The Wisdom of Crab Apple

 

Crab Apple Tree in Flower

I did a shamanic journey to the Spirit of Crab Apple to ask what wisdom and what qualities it has, and to ask if it has any message for humankind?

Crab Apple Blossom

I sit with my back resting against an ancient gnarly crab apple tree. It is vast and abundantly covered with scented blossom. The sweet heady scent of the blossom saturates my nostrils. The buzzing of the bees that attend it is almost deafening. It has been struck by lightning and one of its limbs lies charred on the ground. Another limb has cracked and fallen to rest partly on the ground but still lives. I am very aware of the presence of the tree. I call to the Spirit of Crab Apple to come. Immediately my vision is filled with pink and white crab apple blossom. I ask Crab Apple what messages it has. This is what she tells me…
‘I am cleansing. I am loving, nurturing, nourishing, uplifting. My blossom and my fruit connect you with the earth. The tart, sourness of the apples cleanse the liver in a gentle nourishing way. Make my fruit into jelly, to cleanse and nourish you and connect you with the earth, in a gentle, sweet, loving way. I am the epitome of love. My blossom is the epitome of love. The sweet scent of my blossom surrounds you in love. I enfold you in love.
I ask you not to pick my blossoms, but to use photographs, paintings or drawings of me. Use them on your altar. Place them on your heart when you are meditating, if you need to feel surrounded by love. If you are feeling unloved, connect with me – I am the epitome of love. Warm, sweet, tender, I enfold you and I uplift you.’
I see myself lying on a bed of apple blossom, being uplifted under a blue, bright sky in warm gentle weather.
Crab Apple continues, ‘I am gentle. I teach you to be gentle with yourself. Gently care for yourself. Know that you are loved. Love yourself. It is the only way for you to be more loving to others. This is the way forward for humankind – to be gentle and loving with themselves, that they may be in this way, gentle and loving to others. You humans, you put so many demands on yourselves and then you have such high expectations of others. This is where judgement, resentment and bitterness comes from. Be gentle with yourself, that you may be gentle and loving, giving and compassionate to others.
I epitomise youth and beauty. My fruit can help keep youth and beauty. For those finding it difficult to conceive, my fruit can cleanse away negative thoughts and stagnation – stagnation of the liver that is holding back your fertility and your ability to move forward in life. I cleanse away stagnation and help you move forward in life. Apples can do this in a sweet, loving way. The scent of my blossom can also do this. Eating the fruit of the apple is good for this. Move with the seasons. Use the scent of apple blossom at this time of year to do this. Using the preserve, crab apple jelly, can do this when the blossom is over. You can have it on toast or as a relish for example with pork. Tune into me.
I have a connection with the element of air. I am like a keen wind that blows through you, that helps to cleanse. It cuts into the liver and moves stagnation. It blows away the cobwebs. I help you to cleanse what is no longer needed, what is no longer serving you in your life, in a loving and compassionate – not in a brutal way where you have to go on a big detox where you suffer from headaches and feel like you’ve lost the will to live. I can do this to help you in an uplifting way, so that the toxins are gently lifted and released and allowed to leave. Meditate on the colour of my petals to do this – gentle, pale pinky-white and green. These colours help lift stagnant things out of your aura and move them on.
The star which you find at the equator of my fruit, the star that starts to form as my blossom starts to set into fruit, is important. I connect you to the stars, to the ancient ones that come from the stars, to the gods and goddesses, as you knew them, to the magical realms. I can assist you on your soul’s journey. Through contemplating my star, I can connect you with the stars and with the star beings – the angels, as some of you know them.’
As Crab Apple says this, I see a winged being with white feathered wings, standing next to the crab apple tree.
Crab Apple continues, ‘My message to humans who don’t feel connected to these beings who have come to help this planet, is that I can help them to connect. Contemplate the star at the centre of my blossom, and at the end of an apple or at the centre of the apple. This will connect you with the magical beings of the angelic realms. I want you to know that you are not alone. There is so much help for you. Come often to visit me and I will help you to feel loved and supported.’

I felt overwhelmed by the loving generous nature of the crab apple tree. It nourished and uplifted me. I have been back many times to visit this tree and it always makes me feel good. I made some hedgerow jelly using apples from this tree mixed with hawthorn, rosehip, elderberry and blackberry. I have it on toast or with meat such as venison. It’s delicious and it makes me feel connected to the seasons. I’d love to hear about anyone else’s experiences with crab apple. Has anyone else made crab apple jelly?

 

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The Girl who Dances Amongst the Hares

Dancing with Hares by Anna Bromley 2017

I journey using  a drum with the intention of meeting the Ancient Mother and connecting with the earth.

In my journey, I walk towards the Vision Tree across luxuriant spring grass. In front of the tree, there’s a Spring picnic going on. The weather is perfect, mild and sunny, there are spring flowers everywhere, birds singing in the trees. There is a checkered picnic cloth spread with beautiful things and around this cloth, there are hares dancing in a circle. On the cloth are painted eggs, chocolate, spring flowers and lots of other goodies. In the centre of the circle of hares a little girl is dancing. She has long golden hair and is wearing a beautiful blue dress. She is seven years old.

The hares tell me they are guardians to the realm of the Ancient Mother. I ask them to show me their natural ways. They tell me that at this time of spring they are very active and joyful, dancing and celebrating life. They represent the abundance of Mother Earth at this budding time of spring. They connect me with the cycles, of the earth of the seasons and of the moon. I see them spiralling up on a path of moonlight, showing me the moon. But now, they want to show me to the realm of the Ancient Mother. So they bring me back to the tree.

It’s a great big beautiful oak, like a tree from a fairytale. There is a little green painted wooden door into the tree. The hares open the door and take me down to the realm of the Ancient Mother.

We go down, down, down to a cave. It’s not a dank, dark cave. It’s like a fairy grotto full of sparkling crystals. There are many landscapes going off in different directions. There’s a stream of water. Sitting on a throne beside the stream is the Ancient Mother. She welcomes me. She has hares hopping all around her, sometimes hopping into her lap. She calls me to her lap and embraces me. She does hand gestures over me to bless me and readjust my energy. She realigns my chakras. She massages my toes and the soles of my feet to help my connection with the earth. Then she sits me up on her lap and makes me put my feet down in connection with the earth. My roots grow down. She places one hand on my sacrum and the other at the front on my lower abdomen. She is healing my root chakra. I feel warmth and energy coming into my lower back.

‘May the solidity of Earth be yours dear Child,’ she whispers in my ear. ‘May you be connected beautifully and gently with the earth. May you walk gently on the earth.

Now she heals the sacral chakra. ‘May you feel safe. May your basket of creativity be filled with wondrous things for you to give and receive.’ She shows me a picnic basket full of Easter goodies. She places it inside my abdomen and tells me it is my basket of creativity. In the basket there is a pen and paper. There is a beautiful book for me to write in. There are beautiful crystals for me to work with and to give to others. There are flowers for me to create herbal medicine, healing balms and beautifying creams. There are hares and all the gifts of Easter and the abundance of the fertile earth.

Now she moves up to my solar plexus chakra. She opens it at the back, like opening a trap door, and takes something out. ‘You don’t need that!’ she says and throws it behind her where it is consumed in flames. She is tracing a spiral of energy on my back. It is a warm, ruby, glowing red. It goes through me to the front and back again. It is healing, clearing and energising my solar plexus. It feels lovely.

Now she comes to my heart space. ‘Loving, beautiful child, let the gold of your heart, the golden fire energy of your heart spread to all those around you. You have this gift of love – lovingness and care. Let it spread to all those around you. And equally, may you receive love and care from those around you.

Then she puts her hands either side of my throat chakra and says, ‘May the silver words of your heart ring like bells from your throat and your tongue, making delightful, delicious music for all those who hear you speak.’ This makes me feel very emotional, because I have felt so blocked in being able to voice my beauty. ‘No longer, dear Lady!’ she says as she heals my throat chakra.

Now she comes to my brow chakra and says, ‘Vision and Beauty are yours already, my dear dear Child. May you see truly and clearly. May you know what is yours and what is others’. May you use this gift wisely for the benefit of all.

Then she moves up to my crown chakra. ‘This chakra needs no healing, dear Beautiful one,’ she says. ‘Your connection with the Heavens is strong. Keep it open.’

She says, ‘You are a multi-dimensional being. You know that already. The Book of Your Life is open to you. You may come back again whenever you like to look into your Book of Life. For now your message and your healing are complete. I send you home with my blessings and my love.

So I thank the Ancient Mother and retrace my steps escorted by the Hare Guardians. I thank them and return to this reality.

Meeting the Seven Year Old Girl

When I reflected on the journey, I wondered who is the 7 year old girl, the one I saw dancing at the picnic amongst the hares? So I lit a candle and invited her to speak to me.She told me she is my 7 year old soul part who left because of religious oppression – being made to go to church every Sunday, sometimes to more than one service, which seemed to take up the whole day. She hated it because it was dull and boring and indoors, where she was preached at about sin and all the things she shouldn’t do and must not do, where she was told that magic is evil, when all she wanted to do was to put on a pretty dress and dance in the garden and in the woods and the fields amongst the hares and the wild animals. She wanted to have fun and to dance and be free and to feel the sunshine on her face and to know that there IS magic in the world.

So I sat in my sunny garden, where the bees hummed in the prunus blossom and the lambs bleated in the field next door. I painted my seven year old and then I danced with her and then we ate chocolate birthday cake together. It was blissful, especially because it is something I rarely let myself do.