Tree Connections in Crab Wood, Winchester

March 21, 2025May 16, 2025 / Ann Murphy / Leave a comment

I’ve been seeing a chiropractor for a few weeks now, fixing a twisted pelvis and a curve in my spine, which I’ve had for a number of years but did not realise. My sessions are twice a week, in Winchester, so it gives me the perfect opportunity to not only have my breakfast in Kneaded, a great cafe with chef-cooked food, and delicious hot chocolate, but also to meet up with friends and do some energy work around Winchester.

Today, ( 28th Feb 25) Chris and I went to Crab Wood, in Sparsholt, Hampshire, to visit a tree. One of the trees I wanted to show Chris, we could not find, but we connected to some others instead. One of them, I wanted to specifically visit on behalf of a friend in Ireland, but to connect with this one, I first had to touch base with the Mother tree deeper in the woods.

As usual, when we meet a tree, we walk around it anti-clockwise. Once we had completed one circuit, we stood facing it, and Chris felt his heart connect with the heart of the tree. (He had received the heartwood symbol which Malia (a friend form California) and I had been gifted by a pine tree in Micheldever woods last October). Chris received his from the lovely old tree in Winchester Cathedral grounds last week, which I will write about too, as they are all connected.
Once Chris had connected to the heart of the tree, he saw bands of colour around the tree, half a meter above the ground and about a meter out from the tree itself. The colours were light brown, brown and orange.
I had the idea to walk around the tree again, to see if more were added, but instead, the rings moved with me. Chris then walked around it again, and the same things happened. The bands of colour moved with them. So it was our connection to the tree that was creating them. This was a new experience.

I stood with my back against the tree, feeling a pull to do that and Chris saw the tree reaching towards me as if it was giving me a hug. With my back against the trunk I became aware of my spine being as straight as the tree trunk, as though I was part of the trunk. Sap rose up my spinal column and into my head and from my head I was aware that the sap was rising into the branches that emerged from my head, as though I was the tree. The sap fed the leaves and branches in a delicious way and I felt very connected to the vitality of the tree itself, and to the sun, to which my branches were reaching.

Chris, with his back against the trunk felt the energy rising from the earth up through his feet and into this veins, spreading out through his body, to the heart, which was important because his heart was now connected to the trees. From there, it went to his shoulders, down his arms and out through his hands. Finally, it spread through his head, meeting at a point at the top. He felt the impulse to spread his arms out and then his fingers, so he too became a tree.

My biggest feeling then came from the tree to share her energy with others. The consciousness of the tree needed to be sent out to other people so they could connect with the trees in this way. She said that Mother trees did not differentiate between fir trees, oak trees, beech trees or larch, etc. The energy was shared, sent out to all, so every tree could benefit. She did not make the decision that one group of trees were privileged to receive her knowledge and energy while others had to stand in want, but that every tree would be given it. (later I understood what this meant when I received channelling about writing a book about the connection between Runes and Trees; not something I understand, but which I’m sure will become clear!)

As I stood with my back against the tree, I began to see a gold disc forming at the level of my lower Tan Tien, on the Hara line, its centre at my centre and expanding horizontally a metre out from my body. As I later discovered, this was an information disc, for the project of the tree book.

Chris was drawn to two oak trees a little distance away so we headed over to them. I had brought water from the two springs at Glastonbury, the red spring and the white spring and shortly thereafter, I found why I was told to bring it. As we wandered over to these oak trees, Chris was suddenly told that they were called Arthur and Guinevere, which completely surprised him. Then he was told that the Mother tree we had connected to was called Albion. He found this hilarious, and strange. But, I’m guessing this is symbolic of something the trees were trying to show us around the masculine and feminine energies of Albion.

Once we got to the trees, I was told to walk an infinity symbol around them, connecting them together, like I had done before here but on the other side of the woods. Once we had walked one round of the symbol, which is all they needed, I anchored the centre of the symbol where the lines cross over, with a sapphire, which relates to the sapphire level of the crystalline energy-field around the earth.

Focusing on the sapphire, I then saw a small white flame with a yellow centre grow from the ground beneath the sapphire. The white flame is a flame of renewal. I have anchored a white flame, much larger than this, in Coldridge woods in Wiltshire, which was my very first flame experience, but this flame had a tiny yellow centre. Not sure what that means but it reminded me of a Frangipani flower which I saw a lot of in Egypt.

Once this was done, it was time to visit the beech tree down by the road, which holds the sapphire energy around it. However, as we walked back towards the Mother Tree, I spotted a piece of iron, part of a plough which had been discarded. In Egyptian hieroglyphs, the plough (also called a Hoe) is not only a letter, Mer, but also a ritual object. In the Gaia Method Earthways, we use it as part of the creation of foundations of ‘temples’. In the past, this was part of the sacred building process of building physical temples, but in our work it signifies building energetic landscape temples. So, it felt like a little reminder that we were building foundations.

Although saying that, it could just have been part of a plough. 😁

We continued on our way to the other beech tree, saying a mental thank you as we passed the Mother Tree.

At the beech, by the road through Crab Wood, we connected to the amethyst sphere around the tree which I had anchored there last year. I had been ‘told’ to bring a bottle of water to make an essence here so, after pouring some of the Glastonbury water at the roots, connecting it, again, to the other trees. I took it out and waited for what to do. Immediately, an energetic, hand, that looked cartoon-ish, formed from the sapphire energy and plunged itself into the bottle of water in my hands. It remained there, infusing the water with its energy and then it changed frequency and became yellow topaz. This felt like crystalline sunlight.

With both of those energies now in the water, the last energy that appeared was the sapphire, which formed a sphere around the bottle just as the amethyst sphere contains this tree. This sphere not only contains the bottle, with its two energies inside, but also adds its sapphire energy to the whole. This is the first time this has happened so it was very interesting. I understand that the essence is for those who work with trees in this way, connecting them energetically to other trees and connecting an energetic tree-field.

It was interesting that the Arthur and Guinevere infinity connection was on this side of the woods. I had done the same thing at the other side last year (and which Chris did not know about) and two trees were also connected to each other with the infinity symbol, One was feminine and the other masculine. But it was a Mother and a Brother tree that had to be connected. Again, holding some symbolic meaning that the trees understood.

So that was the end of that, until I got home and channelling came through telling me about a connection between runes and trees. I’m still trying to work that out, but they did say it would take time…

Arthur’s Gate and the Mother Tree.

May 15, 2023September 10, 2023 / Ann Murphy / 4 Comments

I recently had a spontaneous initiation on the grounds of Lainston House, near Winchester, in Hampshire. Many years ago, in 1999, I made a connection with an old Yew tree which grows close to the road that bisects the old Lainston House avenue. This tree is one I have visited many times and every time I visited, she gave me many gifts, such as energy, a cloak of bark and tree wisdom. I had only arrived in the UK in 1991 and within a couple of years had begun training in mediumship, counselling and Reiki. I didn’t know then that I would be working with earth energies. That wouldn’t happen for another ten years. Or that I was beginning a spiritual training that would result in the Gaia Method Earthways. I wouldn’t have believed anyone even if they had told me. I remember my first experience of spiritual communication. It was in the Winchester Spiritualist church, back in 1994. I had been training as a tarot reader with the wonderful Rosemary Prince, which lead to her running a development circle. I went to the church a few times and one night the medium gave me messages, telling me I was a healer. I remember thinking she must be mistaking me for the woman who was sitting next to me as I was certainly no healer. Now, of course, I know she was right, but back then I felt too damaged to be anything, let alone a healer.

My first experience with this beautiful old Yew tree was when I discovered it, having gone for a walk through the woods, close to where I lived. She was such a huge presence there and I immediately felt drawn to go and stand with my back against her. This proved to be an electrifying experience and I felt the energies of every tree in the locality sending information to her through the ground, which she transmitted into the surrounding countryside. (This was before they discovered how trees communicate with each other through mycelium). She was like a mother tree to all the other trees, which she saw as her children, even though they were not of the same tree-species. She had such immense power which spread out for quite a distance across the land. I didn’t realise it at the time, but I was becoming one of her children too.

In that first estatic and powerful experience with her, she opened me up to a world of nature-energies and elementals. Each time I visited her, she gave me something, shared knowledge with me or asked me to share my energy with her. I absolutely loved this tree and visited her when I felt the impulse. And that was another thing, she never needed my constant attention. But when something of importance needed to be shared, I felt the urge to visit her and each time I went, something significant happened.

Lately, I’d passed her every day on my way to my father’s house, projecting ‘Hello’ to her as I went by. But one day, I felt the impulse to stop and visit. I had time to spare, so I parked up, and as I walked down the path towards her the words ‘Arthur’s Gate’ came into my head. My first experience of Arthur’s Gate was in Tintagel. I knew it was an initiation but thought the Gateway initiation was only at Tintagel; that it was a place rather than an event. I didn’t realise it was something that could happen anywhere.

I continued to the Tree and when I reached her, I touched her rough bark to connect with her. Then I was told to walk once around her anticlockwise, to open the energies between us. When I reached my original position I laid back against her again, and felt a line go from my heart to her heartwood; a sharing of heart energy. Then, I felt the need to walk forward and walked a couple of meters away from her. I experienced this as though I was a child being pushed gently into the world, able to stand on my own two feet. She was communicating to me that it was time I was out on my own, that I didn’t need her anymore.

This was a surprise because I hadn’t realised that she had been my Mother-tree for all these years, teaching me how to become a tree-person. But when I looked back at all I learned, I realise it was true. If it wasn’t for her, and the generosity of her indwelling spirit, the Gaia Method Earthways would never have been developed. She opened a tree-door for me and gave me access to a whole elemental world.

So, feeling a little weird about it, but knowing it was the right thing, I walked away, saying goodbye to her in my head, feeling sad and grateful.

I walked through the woods looking for the Lainston house avenue. This too, I had passed every day, promising myself I would stop and walk it. It was only a short distance away from the tree and in all the times I had been in that little stretch of woods I had never known it was so accessible. I began to walk along the avenue, feeling a little nervous and not sure if I was allowed to be on it at all. Was it private property? My old fear of authority.

I turned to walk down along the avenue and as I did I saw a huge arch of light stretching over the trees. This was the Arthur’s Gate. It was the biggest initiatic gateway I’ve ever had to move through. Gateways can be of any size, and they can appear anywhere. The size corresponds to the importance of the initiation and how much change has to be experienced in order to achieve it. They also take time to actualise, in physical reality. The place, and the emotions experienced while going through them, are also messages giving clues about the nature of the initiation.

I took my time to walk through this huge arch, reflecting on what it meant. It was arched over the longest avenue of Lime trees in England and connected to a house that was built for Charles II so he could live there with his mistress. He had already commissioned a palace in Winchester which was never finished, but which was going to be based on Versailles. It is a house of abundance and history. I have always rejected wealth and stability having grown up with a father who put money first. I decided, early on, that love was more important. Needless to say, poverty isn’t very noble, as I learned when I lived in Luxor, so I have been slowly healing these beliefs around abundance. Now it would seem that it is time to put my new beliefs to the test.

As I walked through the arch, I was also aware of a prayer mat under my feet. This was connected to the initiation and it felt like both Spanish and Egyptian energies. A Moorish/Islamic element. The two countries were connected, energetically.

The Arthurian Gate is an initiation. It is about moving into an area of development which involves connecting to male energies of abundance and power. The ability to accept wealth, fearlessly. It is a particularly masculine gateway energy, so it connects to the layer of Divine masculine energy flow which looks like a river flowing above your head. When I first went through an Arthurian gate, it was in Tintagel looking from the castle out to sea. I was always independent and hated accepting abundance through men. But I was being asked to. I didn’t like the games around money, the way there were so many ‘conditions’ around generosity. So rather than deal with these difficulties, I chose to remain poor. Going through the first gateway changed that and I had to learn how to deal with those issues.

I had expanded into a new level of abundance, and all the lessons and healing, that went with it. Now, those lessons are expanding into something greater – which might also take twenty years to accomplish. I am guessing about the time here because that is how long it has taken me to get to the second Arthur’s Gate!

The place the gateways take place is significant. There are clues everywhere. I wondered if it was significant that I had to leave the nurturing and support of the Mother-tree, which is only meters away from this avenue, to step onto this road of abundance and the things that abundance could help me to establish. It’s like leaving home, and moving into independence with all the learning and tools I need to succeed.

Ultimately, it is now up to me.

Going through ‘gates’ means facing fears, and my initial fear of whether I was breaking some rule by walking along the avenue, was highlighting my fear of ‘needing permission’ to walk the path of empowerment and abundance. Was I allowed to walk this path?

I was walking it, so I guess the answer was YES.So let’s see where the gateway leads.