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Liquidamber (Sweet Gum) (Liquidamber styraciflua)
This tree superficially resembles the Acer family, but its leaves are alternate rather than opposite. The leaves are strikingly large with five or seven distinct pointed lobes, the central, terminal lobe being a lot larger than the side lobes. Leaves are smooth and finely toothed turning to a range of magnificent colours in autumn, from oranges to reds to violets, purples and blacks. Liquidamber is broadly conical and densely foliated growing to about 40 – 45m (130 – 150 ft.) Small male and female flowers appear with the leaves in late spring.
Liquidamber originates from Mexico and the southern United States and is famous for its aromatic gum resin that exudes from the trunk. The resin is used as perfume, medicine and as a flavouring. The wood is known as satin walnut.
The Essence.
Keywords: “Sweet tongue”. Self-aware dynamic energy; ‘backbone’; personal energy integrity; release of emotional energy to care for self and others; involvement; loquaciousness of the bard; digestion of all creative states; passionate expression, calm mind.
The energy of liquidamber is dynamic and passionate. It works primarily with the emotional drives that it is able to direct and mould in compassionate and creative ways. Liquidamber moulds raw emotional energy to bring the individual maximum emotional support and positive life-energy. The force of this life–energy cannot be other than itself. It is strong and undiluted, yet it is the energy of life and so, when manifesting it automatically brings positive change. This tree energy frees core resources of dynamic self-awareness. At whatever level is needed, liquidamber can revitalise, rejuvenate and re-align the passionate will to live.
Liquidamber strengthens the Governing meridian parallel to the spine. It gives ‘backbone’ – the courage of one’s convictions. It helps to maintain personal energy integrity in situations where there is opposition to individual’s expressing their own needs and opinions. This also prevents personal energy from falling under the influence of strong forces in the surroundings, so there will be less likelihood of ‘entrainment’ at any energy level, physical, electromagnetic or subtle.
The second, sacral, chakra, is a focus for this tree’s energy. There is an energising of creativity and an increase in the enjoyment of the experience of life. There is the desire to satisfy personal creativity, to manifest one’s deepest wishes, to really get involved and dive into the fullness of living. Symptoms that express the blocking of the sacral chakra – emotional detachment, lack of feeling, boredom, rigidity, inability to relax – would all be eased with this tree essence.
Liquidamber also encourages a great ability to heal through communication. At the throat chakra (complementary energy centre to the sacral chakra), there is the possibility of using the voice with great skill – in such a way that a flow of loquaciousness, a ‘sweet tongue’, can heal the body, calm the mind and nourish the spirit. Such skills were recognised by our ancestors. The power of the musician Orpheus was strong enough to gather souls back from the dead. The Celtic bard was not just an itinerant folk-singer and messenger but often a magician who used sound. Taliesin and Amergin could control mood and intellect with their skills. Throughout the world shamanic healers and magicians use sound to heal and mend. Expressing the underlying emotional reality of a situation can prevent wars, can release pain, can bring understanding to the listeners. Liquidamber, whose leaves can resemble large, floppy, green tongues that turn rainbow-hued in autumn, shows its ability to reveal the creative essence.
Liquidamber also helps to balance the relationship of the individual to the object of love. It brings a flow of energy that reciprocates in a balanced way the need to be loved with the needs of the other. It also relaxes the natural fear of opening too much, of giving too much away, of risking failure, so that a more spontaneous behaviour is possible.
All types of energy can be used and it becomes possible to accept and transmute hidden, unusual or completely unfamiliar energy patterns. It enables the mind to see the underlying validity of the energy source free from preconceived notions or beliefs. Without judgements it is possible to access and make manifest a vast, creative potential within the mind. This can be further supported by a steadying influence on the fine spiritual states of awareness where liquidamber brings an even flow of self-knowledge – a constant self-referral that helps to calm the up-welling of doubt and fear as it smoothly communicates relevant information.
Signature:
The long, tongue-like leaves growing in profusion; their wonderful range of colours in autumn; the sweet medicinal resin.