At the centre of the Mandala supporting the Blackthorn, is a cedar column recycled from a dying tree that had to be cut down. I have used the cedar in many installations to honour the tree and its aroma always brings me back to the present. The cedar is a sacred tree of dedication and consecration, highly valued for its properties of healing, protection and enhancing inner potential. It can balance the emotional and mental bodies and bring inspiration and calm. Folklore holds that carrying a small piece in a pocket will attract abundance.

The man-made blue rope symbolises loss but also hope. Visitors are invited to follow the spiral tracks and make a blessing to honour all trees. Jung believed that walking a mandala connected the left and right sides of the brain creating wholeness. Mandalas are valued for their healing properties, connecting us to the precious earth, the natural rhythms and to our deeper selves. They are powerful spiritual tools for change and have an uncanny rippling effect.

I experimented embedding dead blackthorn twigs into clay as a ritual to mourn the loss of trees cut down in the name of progress. It felt powerful to gently press the thorns into the yielding clay. The blackthorn has beautiful flowers but isn't an easy tree to be with and have apparently its thorns can poison you if they become embedded. I have since discovered that the HS2 rail track team are decapitating trees and planting the dead stumps in fields to avoid litigation for disturbing endangered species. They call these stumps Monoliths

We are the medicine!