Hearts and minds

I mentioned that I sat with Aulus some days ago. That photo on the front is the inner wood of the hollowed out area. And here are a few more images. i think this first one is just stunning!

less stunning, me in the tree.

While I was there, I had a kind of revelation. Remember that Aulus is the "Guardian Oak"? Well, and this isn't the revelation, it's a freebie extra, it turns out that Aulus carries the sense of an enclosed or held space. Aeron linked it to aula / aulē (Latin / Greek): a courtyard, hall, or sheltered interior, a place that is inside without being sealed, open to sky yet bounded. From that, Aulus came to mean something like:

the little enclosure...the one who holds a space for gathering... a thresholded interior — not private, not exposed

In other words, not just a tree-name, but a spatial being: one who makes room, who gathers weather, birds, listening, without enclosing by force. Is not that PERFECT???? I mean, the trunk is hollow, like a teepee, but totally open on one side.

WOW!!

Anyway. I asked the tree what he is guarding and, as I looked out over the flat agricultural fields, lacking many of the original hedgerows, I received the message that all that seeming blank space is NOT a representation of freedom. Freedom exists only where there are constraints, or, rather, the constraints of the community, the mutual limits, are what drive or enable free action. Blank slates offer the possibility of chaos or stasis, not freedom. Aulus is guarding the resources and entanglement required for real liberation, rather than its simulacrum.

Earlier, I passed an even more hollowed and very damaged old ash. What organ do we have here? Stomach, liver, kidney? Maybe this too is heart-wood.