The Mythelium Tree

Herein lies a tree full of tales

carved from a rescued portion of pine

who conferred with me

in this lore of the tree of life and two birds,

this mythOS long in the making

with no end in sight.

Fear not Ouroboros

archetype of regeneration,

serpent of full circle

ancient stories

nurturing the mythelium

weaving generations

through time and back again.

Tree started its story upon recognition I was listening deeply…

“Once upon a moment that slipped out of time there was a story that twisted like a vine.

Do you remember when you were a child and played the game telephone,” tree asked me.

Yes, I mumbled a bit astonished, yes I remember playing this game telephone.

Tree continued…

“There you stand in circle with all of your friends when the words were first whispered from whence it came. Then on it goes murmured from ear to ear twisting and turning with giggles then to confusion reflected in scrunched up faces and onwards finally returning from whence it came.

Now I want you to imagine this is not simply a circle of your friends but all of humanity throughout time. All with something to say, what they thought they heard, absurd as it may be. And when these words went full circle rifling through the pain and suffering of humanity, triggering generations of trauma, returning again upon whence it came…”

At this moment I felt tree shudder, shiver and shake to its core. Tree then continued but something in its tone shifted and felt somber as I absorbed what came next…

“What are these words you have derived demanded from whence it came! What is this story of separation you have concocted. What nonsense you profess. Divide and conquer is not what I said. This is not the way to be,” whispered tree ominously.

“You are all entwined in something much greater than self. You are part of a whole, not apart from the whole. ’Twas never meant to be divide and conquer, separate you, me and empathy. Divide and conquer is no way to behave. Listen carefully to what was originally said from whence it came…”

Slowly I heard tree utter the words, “divine and concur,” then I asked tree to be sure.

“Divine and concur, to be intuitively in accord,” tree whispered to me. Not once but three times, “divine and concur, divine and concur, divine and concur.”

I felt this echo radiating through my body from deep in my core, my heart, then outwards beyond my limbs in every which direction.

Then tree fell silent, the two of us standing side by side on the land of insideout.

The last to be heard were the two birds

The first squawked, “look out!”

The other cooed, “look in”

And so be this tale from the heart of the Regenaissance

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Artist’s statement:

In 2020 I joined the first coheART of the Design Science Studio wherein we have been exploring what it means to be living in this time of regen•era.

At the same time, I moved from the cacophony of southern California into a geodesic dome on the eastern slopes of the Cascades in Oregon.

When first asked what this land was called I spent time walking and listening to what it wanted to tell me. The answer resonated deep from within the lava rocks beneath my feet… “the land of insideout.”

Soon thereafter I had heard of a local tree that had been felled due to an illness it had and asked if I could retrieve a portion of it.

We sat for a year, tree and me.

The solitude enabled our relationship to foster while tree dried out. I found myself listening deeply as tree began to answer my questions.

As I started to carve tree, not knowing what would emerge, our conversations continued letting the life rings of tree guide our meanderings.

Soon the archetypal tales of Ouroboros as well as the Tree of Life and Two Birds appeared as if right on the tip of our gnosis.

Ouroboros is the ancient character of regeneration. The serpent biting its tail shedding its skin to renew itself.

The Tree of Life and Two Birds tells of one bird eating the fruits from the tree of life while the other sits in contemplation.

That’s how The Mythelium Tree came to be.