I am very fortunate to live in a large, wooded area that lends itself to nature walks. Because it is such a large tract of land and I take frequent walks, it can be hard to remember just where that special plant, tree, rock, etc. was when you need to get back to it for one reason or another.
Since my research and thoughts have been greatly focused on trees for the last couple of years, I have been trying to find a particularly special tree. I swear I took a picture of it. But after several years and a crashed computer or two, the picture is as elusive as the tree.
In my mind’s eye, I can see it standing in the middle of a grove. It’s not very large and I seem to remember that it was a sourwood (Oxydendrum arboreum).
Sourwoods in and of themselves aren’t especially unique. They are understory trees that rarely get over about 30 feet high. In Spring, they produce drooping clusters of flowers that remind people of lily of the valley or Pieris japonica. Bees love the flowers and people love the sourwood honey the bees produce.
During Summer, sourwoods are pretty nondescript but in Autumn, their leaves light up the forest with a rich red or burgundy color.
But none of these features were the reason for my trip back out into the woods today. The specimen I am looking for was damaged at some point in its history, likely by a storm. The tree recovered with a natural hole that you could step through, if you are agile and slender enough.
A naturally occurring hole that runs through the trunk of a tree is a rare occurrence. Most of the time, the tree would die due to the disruption of its water and nutrient flow or an infestation of bugs or bacteria. A slightly more common occurrence is when two trees in close proximity rub against one another and eventually grow together. Science has a name for this. It is inosculation – a process through which trees grow together in a permanent embrace.
This can also happen on a single tree when two parts of the same tree rub together, creating a tear that eventually sews the two branches together as the tree heals. I’ve seen this many times on crepe myrtles (Lagerstroemia), as shown in the accompanying picture.
For our ancestors, such a natural phenomenon was considered mystical. In the case of two different trees growing together, they often invented stories of ill-fated lovers who are turned into trees to preserve their forbidden love.
When a single tree suffered an injury that resulted in a hole and lived to leaf out another day, it suggested to our ancestors that the tree had special healing powers. Sick children would be passed through the hole in the hopes the sickness would be absorbed by the tree. Sick adults could do the same, provided the hole was big enough.
Sometimes the hole was not naturally occurring. A desperate family might slit an opening in a tree, pass the sick person through the slit and then bind the tree back up. If the tree survived, it suggested the sick person might also survive.
Such openings were also considered in some cases to be portals into the fairy realm or otherworldly places. Care should be taken by anyone who risked this kind of adventure. Time moves differently in other realms, we are told. You might step through to a magickal place for what you imagine to be one day. On your return you could likely find you have been gone for decades, even centuries.
Of course, when such a person returned from the other side, they invariably died soon because they aged rapidly on their re-entry into this world. That’s one way to keep such a special doorway hidden and prying eyes at bay. Other times, once the visitor had a chance to come back, he or she could never find the portal to the Fae again.
Maybe that is what has happened to my sourwood portal. I stumbled on a doorway to the Fairy Lands that was visible for a brief time and now it’s gone. People have been known to search their entire lives trying to get back to a land of magick and mystery and treasures beyond belief. Given the pleasures of a walk in the woods, I wouldn’t say it’s a bad way to spend a lifetime.
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