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BEECH (Fagus sylvaticus)
Key: Easy-going
Beech will grow easily on any soil except heavy or clay soils (where oak flourishes), and it will eventually dominate any woodland, particularly on chalk and limestone uplands. Young trees need to be protected by other species until they are established and are able to tolerate exposed conditions.
Beech has a nearly cylindrical trunk that can reach to 100 feet (30 m) over 120 years. When not crowded beech will start branching fairly close to the ground and these low branches have the characteristic of holding their copper coloured leaves throughout the winter months. The bark is thin, smooth and silver-grey – making beech one of the most beautiful and sensuous looking of trees that grow in Britain.
Beech flowers in May and bears fruit “beech mast” in October. A heavy mast year usually follows a hot summer the previous year. Beech mast is an important food source for many animals and used to provide extra fodder for pigs in autumn.
Beech brings creativity to the highest level of the self. This doesn’t necessarily mean any outward form of expression, it is more an internal creativity, a building up of the self within the self – a healing and accepting of one’s true nature. This gives confidence and security.
There is a relaxation of the muscular system especially in the areas of the head and solar plexus. These areas are often involved with tension and anxiety headaches.
Beech increases hopefulness and confidence. It allows one to release and express personal potential more fully. Fears about the future, despair and loneliness are reduced.
Those who lack confidence in speaking, suffer from sore throats, or who have a difficulty in demonstrating their abilities often indicates a block at the throat chakra that beech essence will help to clear.
The emotional body is relaxed where there are difficulties with self-image, particularly in the areas of sexuality and body image. Reproductive problems that arise from emotional tension can be helped. Trauma and shock at the emotional levels can be released, leading to relaxation and a more open, easy-going nature.
At the finer mental levels of the causal body, beech essence brings an easier flow of information and a more harmonious structuring of energy links that results in an increased sense of peacefulness and joy. It also allows a clearer means of expression in a more structured, rational and logical manner.
Signature: Mature beech trees often resemble lithe human forms. The smoothness and the characteristic copper-orange leaves suggest a deep relation with the energies of the sacral chakra: creativity, sensitivity, sensuality, enjoyment of existence.
Comment: Beech tar was used externally for skin diseases. It is stimulating and antiseptic.