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www.shamansociety.org 31 It may seem strange that a tree could heal a human being. But what about a tree that is older than the pyramids and regarded as the living symbol of an unbroken bloodline from the original Tree of Life There is such a tree the Yew and curi- ously it has worked its way into a couple of popular movies. In Avatar it is portrayed as Eya the Tree of Life and in Star Wars it is the shrunken wizened figure of Joda. Eya is the earliest known name for the Yew tree and the work conveys the idea of eternity or more literally touched by eternity. Eya is an old Hittite word for Yew that dates back to 1750 BC and refers to the tree god of Eridu who is also known as Ea the god of the waters. Ea gradually became Yah or Iah and eventually Yahweh which can be translated as Yew.The name Joda is derived from an old word for Yew Iodha. The Yew tree is the oldest and yet paradoxically the most youthful tree on earth. I encountered the Yew tree for this first time in the early 1990s in my native Scotland. I was very ill and spent over nine years under the tree. Yewshamanism represents the outcome of those nine years. It is a constantly evolving and essen- tially non-journeying shamanic healing practice. My Initiatory Experience The Elemental Sulfur Spirit Within the first few months of graduating from the Edin- burgh College of Art in 1986 I realized that the life of an artist would not be as easy or as romantic as I had envisaged I decided to take a job as a seasonal treeplanter near Thurso which is about as far north as you can go on the Scottish mainland.At that time the entire area was menaced by the nuclear reprocessing plant at Chernobyl in Russia but I weighed the risks and decided that money was a higher priority than my health. Less than two-weeks later however I was wakened violently in my caravan by an intense burning and choking sensation. I clutched and clawed at my throat in desperation but was unable to breathe. There was a distinct and awful smell of sulfur. I made an attempt to pull myself from my sleeping bag but the space within the caravan had become dense and pushed me down. An intense burning pain spread through my throat and lungs as the fluid sulfur began to penetrate inward. It was as if I were being dissolved. In a blind panic I came to the awful conclusion that there had been a radioactive leak at the nuclear plant at Chernobyl. It was at that moment I sensed a presence of something outside the caravan that had nothing to do with the nuclear plant. A presence that was aware and observing me. It circled slowly around the caravan. I could feel the surging and settling of its breath in the space all around me as though it had gained control of the entire atmosphere. Finally I managed to drag myself slowly inch by inch toward the door to escape and lay there on the floor peering blindly out through the open door into the night. The presence whichI have come to call the Elemental Sul- fur Spirit seemed able to read my thoughts and as if in response drew itself back like a coiled serpent ready to strike. The pressure was enormous and the earth under the caravan began to shudder. I felt thinned out and expanded and as I began to lose consciousness I sensed that I would die. Suddenly and with an extremely loud bang the Spirit was gone and I felt my spirit drop back and down into the body that lay on the dirty caravan floor. The internal burning sensation dissipated immediately and within moments I felt a breath of air enter my lungs. I was able to crawl slowly back into my sleeping bag. The following morning I searched the area outside the caravan for traces of the being but found nothing. I returned south to Edinburgh after my encounter in Thurso but I was unable to move on with my life. I felt different more sensitive and certainly more vulnerable than before. My muscles had become very weak. I could not shake the presence of the Elemental Sulfur Spirit and although much fainter it remained as a feeling of pressure within my body. I was constantly dizzy and disoriented and began to lose interest in other people and in life in general. shamanic practice Yewshamanism by Michael Dunning