Part III. THE ‘NERTHUS’ LINDEN TREE
HONOURED AND REVERED BY THE GERMANI AND SUEVII PEOPLE
From the very first day of my incredible journey across our beautiful Mother Earth, the message to heal the Feminine wound became the clarion call to every circle, every meeting in all the countries I visited. I was travelling entirely on ‘spiritual trust’ focusing on allowing their guidance to lead the way. Money appeared, suddenly, to allow plane tickets to be bought. Host families appeared to give hospitality in strange new countries. It is all about female power being released, given age-old power that we used to have. We are co-joined with Earth Mother, Nerthus. We are co-creators, with Her, to re-harmonise and re-balance our home, our only home. This journey will become many parts, of future Wihtwara and Wihtwara-Rainbow Chronicles.
All of this took place after the Longstone vision. I thought that I was travelling alone. I was never alone! Wihtflæd, Queen of the Wihtwara, was by my side, had my back, protected me many times. She never failed. And I don’t intend to fail her!
The Wihtwara, her people, will be honoured here on the Isle of Wight. 22nd April, King Arwald’s day will see us march in remembrance for all the Wihtwara. We will honour them in every ceremony throughout the year. Joined by Native American ancestors honouring the Moon's (Weya’s) path. True traditions will be forged. Never being given false guidance under the pen-ship of ‘monks with pens’! Our ceremonies are natural, Nerthus given, as close to the lives of the Wihtwara as can be achieved in 2025.
And that is our clarion call!
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The Ancient Linden trees standing guardians on the highest hill overlooking ancient Oxfordshire
I felt their presence, their power, before I even saw them. My heart began to race. They appeared standing in a straight line like sentinels’ along the apex to a deep valley. We were overlooking much of Oxfordshire, stretching for miles before us. It was utterly breath-taking.
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Thanks to CCC, (Camping and Caravan Club) we had booked into Folly Farm, a large conglomerate Oxfordshire farm sprawling for miles around the tiny hamlet of Beckley. The equally small campsite in a single field was within eyeshot of the linden trees. On one side, we were shielded from the wind by an enormous cow shed, the bovine smells and chorus a constant. And I loved it!
Westward, the view was completely open to the distance. I felt the power of it, the power of the Linden trees. I knew that we were on ancient land. In an instant of knowing, Spirit had led us here. There is a sensation of butterflies in the stomach, an inner knowing that is exciting and awesome, but without knowing, you are left with anticipation. Something was being gifted. We had to listen to be aware. To do justice to the effort. This has happened so many many times on my spiritual journey. But you never lose that sense of awe. It never lessens.
I fell in love within its aura. I had found a home.
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What knowledge and wisdom were the Lindens going to offer us?
The tree’s canopy was so very dense, alive with small creatures and larger ones also. A squirrel lived amongst the dense foliage. We walked to the trees daily hoping for that wow moment. That wow moment was gentle loving harmony. I knew the trees were Nerthus abiding. And Faerie lay hiding, peeking out, glaring.
It was full Summer, and as we walked the full length of their promenade I felt a stirring of old souls from the times past, that had gathered here. The lengthy white neuro pathways of each Linden, deep within the soil, coiling around the massive roots echoed and chimed to each other. A conversation of sentients linking into the gossip and talk above the gathered humans. Echoes upon echoes took a grip of me. Wherever I went they came too! The connection had been made.
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There was no Internet at the campsite, (intentionally chosen.) And so, it was upon our return that the Wow moment hit!
The linden tree was a holy tree and a symbol of truth, love, and justice. It was associated with Freya, the Germanic goddess of truth, love, fertility, and fortune. The linden tree was also a place for social gatherings, weddings, and judicial meetings. It was believed that it was impossible to tell a lie under the shade of a linden tree.
Greek mythology
In one myth, the gods Zeus and Hermes were turned into an oak and linden tree after being rewarded for hospitality by an elderly couple.
Slovak poets and artists have used the linden tree to symbolize national pride and the struggle for independence.
Medical uses
The linden tree has been used for centuries for its medicinal properties. The leaves were used to treat fevers and colds, and to promote sleep and serenity.
Honey
The linden tree is an excellent tree for supporting bee populations, and linden honey is considered exceptionally flavourful.
Lime tree in culture - Wikipedia
The linden was also a highly symbolic and hallowed tree to the Germanic and Suevii peoples in their native pre-Christian mythology.
Wikipedia
Walking With Trees - The Linden Tree | Reflections – Alexi Francis
30 May 2019
Alexi Francis
The Lore of Our Trees | Longwood Gardens
9 Mar 2015 — The sweet-smelling linden tree with its heart-shaped
leaves is associated with Freya, the Germanic Goddess of truth.
Longwood Gardens
The fabulous history of the linden tree - TiL Beauty
24 Apr 2021 — The Germanic and Suevii people claimed that truth
emerged under the shade of a linden tree.
TiL Beauty
Linden Tree Chronicles - Czech Centre Museum Houston
9 Sept 2024 — In many Slovakian towns and villages, linden trees
are planted in central squares or the front of places of worship.
czechcenter.org
The symbolism of the linden tree
In the pre–Christian Germanic mythology the linden tree was considered a holy tree that
had a great symbolic value.
The conception of the tree rising through a number of worlds is found in northern Eurasia and forms part of the shamanic lore shared by many peoples of this region. This seems to be a very ancient conception, perhaps based on the Pole Star, the centre of the heavens, and the image of the central tree in Scandinavia may have been influenced by it.... Among Siberian shamans, a central tree may be used as a ladder to ascend the heavens.
Yggdrasil : The World Tree, Tree of Life: The Linden!
Myth is created by the minds of men, dipping into dreams, imaginings and sheer descriptives powers.
Natural wonders are made by the hand of Nerthus. No words can supplant her creations. But people assume guardianship then ownership over her creations and the myth becomes embedded. The important acknowledgement is the grounded and central element, that is Nerthus’ miracle, the tree. Throughout the ancient world, the tree is prominent in sacred ceremonies, meetings of social importance and a hiding place! Woden (Odin) and his brothers were said to have made the first man and woman from the world tree. After Ragnarök, survivors Lif and Lifþrasir hide within Yggdrasil to rejuvenate humanity in the wake of awful plague.
The theory runs that the survival of Líf and Lífþrasir through Ragnarök by hiding in Hoddmímis holt is "a case of reduplication of the anthropogeny, understandable from the cyclic nature of the Eddic eschatology". Simek says that Hoddmímis holt "should not be understood literally as a wood or even a forest in which the two keep themselves hidden, but rather as an alternative name for the world-tree Yggdrasill. Thus, the creation of humanity from tree trunks (Askr, Embla) is repeated after the Ragnarǫk as well." Simek says that in Germanic regions, the concept of humanity originating from trees is ancient. Simek additionally points out legendary parallels in a Bavarian legend of a shepherd who lives inside a tree, whose descendants repopulate the land, after life there has been wiped out by plague (citing a retelling by F. R. Schröder). In addition, Simek points to an Old Norse parallel in the figure of Örvar-Oddr, "who is rejuvenated after living as a tree-man (Ǫrvar-Odds saga 24–27)".
I am in accord with all the above. My colloquial name is Jan, the Tree Lady. Having spent many years deep with woods and forests, with Wihtflæd, creating essences, I know a sentient being in a forest when they gift themselves. I’ve witnessed many, photographed them, with their consent. Showing all the latent emotions and feelings of us, their humans partners. Because that is where the union of human and tree holds true. It is a physical, mental and emotional marriage. Without each other we will die!
But one aspect I had never questioned until the very dawn of the New Year 2025, standing gazing at the exquisite sculptural forms of a bare Linden tree whose age in our years is so unknown but could well be over 1,000 years old. They stood bare and elegant, like the Three Fates, overseeing our lives. You cannot tell a lie under the Linden. Parliaments were called in the old times, laws passed in truth and honesty because it was carried under the Linden tree. So many were planted in the centre of a village or town for that purpose of gathering under her sacred branches.
And so it is, this line of perfect ancient Linden trees standing aloft the highest hill in Oxfordshire is to cry out the obvious: ‘Our feminine spirit holds dominion here. We are Yggdrasill, we created you and you live within us!’
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Yggdrasil: the Tree of Life (Scandinavia)
The Sacred Linden Tree(Germania Suevii
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Since our discovery of the immense beauty of the Linden trees standing sentinel along Common road in the true heart of Oxfordshire. Finding the sacred, feeling the presence of so many faerie, wuduelfen and dragon, within its ageing gnarled trunk. Seeing spirit dragon and eyes of familiars appear, then disappear and knowing the life of these trees held huge numbers of ‘unseen’ kindred, I felt sure our forefathers and fore-mothers saw them and knew too. The Linden tree is the tree of Life, and she is holding the feminine energy for all to feel and aspire to. It is said she is governed by Freya. That people are charged with telling the truth and nothing but the truth under her branches.
How does she sit with the ash tree that is Yggdrasil? The mythical creatures living in Yggdrasil are penned by the hand of man. According to the Prose Edda, it is man that created the first humans. Yet we all know it is woman with our Earth Mother that creates.
But it is the structure of the Yggdrasil that compares so strongly with the ancient Linden in Oxfordshire.
In chapter 16, Gangleri asks "what other particularly notable things are there to tell about the ash?" High says there is quite a lot to tell about. High continues that an eagle sits on the branches of Yggdrasil and that it has much knowledge. Between the eyes of the eagle sits a hawk called Veðrfölnir. A squirrel called Ratatoskr scurries up and down the ash Yggdrasil carrying "malicious messages" between the eagle and Níðhöggr. Four stags named Dáinn, Dvalinn, Duneyrr, and Duraþrór run between the branches of Yggdrasil and consume its foliage. In the spring Hvergelmir are so many snakes along with Níðhöggr "that no tongue can enumerate them". Two stanzas from Grímnismál are then cited in support. High continues that the norns that live by the holy well Urðarbrunnr each day take water from the well and mud from around it and pour it over Yggdrasil so that the branches of the ash do not rot away or decay. High provides more information about Urðarbrunnr, cites a stanza from Völuspá in support, and adds that dew falls from Yggdrasil to the earth, explaining that "this is what people call honeydew, and from it bees feed".
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The Spiritual gift of reconstruction
On the river of Wyrd we have the gift of looking back into the past. And in our present we have the gift of reconstructing parts of that past which augment and enhance our present lives. And the future will inevitably record that success….or failure. Human imagination will always spring to the fore. However careful our forefathers were in abiding truthfully to aural descriptions handed down, stories appear, different scenarios appear. All to the detriment of the original. When those changes are written down: then it becomes immutable.
Bede made himself and his small quorum of willing clerics who reported back from country-wide travels committed to tell the truth as accurately as possible, yet frequently religious bias overtook the narrative. He never wrote in fanciful lyrical style. It was straight reporting, even lacking in any sympathy. He made no disguise of the fact that he hated all pagans. The massacre of the Wihtwara in 686 C.E. happened because they would not surrender their love of Nerthus and the Gods/Goddesses, for this one-god religion is utterly believable. Terrible and heart-breaking.
How could this be forgotten for so long?
Because genocide is showing humanity at its worst and most bestial.
How could ‘decent’ island folk behave in such a way?
Well, we are all capable of heinous acts and the only way to nullify it is to walk up to the
plate and admit the unforgivable and be honest. That is redemption. The creative act of spiritual
reconstruction is that redemption.
The Romans annihilated the Druids consigning their culture, spiritual wisdom to the midden deeps. Neo-Druidism sprang up again in the hearts and minds of 19th century men, who, dressing in white sheets circled the great oaks. Now, it is an established religion in our modern society.
Native Americans across the entire breath of America suffered near genocide at the hands of the Washichu (floppy white flesh people). Yet, theirs is a story of spiritual endurance. For their number of survivors that were left held tightly to the wisdom of their fore-fathers and fore-mothers. Theirs is a ‘true to this day’ spiritual path many aspire to.
Now, with deep heart-felt passion is my spiritual act of reconstruction of our ‘lost’ island people. The Wihtwara. Tacitus left us enough clues of their life practise and spiritual practise to build a yearly cycle of rituals and ceremonies that are totally unique to the Wihtwara. This will be the legacy to our Ancestors. And it will be published soon.
Bletsunga Beorhte Bright Blessings
Jan Harper whale
