Dear pagan readers,

Five days ago on a beautiful sunday I have visited my parents with my kids and wife. My parents are still living in the house where I’ve been raised on an island along the st-lawrence river southward of Montreal. It’s about two hours ride downward where I currently live on the Laurentian Upland. Everytime I return there it brings me memories of my youth; The days I have passed wandering in the surrounding oaken forests or fishing by the river. The autumnal morning when I was walking through the pumpkins field and orchards watching the sun rising, glowing through the dew drops and chasing the fog away. It makes me remember mostly what was good and enjoyable during my childhood even if the landscape have changed a lot since then.

Many years before I came back to this world, this small island was once upon a time crowded by hundreds years old oak trees from shores to shores. There were also other varieties such as maple, birch, ash, willow, poplar, aspen, lime, hickory, fir, pine, spruce, thuya trees etc… But the great oaks were dominant. In fact to a greater extent the whole region was mostly like that with a few swampy and bushy plains and conifer forests growing where the soil was too thin for leafy trees. At first, there were only a few small farms where fields slowly started to replace parts of the forest. As the population was growing more and more parts of the forest were chopped down and turned into fields. But at that point it was not yet of a serious threat to the great vast forests.

But it didn’t last for long. When the same greedy moral bankrupt traitors who made the poor people chopped barely all the european forest within a few centuries realized that they were once again facing a gold mine it really didn’t last for long. They chopped down vast parts of oak forest. Within a century, more than half of all the old sacred forest disapeared to give place to enormous desolate fields. Most of the small lakes which were located in the areas where the forest had been chopped down turned into swamps and bogs. This phenomenon has been caused by the absence of trees which were holding the thick and rich soil from irrigation and were giving drainage before that. After a few years the desolate fields turned into small bushy forests between the vast cultivated fields. Only small areas of old sacred forest were left standing tall in the whole region.

Fortunately amongst them was the island where my parents bought a small piece of land, just big enough to build a house, some thirty years ago. More than three quarter of the old forest had been turned into cultivated fields and orchards. Some of the fields had even been converted into residential areas. But still there were a few forested areas left with very old sacred trees standing tall. And those areas used to be my favorites playgrounds when I was a kid. Some of the trees were so gigantic that I was feeling like I was as small as a hobbit under their branches. There were a lot animals living in these havens such as birds, rodents, deer, canines, felines, etc… Nature was abundant and thriving well. There were wild flowers blooming, magic herbs and roots and fireflies lighting up the summer nights. It was really magical. I was definitely not the only one who was attracted by those groups of giant trees; there were living creatures everywhere around. For me it was the nicest place on earth. I was considering those trees as divine beings. They were the living houses of the good spirits; in them resided the Gods. They were the houses of the Gods. They were the pillars holding the sky in my imaginative magical world. Their roots were holding the ground in which everything living grows. I was travelling into another world, another reality when I was there among those giants.

The years passed and I unfortunately had to witness the shrinking of the forested areas. It’s mostly what made me hate everything in our honorless modern world. Nowadays only small spots of old forest are still standing. So I decided to show what is left of it to my older son after the dinner with his grand parents. To my great dismay, I found that most of what was left had been recently chopped down to eventually give place to more residential areas. I was really sad to witness such a desolate sight. Is it all the houses of the Gods that had been desecrated? Since I am very young I always dreamt of showing the magical forest of my childhood to my then future children. Are all the good souvenirs of my youth gone with those forests? Why nobody cares when five hundred years old trees are chopped down only for profit? Why do I have to feel so much pain and sadness in this honorless world? Even if many will think I am a vile sociopath I must say that I would have prefer to see a million people die instead of this forest being chopped down. Sincèrement.



Fortunately, we finally found a spot where a few very old oak trees are still standing tall and proud in a protected area close to the rocky shores. I had the chance to show it to my son while his mother, sisters and brother were visiting an aunt. I was really happy to show it to my son, to see the wonder in his young eyes while he witnessed those giants. But at the same time I was feeling really sad to see that so little was left of it. I took this specific area as an example, but the situation is the same barely everywhere on earth nowadays. When are we going to stop desecrating the houses of the Gods? When are we going to realize where our true gold resides?



HailaR WôðanaR!

”Aurum Nostrum Non Est Aurum Vulgi”

Frederik Blanchet