Wolf runs on again to the vine-like tree with white flowers. Here we shake the tree, or the message lies in shaking the tree. I guess one shakes the tree to make the flowers fall. But why? The vine links to Dionysus, though M was clear there were no grapes. The flower is a symbol for the soul, and white perhaps for purity and death. There is white wolf, white snow, white polar bear, and now white flowers. I think the flower is the prize at the end of the journey. I shake the tree for its flowers, as one might shake it for its fruits. 'Your fruit to pick', as Simon quotes his teacher.

Symbolically, the creeping vine has been understood as a snake, which echoes the tree full of serpents at the start of the journey. But what a transformation. In the Ogham alphabet, the vine is called the 'weaver' from its twining round others and connecting them. Incas spoke of the Vine of Souls, which housed the ancestral spirits (possibly a string of stars, like the Milky Way). The Mayan word for vine, akh, also means 'tongue' suggesting vines could speak (like the whispering tree) or induce prophetic speech. The snakes climbing the first tree are replaced by the climbing vine in this third tree of the soul-journey.

I must shake the tree. Is this instead of the wind? It seems unlikely as 'wind' is the spirit of God. Only if God was within me, rather than ego, might this make sense. Quakers were called 'shakers', when they were moved by the spirit. But if I am shaken by the spirit, why shake the vine-tree? Unless I am the tree? The tree is the Axis Mundi to the Lower and Upper Worlds. It is the shaman's pole. Shake the tree and the flowers may fall. Maybe shake the shaman's tree for its flowers, or souls, is another way of saying - Ride your broomstick. In which case, it is the answer to my question.

Wolf is now completely exhausted, his task done. He sleeps by the river, and then with a 'huge' thirst drinks from the river. Then he (we) becomes the river flowing fast back to the elders and the Middle World. We become the water of life. M later said she thought it was an initiation. She saw me at the start by the immovable rock, and now e-merging from the flowing river. We shake hands and go to thank the elders.

The river is perhaps another form of the snake and vine. The 'huge' rock, whispering tree, and polar bear have become the huge thirst that unites us with the river. The symbols are all forms of the One Spirit. The journey ends in a kind of baptism, in which one becomes for an eternal moment at one with the Spirit. And it is a practical thing, a job done, as I shake the hand of my shaman and we go to thank the elders.

I end this account with much thanks to all my helpers on the journey - the eagle, the snakes, the rock, the three trees, the wise old woman of the cave, snowy mountain and the polar bear, the white flowering vine, the river, the elders, valiant Wolf and shaman M. Thanks also to Simon and Naomi for showing the way. Thanks to Edwin for planting the seed, and to the bees who kept me on track.

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