Trees and Children

An excerpt from Be Ye Perfect

by Geoffrey Hodson

Geoffrey Hodson (1886-1983), was a gifted clairvoyant who utilized his psychic powers to communicate with the subtle forces of nature, known in the West as angels and in India as devas or “the shining ones.” Be Ye Perfect is one of three books that resulted from Geoffrey Hodson's early communication with an angel he called Bethelda.

In Be Ye Perfect, Bethelda offered teachings focusing on various stages of a person's earthly journey. The following excerpt concerns the child during their first ten years of life.

Photo by Shi-Wei Shei.

"All children have affinity with trees whose life-force they absorb and whose greenery is beneficial to the growing form. The child should learn to love the trees, to greet them as friends, to know the saplings as playmates, the old trees as godparents.

The trees may be the teacher of the child; from them chuildren will learn all that they need know of birth, of death, of strength and straightness, of sheltering service and of poise; of bending to a force which, erect, may not be withstood; of seeds and their begetting, of birds and insects who share with them the service of the trees.

Children should sleep in hammocks swung from their branches, with air and vitality flowing freely about them. They should play round their trunks; their branches and their leaves should shelter the child from rain. Next to their human guardians and their invisible friends, the trees are a child's most valuable  companions. From the first, the child should approach them as living, breathing and conscious beings, friends who know them well and speak to them with swaying branch and rustling leaves; left to themself, the child will learn to interpret their speech. At the same time, the need for sunshine must be borne in mind.

In these years the child will benefit from the companionship of animals and of other children. No child should spend their first ten years separated from these three; trees, animals and others their own age."

From Be Ye Perfect, originally published by The Theosophical Publishing House - London, 1928. Reissued by Gaupo Publishing, 2025.

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