Manifesting Majote Trees

September 2, 2024

Opening the book called “Plant, Spirit, Healing: a Guide to Working with Plant Consciousness”, by Pam Montgomery (2008) I found the following quote: Trees have special powers. If you sit under a tree or lie daydreaming, the tree will give you energy. If your pray under a tree, the tree will give your prayers energy.

Do you remember such a time? I do. It was 2008 and the beginning of what you see before you now. It was at the end of a plant walk through the former fishing village of La Manzanilla guided by Huichol curandero (shaman) named Julio Parra Parra and organized by a member of the community of wintering snowbirds. We were a handful of foreigners learning to see this small village and surrounds in a different way as plants were named by Julio with their healing properties identified. Outside of town we finally came to rest under a tree at least sixty feet tall with a vast and spreading canopy that shaded us from the heat of the sun. Around us on the ground were dozens of one inch lime colored spheres. Picking up one, Julio peeled away the thin skin from the inner nut demonstrating how to eat it. “But first”, he said, “Thank the tree and only gather from the ground.” The thin layer of orange flesh was sweet. “It will give you energy,” he promised. We also feasted on the sight of the tree from ground level where we’d spread ourselves like fallen fruit. The roots snaked above ground at a height of two or three feet. I became quieter as I nibbled and gradually from the silence one thought came to dominate.

I asked the tree for help in finding another of its kind on land I could afford to buy cheaply. I wanted to protect one of these ancient majotes. Trees such as this can be more than three hundred years old. I was told it might be older than the time of conquest. I learned that in famine majote provides all the food and medicine needed by people and their animals. Surely, I had the means to return the favor. I formed my prayer and reluctantly left with renewed spirit and purpose.

My mother decided to buy land where she could build a small retirement house with alternative building methods. We drove out to the Mexican village on the other side of the highway from the touristic La Manzanilla along the dusty road to where it became merely a track. We were standing near the old bullring when a man in a red car pulled up beside us and asked what we wanted. His tone, and his words, without preamble might have seemed rude as is often the way with a second language. He wasn’t beating around the bush in which we stood shock still. My mother announced in her very bad Spanish that she wanted to buy a lot and build a house.

He got out of the car and the negotiations began. It turned out this was his land we were standing on. Soon the two of them were talking money. My mother had already decided what she could afford. With a decisive and childish gesture she stamped her foot and said loudly in Spanish that she’d pay no more than $10,000 US. We both looked at her dumbfounded. She hadn’t properly heard his “final offer” of $8,500. In a moment, we were all laughing and the deal was done. Soon the land began to be cleared for a house and garden. I visited when I could catch a ride. One day I decided to walk the perimeter of her property and that is how I found my majote trees.

It seems strange that four trees towering a hundred feet and covering an area of 300 square meters could have been hidden from anyone’s view but that’s how dense the forest was out behind the bullring. The piece of property my mother bought was at the edge of the owner’s vast familial land holdings. The land with the majote trees belonged to another man who told me he needed money for his wife’s cancer treatments. I only had the money because my difficult recovery from cancer treatment meant I could not return to work and was forced to sell my condo. I paid around $5,000 for a property the same size I now live on at Lake Chapala. On my recent visit I was happy to learn the owner’s wife is alive and well.

When it became clear that I needed to add a word to the website address my daughter Zarah suggested the word “support”. Since I am not collecting money, I wondered if I would be giving the wrong impression. Yet, this story is about support on many levels not least of which was necessary funding for cancer treatment. This tree with a long history of supporting humanity deserves to grow where it is found to be prospering. Yet, for most of us "support” will not be tangible.

A love of trees is free for all. I can’t wait to discover where this adventure will take us for it is now clear that just as there was more than one tree when I found the majote, there are more people who are connected to these trees through the sharing of our “fruits.”

Morgana

Lake Chapala