Healing Power of Trees

By Liliana Usvat
Blog 300-365

Facts

•  Given a choice between a scene with trees and one without trees, people of all ages and ethnic groups from various countries prefer the scene with trees regardless of whether they live in urban, suburban or rural areas.
• Just knowing that natural places are available nearby makes a residence more appealing to buyers.
• 
• People are more satisfied with their neighborhoods if there are trees on or near their property. They describe their quality of life as safer, more pleasant and are more satisfying than people living in homes without trees nearby.
• Residents living in apartments with a window view of tress are significantly less aggression toward family members than those whose windows look onto concrete, asphalt or barren earth.  This includes their making fewer insults and threats and other psychologically aggressive behavior.
• Police report lower crime rates in areas of public housing developments that have a density of trees.
• Residents of urban public housing use common spaces with trees more often than common spaces that are barren of trees
• Hospital patients with a window view of trees need less pain medication and are  discharged sooner than patients with treeless views.

     India

I    In India sacred trees are visited by petitioners seeking blessings, especially for health and fertility, from the indwelling spirit or deity who is usually regarded as female and a manifestation of the Earth Goddess? Food and flowers are left at the foot of the tree or shrine and ribbons of cloth or coloured wish bags are tied to the tree.

     Ireland

The Celtic Druids worshipped not in temples, but in groves of trees. These natural woodland sites may have predated the Celts. Those that have been identified are frequently centred on a convergence of earth energies. In former Celtic groves in Wales, Brittany, Ireland and Cornwall the trees are still adorned with ribbons, trinkets and petitions for healing and blessings.

Australia

The Australian Aborigines used healing remedies from trees such as tea tree and eucalyptus centuries before they entered more conventional medicine Tea tree leaves were inhaled by the Aborigines to prevent nasal, throat and chest congestion and ground into a paste to relieve burns and skin infections.

Canada

Native Canadians knew all about those benefits. According to a nearly 500-year-old legend, French explorer Jacques Cartier's ship got stuck in the ice near Quebec. He and his crew faced certain death from scurvy (a vitamin C deficiency) until a tribal chieftain named Donacona brewed the sailors pine tea. It saved their lives and their explorations continued. Later, in the 1940s, a French researcher named Jacques Masquelier discovered that pine bark and needles contain vitamin C.

Tree Meditation - Merging with the essence of the tree

I encourage you to set aside 30 minutes to go out and climb, touch, hug or  just be near a tree and meditate on all of the richness they provide to the planet, not only visually, but in their healing medicinal properties, cleaning our air, providing a place for children to play and providing the  materials for our homes. 

The fact that trees give off oxygen just before dawn, which wakes up the birds and makes them sing! Put your hands on a tree and open to the teaching it has for you and send your gratitude back to her.

1. If possible work so that sunlight is filtering through the leaves
2. Begin by sitting against the trunk for a while, making connection with the forest floor and through the bark with the energy flowing upwards form the earth.
3.  Put your hands on the floor and press down with your feet, picturing any excess energies and negative feelings as dark light sinking downwards into the earth.
4. When you feel calm, stand facing the tree so your fingers on both hands and your toes are lightly touching the trunk.
5. Picture as liquid gold or russet red, rich light rising in beams through your feet and legs, flowing through every part of your body, finding its own pathways.
6. Then allow the stream of gold to be carried back through your fingertips into the tree, absorbing your pain or sorrow and rising again pure and clear through your feet in a continuing cycle/.
7. Focus on any part of your body that is experiencing pain or problem and visualise the energy swirling there anti-clockwise and then clockwise, clearing the blockage or problem.
8. You may experience a surge or energy or a gentler flow of light within you. Continue creating the circuit with the tree energy until you feel powerful and protected.
9. Hug the tree 

    Links

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIAA9velJ34
• http://www.care2.com/greenliving/the-healing-benefits-of-hugging-a-tree.html
• http://blogs.evergreen.edu/researchambassador/projects-2/trees-healing/

Gingko Trees Sacred Chinese Tree

By Liliana Usvat
Blog 299-365

The ginkgo is a living fossil, recognisably similar to fossils dating back 270 million years. Native to China, the tree is widely cultivated and was introduced early to human history. It has various uses in traditional medicine and as a source of food.

The oldest ginkgo tree in Beijing is over 1300 years old and is still standing outside of a temple first built since the Tang Dyansty from 6th Century,the second oldest one is in a temple called "Dajue" or "Great Awakeness" in the western suburb of Beijing which is from the Liang Dynasty from 8th Century.

In ancient times, the Ginkgo Tree was called the "Duck Feet Tree". Ginkgo tree it's also referred as the White Fruit Tree 

Sacred Tree

Ginkgo biloba has been considered as a type of "Sacred Tree" in China since ancient times. Because the gingko tree has been around for millennia and has often out-survived humans during catastrophic events.

Apart from being a manifestation of the sacred concept of yin and yang, the tree was primarily a symbol of longevity and vitality. Most gingkos grow to an imposing height and width during their lifetime, often living for several millennia.

Planting ginkgo trees outside of temples was a common practice because the tree was revered as a symbol of sacred knowledge and long lasting wisdom. 

Chinese Daoist shamans used gingko trees for shamanistic tree worship and would engrave on gingko trees to communicate with the spirit world.

Daoist shamans used to engrave their magical spells and seals on ginkgo wood from old trees in order to communicate with the spirit world."

Additionally, legend has it that Confucius taught while sitting under a gingko tree.

Medicinal Uses

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) doctors believe that 

• the ginkgo kennel could reduce inflammation of the body if the kennels were eaten, 
• it can cure certain skin problems if the kernal is mushed and used to cover the skin rashes.
•  treatment for dementia and 
• Alzheimer's disease
• The medicinal properties of the gingko root were first reported in the Sichuan herbal primer, Chongqing Folk Herbs (Chongqing Caoyao). Different from the seed and the leaf, the root is classified as a warm herb that affects the liver and 
• kidney channels
• A similar feature to the seed and the leaf, however, is its astringent affect. In particular, the root is described as astringing kidney qi deficiency related turbid discharge from the lower burner, such as spermatorrhea, dribbling urine, and leukorrhea.
• In 1985 Dictionary of the Chinese Materia Medica (Zhongyao Da Cidian), adds that gingko leaf benefits the heart and 
• treats stuffiness in the chest, 
• angina pectoris, and 
• palpitations. 
•  The leaves contain substances that promote blood circulation,
• alleviate allergy reactions, and 
• have antioxidant properties.
• The medicinal uses of ginkgo nut were mainly involved with treatment of lung diseases. In fact, one of the famous traditional Chinese formulas for treating asthmatic breathing, Ding Chuan Tang, has ginkgo nut as a key ingredient (the original formula is sometimes called Ma-huang and Ginkgo Combination as an English designation, recognizing two of its most important ingredients). The nine ingredient decoction was first recorded in the book Exquisite Formulas for Fostering Longevity (Fu Shou Jing Fang), written by Wu Min in 1530 A.D.

To maximize the astringent effect, all three medicinal gingko items are properly harvested in September and October, when the metal qi of nature leaves its condensing and storage promoting energetic imprint on all living organisms. Because of this overriding astringing action, all gingko parts are contraindicated in true excess situations. In order of potency, the seed appears to be the strongest of the three, folllowed by the leaf and then the root. The seed is usually prescribed in amounts of up to 9g, the leaf up to 15g, and the root up to 30g.

Hiroshima

Extreme examples of the ginkgo's tenacity may be seen in Hiroshima, Japan, where six trees growing between 1–2 km from the 1945 atom bomb explosion were among the few living things in the area to survive the blast.

Distribution

Currently, about 70% of the world's ginkgo trees are in China, mainly those cultivated in Jiangsu Province in huge, dense plantations. China has recently become a supplier of ginkgo extract to America, providing an alternative to the French product that, perhaps ironically, gets its ginkgo leaves from America at higher cost.

Vilca tree - Sacred Tree of Ancient Inca

By Liliana Usvat
Blog 298-365

Vilca tree is an entheogenic plant. Entheogenic plants have been used as for purposes of holistic healing, higher consciousness and sorcery for thousands of years. 

The vilca tree (probably Anadenanthera colubrina) grows in the cloud-forest zones on the eastern slopes of the Peruvian Andes. 

The Incas used a snuff made from the seeds which was generally blown up the nostrils of the participant by a helper. Evidently the Inca priests used vilca to bring on visions and make contact with the gods and spirit world.

Interesting Facts

Vilca is an ancient visionary snuff prepared from the seeds from the Vilca tree (Anadenanthera colubrina) of South America.  The psychoactive components are the tryptamine alkaloids bufotenine, dimethyltryptamine, and 5-meo-dimethyltryptamine . 

There is a village named after this tree.

Vilcabamba is a village in the southern region of Ecuador, in the Loja province, about 45 km (28 mi) from the city of Loja. 

The etymology of the name “Vilcabamba” apparently derives from the Quichua “huilco pamba.” Huilco denotes the sacred trees, Anadenanthera colubrina, that inhabit the region; pamba (cognate with pampa) is a word meaning “a plain”. 

The area has been referred to as the "Playground of the Inca" which refers to its historic use as a retreat for Incan royalty. The valley is overlooked by a mountain called Mandango, the Sleeping Inca, whose presence is said to protect the area from earthquakes and other natural disasters.


Other Names

Anadenanthera colubrina 
(also known as Vilca, Huilco, Huilca, Wilco, Willka, Cebil, or Angico) is a South American tree closely related to Yopo, or Anadenanthera peregrina. It grows from 5 m to 20 m tall and the trunk is very thorny.

The Quichuan word ‘huilco’ also refers to a sacred tree found in the Sacred valley. The Anadenanthera colubrine tree (known also as Willka, Vilca or Huilca), is considered to be a treasure in Ecuador and is deemed to be holy among the Quichuan 

History

Vilca (which means ‘sacred’ in Quechua)  was regarded as the supreme visionary bridge between life and death in ancient times.  It was used by many cultures in South America dating back to before 2,500 BC.  

It was partaken within huachuma mesada ceremonies in the Chavin temple as part of the supreme initiation there, and later by the Moche, Wari, Nazca, and Inca in largely 'inner sanctum' ceremonies administered only to the shaman priest elite. 

To understand the nature of Vilca one must understand some of the basic tenants of South American shamanism which is fundamentally animistic:

    1. Belief in spirit guides, guardians, healers and teachers.
    2. A realization that special sacred places are endowed with supernatural power.
   3. The concept of metaphysical combat with negative energy and/or entities.
   4. The integral association of entheogenic plants with spiritual power, healing, and enlightenment.
    5. Belief in spiritual or supernatural forces or energy as principal causes of illness.

The Spanish chronicler Polo de Ondegardo, writing in 1571, records the use of vilca by what he called sorcerers, hechiceros; in 1582, the Relaciones Geográficas de la Provincia De Xauxa describes vilca as a bean used in conjunction with tobacco snuff.

 The Jesuit Franz Xavier Veigl, published in 1768, writes of “the so-called ayahuasca, which is a bitter reed, or more specifically, a liana. It serves for mystification and bewitchment” 

Medicinal Uses

Vilca leaves are used to:

• treat respiratory ailments and 
• asthma and 
• the tree is also valued for its ability to bring back pristine oxygen and 
• block pollutants in the air, which many believe is a contributing factor to the residents’ 
• good health and longevity.
• A tea made from vilca seeds is used for digestive troubles.  
• The seeds, when combined with a chicha brew, may also be used to help fever.
•  Seeds are added to honey to increase female fertility and 
• as a diuretic. 
• However, the seeds are also abortifacients. 
• The gum of A. colubrina is used to treat coughs, while 
• the snuff is used to treat headaches, 
• constipation and 
• flu

Psychedelic Snuff

To make the psychedelic snuff called Vilca (sometimes called cebil), the black beans from the bean pods of these trees are first toasted until the beans pop like popcorn breaking the bean's husk. The roasting process facilitates removal of the husk and makes the beans easier to grind into a powder. 

The bean's husk is usually removed because it is difficult to powderise. The bean is then ground with a mortar and pestle into a powder and mixed with a natural form of calcium hydroxide (lime) or calcium oxide (from certain types of ashes, calcined shells, etc.). This mix is then moistened to a consistency similar to bread dough, using a small amount of water. If calcium oxide is used, the water will react with it to form calcium hydroxide. 

Once moistened, it is kneaded into a ball for several minutes so that all the bufotenin comes into contact with the calcium hydroxide and forms the free-base. After kneading, it is then left to sit for several hours to several days, depending on the local customs. 

During this period most of the excess calcium hydroxide reacts with the carbon dioxide in the air to form calcium carbonate. Calcium hydroxide is caustic in the presence of water, and is very irritating to the nasal passages, so it is desirable to allow any left over calcium hydroxide to convert to calcium carbonate. It is then thoroughly dried and ready for use. 

The more modern non-traditional use of baking soda or ammonia as a substitute for calcium hydroxide has been used with limited success. A nearly identical snuff called Yopo, can be prepared from the related Anadenanthera peregrina.