Meditations with Oak Trees: Knepp
In June 2018 I visited Knepp, a 3,500-acre rewilding project in Sussex, for the first time, and fell in love. During these four days, which were my first solo camping trip, I noted;
“One of my favourite things about Knepp are the majestic oak trees, surveyors of the land for hundreds of years, you can feel their wisdom in their wide trunks. There are a number of viewing platforms that have been considerately built on some of these trees to give better views of the landscape. I found myself in ceremony with some of these trees; walking around them, meditating with them and feeling a sense of pain and mourning for all the destruction that they have borne witness to.”
I have since returned to Knepp many times, the latest being this week, where I spent time reconnecting to these majestic oaks and the land. On that first trip, I meditated with one of these trees, allowing words and images to come through me. Eight years later, slowly walking the paths, I asked the other four oak trees, those with viewing platforms, if there was any guidance or messages they had to share with me. In this experience and practice I am reminded of Sharon Blackie’s words in the Creatrix chapter of her book, Hagitude. Whilst she describes the magic found in hand made crafts, particularly from natural materials, I find these words also resonant with any creation made in collaboration with the land itself:
“They’re a link between human imagination and the imagination of the land itself. And in practising these skills, and passing them on others, we do that all-important work of weaving ourselves into being, and weaving ourselves into greater consciousness of the beautiful, animate world around us.”
Below are the poems and images that emerged, the first, ‘Meditation with an Oak Tree: The Life Giver’ I wrote in June 2018, the subsequent four were written in October 2026.
