Pinetree

This is a small insight on the big, almighty Pinetree (Fir tree). The legacy of the pinetree. An ode to the Pinetree.

Identity. The Pinetree is very strong in its identity. It simply knows who it is, what it is doing, and why it is doing what it is doing: producing oxygen. Oxygen for all life on earth. Day in, day out. And it does it freely, without any condition, for us to breath, to live, to exist. Its asks nothing in return, it does it lovingly. It knows who it is, a he or a she, it doesn’t matter. It knows. It his just being happy to be able to provide oxygen to the earth to use, enjoy and reproduce.

It is relevant for us, human beings, to realize what’s our purpose here on earth. What’s our added value? What’s our purpose in life? What’s your purpose in life? And on this earth? In this life? And what exactly are you contributing, producing? What is it that you’re generating here? What is your form of oxygen that makes the world better and makes your life and other lives better?

Wisdome. A pinetree doesn’t keep what it doesn’t need. A fact which is evidenced by the needles. Its needles are always in duo, green or brown. The brown needles. The pinetree is very wise. It recognizes it has brown needles. It knows that at some point in time, its green leaves, its green needles are turning brown, those needles will become passive. And so it lets them go, it doesn’t fight the irreversible process, it lets the brown dead leaves go in order to create space, to create new life for new green leaves. Green, active needles to grow. New life, our talents. Creating space for new, upcoming talents. The brand new green needles are given the opportunity to produce oxygen for all earthly life to grow. New energy to survive. I will survive. You will survive. The pinetree knows how and why.

At a certain point, I asked the pinetree a question:

“Dear pinetree, how can you manage to always let go of your brown needles?”.

Pinetree answers: “Imagine if we, us pinetrees, would hold on to our brown needles my friend, that would be desastrous. That would mean that we would hold on to our pains, to our blockages, to our anger, to our frustrations and lower ourselves to a certain level we can not do anything for anyone else. We would say: “you don’t appreciate me anyway, I can’t do anything good, what’s the point for me to live?”.

You humans do the same thing: you struggle with emotional pains, resentments, ego in the form as identified, fused ego. And that’s a natural (eh mostly nurtural) thing to do. It is explainable. It’s inherent in life, inherent in the DNA of human beings. It is what it is. It is okay. You are okay. In that way, you humans are just holding on to your brown needles. Imagine what would happen in a world in which we and our colleagues would hold on, no matter what, to our brown needles… You don’t want that, right friendo?”

Spiritual. The pinetree has healing powers. It’s powerful. It generates a certain feeling of awe. Its scent is very soothing and relaxing, and that’s for a good reason. It is a symbol for peace, immortality, virtue, resilience, steadiness, fertility, masculinity, king winter, organic resonation. It has an impressive longvity in nature and it adapts to their often harsh environments.

In ancient Maya culture, the act of burning pine represented an offering of sacred food to their gods (Morehart et al 2005), which emphasizes the spiritual characteristics attributed to these trees. The “evergreen” nature of pines which enables them to retain their green colour, green form, during winter or dry seasons represents triumph of life, the victory of light over darkness in some religions.

Its cones are extra-ordinary. Pinecones are so to say ‘designed’ to survive even the most harsh event in nature: a bushfire. Once a fire emerges, the strength of the cone will surpass itself: it will shrink and protect itself from cracking, prevention from falling apart. Once the bushfire is over, the same cone will open up itself and let go of their seeds. The seeds are little miracles as such: they are like little dual-bladed propellors, falling down, blowin’ along with the wind to its new destination on the ground. New life emerges. A new ground-tone. New pine-life. New oxygen.

The pinetree and its fruits have something magical, something spiritual, something holy. It is no coincidence that the most holy of the mushrooms, the so called ‘Flyagaric’, forms a symbiotic relationship with the pinetree and grows directly underneath it. Once the cones have done their job, the pinetree let them go. If you burn the dead cones in a bonfire or fireplace, you will feel the extraordinary warmth coming from it. It warms and soothens you more than you would expect in the first place.

For me, the pinetree which is practically located in my backyard, challenged me to search beyond the tangible. Although the pinetree is actually rooted in my neighbors garden, I can directly feel the energy from it. When negotiating on the dealing process of buying the house, I realized -with retroactivity- that the one and only decisive factor of buying this particular house was because of the presence of the pinetree. The almighty pinetree. When further analyzing and researching the phenomenon of the pinetree, I was surprised at what I discovered. Underneath the biological knowledge and familiarity I already had as a child with trees as specimens, I found an authentic sense of awe, respect, functionality, plus the awareness of presence. Presence and total lack of ignorance. This created room for more self-awareness. More air, literally. Letting go of the identified ego. Creating more space for creativity and for the awareness, the rigpa to manifest and truly resonate in the core innerself. Generating this feeling of non-duality: all is one. We are all one. We are all in the one. We are all living in the one. We are all living in the one and only. Earth. Planet earth. Every single needle matters…

The legacy of the pinetree. It will always give birth to new legends and it’s a tree that gives as much (and so much more) love and nurture to us as we’ve givin’ to it. Pine trees are great examples of the intermingling of symbols and spirits manifesting in myths and religions.

So let go of your brown needles…

Blessings, -Minx-

Spotify audio version:

https://open.spotify.com/track/2tBAtP0uNQrs3vBU7UgVp1?si=Rr5KvgYyTtesaQuAais29A

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S24-uRtCpo

With special thanks to -among others- : Steve Taus, owlcation.com, and spiritualbotany.com.