“. . . . And of our kindred the trees, we elfae have no doubt that they sense us, and in turn we certainly have affectionate and appreciative feelings for them. Surely, they feel our love as well.”
Many religious sorts, but not all, are of the opinion that only human beings have souls. So, from that point of view, trees would not have souls, neither would cats, dogs or any other creature other than human beings, although apparently, usually according to these same people, humans can sell their souls to obtain great wealth and so forth. So from just such a perspective, while humans are born with souls, they don’t always keep them.
We should say that we Silver Elves usually define soul differently than most other folks do. What most folks would refer to as their immortal soul, we’d call the immortal spirit. To us, soul has to do with our link to, association with, and ability to communicate with, principally through feeling and energetic vibration, everything and everyone else in the Universe. Therefore, the question here, if you asked in from our point of view, would be: Do trees have spirits?
But let us first deal with this question in the way that it was asked of us as to whether trees have souls or not, keeping in mind our Silver Elves definition of soul. What we would have to ask ours’elves really, and what we are asking by this question is: Do trees feel? Do trees respond to other trees? Do they respond to their environment? Do they respond to things that are done to them by Mankind? And the answer that science has given us, based upon the evidence it has obtained in examining trees and other plants, and we surely can extend this to dogs, cats, and other creatures, is that they do ‘feel’ or react sensitively to each other and to their environmental circumstances. Some people might say that there is no mind involved here but then there is no mind exactly when one touches something hot and pulls back quickly. Feeling does not require mind although it does require a sort of nervous system.
Do trees have spirit is another question. Spirit is our inner energy, which strives toward the fulfillment of some essentially Universal goals. The most essential of these is a drive toward immortality or, in its lowest manifestation, an urge to preserve one’s life, which trees have been found to do in their nurturing of seedlings with nutrients through their root systems. The other drive is a desire for happiness or success, which for a tree or plant would be growing, seeding and turning itself toward the light, on the one hand, and obtaining food and nutrients on the other.
As spirit evolves it tends to individuate. From our Silver Elves point of view, the more individual and unique a person is, the more evolved they are as an individual spirit, as long as that uniqueness is harmonized within them. A conflicted spirit is not necessarily an evolved spirit, but it is surely evolving. Trees have spirit but it seems to be a quite serene spirit for the most part and while trees can be individual, they are not usually greatly so. Still, they are rather like yogis who mediate all the time. We elfae feel that trees may very well be quite advanced beings living their lives in deep communion and contemplation.
This idea of trees having spirits is brought out in the notions of dryads or tree spirits in Greek and other lore. But these spirits, rather like the idea that many people have concerning faeries, are often somewhat apart from their tree, taking care of it as one might tend a garden. On the other hand, Tolkien’s notion of the Ents, from our point of view, would indicate quite evolved tree spirits.
Most of our ancient ancestors were animists. From their point of view all of life was imbued with soul and spirit. This would include not only the trees and plants and various animals, but also the rocks, the rivers and other things. If a rock fell on you without anyone throwing it or dislodging it, it was because the rock intended to fall on you. After them came the religious ones who thought deities caused everything and thus, from their point of view, if a rock fell on someone it was because the gods willed it to be so. Be careful when those young gods are throwing rocks or playing with wind or fire or in coconut trees.
In modern times, we generally conceive of such events as accidents. Merely coincidences of happenstance, and even those who proclaim that they don’t believe in coincidences still generally believe in accidents.
You can see the progression of belief somewhat in children. If a door accidently swings and hits a child, the child is likely to kick the door in response. Although, if the door was pushed by the wind, the child might still kick the door since there is no way to get back directly at that mean old wind. The same is true, in a sense, when people get so frustrated that they break dishes or punch walls. Neither the dish nor the wall is responsible for their frustration, but there is, alas, a pecking order in the world and when one can’t get back directly at those who thwart one, many, unfortunately, take it out on those who are not powerful enough or are unable to respond in kind.
While we Silver Elves have also accepted the idea that accidents happen, just as we embrace the notion that magic happens, we do also think that we are soulfully connected to the Universe and that often accidents happen for a reason. We don’t blame a rock for dropping on us, but we are of a mind that its doing so is part of our fate and karma and the movement of the Universe overall and our place within it. In that sense, we take responsibility for the rock dropping on us. Our magic ultimately made it happen. Our fate drew the rock to us.
For, in our view, the Divine Magic lives in all of life and everything moves us to our eventual fulfillment and development as individual spirits. There is a certain amount of faith in that point of view. A faith that can sorely tested at times. But all this is to say that our actions/magics matter and we are ultimately responsible for all that we do.
Do rocks have souls? Maybe not, but they do experience vibrations, which is the beginning. However, we don’t think they feel much, but spirit still acts through them. And of our kindred the trees, we elfae have no doubt that they sense us, and in turn we certainly have affectionate and appreciative feelings for them. Surely, they feel our love as well.
Kyela,
The Silver Elves
https://silverelves.angelfire.com
And if you enjoyed the article above, we suggest that you also read our articles below:
What is the Relationship of the Elves to the Trees?
https://silverelves.wordpress.com/2019/04/12/what-is-the-relationship-of-the-elves-to-the-trees
Do Elves Believe that Rocks Have Souls?
https://thesilverelves.blogspot.com/2019/09/do-elves-believe-that-rocks-have-souls.html
What do the Elves Say is the Difference Between a Spirit Family and a Soul Family, and What is an Elven Family?
https://silverelves.wordpress.com/2021/04/26/what-do-the-elves-say-is-the-difference-between-a-spirit-family-and-a-soul-family-and-what-is-an-elven-family
You can find all 60+ of our the Silver Elves books on The Elven Way, elven life and elven enchantment magic to purchase on Amazon here:
US (USA) Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/The-Silver-Elves/e/B0070R8ER2
UK (United Kingdom) Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Silver-Elves/e/B0070R8ER2
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AU (Australia) Amazon: https://www.amazon.com.au/The-Silver-Elves/e/B0070R8ER2/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_1
Many people ask us which Silver Elves books to begin reading first and so we say, which ever sounds right to you, follow your elven intuition, as there is really no right order! But if you would like a suggestion, you may wish to begin with one or more of these four books:
1. Through The Mists Of Faerie: A Magical Guide to the Wisdom Teachings of the Ancient ElvenThis is our most popular book and one we highly recommend reading by anyone interested in elves and the elven way.
2. The Elven Way:The Magical Path of the Shining Ones This is a companion book to Through the Mists of Faerie, but may be read in any order. It is also a very popular book and a good one to start with.
3. The Book of Elven Runes: A Passage Into Faerie
4. The Book of Elven Magick: The Philosophy and Enchantments of the Seelie Elves
If you have questions about the Elven Way and being an elf, then you may also wish to read The Magical Realms of Elfin: Answers to Questions About Being an Elf and Following the Elven Path. If you are curious about elves and want to learn more about modern elves, then you will surely find The Magical Realms of Elfin to contain many of your questions answered and it will be a great comfort and help in finding your way home to the magical realms of Elfin.
And please, when you come to our website please enjoy reading sample pages and reader’s reviews of all our 45+ books (published prior to March 2019) on magic and enchantment, elven lifestyle, elven poetry, elven short stories, an elven novel, on elven philosophy and the Elven Way at: http://silverelves.angelfire.com/HAelfbooks.html.
Also, our newest Silver Elves books (beginning March 2019) may be found on this blog site at https://silverelves.wordpress.com/2019/03/20/magical-books-by-the-silver-elves-on-the-elven-way-magic-and-enchantment-elven-oracles-and-elven-lifestyle.
“When people first begin to see us, it is usually out of the corner of their eyes or under the influence of some intoxicant. But the deeper they move into Elfin, the more they realize that the people they’ve always dismissed as eccentric or weird and sometimes those they’ve passed by without noticing because they’ve seemed so very plain have all the time been in actuality the fair folk, disguised by society’s determination to deny we could even exist.“
—What the Elves Say, The Silver Elves
. . . . And for further reading on your Elven, Faerie, Otherkin tribe:
ELF TRIBES: The Silver Elves’ Guide for Finding Your Magical Kind and Kin and FAERIE, FAE AND OTHERKIN TRIBES: The Silver Elves’ Guide for Finding Your Magical Kind and Kin.
Please click on the titles listed above to go to the pages on this blog that are dedicated to each book, where you can read more about them, view excerpts of sample magical narratives and also the table of contents from both books. Elf Tribes contains 150+ narratives of elven tribes, and Faerie, Fae and Otherkin Tribes contains another 150+ narratives of faerie and otherkin tribes. Be sure and click on the title links and read a few of these magical narratives. Perhaps, you will find your people as you read through these two books, or kindred quite like them.
For listening to the wisdom of the trees . . . .
An Elfin Book of Trees for the Elven Druid: The Ogham of the Elves Using Elvish Wizard Script by The Silver Elves. “An Elfin Book of Trees for the Elven Druid can be used as an oracle. Perhaps, that is its chief purpose. That is up to you, really. For our own part in writing it, we learned a great deal about the tree families of the world and for us that was wonderful. We love trees. Not that we’ll remember it all or even most of it. But a passing acquaintance is nice. This book is a way, in a sense, of listening to the trees. It is not the same as being out in the trees and feeling their radiant and wondrous presence, nor ingesting some of the herbs that plants and trees use to enlighten us. However, not all of us, in the modern world, can be among the trees regularly or as much as we would like and this tome is, in that sense, designed to express their voice in the form of an oracle for those of us who are unable at present to spend a great deal of time among them. Although, in our hearts and imaginations, we are ever surrounded by the forest. And in that sense, this book is a forest, an elven woodland, an elvish glade, a living book of tree lore.”
Please go here to read more about this book and read a couple of excerpts from the 111 trees or tree groups with the Wizard Script, about the magic of the particular tree and what it means to draw it as an oracle.
“Every acorn holds the potential to become an oak tree that bears
the potential to produce an entire forest from its seeds.
Every elf contains the potential for creating an elven family
that can produce seeds that can turn into a forest of elfin being.
Plant seeds everywhere you feel they might prosper.”
Tags: do trees have souls, elves and Nature, elves and trees, spirit of the trees, The Elven Way, Trees and their magic
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