June 7th is the festival of the Spirits of Oak trees, known as Dryads. Each tree is believed to have its own spirit which can manifest and pass on wisdom.

A dryad  is a tree nymph or tree spirit in Greek mythology. Drys signifies “oak” in Greek, and dryads are specifically the nymphs of oak trees, but the term has come to be used for tree nymphs in general, or human-tree hybrids in fantasy. They were normally considered to be very shy creatures except around the goddess Artemis, who was known to be a friend to most nymphs.

  • Also known as: Sidhe Draoi, Faerie Druids, Tree Nymphs.

Though the Dryads’ name has been linguistically connected to the Oak, like the Celtic priests known as Druids, they are not particular only to these trees. Indeed many Dryads are said to have a stronger association to Willow trees (Salix species). Willows have traditionally been associated to the moon and the Dryads may be observed or heard singing harmoniously on moonlit nights, for these nature spirits are said to be devotees of the lunar goddess Tana (also known as Diana or Selene).

Dryads may be observed also during daylight, though often only fleetingly moving through the greenery. Unlike the Greek Hamadryads, the Dryads are not bonded to a single tree and though they may have an individual favorite, they are free to move about between them.

Whilst the Greco-Roman Dryads have a male counterpart (known as a Drus), the Celtic Dryads are generally regarded as being female. Also unlike the various Nymphs (nature spirits most specifically recorded in Greek and Roman myth), the Celtic Dryads are not particularly sociable towards humans, though they are infinitely more likely to try and avoid us rather than do us harm. However it has been suggested that they may have communed with Druids in the distant past.

The Dodona Oracle

The Dodona Oracle was located in Epirus, Greece. It was a sacred grove of oak trees originally identified with Gaia that was later attributed to Zeus or Jupiter. The oak trees were seen as oracles who held prophetic information for the future. People interpreted the rustling of their leaves to determine the correct actions to be taken. According to historian Herodotus, the Greeks believed the oracle of Dodona to be the oldest oracle in Greece.

By 200 AD this sacred grove had been reduced to one oak. Emperors and pilgrims continued to consult the sacred tree until 392AD when Emperor Theodosius cut it down.

A Dryad Story

Eurydice, the wife of Orpheus, was a dryad. When she died, Orpheus undertook a journey to the Underworld and because of the beautiful music he played for Hades and Persephone, they agreed that Eurydice could return with him – as long as Orpheus was able to restrain himself from turning to look at her until they were both in the upper world.

They made the long journey back to the land of the living, but Orpheus could hear no sound behind him, no clue that his wife was actually following. This preyed on his mind so much, but he managed to restrain himself until he stepped out once more into the sunlight. He turned quickly to greet Eurydice, only to see that she had not yet escaped the shadow of the Underworld, and as he watched she was pulled back into the land of the dead.

A Tree Meditation

This practice is key to working with trees. Gaining a slow, steady state of consciousness, just sitting and “being” with a tree of any species has profound effects upon our well being. With regular practice, this can be developed further to fine-tune our senses in order to become more aware of the spirit presence of the tree and its energetic qualities.

Try making yourself comfortable on the ground, with your back against a tree trunk, and breathing deeply and steadily for five minutes. With each in breath, let your body awareness rise up into the branches, straightening and stretching your back slightly, and focusing your attention on the branches and air above you. With each out breath, send your awareness down into the earth.

Take your time, and if your mind wanders that’s fine—just bring your attention gently back to this present moment once again. Use your imagination and be like the tree: still, strong, with deep roots and the ability to reach up high and far out into the world without losing your center.

With patience and practice the Tree Mediation may assist you in becoming aware of the tree’s spirit presence, its own particular feeling and even its personality. You may get feelings of tingling warmth when you enter the tree’s energy field, and you may even have shifts in emotion or fleeting images cross your mind. These are all known to be ways in which tree spirits communicate with humans.

In some cases, the tree spirits might appear as humanoid beings. The tree spirit may take on any form, and the images it presents will all be forms of communication, so allow yourself to approach this intuitively, thinking mythically about the spirit contact rather than trying to apply logic or any formal set of rules or symbolism.

Make biodegradable offerings to the tree, such as gifts of spring water, and in time you may be able to develop a relationship with your chosen tree spirit, if they are willing, and will find that you can work together in a variety of ways, just as you would with other spirit allies (such as familiars and elementals, etc.).

Grow Your Own

The best way to work with trees magically is to get your hands dirty first: gather nuts, berries, and seeds and sow your own-even a small container on a windowsill can be enough to get a new tree. They’ll probably need a period of cold to germinate, so be patient.

Tend to these carefully, and with most trees it will take a year or two before they get so big they need to be planted in the ground. If you can, try making your own grove or sacred space encircled by trees you have grown or planted yourself, or have just one “tree ally” in a special place.

These powerful spirit beings will respect the care you have put into them, and be valuable magical allies to call upon in need—as well as wonderful spirit friends that will grow with you as the years go by, and for generations to come.

On the Difficulty of Conjuring up a Dryad

This is a tinted charcoal drawing in Rob Greenwood’s Dryad series. The title comes from a poem by Sylvia Plath which describes the difficulty of identifying the dryad within the tree. The Dryads are still there but they are difficult and ambiguous to identify. Here’s an excerpt from the poem:

‘My trouble, doctor, is: I see a tree,
And that damn scrupulous tree won’t practice wiles
To beguile sight…
My tree stays tree….

Here’s a link to Spotify if you’d like to listen to her read the whole poem. Sylvia Plath Reading Her Poetry. She wrote another poem about Dryads, which I have included here in it’s entirety:

A Plethora of Dryads

Hearing a white saint rave
About a quintessential beauty
Visible only to the paragon heart,
I tried my sight on an apple-tree
That for eccentric knob and wart
Had all my love.

Without meat or drink I sat
Starving my fantasy down
To discover that metaphysical Tree which hid
From my worldling look its brilliant vein
Far deeper in gross wood
Than axe could cut.

But before I might blind sense
To see with the spotless soul,
Each particular quirk so ravished me
Every pock and stain bulked more beautiful
Than flesh of any body
Flawed by love’s prints.

Battle however I would
To break through that patchwork
Of leaves’ bicker and wllisk in babel tongues,
Streak and mottle of tawn bark,
No visionary lightnings
Pierced my dense lid.

Instead, a wanton fit
Dragged each dazzled sense apart
Surfeiting eye, ear, taste, touch, smell;
Now, snared by this miraculous art,
I ride earth’s burning carrousel
Day in, day out,

And such grit corrupts my eyes
I must watch sluttish dryads twitch
Their multifarious silks in the holy grove
Until no chaste tree but suffers blotch
Under flux of those seductive
Reds, greens, blues.

Sources:

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

If an image has posted without permission please leave a comment and I will happily remove it, replace it, give credit, link love ~ whatever you prefer.

Subscribe
If you'd like to stay up to date on everything that is posted here, subscribe via email:

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Archives
Moon Tracker
Calendar
March 2024
M T W T F S S
« Mar    
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
Christmas


I think it's time to go shopping... maybe even buy some really cool stuff at my online shops!!

Stats