02/01/2026
Pareidolia is the tendency to see familiar shapes, especially faces, in random patterns. Do any of you get this when you wander in the woods?
It’s why knots in wood become eyes, why bark creases form mouths, why old trees seem to watch you as you pass. Our brains are tuned for it. Recognising faces quickly once meant survival. Better to mistake a tree for a presence than miss a presence in the trees.
In woodland, pareidolia becomes stronger. Bark, shadow, lichen, twisted grain, all layered, all shifting with the light. A beech trunk turns its head at dusk. An oak root grimaces. A yew watches without blinking. Scientifically, it’s pattern recognition.
Culturally, it brushes close to older ideas, tree spirits, watchers, wights, faces of the land itself. Many traditions treated these sightings with respect rather than dismissal. If the land appeared to look back, you slowed down. You paid attention.
Maybe that’s why it still resonates. Seeing faces in trees isn’t about believing the tree is human. It’s about recognising that the landscape is not inert, not dead, not separate from us. The woods don’t speak in words. But sometimes, if you’re quiet enough, they seem to look back.
-Woodlarking
