Trees, angels
A spell to summon our natural guardian angels
On Decarbonization Spells (and Trees)
Hello Witches,
Happy October spooks etc etc. If you’ve followed closely or talked to me this year, I’ve probably blabbed on about how I’ve been building a collection of climate poems as spells. Here, I offer you a tree spell from my grimoire, which feels timely not only on October, but also on the rush of recent reporting critiquing unthinking-mass reforestation as climate solution— the “let’s just plant a trillion trees as that’ll solve everything” crowd. I have a feeling every “climate solution” needs to be reevaluated this way, with the justice frames of: who’s this for? who’s been the most traumatized and in want of? where’s the greatest impact? The opportunity cost of everything in our era is too damn high not to be critical. From this Vox.com piece —
Forests are, of course, good for the planet. And they do absorb loads of greenhouse gases, making them an important bulwark against rising temperatures. But headline-grabbing campaigns focused solely on planting trees can harm both people and ecosystems by focusing more on the goal itself than on the purpose behind it — and distracting us from the hard work of reducing emissions. The tough reality, as Holl puts it, is that “we’re not going to plant our way out of climate change.”
There could be a real benefit were we to focus on trees for the right reasons — not as “technological solution” but as guides in survival. Or as I harp here, angels.
Poem Text for Accessibility — sorry if the formatting is messed up by substack’s platform!
Trees, angels
To grow a guardian
Three ingredients
are needed found
One
Sunlight
Two
Carbon dioxide
Three
Water
Plus nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, and other trace elements from the ground
Mix and let it absorb together.
Then do a little dance.
Wave a little way.
And repeat this phrase:
Leafy fiend
Roots for me
We won't let you fall
Changing
Change me
Trees, angels
If the stars fell down from the sky
In a free fall line through space
Heavenly trails left on the way
Are trees left in their trace
They give me air
Watch high over me
Giving me care
Breathing
Breathe me
With a canopy’s wingspan
With stained glass leaves
With supertree superpowers
Carbon-drawing with beautiful flowers
Embodiment of the Sacred
Make us, too rainmakers and caretakers
Messenger of The Goddess Herself
Imminent and emergent as within us
Trees are angels
If the stars fell from the sky
In the dark outline of outer space
The angelic trail left behind
Would look like feathered leaves in lace
Here for you
Celestial beings
Gilded green enroot
Freeing
Free you
With the family implanted
In the community in the woods
Interconnected and intersected
Angelic anchor of the forest
Sing electrical hormonal chemical songs
To signal across the network symphony
Trees guardians of us all seraphim-strong
Living only as long as we do our part consistently
Trees = Angels
When the stars came into the sky
They rose up from earth to space
Shooting up leaving behind
Constellations of trees in their wake
When we look from the sky
To the earth, between that space
We can see our holy world bright
Of old growth and new babes we'll save
— Adam Powers
