Weaving Women Back Into Matter

On the Saturday, just as things were shutting down, six of we women gathered to reflect on Weaving Women Back Into Matter.  This initiative of TreeSisters was the brainchild of Azul Thome who has been holding weaving events with women for a number of years.  Often, the women sit in a circle around a tree if outside or a plant if inside.  A rope around the tree gives the anchor for the woven belts which stretch out like spokes as the women sit on the rim of the imaginary circle.  While Azul has been holding small gatherings for years now, this international virtual gathering was in honour of International Women’s Day and Tree Sisters from around the globe were in attendance.

The original event

This event was a way for women to gather and reflect on how to nurture feminine nature-based leadership.  The weaving of long belts is about connecting things that are currently separate.  The strands of wool can represent anything the women want; themselves, others, nature, trees, spirit.  The list is full of possibility and open to imagination.  The physical act of weaving, of creating, in a circle of women is ancient and yet new to many women.  As we wove, we connected to each other through stories, through assistance, through paying attention, weaving the invisible threads that create community, society, global structures.  Natural objects were added to the weaving and braiding such as shells, leaves, bark, pine needles.  Prayers, hopes, and intentions were added through words written on paper and through the breath.

Azul Thome on right with belts wrapped around a tree

Azul envisions a belt woven by many women that would symbolically stretch around the waist of Gaia, the equator, which is 400,000 km in length.  According to her calculations, if 10 million women each wove a 4 metre belt, that would do the trick.  And so, at all the TreeSister events, the belts were measured and added up, to be a part of Azul’s vision.  It feels inspiring to be a part of such a bold vision.  Perhaps, by joining together with physical weaving, we are joining together on another level and thus weaving ourselves back into matter.  Our visions matter, our work matters, our way of being in the world matters.  Visions spark imagination, connections birth courage and our actions alter the course of history.

We six remembered that we were connected to the women who wanted to attend but couldn’t, to all of our own connections, to all the women who were taking part in this event, to all the TreeSisters, to all the reforesters in all the countries around the world and to all the trees.  As we wove, we listened to this beautiful song Weave and Mend written by Mary Trup and recorded by Frances Black.  Check it out:    

We tied out joined belt around a Maple tree on our hostess’ front lawn.  The city would like to cut it down to put in pipe but she is trying to work out another solution to save it.  She has a sign posted to that effect and we wound our belt alongside the sign.  Who knows what this may communicate to a man who shows up with a chain saw for the city.  A polite but clear sign with beautiful weaving may disrupt his business as usual approach.  I recently saw on-line that monks in Cambodia are ordaining trees with saffron cloth to protect the trees from illegal logging because no citizen of that country would kill a monk.  So, by wrapping a belt around and around this tree, are we sending a similar message here in Canada?  Perhaps, we will never know our own power, our potential for leadership until we use it.

Our tree with our weaving

And now, as I find myself home at the moment, as are millions the world over, I am continuing to weave.  After all, I have lots of wool left over.  I am thinking of women who are having a tough time and weaving a 4 m belt for them to join in Azul’s vision.  It feels grounding to weave.  I include my intentions and songs as I weave.  I will take pictures of the belts and email them to the women after having a phone call.  I heard this morning that we need to physically distance but social cohere.  By spreading apart for the common good, we are coming together in intent.  I read someone’s post on-line, that this feels like a great big opening for women to step forward with feminine nature-based leadership.  We don’t exactly know what this is, but our imaginations for healing and repaired relationships with Earth are being woven in.

The first belt I wove in honour of another woman wrapped
around the pot of the Norfolk Island Pine we used at our event.