THE TREES OF WISDOM AND PROPHECY

Helen Martineau
Nov 26
4 min read

a painting of a tree coloured red and yellow with the sun shining through its branches

The five stations of the goddess are bounded in each life by birth and death, while the stages in between may progress step by forward step, or be like or like a stream swirling around rocks. A rock in this sense stands for the mystery of love, of union and harmony which can indeed change your direction. The two stations I look at next flow according to the soul’s often hidden decisions. And just as love and its consummation may occur at any stage in our lives, so with Wisdom and Prophecy. These ‘spiritual gifts’ are powerful attributes that come when we are ready. They are not gifts in the sense of being gratuitous. They must be worked towards with our whole being.

And as with the olive, palm and the acacia we find that tree lore gives expression to the spirit as it weaves into creation.

The Wells of Wisdom beneath the Tamarisk at Beer-Sheba

In the land once known as Canaan Wisdom’s tree was the tamarisk which grows in dry regions. In ancient days thiose trees at Beer-Sheba in the desert was a good place to dig wells. Here is her song.

a tamarisk in the desert covered with pink-orange flowers

Wisdom commissioned the wells,

The seven ancient wells of Beer-Sheba,

To be dug in the desert’s wide grandeur

As entry to her Books of Nature.

To Solomon she whispered her secrets,

And by Wisdom, he heard all she told

When she opened her waters of blessing.

Then come now, consider the wells.

The Queen of the South tends her tamarisk;

In its flowers yellow butterflies linger.

They are souls, and she hears their heart yearning;

She knows them and loves what is true.

She calls you to ponder the wells,

The seven ancient wells of Beer-Sheba;

Their cool waters hidden from seeing

Like the seven wells deep in your being.

They swirl with a chaos of currents

That by Wisdom are calmed and aligned.

In stillness, you can find understanding.

So come now, consider the wells.

Wisdom is an attribute often associated with the elder years because over a lifetime the ideal is to have gained wisdom to share. So often this is not the case. In our materialistic world wealth and power gained are seldom matched by wisdom.

Wisdom, you see, is feminine, a goddess, and that wondrous being has been relegated to a backwater. Or her sacred wells have been blocked up. I used to live with my young family in the north of England in a very old house built over a more ancient well, which was in the cellar. The pure fresh water came from underground streams. Today we remember those years in ‘Well House’ as especially warm and communal, as we drew on the positive energy from that well. But many years later human induced climate change caused the water to rise up in flood, damaging the structure of the house. The well was blocked up. As it happens.

Wells are a symbol of hidden wisdom in many sacred traditions. And that wisdom lives in our bodies as the seven etheric centres within the endocrine system, swirling like underground waters. Our spiritual work is to draw up wisdom from the wells, that is from depths of our being. Wisdom belongs to ‘the wise ones’ who have done this work over many incarnations and/or at last in this one.

Prophecy and the Oaks of Shechem

And then there is Prophecy. Prophetic deities were feared and held in awe. Some were maligned, goddesses especially, like Hecate, who saw past, present, and future and was called a witch.

The oak tree has long been associated with prophecy and truth telling. And in ancient Canaan the tree of prophecy was the strong tabor oak growing in the forests around the hill sanctuary of Shechem. Human prophets were once seen as speaking on behalf of the gods.

Essentially prophecy is an individual’s ability to see truth beneath the myriad lies humans tell and to look further to the outcomes of thought and action, that is, to the future. Prophets foretell what will happen if we do not pay heed. Prophecy may be a potential in all of us. But it remains that way because most people do not want to hear or know what is real. We fear the gift of prophecy and we persecute our prophets, men and women. Is that why the goddess song of the oak tree is tinged with loss and longing as well as hope?

Yet prophecy looks to the awesome promise and potential if we do align our unique soul’s purpose with spirit. The goddess of Shechem is looking to such a time, which in her encompassing vision is close by, although for such a prophecy to be realised will surely take long ages.

We can participate in manifesting the message of the oak tree if we hear and learn to speak truly from the fulness of our spiritual ‘I’. Then in the words of the gospel, ‘…you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.’ (John 8:32)