Planted in the Deep
As I grew in my greening, I sang a song of wonder:
Blessing of Abba in flame and sky,
He shines in the ever-glowing glory.
Blessing of Imma in stillness and soil,
She grew green in the branch and the root.
Mother Shekhinah, Sabbath Queen,
Life-giver and Living Stream,
Open your glory for all to see,
So as I live in you, you grow in me.
And I saw from before the beginning when all was fresh and new, when the Holy stood in the congregation over the deep where the tanninim swam and Rahav churned in the depths. The One Life drove a great pole in the deep, planting her in the heart of all, and she rooted there. As the Spirit blew over the deep the tanninim roared and Rahav gnawed at the root. The cosmos flared into being. As it grew, the roots spread through the fertile soils of all that was coming into being, from dust to cloud, to star.
In time, the One Life planted a garden in the east of Eden. A shoot sprang up from the root and blossomed into the Tree of Life. With it, the Holy planted the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
I marveled at the splendor of the Tree of Life, and she said:
Blessed Child, I have watched before the beginning, and reveled in all my children as they played under the protection of my limbs. My joy is ever with the living. But time and again, my heart broke as my children were taken from me.
Wave after wave of life ebbed and receded from the face of the earth. Time and again my children came and went, but life is resilient, and surged back into the world. I watched the dance of life and death through countless ages.
When the children of the red clay ate from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they were driven from Eden so they might not eat of my fruit and live as the gods.
I wept as they left, but they did not forget. Enosh called upon HaShem, and called up a shoot from my roots. My memory lived with the people, and they planted poles and standing stones in my honor, and my grove grew and prospered.
Then the people demanded a king to rule them, and the Holy resisted them, but like any loving father, he knew they needed to make their own mistakes and learn from them, so he relented. The people suffered. They did not forget the Name or the tree of life.
One King arose named Josiah, and he coveted the devotion that rightly belonged to the One Life. He killed the priests and prophets. He burned the temples. He cut down my groves and burned all remembrance of me. Even slaughtering the horses of the sun did not slake his lust for power, so he challenged the greater powers around him and died with the hopes of his people at the Mount of Megiddo. The power hungry, the greedy, and the fearful worry about that same fate to this very day.
The seeds of life grow with Divine fervor, but the lords of Babylon seek to sow the seeds of their own destruction when it does not have to be that way.
I have never left. My presence has always been with the people, in the sabbath and the new moon. I am always with you.
The Altar and the Tent
My children remember Abraham and Sarah, whose children are as numerous as the stars of the heavens. They sojourned from their home following the call of the One Life.
Four times Abraham set up a standing stone to Abba, and Sarah set up a tent for me. My presence was with her.
At the oak of Moreh at Shechem, Abraham set up a stone for HaShem, who appears and promises. My light filled Sarah’s tent like a thick fog and flowed into the people. They saw my presence in oaks, and the Tree of Life grew among them.
Again, at the oaks of Mamre at Hebron, Abraham set up a stone for HaShem, who gives dwelling and communion. Sarah set up her tent. The temple was among the trees and in the tent as it would be until the fallen king.
I lived with them as they lived the One Life. Together we strove against the fear and powers arrayed against them. They are the foundation. They are the root. In them and their children, the Tree of Life prospers.
At the altar and tent, my children know me and the One Life will ever be remembered.
The Family Where All Are Kin
Among the children of Abraham and Sarah, the Tree of Life grew strong. Storms raged, battles ravaged, they were taken captive and freed, but through it all they persisted. They sang the songs of awe. They held the peace of silence. They built and they struggled for liberty. Through it all, the tree blossomed and fruited.
In all the shadows and light, my children remembered the names and spoke them with delight.
When the Christ opened the way, he opened a way so others might be grafted into the root of Abraham and Sarah. Their children multiply, even now. All who dance with the Wild Christ are their children, worshiping at his altar and in her tent.
The covenant is the family where all are kin. There is nothing special in the blood, the true life flows through relationships of one to another, and the one to all things. In the grafting of the covenant, the branch is more firmly joined to the root, and both prosper from the connections.
Where my presence is called, the tree shall grow. From the beginning, until now, through the ages everlasting, the tree of life shall grow new and renewed in every generation.
The Tree of Calvary
When I marvel at the stump of Jesse from which David and his line grew, cut down by the rashness of the fallen king, I watched as the tree of Calvary rose up. It cut the wood so no king could claim the name for themselves.
The nails driven into the precious Christ and the tree cut open the way to graft those who went with him into the root of Abraham and Sarah.
This is the way of life: What is cut down will rise again when the opportunity is right. When the time comes for life to return, it finds its way back into the world so it might prosper.
My pole is planted again in the sanctuaries of the way, but my name will echo in the ears of the wise. From candle stem to standing stone, I will not be forgotten. My presence returns on every sabbath, and dances with the people at the new moon.
Arise with me. Arise with the Wild Christ, Arise with the Glories of Life.
The Triple Blessing
I watched you dance, blessed anointer, from your youth to the empty tomb. As Christ is the dancer, I am the ground you danced upon.
Behold the great Tree of Life, my branches move and turn with the winds of the Spirit. I am the presence, the light in which He dances.
He danced in the beginning before foundations were laid, and through the garden where I sprouted. He spirals through the lands far and wide, scattering wisdom in His wake.
All life grows from my boughs. The spirits are like birds on my limbs. My leaves clap the rhythm of the dance. By the light of my bark, the nights are made easy. Under my shade, their days find the rest and relief.
Come to me, o children of the sky, the sea, and the earth, and find your joy with me. Receive the cloud blessing from breath of the sky, the fish blessing from the bounty of the sea, and the fruit blessing from the wealth of the earth. A triple blessing for the thrice blessed, in heart, in mind, and in spirit.
Beneath the Soil
I smiled at the words of the great Tree of Life and pondered them in my heart. The triple blessing called to me, and I sang her praises.
Then I beheld the whole of the world. In every place I looked, I saw a tree of life growing. Some were strong, others were besieged by the lords of Babylon.
The brilliance of the light from leaves and stems of the trees shone throughout the world. As bright as stars, as soft as the moon, and as glorious as the sun, the trees grew and cared for the people.
It seemed very strange to me that there were so many trees. Then my eyes were opened and I beheld beneath the soil.
A web of roots from that first pole planted before the dawn wrapped around and embraced everything. It was all one tree with many trunks, each suited to the soils and climate in which it grew. One Life, One Power, One Wisdom, escaping words and traps laid out before it.
Each lived its life with the people under its boughs. They sheltered the living, but didn’t fence them in to conform them to one vision.
Oh, the varieties of life fostered by the Wild Spirit whose Presence brings the Light. Everyone hears her voice in their own language and in their own way.
Glory to the One Light from which comes all the colors of the world.
Tending the Grove
Wisdom blossomed in my mind: Tending to the greening of your own heart and the grove where you live. Give no thought or worry for the grove of others. Live in the light granted to you, don’t steal the light granted to others.
As the viriditas greens the land, I cultivate the verdure of my spirit.
Oh, Imma, when you knock on the door, I will let you in. May we ever dance in the shadow of the moon. Let us grow together in the kinship of the One Life forever.
Sweet children of the way, graft yourself onto the tree of life, and take your strength from One who is your source. Take my hand and dance with the Christ through the branches of life following all the ways they may grow.
Viriditas. The greening power. Hildegard knew it. The forest knows it. Creation’s Paths: A Creation Spirituality Primer is for everyone who has ever felt the divine moving through roots and rain and refused to call that feeling anything less than holy.
