Yesterday we celebrated the news from today’s science that can shake up spirituality profoundly because it melts the dualism between spirit and matter that religions often fall into.  That news is that matter is light.  And light is very often a synonym for the divine.

Professor Jim Al-Khalili of the Royal Institution explains the “double-slit” experiment demonstrating that matter and energy can display the properties of both waves and particles (“wave-particle duality”).

If that is so, then the ancient calls to “enlightenment” from the Buddha, or the declarations that “Christ is the light of the world” from Christianity, that “God is robed in a robe of Light” and that God said “Let there be Light and there was Light” from Psalm 104 and Genesis 1.3 respectively in the Hebrew Scriptures, speak to us of Spirit in our midst. 

This because spirit is bigger than matter, but matter is a form of spirit just as Teilhard de Chardin and other creation-centered mystics have celebrated.  And the “Incarnation” is what Père Chenu insists on calling “continuous incarnation” because Divinity (Light) is always showing up in flesh or matter.  It did not happen just once.

Let us talk about the role of light in trees.  And forests.  And those who defend trees and forests.

“The Secret Language of Trees” describes the mutualism underlying forest ecosystems, the mycorrhizal networks that connect healthy forests, and the communication systems linking trees. Real Science

In my chapter on “The Green Man” in my book where I am trying to recapture the deeper meaning of masculinity, The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine, I offer this amazing fact from a serious student of trees, Fred Hageneder in his important book, The Spirit of Trees: Science, Symbiosis, and Inspiration.   

What makes up a tree?  The body of a tree is mostly filled with sunlight. ‘Light courses through its structure, navigating vital processes and maintains the balance and health of the whole organism….The tree produces a continuous light show from its very cells.’

Thus to plant trees and to defend trees and honor them and recognize their sacredness is to honor light and the incarnation of the divine in trees. 

It is interesting that Meister Eckhart talks often about God as the ground of being and in fact that name for God was Thich Nhat Hanh’s favorite name for Divinity.  Trees live not just on the ground but deeply into the ground, that is where roots drink in their nutrients and grow and become sturdy.  The soil gives the tree and its deep roots balance and strength. 

Solar Tree. Photo by Renata Oliveira on Flickr.

Yet trees also reach to the heavens, as Hageneder tells us, trees are like ‘cosmic antennae.’  They go from the depths to the heights and connect Earth and Sky.  

Scientists studying a 807-year-old juniper tree in Tajikstan found that the tree’s annual rings showed a definite slowing down of tree growth with each known date of three supernova explosions.

Thus we can say, “every star that dies in our galaxy is perceived by trees.”


Adapted from Matthew Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine, pp. 20f.

To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.

Banner Image: “Tree of Life.” Photo by Brooke Hoyer on Flickr.

Queries for Contemplation

Have you experienced the light in trees and emanating from trees?  What lessons follow from that?  Is a tree another Christ, another Buddha, another Image of God?

Recommended Reading

The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine

To awaken what Fox calls “the sacred masculine,” he unearths ten metaphors, or archetypes, ranging from the Green Man, an ancient pagan symbol of our fundamental relationship with nature,  to the Spiritual Warrior….These timeless archetypes can inspire men to pursue their higher calling to connect to their deepest selves and to reinvent the world.
“Every man on this planet should read this book — not to mention every woman who wants to understand the struggles, often unconscious, that shape the men they know.” — Rabbi Michael Lerner, author of The Left Hand of God


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10 thoughts on “Light, Matter, Spirit and Trees”

  1. Richard Reich-Kuykendall
    Richard Reich-Kuykendall

    Matthew, Today you say that: “Yesterday we celebrated the news from today’s science that can shake up spirituality profoundly because it melts the dualism between spirit and matter that religions often fall into. That news is that matter is light. And light is very often a synonym for the divine.” And is something that is a part of the intuition of those of many, if not all faiths. You mention the Buddhist use of the word “enlightenment,” and how Christians refer to Christ as “the light of the world.” And you also show how light comes to play in the thought of Teilhard and in Chenu’s concept of “continuous incarnation” because as you say: “Divinity (Light) is always showing up in flesh or matter.” Then you mention Fred Hageneder’s book, The Spirit of Trees: Science, Symbiosis, and Inspiration. In it you discover that the body of a tree is mostly filled with sunlight. Hageneder tells us, trees are like ‘cosmic antennae.’ They go from the depths to the heights and connect Earth and Sky. You conclude sharing with us about an 807-year-old juniper tree reveals the tree’s annual rings showed a definite slowing down of tree growth with each known date of three supernova explosions. And thus we can say, “every star that dies in our galaxy is perceived by trees.” I love the beauty of trees, we have a redwood in front of our house, but the tree from which I see the most light is the Kabbalistic Tree of Life…

  2. I have on many occasions seen what I call the auric field of light, eminating from the trees in the forest. I feel blessed when this spontaneously happens, as if the trees are sharing with me the sacredness of the Divine that they embody. I’ve also been awed when I’ve come across Mother trees in the forest. I’ve hugged and kissed them, telling them how beautiful they are.

    I’m happy to say that my husband and I have saved the 2 acres of forest next to our property. The deal closes mid March. I haven’t told the forest of this good news yet, as I want to make sure it really happens. When its all said and done, Im going to hang a bunch of windchimes in the forest, to celebrate.

    The seller had to do an environmental study. Two species are now going to be protected, due to us purchasing the land; that of the hog nosed snake and the whipper willow. But I know that there is much more that lives in this little forest, for I see them… deer, fox, groundhogs, bear, cyotes, the wolf I’ve glimpsed but once on a moonlit night…all kinds of birds, varities of squirrels, chipmonks, wild turkeys. I love my forest of oaks, maples, birches, cedar, sumac, pine, ash, apple, and willow, and all the creatures. They love me too, blessing me with a sanctuary of beauty, joy and peace, and many other things, for which I’m truly grateful. The forest and all that lives there, teaches me many things!

    1. Richard Reich-Kuykendall
      Richard Reich-Kuykendall

      Jeanette, Today you write: “I’m happy to say that my husband and I have saved the 2 acres of forest next to our property. The deal closes mid March. I haven’t told the forest of this good news yet, as I want to make sure it really happens. When its all said and done, I’m going to hang a bunch of windchimes in the forest, to celebrate.” I think I remember when you were concerned about how the environmental study would affect your land. And so I celebrate with you this good news !!!

  3. As Thomas was the disciple that had the greatest mystical (non-dual) awareness of Christ, even beyond John’s, many of Jesus mystical sayings did not get by him, and thus are recorded in his gospel. In saying 50 Jesus suggests when folk ask them whence they came from, they are to answer, “We come from the Light. The place where Light is manifest from itself, has established itself and manifests through their image.” Sometimes particle, sometimes wave, and sometimes both (“wavicle), all created form is the divine Light (and sound) appearing as all created forms at all scales, no exceptions. Science is just now catching up to that fact, and it shall fall to neither theologians, scientists, philosophers, nor academics to do so — only others so divinely inspired to explain how, along quantum lines.

    1. Richard Reich-Kuykendall
      Richard Reich-Kuykendall

      Joe, Thank you for your comment on how the Gospel of Thomas uses light. That adds even more to the picture !!

  4. Yes, thank you for today’s DM on the sacredness of trees, and as a reminder that God’s Divine Energy of Love and Life are Eternally Present within All Creation, especially our hearts~souls, Sacred Mother Nature/Earth, and All our visible and non-visible multidimensional-multiverse co-evolving Cosmos in God’s Loving Diverse Oneness….
    🔥💜🌎🙏

  5. “The Overstory” by Richard Powell is a novel, based on science, about the life of trees and the people close to them. It was fascinating to me to learn how they communicate and the chemical connections above and below ground. Trees release relaxing chemicals at times, which can partly explain the peace that we feel when we are near them–like messages of welcome and love. It is tragic that so many do not understand their sacredness and simply view them as one more product to be commercialized. How blessed Jeanette and her husband are to be able to preserve their woods. On a less serious note, I recently saw a meme and explanation that we are but plant food, after all, ashes to ashes and dust to dust. That should be humbling.

  6. Elm tree

    Hey elm tree
    Hey you on the side of my house
    What’s with those dry leaves again?
    I thought you were done.
    I see some green sprouts too.
    What’s goin’ on?

    Blaine the tree man came.
    He looked and looked again
    We sat down for a chat.

    Wait he said. Let’s wait.
    What? Wait?
    It could be Dutch elm disease, or not.
    Let’s wait a few months.

    Ah……I slowed down.
    Tree time. Not human time. Tree time.
    Breathe…….slow…….breathe.

    Hey elm tree. I’m watching you.
    Slowly, in tree time.
    I’m hoping for you.
    Slowly in tree time.
    Wait, watch , “Be.”
    Thea, August 2022

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