You can find important stories energetically carved into the bark of some mature trees – like this Tanglewood Music Center tree shown below. These carvings are beautiful – and pragmatic. The energies of the images are a method by which the tree, or some other-dimension life form, is seeking to express, correct and ground specific issues. In all these situations, the development of the image is organic – it utilizes the life force energy of the tree. This is unlike humans crafting an image from wood. Humans are carving into the physical substance.

There are many variations as to how and why complex images can be found in a tree’s bark. While I don’t fully understand the process, I have been gifted the ability to see and photographically record the process and have spent many years observing and querying. As I understand it, much of the work has to do with the function of trees and rocks to hold energy stable for other life forms to use. That is similar, philosophically, to the role of humans to alter and perfect matter. The ideal and the reality may not always jibe.

Beyond that, a tree can be a significant part of an energy grid that keeps a particular type of energy stable for either a locale, a region or the entire earth. This I call a nodal tree – it anchors an energy in place and is part of a community of trees and life forms seeking to maintain order.

Then there is the tree itself, seeking to express its own thoughts, feelings and experiences.

Sometimes you need external information to understand the story

Here, then, is a complex story that my daughter-in-law, Colleen, provided the clue to unlock. She knew an outer fact that became the lynch pin to explain the existence of these images. This story takes place at the famed Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts – a site of outdoor concerts enjoyed occasionally by Colleen and my son Steve. 

The Tanglewood Tree with its two low-lying branches (left), the maestro branch on the other side, and the large face of the patron on the trunk facing right

Early one summer morning I was exploring the grounds of this beautiful Berkshire Mountain site. I was looking for what types of nature spirits would be attracted to a site where music is revered.  One of the trees particularly interested me. It is located at the edge of the Shed Lawn where music lovers have gathered for decades to listen to outdoor concerts. A small path and a cottage where musicians were practicing was located on the other side of the tree.

Granmother Tree, Pacific Northwest. Note the energetic hose leading from her heart to the entry way where people approach her; similar to the hose on the Tanglewood tree.

I was especially interested in the low lying branches of the tree – unusual for evergreens. One looked like it had been fashioned to seat music ponderers and listeners. The other was shaped like a hose of energy that seemed to be sending life force energy from the tree into the ground itself.  (This is the smooth smaller branch in the front of the tree image, left) I have seen a very similar such energy hose in a few other locations, where a special tree would send out a hose of its life force energy to the area surrounding it.  To the right is a photo of a Grandmother tree in Washington State with a similar energetic hose from her heart to the world.

On examination I saw that the hose and branch were coming from the right (action) side of an image the tree had carved into itself of a matronly woman. I pondered the “why” of this, but had no answer in my personal mental data banks.

I was next directed by the nature spirits to study a longer, higher up branch. On close examination I discovered a rather romantic masculine face looking out at the Shed stage. I photographed it then began walking around the tree, to see what else the tree’s spirit had manifested. That’s because, once a tree becomes interested in manifesting its life experiences in its trunk and branches, it just keeps on going. Sometimes, given the limited canvas the tree has to work with, there will be layers upon layers of images merging and morphing.

I didn’t realize how significant this tree was until my daughter-in-law looked at my photo of the branch man and said it looked like a bust of an early conductor she had seen inside one of the music school buildings. 

An impressionistic collage of the music of Tanglewood, as listened to by the branch Maestro. Profile of Maestro Henry Kimball Hadley lower left.

That sounded interesting, so I went exploring and discovered, on line, that the profile of the branch and the profile of founding conductor Henry Kimball Hadley were almost identical! This astonished me, that the tree could be so accurate. 

Collage showing the remarkable likeness of patron Gertrude Robinson Smith – the image in the trunk (l), an old photograph of her and her image superimposed on the trunk.

But then…I saw images of the music patron Gertrude Robinson Smith – the founder of the festival – and realized that the tree had fashioned, from its solid core trunk, the image of the founder…and from one of its branches, the significant first conductor. 

The rest of the story

So this is the rest of the story – who the tree admired so much, who changed the life of the area so significantly, that it wanted to honor and ground that energy in itself and in the earth.

The patron was the prime mover in this story, as it was her force of will that brought Tanglewood into being and sustained it as the fledgling grew. And so her energy appears in the base trunk of the tree, and from her right (action) side flows the energetic outreach to music lovers. The conductor is a branch off the trunk of the organization, and so his image is on a branch of the base energy.

This is a nodal tree for the Tanglewood location; it is grounding the founding intent. I’m certain the patron and the conductor must have paused frequently at this site as they dreamed and mapped out plans for their project. 

In situations like this, the nature spirits and guardians of the area have a strong share in the tree’s life as well. The tree is a nodal point on a grid that is being maintained for the well-being of all. Therefore, whenever this tree finally dies, if it is of natural causes, the energies of place will have been preparing a nearby tree to take over its duties. In the sad situation where the tree is cut down by humans while still healthy, there is a resulting gap in the energy grid and the energies of place have to scramble to fill in the gap and thus keep the energy grid in place. 

This is why, whenever you know of a place where a healthy tree is about to be cut down, I always suggest you go out and sit with the tree ahead of time, let it know with love what is going to occur. Even if you don’t think the tree can hear you – it and the nature spirits can. They then have time to make arrangements to lessen the energy loss. They can move the small nature spirits about, connect the grid in another way, and prepare the core tree energy (a conscious life form) to cross over.

I hoped you enjoyed this story. It is part of my personal exploration of all the “dappled things” that exist inside the one great Creator of all.

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