.
Reflections
Social Justice and Peace: 5, Kevin and the Otter; 7, Silent Witnesses; 9, Sun, Moon and Stars; 10, Olive Tree; 11, Tree Stumps; 13, Cedar Trees; 20, St Aidan; 21, St Hubert and the Stag; 24, Forests of Badenoch; 25, The Beast; 26, The Greatest Law Saints (Mainly Celtic): 2, St Brigid; 5 & 23, St Kevin; 15, St Columbanus, 16, St Caedmon, 19; St Melangell; 20, St Aidan; 21, St Hubert Dreams, Visions and Larger-than-Life Trees: 2, Tree of Knowledge; 3, Tree of Life ; 4, The Healer’s Tree; 11, Tree Stumps; 21, St Hubert and the Stag; 22, The Lion and the Lamb; 25, The Beast; 28 Along the Riverbank Key Biblical Characters: (although all reflections relate to the Bible): 1 & 2 for Adam and Eve – 2 is especially Eve ; 7 & 9 for Abraham; 11 for Nebuchadnezzar and David; 13 for Solomon; 4 & 18 for Jesus; 24 for Mary; 27 for Elijah Extra-Biblical (mainly European) Folklore and Mythology: 4, The Healer’s Tree; 12, The Woodwose; 14, Hazels of Wisdom; 17, Green Man and Three Hares; 24, Forests of Badenoch The Feminine Divine / Wisdom: 2, Tree of Knowledge; 3, Tree of Life; 14, Hazels of Wisdom ‘Real’ Trees: 6,Tamarisk; 10, Olive; 11, Tree Stumps; 13, Cedar; 14, Hazel Animals: 5, Kevin and the Otter; 15, Columbanus and the Bear – bear and also donkey; 16, All that Breathes; 19, St Melangell (hare); 20, St Aidan (stag); 21, St Hubert (stag); 22, the Lion and the Lamb; 25, the Beast; 6 & 27, Elijah (raven)
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Three
The Tree of Life Self-giving God
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Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2:9
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he Tree of Life is an ancient and profound symbol, occurring in the sacred stories and visions of diverse cultures. It is referred to a number of times in the Bible, in the visions of prophets, as a fruit-bearing tree with healing leaves. Proverbs 3:18 tells us that Wisdom (a feminine personification of the Divine) is ‘a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called happy’. Jesus, himself strongly associated with Wisdom by early Christians, likens himself and believers to fruit trees and vines on several occasions, and some like to interpret the description in the Song of Songs as being about Jesus: ‘As an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among young men. I sat in his shadow and his fruit was sweet to my taste ...’ ( S of S 2:3) Like the fruitful Tree of Life, Jesus gives himself, as generous as a grapevine or an apple tree, for the inner healing, peace and eternal life of all. In the Book of Revelation, reflecting earlier Jewish visions, the huge leap from the time-before-time of Genesis to the time-after-time of Revelation 22 sees the gates of Paradise flung open so that all nations may come and eat, and paradise now hosts a thriving and beautiful city. In this city, on either side of the river, is the Tree of Life, its fruit never ceasing to nourish and its leaves ‘for the healing of the nations’. The vision is not simply a distant hope of heaven after death, but a symbol of Christ’s living presence throughout the earth now – full of grace, ever-giving and ever-fruit-bearing,
The Tree of Life
ceaselessly outpouring the healing goodness of love into a tired and hungry world torn by conflict and greed. As the earth yields her abundance for all to share, so these healing leaves of the Tree of Life are for all. Our witness of Christ’s indiscriminate love in the world is in the way we gather those leaves and use them well. Christ’s wisdom still lives in the healers and peacemakers of this broken but beautiful earth. Self-giving, heavy-laden Christ-tree, how hungrily we groan for the taste of your soul medicine, syrup of peace. One moist mouthful, one leaf a balm for broken hearts and minds, Wisdom’s antidote to the belly-clutching pains that come with surrender to the irresistible temptation of knowing too much yet not enough. So far do we feel from your wide-spreading arms that we snatch at mere petals carried on the breeze, praying their tissue fragility may be enough to save us from ourselves, and creation from the death that we unleash; yet all the while we stand in the shadow of your boughs, windfalls of your love on the ground all around. Amen
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For further reflection 1. Where do you perceive God’s self-giving in the world? 2. The Tree of Life gives more than eternal life; it also gives healing and wholeness through its fruit and leaves, not just for the ‘chosen people’ but for all the nations of the world. Read Jeremiah 8:22, ‘Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored?’ The question is rhetorical – there is a balm in Gilead, which was famous for its production of herbal preparations with healing properties. Reflect on the gospels’ demonstration of the healing of God’s poor through Jesus who works tirelessly for their restoration to wholeness and to a sense of inclusion in God’s community. 3. What form might Christ’s healing energy take in the world today? To whom might that healing be extended through our own works of service? Who are ‘my poor people’ now? Think in ever-widening circles about peoples of the world, then creatures, and eventually all living things and all that is.
The Tree of Life
4. We too need healing. Reflect on your own needs, your hurts, bitterness and troubles, and allow that ‘balm of Gilead’ to flow into your soul. Pause to imagine drinking it in like an infusion, its warmth calming you, soothing you, washing away feelings that obstruct peace. Imagine it also loosening your clutch on your own ‘righteousness’, your desire for others to beg your forgiveness, your secret dreams of revenge and power. Let the balm restore peace within you like a calmed lake after a storm, so that you feel safe and held in God’s eternal love, a boat safely rocked on a smooth, sunlit sea. This inner peace will flow out from you as a gift to the world.
Closing thought In Exodus 15:26, God, having purified water for the Hebrews to drink, says, ‘I am the Lord who heals you.’ The sense of this healing – of people and of water – is of making wholesome. As God can make bitter water sweet, so too can our own hearts be transformed.
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Four
The Healer’s Tree Messenger of God’s grace
The Healer’s Tree
Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name. For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations. Psalm 100:4-5
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here are many traditions that speculate on what tree the cross of Christ came from; some say oak, some dogwood, apple or olive. There is also a tradition that says the cross was made from the Tree of Life itself. An Anglo-Saxon poem, The Dream of the Rood, describes the tree of the cross but it never mentions its species. The tree appears and speaks to the poet in a dream, in which it is lifted high and emblazoned with shafts of the most brilliant light. Sparkling with gems and gold, and flecked with blood, it is gazed upon by many from across the earth who adore it as a messenger of God. This, it is revealed, is the ‘Healer’s tree’ (the Anglo-Saxon word haelend means both healer and saviour – see note), actively engaged in the cosmic struggle encapsulated in Christ’s passion. The tree tells the dreamer how it is felled and carried away to the top of a hill to become a cross. It sees Jesus come bravely and purposefully as a great hero who knows how to gain victory. The tree realises in that moment that it exists for this very purpose: it must stand firm with him as he sets all humanity, all creation, free. Christ and the tree are pierced together and thus the two become as one, intimately joined in suffering. People come to take the body from the tree which yields willingly but is left grieving, as
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they lay Jesus to rest in a nearby tomb and sing a song of sorrow. The tree-cross remains by the tomb as sole witness and friend until someone pulls it down. But as Christ is risen, the tree-cross which shared his passion also shares in his glory and power. Now, it is the most honoured of all trees and blessed with the Christ-power to heal. The tree, as it explains to the dreamer, is a way for people to find their salvation. When Christ comes again, they may be in awe and dread of standing before him, but none who have the ‘rood’ or the tree-cross in their hearts need fear. The Healer’s Tree is like a gateway through which souls may approach paradise for themselves, a way for the humble to edge closer. The kindness of the Healer’s Tree as a manifestation of God’s grace becomes gradually apparent. Healing, wholeness and salvation are all bound together; the healer is the one who makes us whole, not just physically, but spiritually, in the depths of our inner being. The healer is the one who saves us, makes us know that we are safe, saved, acceptable, whole; this is what Saviour means. While we may get caught up in our preoccupation with Christ’s death and wonder how we can ever stand before him, the tree-cross invites us to remember the bigger picture. Christ suffers not to put us to shame as we dwell on our inadequacies, but to set us free and draw us into God’s love. Always we will face the truth that it is by God’s grace that we come to the Kingdom of Love, not by our righteousness. Yet clinging to the Healer’s Tree stops us slinking away in despair, trying to hide like Adam and Eve behind inadequate fig leaves. To do that would be to hide from love, hide from relationship with the One on whom we utterly depend. We are called not to run away in shame but to draw near with faith, knowing ourselves
The Healer’s Tree
understood and forgiven. The tree-cross is like a prop that helps us stay on our feet and somehow strengthens us. It gives us confidence not in ourselves but in Christ, so that we can finish the journey and go on to claim that promised fruit of the Tree of Life, and take its leaves out into the world. I sense You at my soul’s door. But how can I open to You, dare to come close to You, when Your self-giving so outweighs anything I can ever give? What relationship can grow from such stark indebtedness? Only one where self has died – yet I still wrestle with my pride. But while You wait, the wooden door itself creaks, speaks with the sound of rushing wind through sunlit branches, the resonant voice of living heartwood, resin-rich redolence of dark pine needles; and my hand reaches for the latch as the whole forest whispers, ‘Open to your love.’ Amen
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For further reflection 1. When have you ever felt grateful to someone or something for easing you back into relationship with God or with another person? 2. Read the book of Jonah, and Psalm 139. What does it mean to you that we are completely known by God, who is ever-present and ever interested in our actions and state of mind? 3. We can try to run away like Jonah, we can try to hide like Adam and Eve, but always such efforts are futile; even so, we still shut ourselves in our enclosures and pretend we cannot hear God calling to us to come out. Think about times you have distanced yourself from God, for whatever reason – fear, blame, shame ... What voice called you out of your hiding place? Or are you still there?
Closing thought Think about Peter’s denial and Judas’s betrayal of Jesus in his last hours, and think about Jesus’s words: ‘You will all become deserters, for it is written, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ (Mark 14:27) He knows. He understands. He forgives. He sees beyond the weakness of his followers, to the strength that will come to them later. Sit with this knowledge.
The Healer’s Tree
A note about The Dream of the Rood The title, as I explain in the introduction, is inspired by the Anglo-Saxon poem The Dream of the Rood. (The word rood is related to rod and means the cross.) This poem is found in the 10th-century Vercelli Book codex CXVII and carved (parts of it anyway) in runes on an 8th-century stone cross in Ruthwell, Scotland. You might enjoy following my inspiration-trail across the internet by searching for the following: ● Jonathan A Glenn’s 1982 translation of The Dream of the Rood from the AngloSaxon into modern English ● Elaine Treharne’s translation of the same ● ●
The Anglo-Saxon text itself Joseph Bosworth’s scanned online Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (the BosworthToller dictionary) which on pp.449-500 defines the word haelendes as healer and saviour. My Mum’s 1978 edition of Sweet’s Anglo-Saxon Primer confirms the same use of haelendes and its root haelan, to heal, cure, save, but is not, I believe, available online. (Thanks, Mum.)
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Five
Kevin and the Otter Need and greed
Kevin and the otter
‘… the fear and dread of you shall rest on every animal of the earth and on every bird of the air, on everything that creeps on the ground, and on all the fish of the sea …’ Genesis 9:2
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enesis 9 describes the scene after the great flood, when God talks to Noah. God concedes that the Eden-time vegan diet is over, violence has entered the world and humans now have the freedom to eat meat – but that freedom means that a truly peaceful relationship between humanity and other living things is virtually unthinkable. The few people throughout history, such as St Francis of Assisi, gentle enough to attract wild creatures to them rather than frighten them away are met with wonder or incredulity. There is a story about Rabia of Basra for example, an 8th-century Islamic holy woman, who was once found by a fellow ascetic sitting on a hillside surrounded by wild goats. When the friend approached, the goats ran away, which puzzled him. Rabia simply said, ‘They know you have eaten their fat.’ Kevin of Glendalough in Ireland was a hermit in love with the natural world, to whom wild animals came close. He lived very simply by the side of a lake in the midst of thick woodland, often eating nothing but wild herbs for weeks on end. As well as attracting creatures, Kevin attracted people who wanted to emulate his way of life as a sure path to salvation, and a community of monks and novices settled with him. Together they worshipped, cultivated a plot of land and lived in harmony with their environment. All was so peaceful that a family of otters learned to trust the monks; the mother would sometimes bring a fish to Kevin, fetched fresh from the lake. This idyllic life continued for quite some time, to be shattered the day one of the monks decided to take advantage of the otter’s trust
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by catching her, killing her and selling her pelt. Somewhere on the spectrum between Kevin and the fur-trapper monk, we all have a place. Living in a way that harms none is far easier said than done. We might not like the monk’s actions, being incapable of such cruel and underhand acts ourselves, but most of us have been willing and eager to buy a metaphorical otter pelt or two at some point in our lives, and it is very difficult to sustain human existence without at least minor exploitation of the natural world and other living things. Necessity, however, is different from the luxury of choice, and where we can choose, there we become increasingly accountable. When God told the first couple to mange the earth, it was a difficult commission fraught with potential for error, and God knew it. God knows the fur-trapper monk is close to the surface of our personality; but God also knows there is a contrasting spirit of gentle wisdom that wells up occasionally from that Garden deep within, and a half-memory of harmony, which is ultimately irresistible. Every creature is Yours most awesome One, and in death the breath of each returns to you. Great Spirit, Source of All, O Sacred Breath, sweeping like the four great winds around the earth, O Breath of Wisdom, Breath of Love, uniting all in a bond of love, stay our hand when we stand poised to kill,
Kevin and the otter
until Spirit-touched sanctity stirs our hearts, and we know in the moment our bond of indebtedness to the one who dies that we may live. Amen
For further reflection 1. How far do you want to go in living harmlessly? And how far do you feel it is possible for you to live harmlessly? 2. Reflect on the difference between doing what comes naturally, for want of knowing any better or for want of other feasible options, and deliberately acting in a particular way in full knowledge of its consequences. Find ways of making this reflection relevant to the present day. (For example, is an indigenous forest-dweller reduced to felling trees to clear land and earn cash in the same league as a corporation stripping forests for profit? Is a poverty-stricken parent who is tempted to steal in the same league as a bank charging huge interest for essential loans?) 3. In terms of creating increasingly sustainable and non-harmful lifestyles, how might we educate ourselves in finding new alternatives?
Closing thought Jesus said ‘Do not judge and you will not be judged.’ (Matthew 7:1) How does that help us in this context?
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