Am I Alice, lying dreamily in the meadow and watching the clouds in the sky in the middle of a sea of daisies? She longs for a different world with different rules. Isn’t that what […]
Trees in Tengrism and Turkish Mythology
I was born in Ankara and raised in Istanbul, which are considered to be the biggest cities in Turkey. Nature always felt like something “outside”, something far away from me. After coming to Japan, I […]
One year already as a certified forest therapy guide (In Belgium): a spiralling perpetual journey
In the end of March 2020, I published my harvest project ‘Becoming the Frog’, some kind of graduation project if you follow the training via ANFT and did a small medicine walk to show I […]
11 Palms – the public life of sacred trees in the fringe of Bangalore, India
Thanks to The Nature of City Festival, I could attend field visits all over the world in the last week of February. Virtually of course. One of my favourite visits was to the fringe of […]
Ecofeminism anno 2021: ‘return to’ forest (healing) activism
In February I connected with a Brazilian serial rooter, currently rooting in Brussels, who is doing her Master thesis about urban gardens as commons applying an ecofeminist lens. The exchanges of thoughts and questions reminded […]
Tale from the Lowlands
The Lowlands I call my home, land of swamps and rivers roll towards the sea of North. Through lands of magic roam, lands of Nether, lands of Holle, fields flat where wraiths of mist move forth, […]
Where are you born = where you root: forest-related fertility and birth rites in 16-19th century of the French countryside
The time of the ‘old hag’ is almost finished and soon we’ll celebrate Candlemass, Imbolc, Setsubun or any other ‘first light/chase away demons’ festivities in the whole of the world. This blog summarises and reflects […]
Like each forest, I have different ages – a reflection during my birthday
Today is my 32nd birthday. Since last night I stay on my own in a wooden cabin in the forest, for the following nights, with books, hot drinks and a live performance by squirrels and […]
Did you already hear the first notes of your dream song?
And the thirteenth month has begun. The harp of the gods has been tuned. The trees are quiet. The Twelve Silent Nights is an ‘in-between period’, the ‘time that does not exist’ in the lunar […]
Many ethnic Estonians believe in “souls of trees”
This week I got to know the work of religious study scholars from Scandinavia and the Baltic countries, after I talked with a scholar from Lithuania, who has been rooting in Belgium for a long […]
