Crossing the Ash Bridge

 

World Tree Ash with its Ogham script and 3 keys surrounded by a halo of sunlight

Although it was nearly spring, the forest floor was still resting under a beautiful white blanket of snow.  Anna had her ice cleats strapped to her winter boots and she used two hiking poles to help her stay balanced on the uneven and sometimes slippery surface.  She was searching for an Ash tree in the forest.  Last winter, most of the Ash trees had been cut down by the people who managed this county forest.  The Emerald Ash Borer insect that burrows under the bark of Ash trees had killed or damaged many of the Ash trees in the area and the other Ashes had been cut down to prevent the spread of this insect.  Anna was hoping that the loggers missed at least one tree because this was March and the Ogham tree for the month was Ash.  The old Celtic word was Nuin and it represented the letter N.

She had learned that In Norse mythology, Ash was the World Tree called Yggdrasil and this was the tree of the god Odin.  Its roots were in the underworld, while its branches supported the heavens and the Earth was in the centre.  Yggdrasil acted like a bridge between above and below.  In Celtic cosmology, Ash connected Abred, Gwynedd and Ceugant or the past, present and future, this time bridging time. The Teutons revered Ash as well and once the Germanic tribes entered Britain, the Ash replaced Birch as the maypole representing the sun that was the centre of the sacred dance of life.

When the path forked, Anna took the turn away from the logged area and clambered down the steep hill.  She knew that there were Yew, Cedar and Alder trees down by the river so she cut instead through the deciduous trees. There were no leaves on the trees in the winter and so searching for Ash’s compound leaves wouldn’t work.  No male and female flowers on the same tree were present.  Even the Ash seeds in their aerodynamic seed cases that had hung from the branches just like a ring of keys had long since flown away.  Only the distinctive bark of the Ash would help her find what she was searching for.

The snow was deep and her progress was slow but she sensed an energy pulling her forward.  Each branch had two or three inches of snow balanced on it and the bare deciduous trees were beautifully highlighted.  Anna had been reading about epigenetics during the long winter nights.  This was the science that looked at the coating that could occur on top of DNA.  There was a theory that this is how ancestral traumas were coded in the body – through the coating.  The DNA was not changed by traumas, so the theory went, but the coating prevented the expression of some of its coding.  Anna imagined the DNA with its coating might look like the branches with their coating of snow.

The spring sun was warm and there was a light breeze wafting through the trees as well.  Every now and then, a big plop of melting snow would fall from a tree and slide down Anna’s shiny winter parka.  “Just like water off a duck’s back,” she thought.  That would be a nice way to go through life she mused, just letting everything goooo.  Anna took a deep breath of the cool forest air into her lungs and let it go with a whoosh. “Yes, just like that,” she murmured.   Feeling more relaxed, she walked on until suddenly, a big wet plop of snow landed on the back of her head before making it’s cold wet way down the back of her neck.  Anna gasped.  “Ahh, yes, some life events land on you and stick,” she reasoned.  That feeling was very familiar to her.

Chuckling to herself, Anna looked around her, scanning for the deeply grooved bark of Ash with its tell-tale diamond patterning.  Turning, to look back from where she had come, her eyes locked onto a tree that she had just passed.  Perhaps it was the one that had let go of the snow that was now a warming wetness on the skin of her upper back.  She put her hand forward and touched the bark.  It was deeply ridged.  And then she picked out the diamond shapes that made her laugh out loud.  She had been looking for Ash and Ash had tapped her on the back with a big plop of snow.

Anna stuck her hiking poles into the deep snow and took off her warm mittens.  She placed the palms of both hands on the trunk of the tree and introduced herself.  She explained that her ancestors in a country far away across the ocean had revered this tree’s ancestors and that she had come to renew her relationship with Ash.  She felt the tree’s energy expand in a way that felt like an affirmative answer to Anna. Then she turned around and leaned her back onto the trunk of the Ash tree.  She closed her eyes and felt her energy field merge with that of the tree.  In her mind’s eye, she let herself travel down the trunk of the tree into its roots under the ground.  It felt warm and nurturing there and she imagined that she could connect to her ancestors in that space.

Then she felt herself rising back up through the trunk into the branches and upward into the sky where she was greeted by the Sun.  She breathed out the Earth energy into the sky and then took a deep breath in.  Down she descended once again.  This time, she could feel her ancestors there.  She remembered the snow on the branches and how the sun and wind had cleared them of their load.  She held out her hands and asked her ancestors if they had anything that they wanted to let go of.  She felt her hands get heavier and when they could hold no more, she let herself move upward through the Ash trunk into the sky.  Once there, she held her hands out to the sun and let the light and the wind clear the load that she held there.  Once her hands felt empty, she descended once again.  Over and over, she allowed her hands to be filled and then travelled to the sky to release them until there was no more to transmute.  She thanked her ancestors and slid up the trunk and back into her physical self.  She could still feel energy rising and descending through her spine and her body felt light and mobile.  She noticed that her heart felt light and open as well.

Anna remembered that in Ireland and Wales all coracle slats and oars were made of Ash for protection.  Even the Vikings whose ships were made of Oak, used Ash for all the magical parts, again for protection.  The word Ash and it’s Latin name Fraxinus come from words meaning spears.  She glanced around looking for an Ash stick that she could use to walk with but the snow covered any fallen branches.  Then she remembered that there were many Ash sticks where the loggers had left any wood that they couldn’t easily sell.

Thanking the Ash trees for their collective wisdom, Anna made her way back through the snow.  True, she had her own footprints to walk in now but still, she felt lighter than she had on her way in.  Could it be that she had let go of some of that genetic coating?  Using her poles to clamber back up the hill, Anna reached the packed down path and found her way to the logged area.  From the big piles of Ash branches, Anna selected one that was the right size to be a walking stick.  The strong flexible wood was perfect.

Carrying her two hiking poles in one hand and her Ash walking stick in the other, Anna made her way out of the forest.  Her spine was tall and straight and she knew that just like the Ash tree, she also connected heaven and earth.  She knew that she could be strong and flexible as well and that this would indeed protect her.