Parting the Mists

This is a new oracle deck to me, but I’ve loved the art for years. Originally published as the Green Man Tree Oracle, it is now republished as The Spirit of Nature Oracle. Either way, it’s a lovely deck for those of us who love the trees and their whispers.

Hope everyone’s November is starting off well. Blessings!

Beech – What Lies Beyond the Threshold?

Meaning: Crossing thresholds is a way of moving from one state of being to another, but they can be frightening places, confronting us with uncertainty and change. Being creatures of habit, it is easier for us to stay with the known and familiar yet if we refuse to confront what lies tone the threshold, we can remain in a stagnant condition. What is on the other side may be actively enticing you into a new experience, a lesson that will develop your skills.

Beech can signify the death or end of something but also stands for the changes that arise through realization. Since its gift is the revelation of experience, Beech in a reading suggests you should cross the threshold that is challenging you, gain experience from the unknown, seek revelation and increase your knowledge.

Beach Lore: The beauty and felinity of the beech is obvious – traditionally, it is called the “Queen of the Woods,” sharing place of honor with the kingly oak. Local British traditions associate it with serpents, probably because of its serpentine root systems, which are revealed by soil erosion when they are planted on hills or slopes. Behind this again lurks the notion of the wise serpent giving knowledge to those who ask for it.

Several altars to the beech have been discovered in the French Pyrénées, suggesting its importance to the Celtic tribes that lived there. It is said that no harm would ever befall a traveler sheltering beneath its branches, while prayers uttered in its shade were bound to be answered, just as any curse spoken there was said to be more effective. Slivers of beech wood and leaves were once carried as talismans to bring good luck and increase creative energy. Wishes carved on beech wands, which were subsequently buried in the earth, were said to be particularly effective and, as the wood rotted away in the earth, the wish was released to bear fruit in the outer world.

Preservers of Lore: Thin leaves of beechwood are said to have been bound together to form the first book, which is certainly in line with its central association with writing and the transmission of lore. The Anglo-Saxon word for beech was bok (which became book); in German, buche is beech and buch is book, while the Swedish word bok means both book and beech.In the Egyptian pantheon, Thoth is the inventor of writing, the preserver of lore. Hermes is his Greek equivalent, while Ogma in the Celtic tradition and Odin in the Norse are both responsible for the discovery of the letters from which the Ogam and Rune alphabets descend.

Dried beech leaves were used to stuff mattresses in France until as recently as the nineteenth century; indeed, the soft whispering noise produced when these were lain upon prompted them to be dubbed lits de parlement (speaking beds). Sleeping on one of these, and asking a question before falling asleep meant that one received a wise answer in the night.

Spirit of Nature Oracle by author John Matthews and artist Will Worthington