Magickal Properties of Wood
This is taken from the ancient Celtic tree alphabet. Individual trees of particular species have long been revered. The deity alignment and symbolism of the woods play a large role in the construction of magical tools, as well as within individual rites, rituals, and workings.
Alder
The Alder is the tree of fire. In the battle of the trees, the Alder fought in the very front line. It is described as the very "battle witch" of all woods, the tree that is hottest in the fight. From the alder, you can make three different dyes, red from its bark, green from its flowers, and brown from its twigs; this symbolizes the elements of fire, water and earth. The Alder wood is the wood of the witches. Whistles may be made of this wood to summon and control the four winds. It is also the ideal wood for making the magical pipes and flutes. To prepare the wood for use, beat the bark away with a willow stick while projecting your wishes into it. The Alder is a token of resurrection. It is associated with Bran, as He used His body as a bridge to span dangerous waters. Alder indicates protection and oracular powers.
Magickal Aspects:
Controlling the four winds, banishing and controlling elementals, resurrection. Making magical dyes.
Almond
Almond has a very sweet natural being. Aids in self protection.
Magickal Aspects:
Fruitfulness, virginity.
Apple
The Apple is the earliest cultivated tree. A dense, fine-grained, rosy-colored wood with a slightly sweet smell, it is associated with choice. Used in love spells, divinations, and healing. It is an old English custom to drink to the health of the Apple tree with a good glass of cider all in hopes of encouraging the tree to produce a good crop next year. In Norse myth, Idunna was the keeper of the 'apples of immortality' which kept the Gods young. The 'fruit-bearing tree' refered to by Tacitus in his description of Norse runic divination may have been the apple.
Magickal Aspects:
Indicates choice which must be made between similar and equally attractive things; Fertility, love and healing magic.
Ash
Branches used for wands and in protection spells. The Ash is sacred to Poseidon and Woden. The Ash is considered to be the father of trees. The Ash is the tree of sea power, or of the power resident in water. Special guardian spirits reside in the Ash; This makes it excellent for absorbing sickness. The spirally carved druidical wand was made of Ash for this purpose.
Magickal Aspects:
Ash can be used in spells requiring focus and strength of purpose, and indicates the linking of the inner and outer worlds. Sea power, karmic laws, magical potency, healing, protection from drowning.
Beech
Beech wood is closely grained, very easy to work giving a smooth even surface. At one time Beech tablets were used as writing surfaces because of the above mentioned qualities. Beech and book have the same word origins. Beech is concerned with ancient knowledge as revealed in old objects, places and writings.
Magickal Aspects:
Beech indicates guidance from the past to gain insight which protects and provides a solid base upon which all relies.
Birch
Associated with Thor, probably in recognition of his role as an agricultural and fertility deity. Used in Purification rites. With the exception of the mysterious elder, the Birch is the earliest of the forest trees. The Birch is used extensively in cleansing rituals. Throughout Europe, Birch twigs are used to expel evil spirits. Birch rods are also used in rustic rituals to drive out the spirits of the old year. Long associated with fertility and healing magic, birch twigs were used to bestow fertility on cattle and newlyweds, and children's cradles were made from its wood.
Magickal Aspects:
Controlled by the Lunar influences. Birth, healing, protection, Lunar workings, fertility and healing spells .
Blackthorn
Blackthorn is a winter tree. It is black barked with vicious thorns and grows in dense thickets. The wood is used in the cudgel shillelagh and Blasting Stick. Its thorns are used to pierce waxen images.
Magickal Aspects:
Indicates strong action of fate or outside influences that must be obeyed.
Coconut
The Coconut is feminine and very fertile. The shell represents the womb, and the milk, fertility.
Magickal Aspects:
Protection from negative psychic forces.
Elder
A wood sacred to the faery folk. A waterside tree, the Elder has white flowers that bloom to their peak in midsummer (as is also true for the Rowan) thus making the Elder another aspect of the White Goddess. The Elder is also said to be the crucifixion tree. The inner bark and the flowers have long been famous for their therapeutic qualities. In Norse mythology, the Goddess Freya chose the black elder as her home. In medieval times it was the abode of witches and it was considered dangerous to sleep under its branches or to cut it down. Sticks of Elder were used as magical horses by Witches. Elder indicates the end in the beginning and the beginning in the end. Life in Death and Death in Life.
Magickal Aspects:
Witchcraft, banishment, magical art, waters of life.
Elm
A slightly fibrous, tan-colored wood with a slight sheen. Elm is often associated with Mother and Earth Goddesses, and was said to be the abode of faeries, explaining Kipling's injunction; "Ailim be the lady's tree; burn it not or cursed ye'll be". Elm wood is valued for it's resistance to splitting, and the inner bark was used for cordage and chair caning.
Magickal Aspects:
Elm adds stability and grounding to a spell.
Fig
The Fig is androgynous. The fruit representing the feminine and the triple lobed leaves suggest the masculine force.
Magickal Aspects:
Balance
Hawthorn
A tree sacred to faeries and maiden goddesses. The Whitethorn or Hawthorn or May Witch takes its name from the May. It is a generally unlucky tree and its name, translated from the Irish Brehon Laws, had the meaning "harm". The Goddess, under the name Cardea, cast spells with the Hawthorn. In many cultures, the month of the Hawthorn (May) is a month of bad luck for marriages. The Hawthorn blossom, for many men, has the strong scent of female sexuality and was used by the Turks as an erotic symbol. The monks of Glastonbury perpetuated it and sanctified it with an approving tale that the staff of Joseph and the Crown of thorns were made of Hawthorn.
Magickal Aspects:
Purification, enforced chastity, male potency, and cleansing.
Hazel
The Hazel is a tree of wisdom. In England, all the knowledge of the arts and sciences were bound to the eating of Hazel nuts. Until the seventeenth century, a forked Hazelstick was used to divine the guilt of persons in cases of murder and theft. We have retained the practice of divining for water and buried treasure. In Celtic tradition, the Salmon of Knowledge is said to eat the 9 nuts of poetic wisdom dropped into its sacred pool from the hazel tree growing beside it. Each nut eaten by the salmon becomes a spot on its skin.
Magickal Aspects:
Hazel wood is used to gain knowledge, wisdom, intelligence, inspiration, and poetic inspiration.
Holly
Holly means "holy". The identification of the pacific Christ with the Holly is poetically inept as it is the Oak king, not the Holly king that is crucified on a T shaped cross. In Arthurian legend, Gawain (representing the Oak King of summer) fought the Green Knight, who was armed with a holly club to represent winter.
Magickal Aspects:
Holiness, consecration, material gain, physical revenge, beauty. Used in spells having to do with sleep or rest, and to ease the passage of death.
Ivy/Vine
The Ivy was sacred to Osiris as well as to Dionysus. Vine and Ivy come next to each other at the turn of the year, and are jointly dedicated to resurrection. Presumably, this is because they are the only two trees that grow spirally. The Vine also symbolizes resurrection because its strength is preserved in the wine.
Magickal Aspects:
(VINE) Faerie work, Joy, Exhilaration, Wrath, Rebirth. (IVY) Fidelity, Constancy, Love, Intoxication
Larch
A light softwood, similar to spruce. Larch is one of the few conifers which sheds its needles in the winter. The larch plays an important role in Lapp and Siberian mythology where it takes the place of the ash as the World-tree. Their shamans use larch wood to rim their ceremonial drums.
Magickal Aspects:
The smoke from burning larch is said to ward off evil spirits. Larch may be used for protection and to induce visions.
Maple
A very hard, pale, fine-grained wood. Although the sugar maple has the highest sugar content in its sap, all maple species can be tapped to make syrup and sugar, making them a vital resource to early North American settlers. In north-eastern North America, the annual 'sugaring-off' usually coincides with the vernal equinox, making it one of the first signs of spring.
Magickal Aspects:
Maple can bring success and abundance.
Mistletoe
The mistletoe was sacred to the Druids and to the Norse. It was considered to be the great healer and has both male and female qualities. It was so well regarded by the Norse (because it was sacred to Freya) that they refused to fight in the vicinity of Mistletoe. The custom of hanging Mistletoe in the house to promote peace comes from this. Generally regarded today as a symbol of love and purity.
Magickal Aspects:
Love, fertility, sexual potency.
Oak
The oak tree is the tree of Zeus, Jupiter, Hercules, The Dagda (The Chief of the Elder Irish gods), Thor and all other Thunder Gods. The royalty of the Oak needs no enlarging upon. The Oak is the tree of endurance and triumph, and like the Ash, is said to count the lightnings flash. The Oak is a male wood which is ideal for the construction of any tool that needs the male influence such as Athames, certain wands and staffs. The midsummer fire is always Oak and the need fire is always kindled in an Oak log.
Magickal Aspects:
Used in spells for stamina, lust, and fertility; endurance, triumph, strength, power, dominion, and prosperity. A wood of sacrifice; the guardian and liberator.
Palm
Is regarded as particularly powerful because of its incredible durability and because it is self renewing, never changing its leaves. Aids in rejuvenation.
Magickal Aspects:
Resurrection, and the cycle and matrix of life.
Peach
Useful in love magic, the Peach is an emblem of marriage.
Magickal Aspects:
Abundance, fruitfulness, happiness.
Pine
An evergreen, it's old title was "the sweetest of woods". External symbol of life and immortality. It is one of the few trees that are androgynous. It was also worshiped by the ancients as a symbol of fire because of its resemblance to a spiral of flame. It is regarded as a very soothing tree to be near.
Magickal Aspects:
Strength, life and immortality, rejuvenation. The scent of Pine is useful in the alleviation of guilt. Dreaming of pine trees indicates issues of guilt.
Rowan
The Rowan is seen as the tree of life. It is also known as Mountain Ash, Quickbeam, The Witch or Witch Wand, and has long been known as an aid and protection against enchantment. . In the British Isles, Rowan is used as a protection against lightning and magical charms of all sorts. In ancient Ireland, the Druids of opposing forces would kindle a fire of rowan and say an incantation over it to summon spirits to take part in the battle. The Rowan is also used for many healing purposes. The "Quickbeam" is the tree of quickening. Another use was in metal divining. Sticks of the Rowan were used to carve Runes on. It was also used in the art of metal divining. Rowan spays and crosses were placed over cattle in pens and over homes for protection. Its lovely red berries feed the birds in winter. The berries have a tiny pentagram on them, the ancient symbol of protection.
Magickal Aspects:
Used as a psychic enhancer and for healing magic. Also, for divination, astral work, protection. and control of the senses from enchantment and beguiling.
White Poplar
The tree of the Autumn Equinox and of old age, is the shifting leaved White Poplar, or Aspen, The shield makers tree. It is commonly referred to as the talking, whispering and quivering tree. Heracles bound his head in triumph with poplar after killing the giant Cacus (the evil one). In Christian lore, the quaking poplar (aspen) was used to construct Christ's cross, and the leaves of the tree quiver when they remember this fact. The Black poplar was a funeral tree sacred to the Mother Earth. Plato makes a reference to the use of Black popular and Silver Fir as an aid in divination. The Silver Fir standing for hope assured and the Black Popular for loss of hope. In ancient Ireland, the coffin makers measuring rod was made of Aspen, apparently to remind the dead that this was not the end.
Magickal Aspects:
Hope, rebirth, divinations, shielding, endurance, agility in speech and language, and as an aid in astral projection.
Willow
The Willow was sacred to Hecate, Circe, Hera, and Persephone, all death aspects of the Triple Moon Goddess, and was often used by the Witches in Greece. In western tradition it is a symbol of mourning and unlucky love. The Latin name for the weeping willow refers to the psalm in which the Hebrews mourn their captivity in Babylon by the willows. A Female symbol, the moon owns the willow. It is the tree that loves water most and is sacred to the Moon Goddess who is the giver of dew and moisture, generally. The Willow is the tree of enchantment. Can be made into a tool to make wishes come true.
Magickal Purposes:
Used in love, healing, and fertility rites and spells. A wood of Moon magic, psychic energy, healing, and inspiration. Being a feminine wood, Willow indicates cycles, rhythms and the ebb and flux.
Yew
Long associated with magic, death, rebirth and the runes, the yew may be the oldest-lived tree in the world. The Yew is known as the death tree in all european countries, and the original 'World-tree' of Scandinavian mythology. Sacred to Hecate in Greece and Italy. Yew wood makes excellent bows, as the Romans learned from the Greeks. This strengthened the belief that Yew was connected with death. Its use in England is recalled in Macbeth where Hecate's cauldron contained:"... Slips of Yew, slivered in the moon eclipse."The Silver Fir of birth and the Yew of death are sisters. They stand next to each other in the circle of the year and their foliage is almost identical.
Magickal Aspects:
Destructive workings concerning death. Yew may be used to enhance magical and psychic abilities, and to induce visions. Not recommended for magical tools.