Proving of the Methuselah Tree -Pinus longaeva

Marijke Creveld, Netherlands

Summary

Pinus longaeva are the longest living trees on earth. A dream proving was conducted with a remedy made of the root and wood of a Bristlecone pine. During the dream proving many dreams occurred with the theme: ‘above and below’, related to the connexion with the earth and the cosmos/ spirituality. Among others the themes ‘no communication, being unconnected/ disconnected and insensitive’, ‘running and hurry’, ‘sadness’ and ‘lonely’ all related to the problem which is that we are increasingly out of sync with our external time frame.

Keywords

Methuselah tree, Pinus longaeva, Bristlecone pine, Coniferales, Pinales

Introduction

High in the White Mountains of California the oldest living trees on earth are found. They are Bristlecone Pines, Pinus longaeva. They were already growing when the Egyptians built their pyramids and by the time the Greek and Mayan civilizations thrived they had been remnants of the past. The seeds germinated soon after the last Ice Age was over, when the glaciers retreated. The dead wood that can still be found here is some ten-thousand years old and contains a wealth of information going back for centuries. These living trees have been standing in between heaven and earth for forty-seven centuries. They are connected to, and communicate with, both the cosmos and the earth and are outside our time frame. The homoeopathic remedy that has been made was produced using the root and wood of one of these trees.

Systematic and site description

Pinus longaeva is assigned to a group called Foxtail pines, which includes three species. Since they are all pines, they are comprised in the Pinaceae family. (lit.3 and 5). Two of these three species are Bristlecone pines. The other species of Bristlecone pine, Pinus aristata, grows in the Rocky Mountains at some two hundred and forty kilometres from the White Mountains region. Pinus aristata can reach an age of some 1,500 years which is old, but hardly compares to Pinus longaeva, the oldest living specimen of which is 4,700 years old.

The trees grow up to sixteen metres (52 feet) high. The bark is reddish brown and shows deep furrows and high, irregular ridges set with scales. The branches are often twisted and drooping. The leaves needle-like, in fascicles of five, slightly curving upwards. Needles measure 15-35 x 0,8-1,2 mm and reach ages between ten and forty-three years (the highest age on record). Male cones are cylindrical to elliptical, 7-10 mm long and purplish red. Female cones are ripe after two years, acute cylindrical, 60 to 95 mm long, reddish brown and purple when ripe, nearly sessile. The cone scales bear slender, stiff bristles of 1 to 6 mm in length. Seeds are elliptical to obovate, 5 to 8 mm long, pale brown with dark red spots. The wings are 10 to 12 mm long.

The tree (including leaves, cones and buds) contains much resin which serves to protect the wood. The resin is exuded as a watertight layer on the branches sticking out. The dead wood remains intact for a long time since it grows so slowly, because it contains so much resin, because of the low ambient temperature and on account of the dry climate. The oldest dead wood examined proved to be 10,000 years old. The dead wood has streaks of different colour, ranging between reddish brown through to greyish and white. Many trees are still alive because their bark is stringy. This means that when on one side of the tree the bark has been eroded off by the wind carrying ice crystals in winter, the bark on the lee side can still be completely intact, if only over a restricted width. However, this narrow stretch of bark can carry the necessary water and dissolved minerals up to the living branches full of leaves and cones.

Pinus longaeva grows at an altitude of some 2900 – 3500 metres (9500 – 11500 ft). Frosts occur during most of the year and during prolonged periods; winds are strong and harsh. On account of the snow, the trees can be reached for only a few months every year, mainly because of the snow that remains on the ground for a long time. These unfavourable circumstances mean that the trees, at this altitude, usually grow only to about nine metres (30 feet) high. Each year, the branches grow a tiny bit, causing the growth rings to be extremely narrow. One branch, measuring five cm (some 2 inches) diameter proved to be two hundred and ten years old. The crown is most irregular and the wood is usually crooked. The root system, which makes up to some seventy-five per cent of the weight of the tree, is very extensive. This is necessary in order to optimise the water intake in this dry locality.

Symbolism

The symbol value of this tree is related to the notion of time. The name longaeva means ‘having a long life’. They germinated after the retreat of the glaciers that remained after the last Ice Age and the wood that was grown then is still around at the site. Therefore, the memory of this time span is still present there. The oldest Bristlecone pine is named the Methuselah tree. It was named after Methuselah, mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible. Like this tree, he looked back upon an immensely long life. The site being in the White Mountains refers to the colour, white, the positive element, light. The Bristlecone pine is known as the tree that rewrote history in the sense that the conclusions that could be drawn from its growth rings enabled people to reconstruct the changes in the climate over a very long period of time.

These growth rings have also been used to rectify the carbon dating method. It was shown that previously, archaeologists had obtained wrong dates of finds.

Proving

During February 2006, a blind dream proving was conducted. People have slept with the Pinus longaeva remedy in a 200K potency on three consecutive nights. They handled the tube containing the remedy for some time and after this, put it under their pillow. Some of them also smelt the remedy prior to their last night of dream proving. One person has slept using the remedy on three additional nights. In all, nineteen women and nine men, aged between thirty-one and sixty-seven took part. Twenty-three out of the twenty-eight participants experienced dreams. In general, they had many dreams that were usually vivid.

Proving themes

In the analysis of the dreams, several themes were found. I will only mention the themes that occurred in several people.

I will give dream excerpts as examples, along with several repertory additions assigned to these themes.

Above and below

The large number of dreams about above and below were striking.

Interpretation: This might point to the connexion of the trees with both the cosmos/spirituality and the earth.

• We were driving downward.
• He allows himself to slide back down again.
• Sighing, she looks down somewhat dejectedly.
• In a space upstairs.
• I quickly went upstairs.
• I’m in an upstairs office, teaching arithmetic.

DREAMS – DESCENDING

DREAMS – DOWN – going

DREAMS – LIFT – ascending

DREAMS – LOOKING – down from above

Glass

Interpretation: The Glass theme refers here to a clear connexion, both upward and downward. The theme glass though, that is also present in Thuja, might suggest that transparency also is connected to Pinus longaeva. Pinus has not the brittleness of glass that we see in Thuja.

• Half of the elevator is made of glass.
• The cottage has much glass; it resembles a hothouse.
• The entrance downstairs, next to a shop front.
• In the top of the cathedral there’s a round window, like the windows on a ship.

DREAMS – GLASS

DREAMS – WINDOW – big

DREAMS – WINDOW – house with a lot of windows

DREAMS – WINDOW – cathedral, in top of a

Sexuality and nakedness

Many dreams related to sex or nakedness were recorded.

Interpretation: This is a lower chakra theme and might refer to the connexion with the earth. The nakedness might also refer to the transparency.

• My swimming trunks had come down; they had fallen to the ground.
• Women were sitting in deck chairs, all naked.
• I raised my clothes like I should do
• Many dreams about having sex, erotic dreams.

DREAMS – LOVE – making

DREAMS – NAKED people

DREAMS – SEXUAL – sexual activity

DREAMS – WOMEN – naked

No communication, being disconnected and insensitivity

This theme figures largely in the dreams.

Interpretation:  The internal clock is connected to our internal feedback and the development of every unique human being. Communication with our hidden programmes has broken down and we have lost our way. Our feedback must be re-connected through external communication.

Sankaran mentions the theme of ‘connected, disconnected, separated and being cut off’ as the theme that is connected to the conifers. He says this expression is caused by a deeper feeling, the familiar feeling related to Thuja: MIND – DELUSIONS – body – brittle. (6) I don’t see this ‘brittle’ theme in relation to the dreams in the proving of Pinus longaeva.

When I visited the site where the Bristlecone pines grow in 2005, I felt the trees were standing there in isolation; they didn’t make contact with any other living being, including humans and each other. They are just passing on the information between heaven and earth, and they are outside our time frame.

• An elderly, deaf man was unable to understand me.
• I cannot get in touch with her.
• It isn’t easy to remain invisible.
• I could not understand what they said; I was not familiar with the language and they spoke too softly.
• I tried to make a call using a telephone that wasn’t connected.
• Unscathed, without a worry, as if nothing had happened.
• I feel distant from him.
• You’re supposed to discuss that before you do it.
• I’m unable to identify any of those present as someone that I know.

DREAMS – CUT, being

DREAMS – DEAFNESS

DREAMS – DISCONNECTED – being disconnected; of

DREAMS – INVISIBLE; she is

DREAMS – RECOGNIZE  – not

DREAMS – SEPARATED; being

DREAMS – TELEPHONES – not connected

DREAMS – UNMOVED

Running, hurry and rush

Interpretation: This rubric is related to the speeded-up external time we are experiencing now. We humans are unable to cope with this speed any longer. We are caught between the two definitions of time: the external time frame (spurred on by social pressure) which is gaining speed all the time, and our internal clock dealing with feedback and development at a rate we humans can digest. (1) The living trees are in a time frame of their own and don’t care about our hurrying and rushing.

• I could not go home because there was so much to do; I had to work overtime.
• He leaves the house, running; two of the others were following him.
• The boat becomes more of a speedboat, racing across the water. There seems no stopping it, it’s going at full tilt.
• Quickly, I slipped upstairs.

DREAMS – BUSY, being

DREAMS – HURRY

DREAMS – RUNNING

DREAMS – TIME – short of time; he is running

DREAMS – TIMELESSNESS

DREAMS – WORK – overtime

Large

Interpretation: This is connected to this time as well. Everything seems large and massive these days.

• A large mass of people.
• The window was huge.
• The head of an elk is being fixed on high, looking down on you.

DREAMS – ARROGANT

DREAMS – CAR – big

DREAMS – HOUSE – big

DREAMS – KINGS

DREAMS – LOOKING – down from above

DREAMS – ROOMS – big

Alone

The theme of being alone, being left to your own resources, is one that appears regularly in dreams.

Interpretation: It belongs to the theme of being disconnected, unconnected, as well. Our internal feedback is disconnected to external communication, which gives a feeling of loneliness.

• She did everything by herself.
• I was the only one who did not get anything.
• I did not join them in their meal.
• Why are they not together?

DREAMS – ALONE; being

DREAMS – COOPERATING

DREAMS – FORSAKEN; being

Sadness and crying

A number of dreams were about sadness and crying.

Interpretation: Sadness is the consequence of the loss of our connection between our own feedback (which, in turn, depends on our internal time frame) and external communication.

• A little sad as well.
• She told me she was immensely unhappy.
• In the meantime she was all in tears.
• The sick girl is starting to cry.

DREAMS – SADNESS

DREAMS – WEEPING; about

Black, white and dark

Dreams including black (or white) and dark. In Diospyros kaki (2) the theme was mainly white; in this remedy I largely see the dark side.

• His Labrador (black dog).
• A black bus.
• Showing black stripes.
• It is dark already.
• Long, dark hair.
• White window-curtains.

DREAMS – COLORED – black

DREAMS – COLORED – black – white; and

DREAMS – DARKNESS

Cleaning up

There are many dreams based on the theme of something being dirty, cleaning up and renewal/replacement.

Interpretation: This can be taken to mean that the remedy could help in letting old and dark issues go.

• Cleaning up, painting and ordering the house.
• The right side of my trousers were full of my own excrements.
• I found a bag. However, the outside was dirty so I threw that side away.
• Packing up. Filling large boxes, throwing out the junk and packing up the stuff.

DREAMS – CLEANING – house

DREAMS – CLOSET – dirty – cleaning

DREAMS – DIRTY – bag

DREAMS – HOUSE – new

Orderly and critical

Frequently, dreams that included a description of someone being orderly or critical came up.

• Very neat galoshes.
• From what my mother told me I gather this boy taught his children very strictly and they became very polite.
• He was most critical.
• I did my best.
• I had to censure the people some more about their being on time.
• It is not done just to shoot at everything; there are rules to be followed.

DREAMS – CENSORIOUS

DREAMS – FASTIDIOUS

MIND – DUTY – too much sense of duty

Thieves, being pursued and fleeing.

Several dreams had to do with being pursued, fleeing, stealing and getting caught. A theme that is recurring daily in the dreams of one of the participants before she took part in the dream proving, used to be: murder, manslaughter and pursuit. During the proving she did not dream about this.

Interpretation: This is also about the dark side which comes up so it can be transformed.

• My bike was stolen; a second bike disappears.
• We have been caught doing something and flee the premises along with someone else.
• Like a real thief. I don’t have any idea that I just broke into that house at all.
• Being on the run for someone.

DREAMS – CATCH – being caught

DREAMS – ESCAPING

DREAMS – FLEEING

DREAMS – PURSUED, being

DREAMS – ROBBERS

Two complete dreams cited:

1: I was able to fly up to the top of a pine tree where an owl was sitting. It had golden, glossy feathers showing black streaks. This was close to a supermarket where a friend of mine happened to be, too. We got two packs of toilet paper and then went out into another room. This room had warm, rusty brown earthy colours.

Interpretation: This dream refers to the pine tree, the connexion with the cosmos/spirituality and the earth. Also to wisdom (the owl) of the tree and the possibility to let things go (toilet paper).  The woman who dreamed this said: The pine tree that stays green in winter and is able to keep its light during the dark days, that is wisdom. To fly means freedom. Therefore this has to do with the basic chakra and the uppermost crown chakra, since the owl had golden feathers, which is a symbol of the crown chakra.

2: I dreamed that I worked undercover for some kind of criminal investigation agency. I failed to understand them because they were talking so very softly. Moreover I did not hear what language they were speaking; I even failed to notice if they were speaking English. I awoke without any positive or negative feelings, it did not make any difference to me.

Interpretation: This dream, and its waking, refers to the rubric of no communication, of feeling distant from others, being insensitive, even to one’s own feelings.

Physical complaints inside the dreams

Some participants described physical complaints affecting them in their dream. Notable among the complaints were those referring to the legs (connexion with the earth) and hearing (communication) were conspicuous.

• Hard to move, something wrong with my legs.
• In a wheelchair. (2x)
• An elderly deaf man who was unable to understand me.
• I could not understand what they said.

DREAMS – EQUILIBRIUM; unstable

DREAMS – LEG – difficult motion

DREAMS – WHEELCHAIR – sitting in

DREAMS – CONTACT; no

DREAMS – DEAFNESS

Some additional rubrics:

DREAMS – ANOREXIA NERVOSA

DREAMS – FEAR – narrow place, in

DREAMS – HEMORRHAGE – stomach

DREAMS – MENSES

DREAMS – TIREDNESS; of

DREAMS – VOMITING

Physical symptoms during the proving

During the proving several participants experienced some physical symptoms.

Most conspicuous are symptoms related to female sex organs and hormones.

I hereby cite them as repertory rubrics.

CHEST – RETRACTION of nipples

• BACK – PAIN – menses – during
• FEMALE GENITALIA/SEX – METRORRHAGIA – menopause – during
• FEMALE GENITALIA/SEX – METRORRHAGIA – menses – between
• FEMALE GENITALIA/SEX – MENSES – scanty
• FEMALE GENITALIA/SEX – PAIN – Ovaries – burning
• FEMALE GENITALIA/SEX – PAIN – Ovaries – cramping
• GENERALS – HEAT – flushes of – menopause; during

Some participants experienced mind related symptoms that occur in the dreams too, such as:

MIND – DELUSIONS – separated – world; from the – he is separated

MIND – INDIFFERENCE – morning – waking; on

MIND – SADNES

And also:

VERTIGO – VERTIGO

HEAD – HEAVINESS – lying – bed; in – agg.

EAR – PAIN

HEARING – ILLUSIONS – ceiling, on the – cracking

NOSE – SMELL – altered

MOUTH – TASTE – altered

MOUTH – TASTE – bitter

MOUTH – TASTE – wanting, loss of taste

THROAT – PAIN

STOMACH – NAUSEA

STOMACH – RETCHING

RECTUM – DIARRHEA

RECTUM – URGING – waking; on

CHILL – CHILLINESS

GENERALS – FOOD and DRINKS – milk – agg.

Comparison with other Pinus species and some other trees (the roots: Radix remedies)

In RADAR (computer programme) I came across several rubrics of Pinus contorta (Pin-con.) and Pinus sylvestris (Pin-s.).  Pinus lambertiana and Pinus cupressus are mentioned only two times. The complaints of these two Pinus remedies are related to the lower chakras. The rubrics of the four species of Pinus included in RADAR do not refer to a strong connexion with the earth and the cosmos/ spirituality, also not to the themes of: ‘being unconnected/ disconnected’, ‘suffering a lack of communication’ and about  ‘time/speed’.

Physical additions for the repertory shared by  Pin-lo., Pin-con. and Pin–s. are:

VERTIGO – VERTIGO

HEAD – HEAVINESS

EAR – PAIN

RECTUM – DIARRHEA

BLADDER – URINATION – urging to urinate

GENERALS – FOOD and DRINKS – milk – agg.

It strikes me that Pin-s. also has the rubric of DREAMS – VIVID. This was also conspicuous during the proving of Pin-lo. Many participants experienced vivid dreams.

In case of Mind related issues I find rubrics in Pin-con that were mentioned with respect to the dreams using Pin-lo. as well. They include, for example:

MIND/DREAMS – FASTIDIOUS

MIND/DREAMS – DELUSIONS – looked down upon; she is

MIND/DREAMS – FORSAKEN feeling

MIND/DREAMS – HURRY

MIND/DREAMS – SADNESS (in Pin-s. as well)

Hence, the data: orderly/ critical (to be), lonely, being sad, being in a hurry and feeling looked down upon, are to be found with respect to Pin-con. as well.

The rubrics of the other four species of Pinus included in RADAR do not refer to a strong connexion with the earth and the cosmos/ spirituality. I have however, found these themes when I supervised dream provings using remedies produced from other tree roots, viz. Diospyros kaki, Betula pubescens, Ficus carica, Fraxinus excelsior, Juniperus communis and Quercus robur. (In all, I conducted twenty dream provings using remedies produced from the roots of various trees.)

The themes ‘of being unconnected/ disconnected’ and ‘suffering a lack of communication’ were also found in dreams that occurred in dream provings under my supervision using remedies made of the roots of Ginkgo biloba, Ilex aquifolium and Juniperus communis.

In RADAR I cannot find indications for the time/ speed theme in the other species of Pinus and other trees. The speed theme was, however, encountered in dreams experienced in dream provings that I supervised using remedies made of the roots of Populus tremula and Fraxinus excelsior.

The discrepancy between the external and internal time frames is specific to Pin-lo. ‘Time’ and, in relation to this, ‘communication’ therefore are the themes connected to Pinus longaeva.

Conclusion

‘Time’ and, in relation to this, ‘communication’ therefore are the themes connected to Pinus longaeva.  Interpretation: Maybe these trees can help us to conquer diseases of our time, such as ME, burn-out, isolation, feeling lonely, depressions and possibly, behaviour connected to autism.

Pinus used as a Bach blossom remedy

Pinus is used as a Bach blossom remedy in people who shower themselves with accusations or who suffer from unnecessary feelings of guilt. They demand the very best from themselves and therefore they get anxious, being afraid they are not up to that standard. They are always afraid and feel very restricted.

Setting high standard is a theme also seen in the proving using Pinus longaeva (DREAMS – CENSORIOUS; DREAMS – FASTIDIOUS; MIND – DUTY – too much sense of duty).

Literature:

1. Cornelis, Arnold, De vertraagde tijd. Stichting Essence, Middelburg 1999
2. Creveld, M. Diospyros kaki Creveld helps us to survive many traumas of our time: radioactivity, chemical substances, war, disasters, fire. Marijke Creveld publishers. 2001-2006
3. Creveld, M. 2010 Three trees, survivors on earth. 289
4. conifers.org/pi/pin/longaeva.htm – Botanische beschrijving van Pinus longaeva.
5. Lewington, A. en E. Parker, Eeuwenoude bomen. Bomen die duizend jaar leven. Elmar B.V., Rijswijk 2000
6. Meyden, R. van der, Heukels’ Flora van Nederland. 23e editie. Wolters – Noordhoff bv, Groningen/Houten 2005
7. Sankaran, R., An insight into plants. Volume-I. Homoeopathic Medical Publishers, Mumbai India 2002

Bibliography

Marijke Creveld was born in the Netherlands. She has a doctors degree (PhD) from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands in plant ecology (lichen ecology in Norway). She investigated old indigenous trees and shrubs in the Netherlands and Belgium.

She trained as a homoeopath, e.g. with Vithoulkas, Sankaran and Jeremy Sherr and has a private Classical Homoeopathy practice from 1989. She started in 1999 making new Homeopathy remedies using tree roots which she connected to the earth (sixteen Radix remedies). She carried out dream provings using these remedies. This was leading to the discovery of the Diospyros kaki remedy from the Nagasaki Kaki tree that survived the 1945 plutonium bomb destruction. She is author of articles and a book on this subject and held lectures during seminars in the Netherlands and on international HZG and ECCH meetings.

More information

The homeopathic remedies Pinus longaeva and Radix Pinus longaeva can be ordered in the K-potencies: 12, 30, 200, M, 10M and 50M at the Hahnemann apotheek (Tel.: +31 72 5325 373; E-mail: [email protected]) in the Netherlands or Denys apotheek in Belgium (tel: +32 9 225 20 69; e-mail: [email protected])

The complete proving of Pinus longaeva, Diospyros kaki Creveld, Radix Diospyros kaki Creveld, Welwitschia mirabilis, and incomplete proving of Radix Welwitschia mirabilis are published in the book: Three Trees, survivors on earth.

It can be ordered from Merlijn bookshop tel.: +31 23 5511991; [email protected] or from Marijke Creveld.