Mystic Order of Druids
~*~
Hedge Calendar ~*~
© AnM 2006
Introduction to the
Tamar Valley Hedge Calendar
By AnMorgwynn –
Hedgewitch and member of M.O.o.Ds
My journey along the hedge began at the Vernal Equinox, 2005ce. As a witch I had started to explore my personal journey with the cycles of nature, the seasons and the moon. On researching existing Druid Tree calendars, I became aware that they did not hold relevance to me personally in my walks along the lanes here in the Tamar Valley. What follows is therefore my personal journey and insights together with a little folklore. A search will give you more information on many of the plants that I have included in my Hedge Calendar and there is much information about the Druid Calendars to be found on other Druid websites.
My decision to work within the lunar cycles as well as the solar wheel will mean that in some cycles there will be 12 plants in the solar year and occasionally there will be a cycle of 13. My lunar month begins when I can actually see the first sliver of the moon on the western horizon, not on the date given in a modern diary for a new moon. Each lunation lasts either 29 or 30 days, and the months often alternate, or so it seems.
The year began as the first blossom turned the hedgerow a shimmering white – the blackthorn flowers were heralding the arrival of spring and the vernal equinox, for me the birth of the Goddess of the Land. Below is the list of plants I have included to date – just the twelve. Number thirteen is still to be revealed so watch this space!
Blackthorn blossom ~ heralding the spring, the Vernal Equinox and the birth of the Goddess.
Cherry blossom ~ my own birth tree with historic links to the Tamar Valley.
Hawthorn or May blossom ~ indicating that spring is turning to summer and it is time to dance and rejoice.
Elder ~ whose blossoms signify summer has arrived!
Oak ~ traditionally associated with Lammas but may dance with …
Ash ~ the lightening tree. The Oak and the Ash switch positions in the calendar some years.
Bramble ~ the hedgerow harvest that must be picked before the autumn equinox!
Apple ~ October is Apple month in the Tamar Valley.
Elm ~ associated with death and rebirth.
Holly ~ traditionally used to decorate the home during Yule festivities.
Ivy ~ the black berries providing food and shelter for the songbirds in the hedge during the bleakest winter days.
Hazel catkins ~ lambs tails dancing in the breeze as new lambs appear in the fields and ewes come into milk.
© AnM 2006
Blackthorn Blossom -
Prunus spinosa
The hedge is alight with glistening blossom brightening up the dullest of days. It is a time of year when winter has become drab and I long for warmer days to sooth my aching bones. Although the days are gradually lengthening, cold winds and rain often keep me indoors and then, on a bright day when the sun shines I venture out to my little garden to find daffodils in flower. Along the hedge beneath the Blackthorn the primroses are adding a pale yellow glow to the fresh green growth and atop the hedge are daffodils dancing and swaying in the breeze, discarded many years ago from the bulb fields up and down the Valley.
The Blackthorn is often associated with the autumn due to the sloe berries that ripen in October and go to make sloe gin. Sloe berries have been found in archaeological sites from the Mesolithic and iron ages, 8000 – 2700 BCE, so have been part of human life for quite a while! But for me it is the Blackthorn blossom that is the herald of spring.
This is a traditional rhyme that my grandmother taught me:
Of all the trees that grow so fair
Old England to adorn
Greater are none beneath the sun
Than Oak and Ash and Thorn
Indeed, when I am working magic I add the traditional “by Oak, Ash and Thorn” – it is my way of connecting to Goddess as Spirit of this Land.
Traditionally
Blackthorn is said never to exceed 13 feet in height and is often found
growing with its sister, Hawthorn. When
these are found growing
together it is said to be a magical place. In Celtic tree lore the Blackthorn
is called ‘straif’ in ogham, and the English word ‘strife’ is
derived from this celtic word. In South Devon witches were said to carry
Blackthorn walking sticks, and I still have the one made by my grandfather.
Witches were also burned on blackthorn pyres. The Blackthorn is traditionally
used in ‘binding and blasting’ and also in protection spells.
The juice from the sloes can be used as ink and was once used to dye linen
as it was such a strong acid and no other known acid at the time could discharge
it.
As a Green Man Tree Essence the Blackthorn helps absorption of energies
necessary for life. It stabilizes the emotions and brings hope and joy – the
feelings I associate with spring time.
Cherry Blossom
In Cornish the Cherry is Keresen and the fruit was important
to the Tamar Valley and Cornwall for many years. Here in the valley on the
Bere Peninsula where I was born the black cherries were known as Mazards.
Several local varieties emerged, named after the locations they were first
grown in, and these have proved resistant to canker to some degree. Halton
Black Cherries were developed and grown at Halton Quay and St Mellion still
holds an annual Cherry Feast each summer. People would take pleasure boats
up the valley to view the trees in blossom cascading down the valley sides.
Then later in the summer the river boats took folks to cherry picnics and
cherry teas. The fruit was shipped down the valley by river or train to Saltash
and here it was turned into jam or fruit pies to sell at the markets.
The Cherry is one of the worlds oldest cultivated fruits (along with apricot)
and dates back to 300BCE. It was beloved by the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans both for the beautiful flowers and the fruit. It was the
Romans that introduced the fruit to this country.
Cherries are linked to female sexuality and girls are said to have "lost their cherry" when having sex for the first time. The flowers adorn the trees in April and early May, around the time of Beltane. Then the fruit ripens shortly after mid-summer, early varieties ripen in time for summer solstice picnics ~ the sexuality of the Goddess losing her cherry perhaps!
Today the blossom in the hedge is more often than not the result of casual distribution of cherry stones by both man and birds. The blossom hangs from the branch on stalks like starry earings of white tinged with pink. Always in blossom in my birth month of April, the delicate blossoms get blown from the trees fluttering like confetti to the earth below. Cherry blossom makes my spirit sore, lights as air fluttering in the breeze, the Cherry blossom indicates that winter is definitely over. The days are warmer and longer and the blackbird sings atop the tree, I feel good to be alive!
Hawthorn Blossom
In Brittany the Hawthorn is called the White Thorn, hence it’s Cornish name of Sprenen Wynn. The Hawthorn is sacred to the Greek Goddess Maia and the Roman Goddess Flora and has a long association with the month of May and Beltane festivities. Hawthorn trees are also associated with the Goddess Bride/Brighid, and with sacred wells, people leave strips of cloth, clouties, on the trees around the well with prayers for healing. In Cornwall the most famous is Madron Well.
Before the calendar changed in 1752, Hawthorn could reliably be expected to be in full bloom on 1st May, but now it flowers a week or so later. The scent of the blossoms is musky, even linked to the smell of rotting flesh so that carrion loving insects are attracted to pollinate the flowers. It was said in London during the plague that hawthorn carried the smell of death and it was unlucky to bring into the house, especially as it attracted flies. The Fey are said to particularly like hawthorn groves and the flowers bring fairies to the house. Never cut a blooming hawthorn or the Fey will be angry, and if you sit under a blooming hawthorn in May you may be forever lost in the fairy realm. Solitary trees are fairy markers dotted in the landscape.
Hawthorn can live for over 400 years and produces fine grained and very hard wood that polishes easily and the root wood is often used for making boxes and combs. As fire wood it burns hotter than any other wood of Native British tree and charcoal made from Hawthorn wood can melt pig iron without the aid of a blast, hence it played a big role in the early iron age.
Here in the Valley hedge the Hawthorn blooms rarely in time for the Beltane celebrations, although further down into Cornwall the blossoms burst much earlier and in a mild spring will herald the beginning of summer on our modern Beltane Eve. I stroll barefoot in the fresh spring grass hearing the buzzing of bees amongst the blossom on a warm early summer day. If there is an abundance of flowers I pick a few to add to whipped cream to make May Fool, delicious served on early strawberries from the glasshouses clinging to the valley sides. A startled blackbird cries out as she flies from the hedge, perhaps there is a nest deep within the impenetrable tangle of thorn and briar. The Goddess is awake! Nature is fecund, the blood flows with energy in my veins!
The Elder
tree is called Scawen in Cornish. Boscawen-Un is a well known stone circle
in West Cornwall near Penzance and is translated
as ‘the dwelling by the elder tree on the downs’. The Elder is
also one of the sacred trees growing at the Well at St Keyne near Looe.
Also known as Lady Elder, Pipe tree, or tree of the faeries, and in Anglo
Saxon an eller means a kindler of fire. The tree of Venus, element of Water,
linked to the White goddess Rhiannon and also to the crone, the Elder represents
the seasons of early summer and late autumn. I have claimed the Elder as
the last of the blossom trees in my Tamar Valley Hedge calendar.
The flat topped masses of fragrant white blossoms adorn the branches in the early summer. Later in the autumn these will turn into drooping bunches of purple-black berries. The flowers have 5 petals and on the back are five green sepals forming a star. In between each petal are 5 yellow stamens surrounding a cream coloured ovary containing a three lobed stigma. So lots of numerical goddessy links from Mother Nature!
The scent of the flowers is narcotic and heady and especially strong in the still air of summer evenings and early mornings. It has been said that the British summer is not here until the Elder is fully in flower and that it ends when the berries are ripe! Strolling along the hedge on a warm midsummer eve with swallows flashing overhead, the Elder blossom invades the senses inviting me to lie down and enter the land of dreams.
Much folklore has sprung up around the Elder and the Elder Mother. You should ask Her permission before cutting the Elder or dire consequences would ensue. In earlier times the Elder was appreciated by the wise-women for her healing properties and perhaps this is why Christianity then linked the tree to witches and spread stories of its ‘evil’ properties and link to witches. But country folk still offer thanks for the Elder’s bounty and it was known as the country woman’s medicine chest with over 70 conditions that Elder can be used to treat. Today it is Elder flower water that is mostly used to sooth sunburn and fades age spots (and I use it as a toner to fade my freckles too!)
The wood of the main stem is hard and heavy and in old trees is white, with a fine close grain. It is easy to cut and polishes well, often being used to make small toys and for butcher’s skewers. It is also used to make shoemaker’s pegs, fishing rods, needles for weaving nets and making combs. The Elder is also used to make musical and mathematical instruments and beads for protection. Small boys use the Elder stems to make pop-guns and whistles and many a time my two came home in the autumn with clothes spotted purple from their shooting games with Elder twigs and berries!
The English Oak is called Derow in Cornish. There are however
three main kinds of Oak common to Britain:
English or Common Oak – Quercus pendunculata
Sessile or Durmast Oak – Quercus sessiflora (petraea)
Holm Oak – Quercus Ilex in Cornish Glastenen
The Sanskrit word ‘duir’ gave rise to both the word for oak and the English word ‘door’. Combined with the Indo-European root ‘wid’ meaning to know; Druid may have referred to those with “knowledge of the Oak”. With the English word ‘door’ it suggests that the Oak tree stand as an opening doorway into a greater wisdom. Dense forests of Oak once covered Northern Europe so it is not surprising to find this tree held sacred by people who lived in the oak forests. English or Common Oak is bound up in the history of England and a spray of oak was engraved on some of the coins, both the shilling and old sixpence at one time pictured the oak. The massive trunk of the oak’s noble proportions suggested to Smeaton the design for the Eddystone lighthouse, the top of which now stands on Plymouth Hoe. Many early Christian churches were sited in oak groves, probably because they were once pagan places of worship. Kildare, where Saint Brigit founded her abbey, derives from ‘Cill-dara’, the church of the oak.
Oaks are known for their production of Lammas shoots, which appear as we move into August and the heat of summer and appears in the Hedge calendar at this time, some years before Ash, others after. These new leafy shoots appear when all else is wilting from the heat of the sun. The old oak tree towering above the hedge behind my home has struggled in the recent hot summers, and in 2006 produced a mammoth crop of acorns. There are several dead branches now amongst the crown and I wonder if the climate change will see fewer oak trees surviving in our countryside.
The Cornish word for a hedge of Ash trees is keonnen, the tree itself is called Enwedhen.
In Celtic lore the Ash connected the three circles of existence, past, present and future. The Gaulish Goddess of Ash groves is called On-Niona and the Irish word for Ash is Nion, and the word for heaven is Nionon.
Ash is also known as the lightening tree and I’ve placed the tree in my Hedge calendar during the hot days of summer when lightening storms have rumbled in the Valley. One year this may be before the Oak, another after, the two trees dancing in the summer sunlight. At this time of year the Ash tree stands out from the hedge, its leaves rustling in the slightest breeze until the whole tree is swaying with the coming storm.
Ash is a strong straight wood, fast growing and frequently coppiced. The wood is very tough but also elastic, making it strong. It will bear more pressure before breaking than any other wood, hence its use for building wagons and carriages. It is also used to make axe handles, tool handles, ladders, hurdles, crates, walking sticks and a host of other agricultural purposes. It also makes the best oars. Traditionally the witches broom handle is made from Ash. Ash logs burn without smoke and the ashes of the wood make good potash. The traditional Yule log can be Ash, and as such it is described as a Solar tree, being placed on the fire it is gradually pushed onto the embers during the days of the Yule festivities never being allowed to go out – I guess it would need a large log and an even larger fireplace to last throughout the whole of the celebrations!
The Bramble, also known as Blackberry, in Cornish the bramble is dreyson, the blackberry moren, plural mor. The name Bramble derives from brymbyl; signifying prickly. Brambles in the hedgerow are easily identified by their long shoots rising up before bending down again towards the earth, where they root forming a bramble arch. In Cornwall, anyone suffering from boils was made to crawl through bramble arches for a cure. Creeping under a bramble bush was also a cure or charm against rheumatism, boils and blackheads. Blackberries were said to protect against all ‘evil runes’ if gathered at the right time of the moon. My Nan always said the berries should not be picked after the autumn equinox as then the devil has spat on them and they will be no good!
Here in the Valley the berries ripen in the late summer sunshine providing an abundance for both bird and insect life, as well as for my jam pan and the waiting brandy bottle. The evenings can be a little chillier now but the days still warm enough for us to venture out on picnics to the Moor or to the beach. Walks down the lanes between the hedges take twice as long as we keep stopping to eat ripe berries, exclaiming to each other that we’ve found a really good patch! The bramble is the first of the autumn fruits to ripen, tasting of the delicious days of summer but with the knowledge that more bitter fruits will soon follow.
October is Apple Month in the Tamar Valley. The Apples, or Avallow in Cornish, are gathered and taken to the various festivals for identification, prizes and pressing into apple juice or cider. Most of the apples in the Tamar hedgerows are escapees from orchards which at one time flourished in the valley. For many years the old orchards were forgotten and grubbed out, but today some are being brought back to life and the old Cornish varieties are being saved. I once visited the market town of Tavistock to buy some juice from a local man pressing apples in the Square, delicious it was too.
The apple belongs to the Rose family, along with hawthorn, pear and blackthorn. Old apple trees are the commonest hosts to mistletoe and therefore sacred to the Druids. In Greek mythology the apple orchards of Paradise were known as the Garden of the Hesperides (beyond the North Wind), which some say were the Islands of Britain. The Garden was tended and guarded by nine fair maidens who symbolically joined hands around the sacred tree and became its outer protection, along with a serpent that coiled amongst its roots – reminiscent of the Biblical story of Eve in the Garden of Eden.
In Celtic times apples were the food of Gods and the trees were wasailed over to ensure a good harvest. Wasailling occurred around Twelth Night, 6th January, although different areas had their own traditional dates. Cider would be blessed and poured on the roots of the oldest or best fruit bearing tree in the orchard amongst much merriment and young maidens linked hands and danced around the trees. The roman Goddess Pomona was linked to orchards and today has a delicious drink named after her, made from cider and cider brandy.
Apple wood is seen as a symbol of security and poetic immortality and is a symbol of healing, beauty and fruitfulness. Apples are specifically used at Samhain to ensure that the correct atmosphere of trust and friendship ensues. Games include bobbing for apples floating in a cauldron of water, and apple juice or cider forms part of the ritual cup passed amongst friends and used to toast those members of the family no longer with us in body but still in spirit on this night.
The Elm Tree is known as Elowen in Cornish. In Britain there are two main species of elm, the English Field Elm and the Wych Elm, along with several sub-species. There is also a dwarf elm which is sometimes called Water Elder or Whitten and is known as the Reed Tree, or Negetal. The Cornish Elm is salt resistant and slightly more tolerant of Dutch Elm disease, which incidentally is not present on the Scilly Isles. Once the Field Elm was a noble tree living to more than 400 years in age and was synonymous with the British countryside. Today the noble trees are gone, decimated by Dutch Elm disease, the survivors being relegated to the hedgerow.
The Field Elm however does not die. New shoots spring up from the roots to grow in the hedge for perhaps as much as 30 years before succumbing to disease. Hence the cycle of death and rebirth is acted out continuously by the Elm. In Greek legend when Orpheus returned from Hades he played a love-song to Eurydice and the first Elm Grove sprang up in response to his tune. In Britain the Elm was associated with burial mounds and the wood was used for making coffins. It has the ability to remain imperishable if kept either dry or wet and was used to build ships, and Cornish Gigs. However, when it is alternately wet and dry it decays very rapidly. When steamed the wood can be bent and was used in furniture making and longbows. The tough bark fibres could be made into rope.
Elm has been an important tree to country folk and in the farming calendar the saying goes that when the Elm leaves are as big as mouse ears it is time to plant the barley. This link with grain shows Elm’s long association with mankind and the earlier grain goddesses. Village justice was often dispensed beneath the shade of the Elm tree and you could give Elm leaves as a good luck charm to departing friends. Tiny twigs of Elm were placed in a pouch and given to a child to ware around the neck as a charm to encourage eloquent speech later in life. But if you wanted to prevent gossip you had to bind Elm wood with a yellow cord!
Near to my home there are remnants of ancient hedgerow amongst the houses and two slim Cornish Elms reach skywards, remnants of a much older and larger predecessor. I watch them carefully, breath held, for the signs of disease which would bring the woodcutter and his chain saw to fell them once again. For now the leaves are still green in the autumn sunlight, one of the last trees to turn golden as autumn fades towards winter chills. I collected seed back in the summer, tiny dots held in golden paper disks, but it is rare for the seeds to germinate and grow into new plants. Life for the Elm springs from death, the sober cycle remembered at Samhain.
Holly – Ilex aquifollium in Cornish called Kelynen. Together with Ivy, the Holly is associated with the winter months. Holly is sometimes linked to the male energy whilst Ivy is linked to the female and boys and girls would dress up in the greenery to represent the God and Goddess and the evergreen qualities of nature through the darkest times of the year. The holly is protective and guards the precious energies of life, Royal work indeed, hence the rhyme: “and of all the trees within the wood, the Holly bears the crown”.
Although the Holly can reach a height of 30-40 feet, within the hedge it is usually found clipped back providing a protective barrier. Above 12 feet the sharp pointed leaves become rounder and less prickly. Flowering in May and pollinated by wild bees who are drawn to the nectar, it is the bright red berries that ripen for Yule that identifies Holly in the Hedge at this time of year. When I was a little girl several families in the village would cut a holly tree for the house instead of the fir we associate nowadays with Yule and Christmas celebrations.
Holly was given as a gift during the Roman five day festival of Saturnalia, which celebrated the birth of the sun-god at the winter solstice. These pagan traditions were recognised by the early Christian church and incorporated into the festival of Christ’s birth on December 25th and boughs of holly are often found decorating churches during this festival.
In Irish Gaelic the Holly is called Tinne, meaning fire and from this word we get ‘tinder’ to make fire. Charcoal made from Holly wood was used by armourers to forge swords and axe heads and today we use holly incense to consecrate magical knives. Holly wood is ivory white and close grained and easily stained to take on a blue, green or red colour. If stained black it was the poor man’s ebony, the white wood being the imitation ivory. It was used in close inlay and marquetry work and the white wood often imitated ivory on knife handles. Traditionally the Holly was used for door sills because of its protective qualities and it is a plant of good omen and immortality, being green throughout the year.
And, rabbits love holly bark which is a tonic for them. Which puts isolated Hollies in danger of being killed if the rabbits completely remove the bark from young trees. At least in the hedge the Holly is better protected by its neighbours and manages to survive extremely well. Every now and then a larger specimen is found standing proud, left by the modern farmer during hedge trimming, perhaps so he can have a supply of boughs and berries to decorate his hall during the “season to be jolly”.
The Ivy, Ydhyowen in Cornish is associated with the Holly, both being used at Yuletide throughout the Northern European lands. Common Ivy is a dark green evergreen, but there are many varieties with different coloured leaves and textures. Ivy grows and climbs up the other plants in the hedge and on reaching as far as it can go bushes out, the leaves become broader. Ivy only flowers when it has reached its limits, the small greenish white or yellow buds yielding an abundance of nectar for bees in the late autumn. Later the berries turn black or deep purple and are about the size of a pea but have a bitter and nauseous taste but when rubbed they have an aromatic and slightly resinous odour.
During the dark days of winter the dark ivy berries glow in the hedge, providing a welcome source of food for blackbirds and thrushes and it is at this time of year that I have placed Ivy in the Hedge calendar. Ivy has long held associations with the winter months and at one time the Christian church banned Ivy decorations in church during the Yule celebrations because of its pagan associations.
The Celts associated Ivy with the lunar Goddess Arianrhod, and the opening of a portal to the dark side of the moon and the realm of Faery. Arianrhod’s palace, the Silver Castle is the constellation known as Corona Borealis which the Druids identified as the realm of the dead, where heroes waited and rested before being reborn. Arianrhod’s Silver Wheel is the cycle of time – birth-death-rebirth. She is the weaver of Destiny and a powerful primal figure controlling the time dimension that allows access to the whirlpool of creation. Ivy as Arianrhod’s symbol represents the journey of the soul and the spiral toward the self.
Hazel Catkins
Hazel is Collwedhen in Cornish and is representative of ‘the power to find that which is hidden’. At the beginning of the new solar year, the hazel in the hedgerow gives the promise of what is to come with the abundance of catkins, known as lambs tails, hanging from the bare branches. It is now that the first lambs are born in the lowland sheltered valleys, life is beginning to stir in the land once again. The hedge is still looking drab in winter hibernation, but from within the shelter of last year’s dead growth the pure white blossoms of early snowdrops bravely face the elements. Little posies gathered by maidens are for sale at the farm gate down in the Valley near Cotehele.
Mercury and Hermes both carried a hazel staff, sometimes depicted with two ribbons or snakes intertwining along the staff, forming the caduceus, symbol of the healing arts. Appearing in my hedge in the days leading up to Imbolc, sacred to Bridgid, Goddess of healing, my own staff is made of hazel wood with a single twining snake of honeysuckle climbing it, and was dedicated to Bridgid at Imbolc.
Pilgrim staffs were made of hazel rods and the owners became so attached to them that they were buried with their staff. Hazel is often called the tree of immortality and the nuts were talismans for a healthy life. A double hazelnut carried in the pocket was said to prevent toothache while ground hazelnuts mixed with Mead is said to clear a persistent cough.
Being near hazel trees or meditating with a piece of hazel brings the spirit alive and allows us to cast off the old and move onto the new, something I often do at this time of year with spring cleaning and new projects forming in my mind. Hazel’s atmosphere exudes exhilaration and inspiration, although the pollen can often make you sneeze!
Hazel is also called the poet’s tree and is associated with entrance to the faerie realm. Traditionally hazel rods are cut on Midsummer’s Eve for divining, and it has strong associations with water (read The Salmon of Wisdom). Hazel likes growing in damp places but also prefers good drainage, which it can get in the hedge. The associations with water also link hazel with the Moon, controller of the tides on Earth.
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