Coast Live Oak
the identi-tree; a tree of shifting
This tree holds the multitudinous possibility of what can be; the many layers, many levels, many planes of existence, and the infinite possibilities and facets of identity we can embody while still remaining true to the core of who we are.
The Story
On February 22nd, we arrived at Rocas Retreat Center to settle in and welcome our participants in our first-ever Healers Academy Retreat. Whitney (my co-facilitator) and I took some time to land on the land before everyone else arrived.
What does that mean? We sat on the earth, breathed, and felt ourselves calm, focus, and connect. We familiarized ourselves with the land, walked together without excess conversation: listening, feeling, and being present. We grounded our energetic bodies into the earth there while also grounding the spaces we would occupy and creating grounding cords for each participant who would arrive to plug into. We set and identified the energetic container for the retreat ahead of us, and connected with the trees, the ground, the plants, the sky, and all the spaces and space that would hold us over the next six days.
Almost immediately, the beautiful Coast Live Oak caught our attention. It was situated perfectly in view from where we’d be doing most of our work, and from where we were doing our grounding practice. At that moment, I didn’t know all of what the tree had to offer us, I simply knew it was important, it was calling me, and I wanted to know more.
As we journeyed through our retreat, there was one theme that really persisted and challenged each of us in our own way: identity. We were each being asked to clear up our identity confusion. Some were called to embody old identities and move through the emotional needs of that older version of self in order to be more freely present in the present. Some were just embracing what excited or scared them now, which meant leaving behind some old layers of self. Some (like me) were called to recognize what they had been doing that simply didn’t work for them anymore, and release it to embrace what was more current for them. Some people needed to really feel their pure and deep true self, and bring it out from their inner souls into their bodily experience.
I’ll add that this retreat coincided with the conjunction of the north node and chiron, so we were in a prime position to see how our wounds were in conflict with our purpose. And that is really what happened for each of us.