BootsnAll Travel Community

The Forest Path as a Spiritual Journey.

Is it possible to set up over Australia a net work of hosts who accept visitors as pilgrims to their place? My beautiful farm means a lot to me and I have done much to restore the landscape by large scale tree planting. To help appreciate Nature and the landscape, I have made a walking track. This is a little description of the path and how traversing it as a pilgrim can be experienced as a spiritual journey. Let me know if you would like to visit and experience what I have to offer or if you also have something that other pilgrims would like to know about. Maybe I could start to compile a list.

Life is looked upon as being a journey and we all travel upon our own personal path. One situation follows after another and we are the wiser for all of our experiences. This path leaves from the known comfort of my secure home and leads its way into the dark and mysterious jungle up in the hills. We set off from the house, through a narrow gate, which could be a bit difficult to find unless we know where to find it or are being shown the way.

A little further on and further up the creek, we come across a swimming hole. A sign says an enigmatic "Normality Ends; Reality Begins". This remarkable water hole is always kept full by the perpetually flowing creek. A swim is offered to symbolically wash away our preconceived ideas by this pure spring fed water. There is a seat below the sign to sit and contemplate. Here there is a coming together of water, meadow, trees, and our first encounter with the dark and mysterious jungle. Into one of the trees opposite, somebody long ago carved the initials CM but the significance is now lost due to the passing of time.

Further on, a deviation from the main path is offered. If we follow the row of pine trees to the right, it leads us onto a small plateau once used to grow small crops. Following closely the row of trees, we are being lead around and around in a spiral until the centre is reached. Here we can sit in this vortex of the pine trees and absorb their essence. This species is the choice of my tree planting program and so it is also the primary means of the land’s restoration. We sit and look at their tall and vigorous upright growth habit with its symbolic implication{1}. On return, we can either unwind the spiral or take the short cut, cutting across the turns and returning directly to the main path.

A little further on the main track, a single pine tree is reached. This is a progeny of a tree my grandfather planted in the back yard of his house in Bunya Street, Brisbane. Just possibly, this tree was planted in memory of his son who was killed in the war. He planted one tree while I have made a massive undertaking of planting thousands of pine trees. What is fated, what is destiny and what is free will? As a boy, I grew many pine trees as they germinated all around me. Three of these trees were kept by my mother through my adolescence and young adulthood to be later returned to me and planted at the front gate here on the farm to stand like guardians. Me, the product of parents, one of whom was born while living in Bunya Street while the other had a bunya pine in the back yard of his parents house. They marry and conceive me in the foothills of the Bunya Mountains. I come here, see the bunya pine at the front gate, [planted by the previous owner in what must have been a flash of precognition against his normal habit], acknowledge my totem, make it my home and my mission of planting thousands of pine trees.{2}

Onwards and a start is made up the hill. A turn to the left, and a pine tree is seen that is so strange and unnatural that normal reality needs suspending. The normally straight and upright aspiration of the pine tree has somehow been suspended and the tree has grown itself into a circle against The Natural Laws of Nature. This isn’t me and my silvan tricks but a true quirk of nature. A shift in reality. Can we see now that some things must be possible that were once thought impossible?

Next a strategically placed rock catches our attention. The question is asked, "Is it natural, or has it been placed here by the hand of man and if so, for what reason?" Yes this is me and my natural art. A little further on and this time there is a spherical rock, a globe, prominently placed. Could you draw a map of Australia onto this globe. Where ever you locate it, it is correct provided it is drawn to scale. Perhaps you could even draw your country if it isn’t Australia. Maybe even a stellar constellation from the heavenly sphere but it needs to an earth centric view of our part of the universe. A piece of chalk is found under the base.

We enter a clearing and in it the hut. This is available for anyone who wants to experience the closeness of Nature. A carved sign inside the hut says a cryptic warning, "The Edge of the Known World", to confirm that we are on a path of exploration into the unknown.

The path forks and in the middle of the fork, a carne. The traditional sign of human occupation. To the left, a waterfall and a grotto of secret beauty{3}, but we continue on to the right.

Again the path forks. To the left is a giant and ancient tree[a dottard]. I guess that this tree is well over a thousand years old. Us humans, to this tree seem small and petty but we have reeked so much damage upon the jungle yet this tree is in serious decline. It is being strangled by a fig tree and its fate is sealed.

Above is a cave, big enough to camp in with a place to sleep, a fireplace, and a chair. The cave, the traditional dwelling place for the ascetic, the one who renounces the world to experience the rawness of Nature. Yes very occasionally I have had modern visitors camp in the cave to briefly experience this austere and spartan life.

Returning again to the main path, we now come to The Shrine. This was initiated when I discovered a cow bone while planting one of the pine trees here. I then placed a flatish rock over some other rocks to form The Shrine to contain the relics of the cow. A legacy from when things here were quite different. For eons a rainforest existed, it was cleared briefly for pasture and the grazing of cows and now with my assistance, is returning back to forest. Here against the rock is a the paltry token remains of a tree of the lost great forest that was destroyed by the destructive expansion of our civilisation. This is a buttress of a tree that some how survived the clearing and the fire. This is of a rainforest tree called Lignum Vitae. This is the common name in english but the words are from the latin and mean of all things, "Tree of Life". Since then The Shrine has been expanded by the donation of other quirky objects to encourage introspection and an appreciation of Nature. Visitors are invited to mount the dais and sound the gong, a fortuitously found hub cap, and to give a spontaneous expose’ on what ever thoughts are uppermost in their minds, in english or any other language. What we don’t learn by the actual meaning of the words, we can learn by their subjective essence. Visitors are also invited to climb up to the next level and to sit on the throne and to have a symbolic dominion over all that is below.

Upon departing The Shrine, visitors are invited to choose a broken piece of pottery and to take it with them and then to place it upon the path where ever seems appropriate. The path is always our teacher and in using it, we wear it down fractionally and it is beneficial to compensate for its use. What was once useful, broken by accident into uselessness, is returned to usefulness as a fragment that supports us upon the way. Those passing this way, glimpse out of the corner of their eyes, the flash of a broken piece of pottery[a shard] and in that moment are caught by surprise and in that instant see things differently.

The final destination is eventually reached. This is as far away from the house as we go. We can either return the way we came or complete the circumambulation by going on ahead. This is where my spiritual journey ends. Here in the creek is a tiny permanent spring of crystal clear water. If you look closely through the foliage, we can just see a statue of a goddess. Found broken in a pile of concrete blocks at the dump{4}. She has been repaired and returned to the forest to again roam freely. Come the day when The Mysteries can again be restored upon our precious planet and the stupendous task of the redemption of planet earth can commence.

A natural rock chalice can be used to dip into the water to quench our thirst. The rock beside the seat has a naturally formed bowl. This can be used for holding water and the performing blessings. We sit and contemplate before returning.

Foot notes:

1. I have a book where it discusses the symbolic vertical aspiration of the pine tree, the architecture of gothic church and the Christian cross.

2. If requested, I can show the visitor a picture of what it was like in 1975 so they can see the transformation that has taken place.

3. If specially requested, we can also visit this little grotto but it is a little difficult to climb into.

4. It was the chance discovery of this goddess that prompted me to write out this little story.