Michael Dunning - The Sacred Yew Tree
The Yew Tree is one of the oldest sentient beings on earth. For thousands of years it represented the original spiritual and functional centre of western pre-Celtic healing practices, initiatory rites and community identity. It is now widely accepted that the World Tree in Norse mythology, Yggdrasil was a yew. Take a close look at any detailed map of Europe from Scotland to Scandinavia or from Ireland to Spain, and you are likely to discover the myriad of place-names derived from the ancient tree. The yew represented far more than simply a convenient name for a location - the yew literally was that location. As the evergreen symbol of immortality and perpetual rejuvenation the yew embodied the transcendent function and cosmic laws of the stellar dimensions within the body of the earth in relationship to the sensuality, spiritual development and health of human beings.
Curiously the influence of the yew has been discovered in distant countries and regions where it could notthrive naturally and by definition should not have been significant. It has been proposed that the yew was the original Egyptian Tree of Life and many sarcophagi in Egypt have been found to contain yew wood. Within the sacred mystery school traditions and initiatory rites of Egypt there is also evidence that the yew was venerated. It has also been convincingly argued that Yahweh as a variation of Yehweh or Yehu is derived from the Gaelic Ihu for yew.
It is well established that the yew was significant to the Druids of the north-west; but why would we find the tree connected to the lands of the East? Beneath this intriguing question lies a fascinating story about the yew tree that is only now beginning to be told. It is a story that has been largely repressed. Why was the yew venerated? What sacred knowledge did it offer to the ancient pre-Celtic inhabitants of the British Isles? Why was this knowledge regarded as dangerous by the subsequent invaders of Britain and deliberately repressed by them? What can we rediscover about the yew and what can it teach us today?
Over the years Michael has been able to identify many profound connections between the womb--like nature of the yew tree, the events and sensory information of his own initiation and the early development of a human being from conception. He believes that the ancient Druids practiced a kind of spiritual embryology that directly linked the origin and health of the community to the wider cosmic order through the rejuvenating power and gesture of the yew. Drawing on his direct visionary and visceral experiences from over ten years of healing and transformation under the branches of an ancient yew in Scotland, Michael will present the odyssey and mysterious healing power of the yew in a series of stunning images and personal anecdotes.
Michael Dunning is a healer, shaman, musician, writer and artist from Scotland. He is the founder and director of the The Sacred Yew Institute which teaches a shamanic-embryology and offers a Foundation Training in Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy. Michael has written about his spiritual illness and the extraordinary healing relationship he developed with an ancient and sacred Yew tree in my first book, Soul Companions: Conversations with Contemporary Wisdom-Keepers - A Collection of Encounters with Spirit, and in Sacred Hoop magazine.