The Dryad Lore of Dusty Miller
Dit Engelstalige artikel over de bomenwijsheid van Dusty Miller 13th schreef ik voor Sacred Energies, online magazine van Energetic Geometry van Dominic Susani & Karen Crowley-Susani. Het verscheen in december 2020. Je kunt een vervolg lezen in The Dryad Lore of Dusty Miller: Meet the Trees.
The Dryad Lore of Dusty Miller
A friend of mine had directed me to the work of British tree shaman Dusty Miller 13th. She had befriended Dusty when he and his wife lived in the Netherlands for some years. My friend was well acquainted with Dusty’s work and had been sharing very interesting stories. About the humble man himself, about his ancient tribe, and most of all about his magickal work with trees. I love trees and getting to know them in a new way seemed like a wonderful plan.
Talk about Dusty Miller 13th
So there I was, on a cloudy Sunday afternoon at the end of September, for a Walk and Talk with Dusty Miller. We were told to meet up at the little Blue Tearoom at the Vondelpark, the old central park in Amsterdam. A small group of people had gathered already and I was curious to find out which one of them was Dusty Miller with the interesting addition of ‘13th’.
In a quiet way you would pick out Dusty Miller 13th from any crowd. A small man, with his long thin white hair tied to the top of his head, usually covered by his small green hat. Bright blue eyes, sparkling with love, wisdom and a great sense of humor. A white moustache, with tusklike twists at both ends. A green and brown attire, sporting a greenman brooche and a belt buckle with a boar in Pictish design. Bony fingers holding on to a wooden staff for some extra balance, as Dusty had suffered from a cerebral infarct some years before and from which he was still recovering. His speech had also been affected by the infarct, and often it took some time to find the right words. This, however, did not diminish his love of telling stories about his best friends: Trees.
The Saelig Silvadobb tribe and its Dusty
As a way to explain his unusual connection with trees and the immense amount of knowledge stored in the family, Dusty always starts to tell you about his lineage. His family line goes back a long way: even back to the times that Britain was still attached to mainland Europe. At that time there were several tribes living in what we now call the islands of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Dusty’s tribe is called the Saelig Silvadobb tribe.
All tribes had their own tribal animal, and Dusty’s tribe was connected to the wild boar. The tribe lived as herders of the boar and followed them during their treks across the land foraging for food. While the boars roam the woods, the sows and piglets gather in a pack. The pack was led by the alpha sow, she was called the ‘du’. One member of the tribe had to take care of the du, to make sure she had a good place to stay. This was called the ‘sty’. The one who had this important task, was called the Du-sty, the Dusty. In the tribe, Dusty is a title, not a given name.
The Dusty had more tasks concerning the wellbeing of the tribe, and earth magick and tree lore were two of them. The Dusty became the shaman of the tribe, the one who knows how to ride the energy, the one who knows how to direct the energy for the good of the tribe and its environment.
Close connection to trees
As Dusty Miller 13th tells it with a big smile, one day long ago the Dusty of that time woke up and the du had led the pack of swines away into the forest. They were gone. The Dusty did what he thought was natural and so he asked the trees where he could find the pack. Kindly they showed him where the pack was, so everything turned out fine. And that was the start of a long co-operation between the tribe and the trees.
The tribal members get introduced to the trees from a very early age. Every newborn is taken for a blessing to the sacred family tree, an ancient beech tree somewhere in the hills of Kent, England. To become a Dusty you have to learn how to work with green magick and the trees, a study that takes some twenty-seven years to finish. One learns how to communicate and work with trees, get to know their qualities, and how to make LiveWood tools.
Tree spirits: Dryads
The Dusties found that in a wood or forest, all the trees of the same species share one single tree spirit or dryad. The Dusties always use the word ‘dryad’ to indicate the tree spirit. It is a word that the trees seem to recognise. The word dryad will make them pay more attention to you when you try to communicate with them.
In Dusty’s tradition the concept of the dryad is explained as follows. Let’s say that in a specific woodland there are three types of trees: beech, oak and yew trees. In this woodland live three dryads: a beech dryad, an oak dryad and a yew dryad. Each dryad contains all trees of its own species in that particular woodland. Maybe you could call it some kind of ‘tree oversoul’, instead of each individual tree having its own individual dryad.
A dryad could cover a very large area, think of the huge ancient forests only to be outlined by natural boundaries like rivers or mountains. Over time, the roads and motorways that started crossing the forests, became new boundaries. The dryads performed some sort of mitosis, splitting up into smaller dryads. When you walk into a woodland, and you lay your hand on a tree, all trees of the same species ‘feel’ your touch and presence as they all share the same dryad.
LiveWood tools
In the co-operation between the Saelig Silvadobb tribe and the trees, the trees shared their knowlegde and wisdom, based on their specific tree qualities. The tribe was asked to share their feet and take the tree along to see more of the world. In order to do this, the trees taught the Dusty how to cut a particular part of the tree that would contain a clone, so to speak, of the tree’s dryad. This piece of wood that contains the Tree Dryad, is called LiveWood. Many people can feel this living dryad-energy in the LiveWood as if holding a small animal or bird, warm and breathing.
LiveWood can be used to assist you in all kinds of areas: health, strength, knowledge, etc. The quality of the dryad determines the general area of assistance. For instance, Apple and Pear are seen as healers, Beech brings a calming mothering energy, Oak is the sturdy helper that provides stamina and resilience. The LiveWood helps you in reaching your life’s goals and answering your current questions. However, sometimes they help you in unexpected ways. The solution that the tree feel is best for you may not always be the same as what you believe is best for you.
Your gift in return to your LiveWood friend is to take it along with you. It wants to see more of the life of those strange two-legged beings that walk, cycle, ride and even fly around all over the world. Everything that the LiveWood learns is transmitted back to the Dryad, so it can always learn. And isn’t that why we are all here?
Walk with the trees
After his talk in the little Blue Tearoom Dusty Miller 13th took us out into the Vondelpark to visit and meet some tree dryads. I must admit that after thirteen years I do not have a clear memory of that first walk with him. I do remember that it was softly raining by then, and we were comfortably standing underneath the canopy of large old trees for shelter, huddling close to hear Dusty Miller 13th ‘s soft voice.
Dusty pointed out many specifics, about the bark, leaves, roots, and how that often related to the dryad quality. For instance, many old beech trees have large roots or low hanging branches that you can rest upon. It may remind you of sitting on a beloved grandmother’s lap, held safely in her love and kindness. As you sit there, you would tell her your stories or worries, and she would pour you a cup of tea and listen to you and sometimes offer you her wise advice. That is exactly how the energy of a beech tree can feel.
This is how Dusty describes the characteristics of the trees: as typical family members, like your sweet grandmother, the professor grandfather, that funny uncle who could do those magical card tricks, that one aunt who works as a nurse, that strange cousin who always went his own way. Ever since that first introduction to the trees in this manner, I do greet them as my family members. Never walk in the woods again and treat the trees as if they are wallpaper, but consciously greeting and connecting with them. I feel they like it. And so do I.
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Carin Wennink (1972) had worked in corporate business for ten years and found herself to be in the proverbial rat-race. Circumstances allowed her a change in focus and after some years together with her husband Jack she founded a center where one can attend or give activities for personal growth and well being in the Netherlands. (They even erected a stone circle there in the adjoining field!)
Carin loves to inspire her clients and readers with Nature, Cosmos and Source as wise teachers on the road of self-discovery. Other master teachers in Carin’s life are her children and simply but powerfully daily life. She particularly enjoys working with the labyrinth to ground one’s path of life in trust and wisdom. Carin enjoys travelling and likes to visit the old stones, ancient springs and of course: trees.
More information about Carin can be found at www.CarinWennink.nl and you are most welcome to write a message when you have any questions or queries:
CW/aug2020
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