If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to stand in an ancient yew grove there are various places you can go to, such as Druid’s Grove or Newlands Corner near Guildford, or Kingley Vale near Chichester, where remnants of our indigenous yew forests still exist. These were the places where the Druids lived. At one time there were a great many of these places in Europe and yew forests covered large tracts of Britain. They were awesome places where Nature ruled and yew trees gathered.

In earlier times however, the first sacred sites were tree shrines known as nemetons, like Llanfeugan pictured here, near Usk, a beautiful remote setting and place of peace, with its ancient yews, connecting us back to ancient times, where we can go to restore our natural balance and find our place in Nature. These were sacred ditched enclosures, originally centred around a sacred tree and many such places, later became churchyards. They were identified and set aside some time after the Ice Age as places where people gathered for ceremony around the yew tree or could go alone to be in touch with divinity and the numinous.

‘Numinous’ is a beautiful word meaning something mysterious and otherworldly, a natural, organising, divine and intelligent power and the word is of course connected with ‘nemeton’, the name for these early yew tree shrines, our earliest sacred sites, where we first knew an understanding of what is sacred, eternal and beyond ourselves. Some nemeton later developed into wood henges before becoming stone henges and it is awe inspiring to realise that some of the original sacred trees are still here and are precious beyond words.

If we are to set about the restoration of the Earth, then the trees are of paramount importance. On a practical level they are the lungs of our planet who provide our oxygen. In terms of the ancient consciousness and wisdom of the Earth, our connection with the trees is key. Please sign the petition for Legal Protection of Ancient Yews and help ensure preservation of these most ancient of beings.

Please note, we are planning to deliver the petition to Parliament on Thursday 25th of April. Details of times and where to meet will be given later but we would like to gather as many people as possible to ensure this event is noticed.