The Life and Language of Trees: Connecting With Our Roots

You want to know why so many people are discontent and angry? Why so many of us are lost, confused, apathetic, uninspired, and continuously disappointed?

The answer rests in our disconnection with nature.

I’ve been wanting to shed some more light on this subject for some time, and after a long meditation this morning I decided that I would share some thoughts on the subject.

This isn’t going to be a mystical look into some mysterious force or connection we are supposed to share with nature. What everyone needs to understand is, our disconnection with nature has very real, serious physical consequences.

Everything from our health, to finding our place in the world, is connected to nature.

And more specifically, trees.

I don’t think it’s possible to appreciate and connect with the natural world unless you understand trees.

If you’re looking for a lifehack that will make you more fulfilled and happy, this is it.

You might very well be asking yourself, what in the world do trees have to do with anything and why should I care? Is the oak tree in my yard going to pay my bills?

Not quite.

The key thing to understand when it comes to trees is that we are taught in this society that they are just barely living creatures. Hell, to be honest most people don’t really view them as living things at all. They just grow and are used for fruit and lumber. They might be “alive” according to science but they are not alive like my pet, and certainly not alive like a human.

Right?

The Secret Life of Trees

You may have heard a phrase like this before. There was a book made years ago called the “Secret Life of Plants,” which is actually amazing and you should do yourself a favor and check out.

The book detailed extensive scientific research done on plants and their reactions to human stimuli, such as words. It also details how plants seem to know what we think or what we’re going to do before we do it, how plants react to the death or harm of other plants around them, their ability to communicate at distance or seemingly “know” the state of other plants, as well as how their subatomic bodies interact and communicate with animals and humans.

Subsequent research into this topic has uncovered a steady stream of absolutely revolutionary findings in regards to the lives of plants. To be sure, they are their own autonomous entities.

But when you really think about it, it shouldn’t be surprising. From an unbiased perspective, plants, and specifically trees, are the dominant lifeforms on this planet.

They were here first, and they are the ancestors to most of the life on this planet. They are much larger than most animals, live longer than most animals by several orders of magnitude, can withstand greater biological strain, are harder to kill, and have a much more efficient means of creating energy.

We look at trees as this immobile, insentient, “lifeless” lifeforms that are nothing in comparison to even the smallest animal. We hold ants and starfish with more regard than we do the tallest oaks and redwoods.

This is great folly, and stems from a society that doesn’t understand much in the way of anything when it comes to the natural world.

Just because trees don’t share much in common with animals, doesn’t mean they aren’t fully realized living beings. Quite the contrary. In many ways, animals are the primitive creatures in comparison to trees. Animals by and large are fragile, fleeting beings. We flit and run about, our lives measured in short months and years. We live, breed, and die in the span it takes some trees just to reach adulthood. For some animals, their lives are but a blink in comparison to the lifespan of most trees.

We also have to look at things from a greater perspective than just animal senses. There is a lot more going on than just the capacity to make sounds out of an orifice, or “hear” vibrations, or “see” a certain small spectrum of physical light with our eyes. We take these limited physical senses as the Gold Standard of nature, when in reality the human senses are very stunted compared to the vast majority of animals and plants on Earth.

Even many animals possess the ability to hear far better than we can, smell far better than we can, see at distances we could only dream of, see colors we can’t see, detect minute shifts in the air pressure around them, and even “see” with sound or higher in the electromagnetic spectrum.

Plants have even more sophisticated subtle faculties that work almost entirely from the standpoint of the subatomic or nearly subatomic. Meaning that many of their forms of communication bypass the physical entirely and work directly either through vibration or light.

One of the most primal, efficient means of natural communication open to every creature on Earth is through the use of vibration, or subatomic impulse. Because of the interconnectedness of nature, everything communicates with each other in a complex bio-chemical and vibrational network. It has since been revealed that trees communicate with each other through their roots and even with the help of fungal networks.

On a more subtle level, the “energy body” of a tree is so great that it envelops everything around it. When you sit under a tree, for example, you are quite literally “inside” of its subatomic space, as it is much larger than what it appears to be with the naked eye.

This “aura” as some call it, acts as the host to a wide network of birds, insects, mosses, and other creatures that continuously live and thrive within its sphere of influence. These creatures all learn to communicate on a subtle level through impressions, what we would call instinct.

Though this communication might seem bizarre to anyone who hasn’t heard of such things before, it is becoming so well researched that it is even breaching the mainstream. The fact is, trees lead complex and rich lives, and yes, humans can communicate with them just like other animals and plants can.

Ancient cultures and those wise in the ways of natural traditions, understand this very well. There is a lot of wisdom that can be had from trees. They are much older than us, and possess understanding that would take us lifetimes to grasp on our own.

It is this connection, this natural communion, that we have lost in modern times, and is one of the biggest reasons why so many people are lost and fed up with life.

What Do Trees Have to do With Personal Fulfillment?

That’s the question, and the reason why I wanted to write about this topic.

Animals understand on an instinctual level that the plants around them play a role in their own personal mental and physical health.

Walking amid the auras of trees, your own subatomic body feeds off of the raw, pure energy of these beings. You send impulses back and forth communicating wants and needs. The trees instinctively and naturally provide comfort and even healing on a subatomic level.

That is one of their roles, of course. They are the great parents to all animals, in some form or another.

Our roots are quite literally with the trees. This pervasive feeling of being lost and set adrift, powerless and confused, is chiefly brought about by our severed connection with the web of life.

Many cultures in the past made various attempts to find deeper communion with trees, even if the rest of the human world was slowly turning their backs on nature for the sake of “progress.”

Perhaps the most famous example is the Druid language of Ogham, which is literally the “Language of the Trees.”

Druids themselves were styled as the “children of the trees,” or the “wise people of the oak.” Their connection with trees defined their entire way of life.

Ogham was based on primal symbols each representing a sound, a tree, emotion, forms of connection, and ritual device. It is believed that the language was derived from meditation with and communion with the very trees themselves, each sound representing the essence, or feeling of a certain kind of tree. These sounds were first imparted as chants, or mantras, and later used in music and sign language.

So why did ancient cultures like the Druids spend so much time and effort communing with trees, and why did they let trees shape their culture?

Because they knew intimately what modern society has forgotten: we’re nothing without our roots.

All the wealth, prestige, shiny objects, and physical accomplishments in the world can’t mask the hurt and despondency of a lost soul. It’s why self-mastery requires so much introspection and shedding of the ego.

If you want to get yourself together, you have to be willing to face the fact that much of what we are told to place value in is actually meaningless nonsense. The ego doesn’t take kindly to this, and hence, why self-mastery training is an arduous but rewarding road.

Part of the journey of self-mastery involves reconnecting with nature, our roots.It is here where you will find the solace you’ve been seeking.

The Druids were formed by their communion with the forest, and went on to develop one of the most influential spiritual traditions the world has ever known. Their work still lives on to this day, because it includes pieces of what many of us are longing for: a way to reconnect with the Earth.

The fact is, we all evolved in the energy bodies of trees. Our genetic makeup took this into account. The oxygen they provide, the way they filter the air, provide us nutrition and comfort, feed us information which becomes our instincts. Without these primal benefits that trees provide, we are shells of our true Selves.

One of the biggest lifestyle changes you could ever make that will have a dramatic effect on your mood, productivity, and general happiness, is to start reconnecting with nature. Understand that trees aren’t just decorations or sources of lumber, but giant, magnificent creatures to look up to and learn from.

Practice meditation under trees regularly. You will see a spike in creativity, ability to sleep comfortably, and general mood improvements. You will also gain greater intuition and empathy.

It’s a misconception that you have to be some recluse monk who dresses in robes and lives in a cave to have a relationship with trees. The notion might sound silly to the unwise, but mystics and sages the world over have known for thousands of years that power and fulfillment begins with our roots. Your ability to get the most out of life can only be realized if you put yourself in the conditions you were meant to thrive under.

There is no substitute for nature. The wisdom and energy you gain by connecting with trees, cannot be duplicated and replaced by any other method or technique known to man. Eventually, all sages, martial artists, yogis, and other spiritual practitioners get drawn to nature once they reach a certain level, and it is there where their true evolution starts.

The language of the trees is not an abstract mystical concept. They live just as we live. They communicate just as we communicate. Verbal communication is at the end of the day just a physical substitute for more primal forms of communication. Learn to speak on a deeper level and reap the benefits.