The Magic of Trees: A Guide to Their Sacred Wisdom & Metaphysical Properties - Tess Whitehurst 2017

Paradise Tree
The Trees

Aptly named, the stunning paradise tree (Simarouba glauca) is a bringer of great blessings. Her fruit is edible, her leaves and bark are medicinal, and her environmental benefits hint at a whole, healthy, and abundant world to come.

While this lush and multitalented tree is native to Florida as well as Central and South America, activists in India have somewhat recently adopted her as a potential remedy for the climate crisis. The well-known guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, in particular, is championing her propagation in India, and even dubbed the tree Lakshmi taru, after Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of abundant prosperity. (Taru means “tree.”)

Magical Uses

Environmental Healing

As mentioned above, the paradise tree is currently being propagated in India for a number of environmental purposes, which include sustainable sources of biofuel and timber. The tree is also being employed to improve groundwater, heal wastelands, support soil, and reduce the negative effects of carbon on our atmosphere. The fact that the paradise tree is aligned with Pluto—the planet of regeneration and transformation—sheds further light on her status as an arboreal messiah for our current environmental predicament.

If you happen to be in one of the tropical locales in which the paradise tree thrives, sitting in quiet contemplation with her can help attune your frequency to that of environmental healing. Relax, gaze at the tree, silently request guidance, and allow her to bestow a message of how you can best support our beautiful planet at this time. After relaxing deeply for a few moments, you may receive her response as an image, a feeling, or a sense. It may or may not make sense to your linear thinking mind at first. Whatever happens, rest assured that on some level, in some way, you have received the message and it will help to shape your future actions in life-affirming ways.

Making a flower essence with some of her blossoms and taking two to three drops per day in water over a prolonged period of time can also help attune you to the frequency that will allow you to best support the earth and her inhabitants with regard to climate change. (You can find instructions on how to make a flower essence in a number of reputable books about flower essences, including my book The Magic of Flowers.)

Physical Healing

What supports the earth supports us, and vice versa. In the case of the beautiful paradise tree, this is quite literal. In addition to healing the planet, she is considered—particularly in India—to be very useful for healing our physical bodies. According to the website LakshmiTaru.com, a decoction of the paradise tree’s leaves, barks, and sticks has been used traditionally in its native areas for treating a whole host of challenges, including dysentery, diarrhea, malaria, colitis, gastritis, anemia, gynecological disorders, wounds, sores, ulcers, arthritis, and even cancer.

In the Western world there is not currently a lot of information on how to work with the paradise tree safely. So if you feel drawn to work with her medicinally, first consult with a trusted expert.

Wealth

A tree named after not just the heavenly realm but also the goddess Lakshmi absolutely must specialize in the magical quality of wealth. Certainly her glossy leaves and virtual fountain of fruits lend themselves to a sense of luxurious abundance. The fact that she heals environments, nourishes groundwater, and transforms wastelands demonstrates that she brings a verdant sense of affluence wherever she goes. Not to mention her seeds yield oil that is exceptionally useful as biofuel! In a world where oil for fuel is a synonym for money, she is an almost literal example of money growing on trees.

Spend time in quiet contemplation with a paradise tree to receive energy healing and an attunement to the frequency of wealth.

Magical Correspondences

Element: Air

Gender: Feminine

Planet: Pluto