Trees play a very important role in the maintenance of balance on the earth, not only physically, but also energetically.  Some of them also have a consciousness, which we call Dryads. It was no accident that the first Gaia Method symbols were given to me by a Dryad, as they hold the elemental wisdom of the trees.  But not all trees have a Dryad energy. Dryads are tree spirits and they connect to all other trees within a given area. The Dryad is not a woodland sprite, who runs around the branches and skips amongst the leaves; it is the living spirit within a tree, a spirit which you can communicate with if you choose to. Communicating with Dryads is simply a matter of trust and recognition.

There are thousands of Dryads in the world. Most of the Dryads I have worked with were in woods, or forests, or on Earth energy-lines. They can be of any age and you can usually ‘feel’ their age, but usually the older the tree, the older the Dryad.  They can also inhabit any species of tree. I have worked with Ash, Olive, Fig, Ficus Benjamina, Beech, Larch, Pine, Hawthorn, and Oak, amongst others. The ones that feel to me to have the most ‘human-like’ personality are the Beech trees. You can have whole conversations with the Beech Dryads! They seem to be very easy to access and are very ‘giving’ with their energy. Other species are doing definite jobs, which you can help with, but they do not communicate in quite the same way as Beech trees.

Dryads also hold an energetic space around themselves. They can have huge energy-fields that cover a large area. They are not limited by their physicality, just as we are not. We think we are; the trees know they are not! When working with a Dryad, we are within its energy-field, even though we need to be in physical contact with the tree’s physical self. We are all in a physical body but we all have an energy-field. Often, when in the presence of a Dryad energy it feels like wind in the branches, which suddenly whips up and fills the air.  Sometimes it feels like the entire area is filled with this ‘wind’, and there is a definite sensing of energy in it that communicates with you. It is a whole body, mind and emotional experience, so there is no mistaking it when you feel it.

The roots of trees can anchor the energy-lines which run throughout the earth, transmitting the energy from those lines into the atmosphere, keeping it clear. However, these trees can also become very clogged, energetically, by human negativity and destruction. These trees then transmit all of that energy into their surroundings, because they will transmit whatever runs through the lines. They don’t have any judgement about whether it is good or bad, they just channel it from the earth and into the air, affecting the energy around it. If the energy flow is denser or filled with negative human energy then, over time it effects the tree,  leading ultimately to its death.    I have used the roots of trees to anchor the red lines, the ones which come from deep beneath the earth. When they need to be brought closer to the surface, or even created, then a tree is usually what holds them in place.  Once it does this, then the tree is effected by it and holds the energy for its surroundings. The energy from the line energises the tree.

Dryads often have a definite feeling of gender. They can be perceived as male or female, young or old. Some of them are so old it is as if they are just ‘present’ within the tree and their wisdom is all around them, but they do not communicate, so much as radiate; just being.  But you know they are there because they ‘feel’ different.

When I first started working with Dryads, I thought that all trees held this type of consciousness. But then I tried to communicate with some trees and discovered that they felt like Trees, but had no Dryad energy. When I tried to blend my energy with a non-conscious tree, the feelings were incredibly subtle and initially, I thought I was feeling nothing. But then I began to experience the tree’s experience of Time, and how the seasons changed around it. There was this constant awareness of movement within the seasons and cycles of change, which went on forever. At first, I couldn’t understand why this was all I was picking up, but then realised that not all trees had a Dryad energy within them.

My very first Tree contact was with an ancient Yew tree, close to  Lainston House Hotel, near Winchester, in the 90’s. I had gone rambling through the woods, as I love exploring new paths, and I had found myself beside a huge old Yew tree which I felt an impulse to stand against. As soon as I leaned my back against the tree, I became aware of it being connected to all the trees around it, through the earth. It was as though it was communicating with the other trees and somehow ‘broadcasting’ to them and into the environment. It felt amazing.  In many ways it acted like a satellite dish, but there was something in the communication which was about keeping the balance within the area. The Yew tree felt like the Elder and the rest of the trees in the woods felt like its children!

That experience awakened something in me, which, at the time, I didn’t fully understand until many years later. But ever since that experience, I was able to sense the energy in and around the Dryads.

Many trees live on the cross-over points of energy-lines, and they hold the energy which runs through the lines, acting as both anchor and transmitter. I remember one Ancient Ash tree, which lived on a boundary ditch that had once been part of a village deserted during the plague years. It had grown in the garden of one of the cottages, and even though the village was no longer there, the tree remained. When I was around this tree, it felt like I was in a cathedral, the energies were so light and spiritual. I was new to working with energy-lines and nature energies back then, but this tree’s energy was palpable. It felt like a Grail site, but I had  no idea what that meant. I loved this tree, and its wonderful energy, and took a lot of friends to visit it over the years. (Years later, I discovered that this ash tree grew in the grounds of the village church, now no longer there. The building itself was long gone, but the tree remained, harnessing the church’s wonderful sacred energy). 

Dryads can often be found living on, or near sacred sites, even if that site is no longer there.  The energy, however, is, and the memories live on. Trees living around the energy of old churches, which were often built on pre-existing sacred sites, act like elephants and have a very long memory. You can tap into this energy by tuning into the tree. It is a little like psychometry!

One of the most important things I learned with trees is that they do not judge what we humans do, they just continue with their ‘function’ without becoming ‘upset’ about it. Many people working with trees tend to ‘project’ their own emotions and beliefs about the tree, onto the tree itself. The tree can have a very different idea of what it finds ‘acceptable’. To give you an example: Once I went to Swallowhead Spring, at West Kennet Long Barrow. There, people had left lots of ribbons and crystals and ‘stuff’, which to my human mind seemed more like littering. But as I was thinking this and feeling quite pee’d off about the lack of respect people seemed to have for the site, the tree that grew beside the spring put her feeling of gratitude into my consciousness. I was quite surprised. She said she was really happy the site was being honoured by humans again, as it had once been, and she didn’t mind their offerings. It brought love to a neglected place which once honoured the Mother. I had to completely shift my perspective about what was acceptable and what was not after that. My human mind had simply projected my personal beliefs onto the site, and the Tree; I have never done it since. Although I do think that the stuff needs cleaning up now and again, so that it does not end up clogging the area.

If you want to know what a tree really feels, then ask it. If you feel a negative emotional response, such as anger, sadness etc. then those are probably your feelings getting in the way. Trees don’t feel like we do, they are far more accepting of our failings than we are. I have never met an angry or sad tree. They are far closer to the Source, or God, or whatever you want to call it than we are. When you are in communication with trees, you are in communication with the Divine. Experientially it feels exactly the same. It feels joyful, accepting, loving and giving. Even when they are holding human negative energy, they still do not judge it. It just IS! To me, they feel far closer to our Soul’s experience, than to our human one… and our human perspective can be very limited.

I will post some of my experiences with trees, so that you can get an idea of just how to work with them and how they operate; then, if you have similar experiences you will know what they might mean. I would also love to hear some of your stories and communications, no matter how crazy your experiences might seem to be.

There are Tree energies available as an attunement within the Gaia Method Earthways System: symbols which give you the ability to access the Dryad energy.