Wildflowerwalker

The majestic Silky or Silver Oak lights up like a giant candelabra of golden fire just after Spring Equinox each year.  The synchronised blooming of Silky Oak trees spreads wide across the landscape, giving us a glimpse of the invisible interconnected grid the trees in this species form across time and space.

Several years ago, I had lived beneath one of these splendid trees.  Its trunk met the ground at a corner of the patio, while its branches reached far over the verandah and the roof of our home.  In Spring, a carpet of golden red flowers thick with nectar were brought to earth by the pruning shears of the cockatoos.  It was while living beneath this Silky Oak that I’d first come to realise that the trees bloomed all at once even many kilometres away.  Ever since then, I feel excitement when the giant Grevillea trees unfold their golden flowers and light up the skies.  Suddenly across the shire and far beyond, the grevilleas begin to shine and hum with the threads of connection.

Seven years later, October 2023 and finally they call me to make a flower essence.  For me, this is not a process of placing flowers in water and walking away – that creates nothing more than a flowery water (in Grevillea’s case, a very tasty one!)  Making a flower essence is to sit and commune with the plant deva to learn of its medicine, its soul essence and its teachings.  The medicinal power of an essence comes as much from your interaction with the plant spirit as it does from the flower.

 The call of the flower I heard.  The next task was to find some flowers close enough to the ground.  But the cockatoos had paved the way.  A short walk to the end of my driveway and I discovered there were loads of freshly dropped flowers.  Carefully I gather five and place them in an upright jar of spring water and go inwards to listen. 

My connection is instant and easy, which is not always the way with native plants.  I suspect living beneath one for a year, a previous group tune in with it, as well as a community essence creation for the land a few years later had paved the way. 

I feel the Silky Oak as a kind, wise, smiling and infinitely patient being.  Like a grandfather or sage, twinkling with the ripeness of age and wisdom. 

What’s your message to humanity for today?

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https://mythicliving.substack.com/p/conversations-with-silkysilver-oak