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- | A long time in the future… after events that changed our world, a silent political Party of Trees was formed. Not to rule the world or make laws for the economic profit of selected individuals but to advise, feed and protect all species of this earth. | + | A long time in the future… after events that changed our world, a silent political Party of Trees is formed. Not to rule the world or make laws for the economic profit of selected individuals but to advise, feed and protect all species of this earth. |
- | With their heads high in the sky they stood for the rights and duties of all beings, and the natural patterns of life and death. Rights that every living creature deserves equally. Duties that many of them performed | + | With their heads high in the sky they stand for the rights and duties of all beings, and the natural patterns of life and death. Rights that every living creature deserves equally. Duties that many of them perform |
- | The silent political Party of Trees was formed | + | The silent political Party of Trees is formed |
* love and beauty | * love and beauty | ||
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* symbiosis… | * symbiosis… | ||
- | Chosen | + | The chosen |
Are we ready to allow and embrace the necessity? | Are we ready to allow and embrace the necessity? | ||
- | If you want to join the silent political Party of Trees you have to complete | + | Any one of us can join the silent political Party of Trees by completing one of these walks and by listening to the stories the chosen trees are telling |
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+ | ---- | ||
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+ | ===Tree walk in Forêt de Soignes=== | ||
+ | Initially developed in collaboration with Z33 and Heath Bunting and performed in the framework of [[http:// | ||
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+ | **Itinerary** | ||
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+ | with many thanks | ||
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+ | click on the image for large view | ||
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+ | {{: | ||
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+ | **Start**: Entrance Drève du Comte/ | ||
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+ | **Accessibility**: | ||
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+ | **A little introduction** | ||
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+ | During | ||
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+ | The trees that belong to this forest enjoy exclusive rights compared to other trees in the Brussels' | ||
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+ | They decided to found the silent Political Party of Trees. The first idea they whispered in their leaves was to consider them as ' | ||
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+ | You can read more on the construction of the arboreal persona [[http:// | ||
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+ | **Walk & become a member of the Silent Political Party of Trees** | ||
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+ | By chosing to walk and become a member of the Party of Trees, you're not joining any regular type of political party you know. They will not represent their ego nor short term views. Trees are networked species. They aim for their own survival, that is true, but they will always realise this in collaboration with others. | ||
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+ | Giving your trust to trees is very easy: they will not abuse your rights, you will still have the right to cut their limbs, when that seems to be necessary for your own survival. | ||
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+ | By giving your trust, you choose to connect with the energy of the trees, and to live and think with them as they will become your close friends. In return you will regain the connection with the nature and become the unseparable entity of it. You will rediscover the wisdom and instincts inside you. They will empower you as a human being and as a part of the living society on earth. | ||
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+ | So if you're happy with all this, just put one foot in front of the other, and take the Sentier des Endymions/ | ||
- | === Tree walk in Forêt de Soignes === | ||
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- | | + | |
- | * Elder | + | |
- | * Hazelnut | + | {{: |
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+ | // The best way to listen to the oak, is to stand against it, touching its strong scarred skin. // | ||
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+ | Please meet the oak, the father, priest and the guardian of the world. | ||
+ | Tree of the past, the present and the future. This oak has lived more than 100 years and will survive us by another 150 to 200 years if the climate does not change too drastically. | ||
+ | Oak grows as deep as it grows tall. | ||
+ | It provides shelter and food to millions species in the forest. | ||
+ | One grown oak is equivalent to a metropole as big as New York. It can have up to 350 different communities of species living in, on, around and from him. | ||
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+ | Among the sacred trees in many legends, the mighty oak stands noble and tall as The Tree of Life. The oak tree in folklore and myths represents great symbolic meanings to the pantheons of mythology, to the druids, the faeries, and many cultures around the world. It is the representative of truth and justice. | ||
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+ | It is a slow grower. So it is all about time. | ||
+ | Just imagine growing trough your life so slowly that 500 years can fly by. Imagine species, landscape situations you could witness. Well Oak does. It is a time machine. If we learn its language, we will take on the habit of looking back, living now and projecting ourselves in a far future, and all this at the same moment. We will discover a very different history from the one we know now. | ||
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+ | Take your own time with the oak. Once you're done, walk on and concentrate on yourself, your breath, your heartbeat, your body, your rhythm. | ||
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+ | **//More about the oak//** | ||
+ | Throughout the major cultures of Europe the oak tree has been held in high esteem. To the Greeks, Romans, Celts, Slavs and Teutonic tribes the oak was foremost amongst venerated trees, and in each case associated with the supreme god in their pantheon, oak being sacred to Zeus, Jupiter, Dagda, Perun and Thor, respectively. Each of these gods also had dominion over rain, thunder and lightning, and it is surely no coincidence that oak trees appear to be more prone to lightning strikes than other trees, whether because of their wood's low electrical resistance or the fact that they were frequently the largest, tallest living things in the landscape. | ||
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+ | The Druids frequently worshipped and practised their rites in oak groves (the word Druid was probably a Gaelic derivation of their word for oak, Duir, and meant men of the oaks). Mistletoe, probably the Druids' | ||
+ | Ancient kings presented themselves as the personifications of these gods, taking on the responsibility not only for success in battle but also the fertility of the land, which relied on rainfall. They wore crowns of oak leaves, as a symbol of the god they represented as kings on Earth. Similarly, successful Roman commanders were presented with crowns of oak leaves during their victory parades, and oak leaves have continued as decorative icons of military prowess to the present day. | ||
+ | Oak leaves' | ||
+ | If the oak before the ash, then we'll only have a splash. If the ash before the oak, Then we'll surely have a soak! | ||
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+ | In Celtic mythology, oak is the tree of doors, believed to be a gateway between worlds, or a place where portals could be erected. In Norse mythology, the oak was sacred to the thunder god, Thor. Some scholars speculate that this is because the oak, as the largest tree in northern Europe, was the one most often struck by lightning. In Classical mythology, the oak was a symbol of Zeus and his sacred tree. | ||
+ | The Oak tree is traditionally sacred to Serbs and is widely used throughout Serbia on national and regional symbols both old and new. In the Bible, the oak tree at Shechem is the site where Jacob buries the foreign gods of his people. In addition, Joshua erects a stone under an oak tree as the first covenant of the Lord. In Isaiah 61, the prophet refers to the Israelites as “Oaks of Righteousness”. | ||
+ | The oak tree is used as a symbol by a number of political parties. It is the symbol of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom, and formerly of the Progressive Democrats in Ireland. In the cultural arena, the oak leaf is the symbol of the National Trust (UK) and The Royal Oak Foundation. | ||
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+ | ** * Elder, Vlier, Sureau, Sambucus nigra** | ||
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+ | {{: | ||
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+ | Please meet the pharmacist of the forest. | ||
+ | With its small and scruffy bushes with tiny leaves in the early spring, the elder doesn' | ||
+ | But wait until it starts blossoming! It will be swarmed with insects. And in the autumn they get replaced by birds. | ||
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+ | The elder is beneficial not only to the animals. | ||
+ | People have been using it for ages. | ||
+ | Not only enjoying the sweet smell and the taste of the blossom in teas and syrups, but also making jams and jenever from the berries. | ||
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+ | **//Healing power//** | ||
+ | The entire tree is to be used for healing purposes. | ||
+ | Flowers and berries are used in treating the flu, alleviating allergies, and boosting overall respiratory health. | ||
+ | The elder is also used in Traditional Chinese Medicine, dissolved in wine, for rheumatism and traumatic injury | ||
+ | But be careful. Some powers can become dangerous. | ||
+ | Eating raw berries can cause nausea and stomach aches. | ||
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+ | Washing her face in dew gathered from elderflowers was believed to enhance and preserve a woman' | ||
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+ | **// | ||
+ | Branches from the elder are also used to make the flutes. Magic flute? Sounds can heal deepest illnesses... | ||
+ | In common with other trees with white blossom, such as hawthorn and rowan, the elder had strong associations with Faery- and Goddess-centred mythology. | ||
+ | Like rowan, the elder was thought of as being a protective tree, and it was auspicious if it was growing near one's dwelling, especially if it had seeded itself there. If the rowan' | ||
+ | Cheese cloths and other linen involved in dairying were hung out to dry on elder trees, and the smell they absorbed from the leaves may have contributed to hygiene in the dairy. | ||
+ | Elder trees were also traditionally planted by bake houses as protection from the Devil (what with all those hellishly hot ovens within!) and loaves and cakes put out to cool under the elders. Any foods left out overnight under an elder however were considered a gift to the faeries. | ||
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+ | In common with many other native trees and plants with potent pagan associations, | ||
+ | Notwithstanding these negative beliefs, elder continued to be put to such a wide range of medicinal uses that the mediaeval herbalist John Evelyn called it "a kind of Catholicon against all Infirmities whatever" | ||
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+ | {{: | ||
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+ | Please meet the witch of the forest. | ||
+ | Down through the ages the Hazel has always been considered magical, and was used primarily for its powers of divination. | ||
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+ | It was believed that hazelnuts was concentration of wisdom and poetic inspiration. There are several variations on an ancient tale that nine hazel trees grew around a sacred pool, dropping nuts into the water to be eaten by some salmon (a fish revered by Druids) which thereby absorbed the wisdom. The number of bright spots on the salmon were said to indicate how many nuts they had eaten. | ||
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+ | Hazel has long been a favourite wood from which to make staffs, whether for ritual Druidic use, for medieval self defence. Hazel shafts were used for water divining, and this practice evolved into the making of pilgrims’ staffs, shepherds’ crooks and walking sticks. | ||
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+ | **//More stories// | ||
+ | Known as the Tree of Knowledge in Norse mythology, the hazel was sacred to the god Thor. In Irish and Welsh folklore, the hazel was believed to be a fairy tree, and it still grows near many holy wells. Tara, the seat of ancient Irish kings, was located close to a hazel wood. and it is said that members of the Fianna, a legendary band of Irish warriors, learned to defend themselves with only a hazel stick and a shield. | ||
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+ | Since mediaeval times trees have been considered sacred. For example Hazel for its wisdom and the Oak for its strength and so on. Any unjustified felling of an Apple, Hazel or Oak tree, was a crime worthy of the death penalty. Hazel-wands have often been found in the coffins of notable personalities, | ||
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+ | In Roman mythology the Hazel is attributed to the god Mercury (Mercurius), | ||
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+ | **//Magical Uses//** | ||
+ | The use of Hazel divining rods (dowsing rod) to detect water and mineral veins comes down from antiquity, the art of which is called “rhabdomancy”. Typically a divining rod has two forks off its main stem shaped like the letter “Y”.The two forks of the rod are gripped with the fore fingers along the forks, so that the tail end of the rod points down toward the ground to begin searching. Another method was to peel the bark of the rod and simply lay it on the palm of the hand. The same method was used to find treasure, thieves and murderers. | ||
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+ | The practice of dowsing is still common today in Cornwall, and in other European Country’s. According to folklore and superstition, | ||
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+ | No doubt it was from using Hazel rods in divination, that its fruit the Hazelnut became associated with fortune | ||
+ | telling. In Scotland an old custom of love divination is still practiced on Halloween, in which two hazelnuts are given the names of lovers and placed on burning embers. If they burn quietly and remained side by side, the lovers were considered faithful, but if the nuts crack, spit or roll apart, they were considered to be ill-matched and one of them unfaithful. | ||
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+ | In ritual Hazel wands are used in connection with mercurial energy from which poetic and magical inspiration is gained and imparted. Hazel wands can also be used to divine suitable places in which to work magick. An old method of cutting a wand was to find a tree that has yet to bare fruit, and at sunrise on a Wednesday (the day ruled by Mercury), to cut a branch with a single stroke from a sickle. | ||
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+ | The Hazel is considered to be at its most powerful during early spring while its sap is still rising, and in autumn when its sap and energy is fully contained within ready for its harvest of nuts. A good divining rod is said to “squeal like a pig” when held under water. | ||
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+ | The nuts of the Hazel were commonly used to bring luck by stringing them together and hanging them in the house. Such a string of nuts were often given to a new bridesmaid as a gift to wish her wisdom, wealth and good health. When eaten the hazelnuts are said to increase fertility, and of old were eaten before divination to increase inspiration. | ||
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+ | Also the old, supple twigs of Hazel were woven into crowns and called “wishing caps”, which when worn and if you wished very hard, would make all your desires come true. Sailors, believing them to offer protection against bad storms at sea, also wore wishing caps.The ancient druids believed they could induce invisibility by wearing them. Twigs of Hazel placed on window ledges give protection against lightening, and three pins of Hazel hammered into a wall of the house would protect it from fire. | ||
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+ | But my favourite story of Hazelnut is the legend about golden snake. The legend says that if you find a hazel tree with the mistletoe growing on its branches it means there is a golden snake living under it. If you can catch that snake you will gain the power of invisibility. | ||
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* Hornbeam | * Hornbeam | ||
* Alder | * Alder | ||
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- | ===Tree walk in the centre of Brussels=== | + | [[Tree walk in the centre of Brussels]] |
+ | in the framework of [[http:// | ||
*Fig Prutske | *Fig Prutske | ||
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- | ===Round table discussion/ | + | [[Round table discussion/ |
We where invited to present the idea of Silent Political Party of Trees at the round table discussion during the event State of the arts in Brussels http:// | We where invited to present the idea of Silent Political Party of Trees at the round table discussion during the event State of the arts in Brussels http:// |