I did not see a tree thread so I decided to start one.
@Jeanne You need to watch this!
This story is incredible! Almost spiritual. Lots of symbolism.
Some ancient extinct renowned date palm tree seeds were discovered at the ruins of Masada and were recently given a rebirth.
Forests of Judean date palm trees once covered ancient Israel, from Lake Galilee to the Dead Sea.
The fruit of the tree symbolised life and prosperity and was praised in ancient literature for its unique medicinal properties. But the dates of Judea were made extinct by the Middle Ages.
https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p09m0v4x/extinct-tree-from-the-time-of-jesus-rises-from-the-dead
I did not see a tree thread
Here you go, Lovendures!
https://www.jeannemayell.com/community/q-a/trees-nature-druidry/paged/4/#post-46576
@coyote @lovendurs that palm date tree story was INCREDIBLE. I can’t even imagine what it must have been like to get that first seed to germinate and sprout! Wow. Wow. Just wow.
I love that there is a male and female. That is just like cannabis. And I love all the healing properties, again like cannibis. I would love to buy these dates.
I would LOVE to buy those dates too! Everything about the story is incredible including the names chosen, where the seeds were found and why they were there as well as the female energy making it all happen.
@lovendures You said this story was filled with symbolism and that's an understatement! The extinction and resurrection of these ancient dates is another story of the cycle that is unfolding in our civilization. I have posted ad nauseam, my visions of the fall of destructive patriarchy and the rise of nurturing matriarchy around 2125 AD. The Hindu Khali Yuga astrology also fits these dates. In the first century AD, the Romans destroyed the date trees in order to enslave the people of Judea. But 2000 years later, these nurturing healing fruits of the earth were resurrected by two woman. The Mayans also foretold these shifts although without a time period.
The Romans destroyed all the date palm trees of Judea that were used for food and medicine, but one small group of Jewish rebels hid out and stashed some seeds. Rather than falling to the Romans, these rebels made a pact to end their lives so they would never become enslaved. The seeds were found among ruins 2000 years later, and placed in a museum for forty years before a woman decided to see if they could be germinated.
The first seed they germinated was a male plant. Go figure. And the male plant cannot produce more seeds or fruit. This male/female aspect is similar to cannabis, another plant with huge undiscovered medicinal properties. So it took many years for them to sprout, test, and find female date seeds, and then pollinate them before they produced the precious dates.
As you said at the beginning, this is such a wondrous story and symbol.
Doesn't it make you wonder what other extinct plants may be found and brought back again, ones which have healing or high nutritional properties?
It is like there was a 2,000 year old plan to save a species. I wonder how different ancient wheat and corn found in Egyptian tombs is from today?
@lovendures A lot of grains in subsistence farming are similar to what was around at the dawn of cultivation as a lifestyle. Pearl millet, einkorn wheat, buckwheat, amaranth, and a host of other foodstuffs are a lifeblood in several of the drier African nations. Amaranth is near and dear to me personally, as it is a beautiful crop, and I grew up eating allegria (a tasty Mexican dish made with popped amaranth and honey; tastes a lot like a rice crispy treat). A lot of people grow love-lies-bleeding without realizing it's not just a flower, it's a foodstuff. And in the summer, you can use the leaves just like spinach (which we can't grow past April or May in most of the South).
Meanwhile, if you don't find trees spiritually uplifting, you're not trying.
@lovendures This is so fabulous. I just watched the video. I especially liked the women who are responsible for bringing back this ancient date. ❤️❤️❤️
I love amaranth cereal! I can't say I know much about allegria though I had a friend in high school named Allegria haha. She is the only Allegria I have know.
Yes, trees are definitely spiritually uplifting.
SO glad you loved the video. It is quite inspiring and there seems to be a strong divine energy running through the story.
I love everything about this story! Thank you so much for sharing it.
Doesn't it make you wonder what other extinct plants may be found and brought back again, ones which have healing or high nutritional properties?
It is like there was a 2,000 year old plan to save a species. I wonder how different ancient wheat and corn found in Egyptian tombs is from today?
Yes, yes, Oh YES! I loved that story more than anything. It uplifted me in so many ways. I can't stop marveling about the woman who soaked the seed in warm water and then got it to sprout. it's a return from the dead. It's ancients rising back up. Seeds are incredible things! A thrill flowed through my whole body. It heals me. I just finished posting in the Prayers Thread that I needed some healing tonight. Then I saw your post and remembered the video and took it into my being all over again, and I am going to keep thinking about it as I float off to bed.
I am so happy to hear that the trees, even in video and print form, have raised you up and helped begin to heal you. This story tells me that we may not know the reason for life's mysteries but they do in fact reveal themselves in their own time.
Often blessing come in ways we least expect and in forms we have yet to imagine.
As a young girl living among fruit orchards, I always climbed trees. All of us—24 cousins in a family enclave—did. The far-above-the-world feeling, while we chose the smallest trees we were capable of reaching, was quite the natural high.
In recent years during our nature walks on Cape Cod, I would hug a tree if no one was around or looking, except for my husband. Pre-pandemic, we’d joined a group of people in Ptown’s Beech Forest for a forest bathing experience—a Japanese tradition to seek a healing connection w nature and peaceful introspection. Finally, I embraced openly the trees that “spoke” to me. “Hug me!” I heard, “I’ll hug you back.” And, so I did and felt an energetic exchange of strength and love, compassion and resilience.
I remember some people had mocked Barbara Walters’ constant question at an interview’s culmination, “If you could be a tree, what type of tree would you be?” I always thought it was a brilliant question worthy of introspection and connection at the time. It’s sad to me that she noted the harsh criticism and refrained from using it over time. I always knew I was an oak tree and now we live on Oakwood Rd. I hug trees whenever I want to now which is whenever I’m walking in our beautiful forests. ? Long live the trees!
This could easily go under the "Future of Farming" thread, but since it specifically mentions how trees are aiding the cause, I'll put it here. :-)
Ok, finally some possible positive climate news.
Trees. Planting trees might make the planet cooler. Forests tend to bring in clouds which can lower the temperature. I am not exactly sure why this is news but apparently it is.
https://phys.org/news/2021-08-forests-cool-planet-thought.html
@lovendures Thank you for posting. I am always uplifted to hear about the good things that trees do!
I (we) know! haha
I doubt that any of your frequent members here would think otherwise. Good tree news =great Jeanne Day!
It seems so logical that this wold be the case, that forests would attract a cloud cover and thus also cool the land. But apparently it hadn't really been studied...?
Artists and a landscape architect in The Netherlands are completing an inspiring 100 day "summer mobile forest." Wheeling over 1,000 native trees to a new location around a city— before they're finally planted— the project's goal in creating an urban oasis of green is to "focus our attention on the urgent need to change our view of the relationship between humanity and nature."
@deetoo i love this project- when those trees come marching thru the town, it showed everyone what they could have had/ would have had/ should have had, all along, if only they had been more insistant on it. It is time to insist upon trees.
Newly identified waterlily species is world’s largest
Kew’s scientific and botanical research horticulturist Carlos Magdalena said the discovery is the biggest achievement of his 20-year career at Kew.
“However, it took me years to find this tremendous plant. Finally, in March 1988 after sailing over two hours up the Yacuma River looking for tributaries with several huge leaves and some flowers, I collected and preserved them in the National Herbarium of Bolivia, which turned out to be a specimen of Victoria boliviana, now the type specimen. It was a great find and one I will always remember.”
...The waterlily house at Kew Gardens opened in 1852 and was built to house the giant plants discovered by explorers in the Amazon basin.
...The giant waterlily Victoria amazonica drew crowds who marvelled at its huge circular leaves, strong enough to support the weight of a child.
Despite astonishing the western world, the plant was well known to the Indigenous people of the Amazon, who used it for food and medicine.