The Whispering Tree 2
		Gifford continues: "The aspen is sacred to Persephone, goddess of regeneration and the Underworld... By wearing a crown of her sacred poplar leaves, legendary heroes gained Persephone's protection and were able to enter and return safely from the Underworld [like shamans]... Our ancient ancestors believed that the wind was the messenger of the gods and anything closely attuned to it, like the aspen, was considered sacred. The aspen trembled most because it had the most acute hearing of all trees, moving continuously in response to a divine calling... "To the superstitious this connection with death and the Underworld made aspen an unlucky tree... Many fearful and paranoid people heard only ill whispered by the wind through the aspen leaves. But this is the lesson of the aspen, the overcoming of fear - the fear of death, the fear of the unknown, even the fear of fear itself. The aspen was, in fact, one of the trees most favoured by the Irish Celts for making shields. They called aspen a shield tree, not only for the physical protection that the wood offered but also because, when the lesson of the aspen has been fully learned, the tree shields the initiate on a spiritual level from the darkness associated with the fear of the unknown... "To quote Dr Bach, aspen helps us to understand that 'the power of love stands behind and overcomes all things'." Before setting out for the park, I had been researching Dione at home. She was 'Baltis' to the Phoenicians, who traded with the Baltic for amber - a much prized fossilised tree resin. In a Baltic myth, the goddess Freya prostitutes herself for a beautiful necklace, golden as the sun (like Aphrodite's girdle); and she cries tears of amber and gold after she is exposed. She is Venus, like Baltis, so Freya's day is Friday, as Venus' is Vendredi. In the equivalent Greek myth, the sisters of Phaethon are inconsolable after their brother crashes to death in their father's Sun-chariot. Zeus turns them into poplars weeping tears of amber. Venus, as Morning and Evening Star, marks the sun's rise and fall - which is the connection between Phaeton and Freya-Baltis-Dione. And like a prostitute, she gives her favour to each sign of the revolving zodiac (necklace) while attached to the Sun. The Egyptians complete the myth by revealing that humans (and bees) are born from the tears of the Sun-god. Thus amber is a symbol for the soul, born from the poplar trembling with the word of Dione. My search for Dione reaches a mythical poplar before setting out for the park, and then a real poplar in a book in the park - the 'populus tremula' or trembling poplar, which is the aspen. The Maya believed the 'birth of Venus' in 3114 BC began the present 'Fifth Age of the Sun', which is due to end shortly. Some indeed think it has already ended and we are in an interim period until the Venus transit in 2012. Others calculate it ends on Friday 21 December 2012, when there is a rare conjunction of the winter solstice sun with the Mayan 'Sacred Tree' (thought to be the intersection of the Milky Way with the ecliptic). For the earth, this is the cosmic equivalent of the shaman's soul-journey via the World Tree. Jane Gifford notes: "One day remains completely unaccounted for in the Celtic [Tree] Calendar, December 22nd, known as the 'Nameless Day'. This is the extra day that features in so many folk tales where the story takes place over a year and a day. On this day, when the King of the Waning Year was dead and the new King of the Waxing Year not yet born, it was the custom to fast to appease the goddess in her darkest aspect so that she would permit the sun to return to the world... This darkest of days has neither tree nor name and is sacred to the Morrigan, goddess of death and destruction... She appears in Arthurian legend as Morgan le Faye...'the Fate'." Now we can give 22 December a name: 'Amber Day'. Tears shed this day for the fallen sun will turn into new souls of the next cycle.
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