The part of the akashic records which is available to us as humans is accessed by the faculty which we call memory.  We can access these thought forms in one of two ways:  dynamically (sequentially, as we do in everyday life) or statically (all at once, as we do when we recapitulate our life memories at death).  But actually the entire body of the akashic records is not only available right there at every moment in time, it is actually pressing on it.  It’s not creating it per se (it is the action of mind to create thought forms) but rather the weight of the akashic records  provides the general form or matrix out of which mind can finish shaping a thought form.  Mind doesn’t start from scratch but relies heavily upon memory to create thought forms.  There are realms in which memory doesn’t exist:  we can access these in moments of ecstasy, but we can’t create thought forms in these moments.  Even as low a level of ecstasy as climactic orgasm is so “now” that there’s not enough room (separatedness) for much memory to bear upon it.
 
Mind is guided, or nudged along, by memory, and at the same time it imposes a temporality or linear march of time on memory.  Mind cannot exist without memory (it cannot organize something in sequence if there is nothing to organize); but memory can exist without mind (the thought form bank exists as a whole and can be experienced as a whole in lucid dreaming, after death, and even in very poignant moments in waking consciousness, without any sense of temporal sequence or “time”). 

To say that the akashic records are pressing upon each new moment is to say that the thought form we create at each moment of “time” includes our memory of what one-cell creatures feel; which led them to evolve into more complex life forms – animals, vertebrates, mammals, primates, and then into humans – with the memories of all those feelings; as well as all of the feelings we have ever felt in all of our own incarnations as humans; together with the feelings we felt at each moment in our present lifetime and all of its probable realities.  All levels of memory, striving, hope, aspiration, fear etc. come to bear upon each new moment in our lives, help to shape it out of material that is familiar.  Life isn’t a zing-zing-zing from one incomprehensible scene to another – it has an orderly progression to it, which is what we mean by the principle of mind.  Mind is thus a more specialized facet of memory. 

Look at it this way:  the inverse square law (gravity, magnetism etc.) is a fabrication.  It doesn’t describe anything that is really going on in the universe.  It wasn’t even true of anything until Newton came along and made it true.  Of course, Kepler, Copernicus etc. were also pushing that idea along, it didn’t start with Newton.  He didn’t conjure that thought form up out of thin air, but based it on things other men had done before him.  That’s what is meant when it is said that memory is the shaper of thought forms on which mind puts the finishing touches.   The future pulls the past along:  it was just as much Newton trying to do what Newton tried to do which influenced Kepler to do what Kepler did, which called upon Copernicus to do his thing, as it was the other way around.  Humankind was pushing along in the direction of making an inverse square law describe a certain type of light fiber, on which it had pasted the thought form of “gravity”.  But it could have just as easily pasted other thought forms on that same light fiber, and organized other bodies of thought forms (other evolutions or bodies of memory) to describe the same phenomenon.  

(continued …)

            Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel at the bottom hard by the living creatures, at the four faces thereof.  The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the color of a beryl; and they four had one likeness; and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel within a wheel.                                                      – Ezekiel I:15 – 16 

Pisces 12:  A very large disk consisting of circles of light with dark grey interspaces.  These circles resemble wheels within wheels, which I find on closer examination to be spiral, all revolving.   – The Degrees of the Zodiac Symbolized by Charubel, Fowler London 1907 

    What these seers were seeing and trying to describe is the organization of the universe (the thought form part of it anyway); namely, the akashic records:  swirling spiral chains of thought forms; infinite lines of scene after scene after scene stretching to infinity, in an infinity of sequences, which from a distance resemble whirling helical cones made of filaments of living light – light which glows with awareness, which exudes awareness.

                 The image given to William Butler Yeats was that of two interpenetrating gyres (conical spirals) twirling this way and that; the image given to me (and also to Busteed, Tiffany and Wergin) was that of wheels within wheels, and wheels upon wheels – i.e. cycles within cycles within cycles, all spinning this way and that.   But in fact these images are merely images, because there is NO order or regularity in the universe.  Our perceptions are orderly and regular, but that has nothing to do with the actual universe, which is utterly chaotic.  Our perceptions are of order and regularity, but – contrary to popular opinion – they are not perceptions of the universe.  For example, what we perceive as the linear sequence of time is actually the shift of attention between different levels of memory.  

                 The reason the spirits suggested these images (gyres or wheels) is to represent time as something other than a straight line.  These models of time are no more correct than the well-ordered continuum model because the universe, being utterly chaotic, cannot be modeled except by chaos.  Nonetheless the gyre or wheels-within-wheels models are closer to the truth than the linear model because they are more representative of what is actually going on than is the linear model.    The linear model describes time in waking consciousness, wherein all we are dealing with is a single sequence of personal history and future (Will); but this model fails when we go beyond that and enter the realm of dreaming, wherein we are considering all past and future lives and probable realities (Mask) – the totality of our being rather than one particular ramification of it (Will = this present lifetime).  Thus the gyre and wheels-within-wheels are more inclusive or encompassing models of time than is linearity.

(continued …)

           Another ritual which can be used in conjunction with or apart from the daily earth ritual is the burial ritual.  You use this one whenever you are especially burdened, ill, careworn, or depressed.  The earth has an infinite capacity not only to heal but also to absorb and dissipate negative energy, and every sort of spiritual and emotional heaviness as well as chronic illness.

           It helps to fast the day before this ritual.   Dig a trench two feet deep and somewhat longer than your body.  Line the trench with sawdust or leaves so you will have a soft bed and pillow to lie on, and make sure your face will be shaded from the sun.  Disrobe and wrap yourself in a sheet with only your face exposed (the sheet serves as a protection against e.g. ants).  You can smear insect repellant on your face, neck, and hair to keep bugs away.  Then lie down in the trench, get comfortable, and have someone cover you with a layer of earth up to your neck with your head sticking out.  Have someone visit you every hour or two in case you need a drink and to make sure you’re okay.    If you have to pee, just do it. 

If you are very sick or in desperate need of lightening up, you should remain buried for 12 hours (dawn to dusk) the first time you bury yourself, and for at least 6 hours on subsequent burials (8 is better).  Average people only need four hour burials to tune themselves (there’s not much point in doing it for less than four hours at a stretch).  How long and how frequently you bury yourself depend on how sick or heavy you were to begin with:  you come to “know” when it’s time to bury yourself again. 

 Although this ritual may seem to be an odd thing to do, you might just find that being buried is one of the most enjoyable experiences you’ve ever had.  The earth herself is your hostess, and she will do her best to comfort, nourish, and entertain you.

Another way of making intimate contact with the earth is to walk around barefoot as much as possible. If you live in a place where you can’t walk around barefoot, maybe it would be worthwhile to move to a place where you can – it is that important.  Wearing shoes cuts off most of the healing energy and sense of rootedness which the earth would otherwise give us through our feet.

 These rituals aren’t immutable – you can alter them at will to suit your own taste and convenience.  What is important is your seriousness of purpose, the strength of your desire to communicate with the earth, and your willingness to pursue this intent in a deliberate fashion – to make it one of the high priorities in your life.  Then your success is assured:  you will find a true sense of worth and belonging in the world which doesn’t depend on what other people think of you.

(excerpted from Magical Living, Copyright © 2001 by Bob Makransky.  All rights reserved)

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 The salient feature of magical training is learning to use the world around us for validation, rather than the devices of people; to come to appreciate more the gurgling of water in a stream, the whisper of the wind in our ears, and the healing warmth of a tree, rather than the approval of people.  All of our unhappiness in life stems from our trying to live up to the expectations of people, and our having forgotten what ancient humans knew:  that we are first and foremost children of the earth, and that she loves us from the bottom of her heart.

 The earth isn’t insensible, as we’ve been led to believe.  She is vibrantly alive.  She can heal us, soothe us, and provide us with a sense of complete and unconditional acceptance.  She can nurture and protect us even more than our human mothers could possibly do.  We don’t have to feel at odds with the world, like alien interlopers in a hostile environment.  The earth is just busting to cuddle us with her love, if we would only make an effort to reach out to her.

 We do this simply by 1) acknowledging that she is alive, sentient, and capable of communicating with us; and 2) acknowledging daily our debt to her and thanking her for all her gifts.  Try doing the following earth ritual every day: dawn or sunset are the best times, but do it whenever you conveniently can.  Go out to a place in nature (if possible), take off all your clothes (if possible), and prostrate yourself face down with arms outstretched above your head pointing in the direction of the sun.  Begin to breathe out (exhale hard) all your angry, frustrated, depressed, negative feelings into the earth to be buried, and inhale the healing, soothing energy of the earth.  Feel it fill your body with warmth on the inbreaths as the negative energy dissipates on the outbreaths.  Then, when you are calm, kiss the earth and thank her, knowing that from the earth you have come, and to the earth you shall return.

 Even if you don’t feel anything out of the ordinary while doing this exercise, keep plugging away at it, and at some point you will realize that the earth is “talking” to you.  Some naturally talented people pick up the thread the first time out; however, most people have to do it on faith for a while until the establish a clear telepathic / intuitive communications link with the earth.  At that point the earth herself will give you instructions and tell you what to do; you’ll just “know” it.  For example, one thing she might have you do is to gaze at her. This is accomplished by slightly crossing your eyes but keeping them relaxed; calming down your thoughts; and staring without focusing at whatever feature in your field of vision most attracts your attention.  The earth can give you all sorts of information in this way.  If you do the earth ritual at dawn, try gazing at the vapors which rise from the earth in the early morning, since these are full of messages.

 Everybody’s experiences with the earth ritual are different, so about all that can definitively be said on the subject is, be prepared for some surprises!  If you carry this ritual out in good faith and with the expectation of ultimate success, then in a few weeks or months you’ll get it working as described.  The only trick to making magic work is patience – long continuance of the same ritual act (repetition of the same desire).

(continued …)

A central part of self-healing is understanding what lessons you are seeking to learn from your illness.  The events in your life don’t “just happen”; they happen for a reason, and understanding that reason is the beginning of taking control of your life and turning your situation around instead of wallowing in self-pity.   Asking your own subconscious for information is called “Active Imagination”.  This technique was first devised by Carl Jung in 1913. 

The easiest way to get this information – what lessons your illness is trying to teach you – is by asking for it in your dreams.  Just before you go to sleep at night, ask with all your heart (determination) that you learn what the purpose of your illness is; what it is that you are seeking to learn from this experience.  You should get the answer either in a dream, or else upon awakening.  It may take more than one night’s supplication until the answer comes, so be patient and just keep up the asking every night until the information comes to you.

Another way to find out what the lesson of your illness is, is by means of automatic writing (this technique also will usually provide more complex and detailed information than dreaming does). Choose a time when you are relaxed, alert, calm, and will not be interrupted. Lie down or sit, as you prefer, with a pen and notebook in hand (although automatic writing can also be done on a typewriter or word processor).  Writing down both your questions and the replies as they come in the form of a dialogue, ask your body to please talk to you.  For example, you might start this way:

Me:  “My body, could you please come and talk to me?  I am really trying to be open right now, and I want to hear what you have to say to me.  I am trying to understand why I am sick; won’t you please come and talk to me about it.  Etc. etc.”

This is just an example – you should ask your body to talk to you using your own words and sentiments.  Keep writing, keep on coaxing, until you begin to feel an answer forming in your mind, and then write it down.  The trick to making this work is to not stop writing.  That’s the purpose of the writing – to focus your attention on the act of writing, like when you’re taking notes in a classroom, so that there’s less room for doubt, hesitation, fear, etc.  Keep on writing, even if you’re just writing the same plea over and over again.  Do make it heartfelt – not just done mechanically – and eventually you’ll start getting an answer.  It really is so simple and straightforward you won’t believe it.

Note that when a person does automatic writing for the first time, the answers tend to come out sort of inchoate and constipated.  Don’t worry – just push it right on out and don’t worry about whether it makes sense or not.  Usually in automatic writing a few words or phrases spring into your mind at a time, a little faster than you can write them down, though sometimes you might get whole blocks or paragraphs at once.  You might also see memory pictures pop up before your mind’s eye, or get flashes of dream-like scenes as you write.  Record all of this because it’s all relevant.  Something might not make sense at the moment, but it will eventually if you keep a written record of it.

If nothing comes to mind in response to your entreaties; or if all that comes to mind is gibberish; then you are blocking.  Your conscious mind might say, “This isn’t working.  I’m not doing it right.”  or  “There must be some trick to this!”  in its effort to subvert the process.  Don’t fall for that ploy!  Keep trying, keep on writing, even if all you get is gibberish.  Only trust can open you enough to write automatically; otherwise you tangle yourself with doubt. If you find yourself blocking, try switching to your non-dominant hand.  Keep on writing, and at some moment your conscious mind will relax its grip and you’ll start writing automatically.  Then, simply write down what your body tells you, asking any questions you like along the way.   You might be surprised by the answers!   The biggest surprise will probably be that you, yourself called your illness to come – that it didn’t “just happen” to you; and for what reason you did this to yourself – what you are trying to learn from this experience.  You can also ask your body for specific information as to diet, exercise, etc. to speed your healing process along.

Here is an example of active imagination done by a woman who was experiencing bleeding in the second month of her pregnancy:

Woman:     “My body, can you help me get in touch with the thought form which controls my uterus?”

Body:     “Yes.  You will be having bleeding all through your first trimester, but it does not mean that there is anything wrong with your baby at all, or for that matter that you have placenta previa.  It is your body’s way of expressing unhappiness.  I know it seems very weird to you and that you’ve never heard of anything like it before, but you are not the first woman to have this complaint.  In fact, if you would like to talk to your uterus, I suggest you do so right now.  You might be surprised.”

Woman:     “Uterus, would you please talk to me?”

Uterus:     “Yes, I will be happy to.  You can hardly believe the incredible work that I am being called on to do.  I know you take it all for granted – like the most normal thing in the world to do.  Doesn’t every woman have a baby?  But it still doesn’t change the fact that I am being forced to do a lot of extra work with which you, frankly, are not helping me.  For example, I could use more herbal teas.  I know you don’t like them, but I do.  Make an alfalfa-raspberry mixture every day and drink three cups.

 “Also, eat meat or drink that iron tonic for these first three months.  I  just  need  more  physical help in  what I’m doing.  You should be eating the chard that is wasting in the garden.  Right now make the children eat what you want, not what they want.  Drink more water.  Put brewer’s yeast in your yogurt.  And rest.  I just need it, that’s all, and you’ve got to accept it.  Rest at least two hours during the day.  If you feel ashamed of this (which you do), too bad;  I don’t, and I’m the one who is doing all the work.  Otherwise I get overtired; I just do.  Maybe other women don’t need two hours of rest, but you do.  For your gestation you need oodles and oodles of meditation and dream experiences.  Do you think that the Virgin Mary ran around all day long?  No, she contemplated the stars and the moon – just as you should do.

 “So if you’re too stupid to know what you should be doing, I’m not; and I talk with blood whenever you get out of line and think that this thing of gestating a child is done on some sort of automatic pilot while you go merrily off to play.  I need your conscious support and awareness.  You help me and I’ll help you.”

**************** 

More of Bob Makransky’s articles are posted at:  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MagicalAlmanac/files 
 

            Next, bless your key, staple ingredients – salt, flour, sugar, honey, etc.  You can ask any spirit helpers you are presently using to do this for you:  Jesus or Mary, Krishna, nature spirits, etc. can all do the job for you.  Just take them a pound of sugar, salt, or flour; address them in whatever form you are accustomed to; and ask them to please bless your ingredients.  If you don’t have a spirit helper, just take the ingredients to the summit of the largest or most imposing mountain or hill in your immediate area; take the mountain spirit a token portion of something special you have cooked yourself as an offering; and ask him or her to please bless your ingredients.  Don’t worry about whether you are doing it right:  if you are doing it in good faith, you’re doing it right.           

Keep your sacred, blessed ingredients apart from the regular ones, but whenever you refill the sugar bowl, salt shaker, flour bin, etc. add a pinch of the blessed ingredient, and imagine that you are putting light fibers in with the pinch.             

Observe that you must never be in a bad mood when you cook, nor must you eat food cooked by someone who is in a bad mood, or even an indifferent one.  A burger from a McDonald’s where the employees are a light, happy bunch has more light fiber energy than a plate of organic brown rice from a vegetarian restaurant where the cook is bored or is angry at the manager.           

You can easily tell when food has bad vibes.  It’s not that it tastes bad per se; rather, it feels wrong or out of place in your mouth – there’s no incentive to chew it and swallow it.  Whenever you get a feeling like this about something you are eating, spit it out.  Don’t swallow it, even to be polite.  Much processed, convenience food “tastes” like this –  bland, insipid, effete, enervated – but people get so used to this kind of food that they can’t tell the difference any more.  They just assume that feeling lousy all the time is how you’re supposed to feel, and they cease to notice that it is their food which is bringing them down.           

Finally, talk to your food.  Thank it as if it were alive and could understand you.  Not long conversation, just a simple acknowledgment that you are aware of being in the presence of a sentient being who is worthy of your respect, who died for you, and from whom you wish a favor.  You wouldn’t ask a human being for a favor in a surly, disrespectful manner; on the contrary, you would ask humbly and respectfully, and feel gratitude for the favor when granted.  And that is how you must address your food:  take small bites, chew it slowly and mindfully, eat in silence paying attention to the act of eating, and never eat until full.  (excerpted from Bob Makransky’s book Magical Living) 

More of Bob Makransky’s articles are posted at:  www.dearbrutus.com  Subscribe to Bob Makransky’s free monthly ezine at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MagicalAlmanac  

            Not all cultures have been so cut off from their true feelings about food as ours is today.  Many Native American tribes had a deep awareness that they were a part of what they ate – e.g., the buffalo.  They lived with the buffalo, followed the buffalo, prayed to the buffalo.  They were one with the buffalo, and thus to them eating was a sacrament.  Modern Native Americans maintain that same attitude of reverence towards maize.

            But in America today we mine food, extract the nutrients out of it, strip it, rape it, and throw it away.  What little nourishment for the spirit is left in food by modern agricultural and processing methods is completely destroyed by the way we eat it.  We use food in a most disrespectful manner – stuffing it in gluttonously whether we are hungry or not, whether it tastes good or not, whether we really want it or not; and then we waste food as if to piss on it.  Like sex, we have turned eating from a joyous, spiritual act into a source of great shame.

            An infant doesn’t conceive of his food or his mother as something separate from himself; he doesn’t feel more important than his food, and therefore doesn’t feel disconnected from it.  When an infant eats, he mingles with his food:  he touches it, gets to know how it feels.  It’s pretty, it satisfies his hunger, it makes him happy.  But when an infant first sees adults eat, it makes him feel shame.  This is because we adults don’t identify with our food – it’s as if our food is not a part of us, as if what we are putting into our mouths is something foreign to ourselves.  We attack our food as if it is separate from us, and it is the act of eating which allows us to use it.  We bite it off in huge mouthfuls like ravenous hyenas, chew it and swallow it with gulps of contempt.  We come together in great rituals like Thanksgiving and Christmas in which we engage in orgies of gluttony and wastefulness to jointly validate our shame, all the while calling it glory.  And that lie makes us even more ashamed; so we lie about that one too, and call it glory.  And so on.  And nobody will look at what they are really feeling, because if being pigs has brought us glory, why look at what pigs we are?

            The reason why saints can survive on so little food is because they’re not attacking it, squeezing the life out of it, so it takes very little to sustain them.  The Native Americans are able to survive on a diet of pretty much nothing but corn because they love the corn, and the corn loves them back, and they’re able to live from that love even though from the point of view of nutrition they should slowly starve to death.

            While it is true that the original light fiber energy in food can be vitiated by disrespect anywhere along the line – in handling, processing, cooking, or eating – it is also true that light fiber energy, being more flexible than vitamins or proteins, can be restored to food by respecting it and treating it as sacred – by ritualizing the activities connected with it.

            First of all, it’s important that you should raise at least some of your own food, even if all this means is a couple of pots of herbs or jars of sprouts grown on a window shelf.  Try to throw in at least a pinch of home-grown herbs or sprouts into every meal you cook (not necessarily every dish, but every meal).  Visualize yourself casting fibers of light into the food as you add your home-grown herbs or produce.

(continued …)

I then asked  (Dr. Steiner), “How  can  it happen that the spiritual imulse,  and  especially  the  inner schooling,  for which  you are constantly  providing  stimulus  and  guidance  bear so little  fruit?  Why  do the  people concerned give so little evidence of  spiritualexperience, in spite of  all  their efforts?   Why,  worst of all, is the will  for action, for the carrying out of  these spiritual  impulses, so weak?”    

Then came  the thought-provoking  and surprising  answer:  “This is  a  problem of nutrition.   Nutrition as it is today does not supply the  strength necessary  for  manifesting the  spirit in physical life.  A bridge can no longer be built from thinking to will and action.” 

      Ehrenfried Pfeiffer,  from  the  introduction to

        Agriculture – Eight Lectures by Rudolf Steiner

            We all know that “you are what you eat”; and many of us are becoming aware that this maxim has a spiritual as well as a physical dimension.  We know we simply feel better when we eat well – when our bodies, rather than our minds, dictate what we should eat or not eat.  Many of us have experienced a complete change in attitude and outlook on life by simply changing our diets.  Whole bodies of thought, such as the Jewish kosher laws and macrobiotics, have evolved to stress the spirituality of food, to emphasize its sacredness.

            The “spiritual quality of food” is not a metaphor:  food contains a light fiber energy which is as important to our sustenance as vitamins and proteins, but which is not susceptible to chemical analysis.  And just as the vitamin and protein content of food can be diminished by processing or overcooking, so too can the light fiber content of food be diminished by disrespect.

            Light fibers are actually the same things as good feelings.  When we feel good, we literally glow.  When a food plant or animal feels good, it glows.  Even when it is killed for food, the glow remains as long as the killing was done with respect; that is, with a sense of connectedness and gratitude rather than mechanically.

            A farmer puts the glow into his plants and animals by treating them with respect – by respecting their feelings.  Practically all farmers farm for the love it; they sure don’t do it for the money.   They feel joyous as they ride their tractors up and down their fields, and that good feeling is communicated to the soil and plants.  Similarly, most dairy farmers not only address their cows as individuals, but they also develop quirky personal relationships with them.  Therefore, from a light fiber point of view, our vegetable and milk supplies are still relatively safe.  Most egg farms, on the other hand, are run like Auschwitz, and that’s what makes eggs poisonous to eat (not their cholesterol).

(continued …)

           You might ask what would happen if you go to the wrong tree.  The answer is that this can never happen; there is no wrong tree, and whatever tree you find yourself at is the right tree, no matter how you got there.  Ideas like right / wrong – “Am I doing this right?” – such ideas only apply to the world of concepts.  In the world of feelings, there is no right or wrong, only here and now.  How do you feel?  No one can answer that question but you; so take responsibility for what you’re doing.  The only way to learn how to trust your feelings is by trusting them. 

           Although trees don’t operate on a concept level, they are capable of talking to you.  But this is not the main way they communicate, and to turn your time with them into a dialogue would be to tangle yourself up in concepts again, and take time away from their true healing function.  So once you’ve learned to talk to them, best let them initiate any conversations, unless you have some pressing question to ask.

           Somewhere in your vicinity, in a nearby park or woods perhaps, there is one particular tree which is your own special tree, no matter who you are or whatever virtues are proper to that particular tree.  There has to be such a tree near you, because you couldn’t live in an area that was too far from a special tree of your own without soon going crazy.

           It’s worthwhile to search around a bit to locate your own special tree – and if you go looking for it, I guarantee you will find it, whether you can talk with trees or not.  In all likelihood you know it already.   Your special tree can tune all your fibers at once.  Sleeping, dozing, or just sitting under your special tree relaxes you completely, removes all your cares, and soothes your inmost soul.  You feel that you are at home, exactly where you belong.  The warmth, joy, and complete acceptance which you feel at your special tree is enough to recharge your batteries for days.

           If you do nothing else of the exercises and techniques given in this book, but only go to the trees (for a few minutes at least) every day or night, then you’ll find after a couple of months that you are just plain happier all the time, without any obvious reason for it.

(excerpted from Thought Forms. Copyright © 2000 by Bob Makransky.  

All rights reserved.)

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           When you first go to a tree that you’ve never met before, touch it very lightly.  Say hello, introduce yourself, stroke the tree, and show it respect and affection.  Ask what it can teach you or do for you, because every tree has its own special knowledge to share.  Then thank the tree, kiss it goodbye, and leave.  Stay at a tree until you feel it’s time to go.  Your first visits to a tree will probably be longer than subsequent visits, since once the tree knows you it doesn’t take it long to tune your fibers.

           It’s best to sleep at a tree; next best is to doze, or just turn off your mind and listen to sounds, or meditate.  But even sitting there thinking or reading has its beneficial effect; it’s just that the tree can perform its work more easily if you have your mind turned off.  You can bring a groundcloth, pillow, mosquito net, or whatever else you may need to make yourself comfortable.  The tree is not going to be impressed that you are sitting in e.g. a lotus position, if that is not truly a comfortable position for you.  The important thing is to just relax.

           Observe that you must not kill bugs, because trees regard that as a violation of their hospitality – one of their guests killing another – so if bugs bother you, shoo them away gently, or use insect repellant or netting.

           You have to touch trees very lightly, in all senses.  You have to be respectful.  If the tree directs you to climb it, you do so agilely and nimbly, not heavily and clumsily.  You don’t blather and wipe your self-importance over trees like you do with the people you meet; you keep your thought forms (excuses, doubts, etc.) to yourself, because trees don’t relate to them.

           It’s a good idea to bring tree spirits little gifts now and then, such as flowers, pretty stones, or special foods you have prepared lovingly yourself (a token portion will suffice).  You  don’t have to do this every time you visit a tree – you’re not trying to bribe it, but just give it a  little  joyous gift  now and then as  you would  to  a  dear friend.   One wouldn’t suppose that spirits would care about such things, but in fact they are delighted with little presents and the thoughtfulness behind them.  They themselves will sometimes ask you to bring them a little something on your next visit. 

           Occasionally a tree spirit will give you a little gift in return:  a piece of bark that breaks off in your hand by itself, or leaves or needles that fall on you as you sit or lie under the tree, or which stick to your clothes when you get up.  Ask the tree, “Is this a little gift for me?”; and if the tree answers in the affirmative, thank it and regard its present as a true gift of power.  Such power gifts should be placed in a small cloth bag and worn around the neck, or placed under your pillow at night, to keep the power of the tree spirit with you even when you are not physically with it.  Whatever you do, don’t break off a piece of bark on your own account:  trees don’t care for crassitude.

           One thing you should ask the tree spirit is what its specialty is, since all tree spirits have particular virtues.  There are tree spirits who grant wishes, make you loving, build your self-confidence.  There are trees who can help you lighten your spirit, and others who can put you in touch with repressed grief.  There are trees who facilitate gazing, lucid dreaming, and seeing the future.  There are trees who can help you put your life into perspective, inspire you artistically, and heal your body and spirit.

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