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HOLM OAK (Quercus ilex)
Key: Negative emotions.
The holly oak, or holm oak, is native to southern Europe. It has deep green evergreen leaves, slightly spiny when young, with paler undersides. It is a neat, dense looking tree often with multiple large boughs with the characteristic brown bark cracked into neat rectangles. It is a rather sombre-looking tree except where new growth appears a lighter yellow-green and a little later the long yellow catkins cover the tree in early summer. The acorns are rounder and more enclosed in their cups than the native oaks. Holm oak can grow to about 90ft. (27m.) and is often planted on exposed or seaward locations as it withstands salt winds and hot, dry conditions. It was introduced to Britain around 1500.
The essence focuses on the energy of personal space and personal expression. By activating personal creativity and a desire to assert oneself in a positive way in order to increase peace and harmony, holm oak helps to eliminate restlessness, impatience, frustration and all emotions that relate to thwarted expression. Thus negative feelings of anger, envy, greed and jealousy are dissolved. This directly strengthens the Bladder meridian allowing all such emotional disruptions and dissonances to be integrated and balanced into the system as a whole.
Holm oak helps to express personal power. There is a release of tension around the chest and back areas, and also in the lower abdomen as emotional and mental stresses are eased.
The sacral chakra is given greater energy and this helps to stabilise the life-energy in the body, also enhancing the sense of security and issues of worthiness and competence. This in turn allows the ego to become better aligned to the higher levels of consciousness within the individual.
Signature: The dark solidity of the tree emphasises its ability to calm and stabilise. The evergreen leaves suggest a continuity and stability of energy flow.