The Dark Forest 11

from A Spell in the Forest

Last November, I posted The Dark Forest 1. Here’s what I wrote as context (if you’ve already read this, do scroll down to the next passage).

My most recent book, published by Moon Books in 2021, was A Spell in the Forest – tongues in trees. The book is narrative non-fiction. It interweaves various threads about trees and forests: old wisdom, new science, tree, forest and wildwood in myth and fairy tale, memoir in relation to a fragment of ancient forest in Brittany about which I’m passionate, archetypal motifs. At its heart is the so-called Celtic Tree Calendar, which underpins the way I live my year (and now also for many other people who participated in my pre-book courses ‘Tongues in Trees’).

Writing the book was a completely immersive experience for me. Throughout it I moved in and out of daily life and deep contemplative states, often when I was walking in said forest. These frequently, when I arrived home, took the shape of ‘stream-of-consciousness’ writing without thought or conscious choice of subject (I’ve used such a technique for decades myself, and have taught and used it with course participants for over 30 years).

So I let these passages, rooted in myth and a psychological relationship to it (the theme of my first book, Riding the Dragon*, in 1994, and loosely rooted in what I call the Heroic Quest) have their own place in the book, and the narrative is interspersed with a few of them. Here’s the second. Readers seem to like it.

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The Dark Forest 11: Climbing down the Roots of the Tree

So, by and by, in the heart of this dark forest, you see – miles away and close at hand – The Tree. Call it the Tree of Life; call it the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil; call it the World Tree.

Its branches are ablaze with all the birds of the heavens; in its roots, the animals of meadow and woodland make their homes.

You can climb in its branches to the heavens; but first you need to climb down its ganglia of roots, into the Underworld heart of the dark earth with its dreams and memories, ancestors and becomings.

Every threshold is guarded. Here, on the descent, you do battle with your fears, your regrets, your unmet hopes and dreams, your past, your future, the ways in which you’ve messed up, been unkind, acted out of ignorance and thoughtlessness.

There will be a question for you.

You have to loosen your pride.

You have to let go of all you know.

You have perhaps already let go of your youthful innocence, your sense that your little life is a vast unending canvas that stretches to the stars.

And now, at last, you can ease your rucksack off your shoulders, and leave it here propped against the tree. In the realm of the Underworld you won’t need all the things that seem so essential in the world between heaven and earth.

But you will need to sacrifice something in order to cross the threshold – perhaps that which is most precious to you. (And you’ll have to do that again climbing back up before the ascent into light – but that’s another story, and your most precious thing may no longer be the same thing as before.)

And then you can let go; in fact, there is nothing else you can do if you wish to find the Pearl Beyond All Price that is your own soul.


© Roselle Angwin 2021/2026

As always my dear friends thank you for reading. I’d love it if you clicked the heart, posted a comment, shared this post – and/or of course bought the book. (*Most of my books are available on ABEbooks as well as on other sites such as Blackwells.)