The Wooden Circle

… Still, I am not quite sure what it was that drew me closer and closer to this tree, but this circular shape, repeated over and over in Nature, was captivating my eyes and my attention, as if it were a rounded frame protecting a mysterious work of art, or a gnarled and sheltering arch around a secret passageway. Its position in the middle of the oak’s long and lean trunk could not be ignored as some sort of invitation…that is, if one just happened to be in “Deep Seeing” mode, which is so different from the usual fast-paced mind of inner chatter, and racing outer-movement to get to the next and the next and the next task as fast as possible. There is truly so much to SEE around us, and in our culturally “mind-less” rather than “Mindful” state of presence, we often are somewhat sightless to amazing wonders, if not altogether blind to much magical beauty.

There is a saying that if we were to shelve all books of Holy Wisdom for a time and went out to be humbly but fully present in Nature, that we would still learn everything we need to know about living a good and Whole-ly Life. And in the movie  Chocolat, Vivienne spins a carved wooden plate for her customers and  friends, with their secretely wounded Hearts,  and asks them what they “see” in the spinning movement of the dish. Each person when gazing directly into the spinning bowl, begins, unconsciously,  to  “see deeply” within themselves  into the forgotten stories or buried wisdoms of their own lives and in this odd moving mandala meditation, comes to a place of remembering something important , thus  finding a  doorway to inner healing.

And so I came to realize that in like spirit, this sturdy knothole was similar… a kind of  Meditation Mandala in the Oak, and as I came close and  gazed mindfully at it,  the questions about it..it’s shape, its, rings, its textures, its layers and mysterious opening to a deeper place within the tree,  revealed the same questions and pondering about myself and my own life…for what I see and ponder in this living wooden circle, is unique to my own experience.

And so, as YOU mindfully gaze upon this oaken mandala, “seeing deeply” into it…pay attention to what calls your attention and what you are drawn to, what do YOU notice and imagine as you look at it?…this tree, The Oak, is a  sacred and magical one in Celtic and indigenous traditions…it just may have something to teach you too……..(con’t tomorrow, Part 3..The Oaken Portal)

Christine Phoenix-Green (March 2011

The Knothole-Wooden Mandala

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