Hazel

Hazel

Hazel, the tree of wisdom and learning, adds its strength to the bright fire burning.

Green Man Tree Oracle

Corylus Tree of Knowlege Ninth month of the Celtic Tree calendar, August 5th - September 1st Ninth consonant of the Ogham alphabet - Coll
Planet: Mercury
Element: Air
Symbolism: Wisdom & Divination, Poetry & Science,
Playfulness & Enchantment, Healing Arts
Stone: Topaz, Pearl
Birds: Crane
Color: Orange
Deity: Hermes, Aemgus, Artemis, Diana
Folk Names: Coll


Medicinal properties:
To clear a stubborn cough, finely powder the nuts and mix with water and honey.
The leaves can be used in teas to treat such ailments as varicose veins, circulatory problems, fevers, diarrhea and excessive menstrual flow.
Hazelnuts are a good source of protein, vitamin E, calcium, magnesium, and potassium.


Magickal properties:
Wands made of this wood symbolize white magick and healing. Forked sticks are used to find water or buried treasure. If outside and in need of magickal protection quickly draw a circle around yourself with a hazel branch. To enlist the aid of plant fairies, string hazelnuts on a cord and hang up in your house or ritual room. Magically, hazel wood is used to gain knowledge, wisdom and poetic inspiration.
Hazel wood is excellent for making all purpose magickal wands.
Weave hazel twigs into a crown. Put this on your head and wish very hard. Your wish may come true!
Twigs of Hazel are placed in window frames to protect the house against lightning, and three pins of hazel wood driven into your house will protect it from fire.








The Hazel Fairy by Cicely Mary Barker
The Hazel Fairy by Cicely Mary Barker


The Fairy Bible
by Teresa Moorey




Hazel Fairy


Hazel is a mercurial sprite, deeply wise, a bringer of insight and flashes of inspiration. This fairy can help you to find knowledge in a very individual way, and to develop your intuition, so that you can see deeply into many things.


Hazel holds the secrets of the earth, and can teach about dowsing and the currents within the land, known as ley lines. She also encourages meditation and confers eloquence on those who respect and honor her.




Wakening from the dreaming forest there, the hazel-sprig sang under my tongue, its drifting fragrance climbed up through my conscious mind as if suddenly the roots I had left behind cried out to me, the land I had lost with my childhood - and I stopped, wounded by the wandering scent.

Pablo Neruda

The air surrounding hazel trees is said to be magically charged
with the quicksilver energy of exhilaration and inspiration.






To dream of a Hazelnut tree predicts wealth as well as unexpected good fortune.


This is the best time of year to focus on gaining wisdom and absorbing knowledge.
Cast spells to heighten your senses and concentration.


The Faces
of
WomanSpirit


A Celtic Oracle
of Avalon
by Katherine Torres, Ph.D.




Hazel, Strong and Wise
We salute your guiding light
We salute your knowing hour.
It does give us might.




The Faces of WomanSpirit, a Celtic Oracle of Avalon


Hazel catkins can aid in your favorite Spell for Love:






Light a red or pink candle and gather some catkins of the Hazel tree (the timing would be perfect for around Valentines day) and wrap them in a piece of red or pink tissue paper. Hold it in your hand over your heart as you recite your incantation. Burn the bundle while visualizing your intent.
adapted from Whispers from the Woods, by Sandra Kynes




THE CELTIC TREE ORACLE


THE CELTIC TREE ORACLE
by Liz and Colin Murray


As well as poetic skill, this Ogham card represents intuition, the power of divination leading straight to the source. Hazel twigs have traditionally always been used for divining because of their pliancy and affinity with water.


So the Hazel embodies many talents: Poetry, divination and the powers of mediation. Through the guidance of this card, these talents can also be a channel for creative energies, especially that which allows you to inspire or increase these capacities among others, through your work, interests and pursuits. The Hazel, in fact, allows you to be a catalyst of transformer, working though the promptings of intuition to bring ideas to the surface.


In England, branches of Hazel leaves gathered on Palm Sunday and kept alive indoors in water were said to protect the house from thunder and lightning. In Wales, fresh hazel leaves worn as a chaplet for the head brought general good luck and ensured the granting of wishes, as well as protection for those at sea from shipwreck.




Tree Magick
by Gillian Kemp


The answer to a dilemma is imminent.


The Hazelnut is a magical tree for relaying messages, which is why a Y-shaped Hazel branch is used for divination.


You will crack a situation:
the Hazelnut tree bestows powers of wisdom, symbolized by the cracking of the nutshell to get to the nourishment inside. The nut and shell also represent the heart
within the body and female fertility, because the nut is like a baby inside a mother's womb. With such life-giving qualities, this tree is an auspicious sign that love and new projects have the magical ingredients for success.
Male and female flowers, being borne on separate trees,
forecast a lover's meeting.




Tree Magick




The Great Goddess
Diana


The Oracle of the Goddess
image from The Oracle of the Goddess


Diana is a Goddess of the Women. She was the Roman Goddess who was revered as one with the Greek Goddess Artemis. Her name is derived from "light" and she may have been honored as a sun and moon Goddess in ancient times. Often she is prayed to as "Diana Trivia, the triple Goddess." She reminds us to remember our own inborn wisdom and humanity. She tell us: "You are so much more than you think." Protect your own spirit growth, and trust that what is born of you will grow wings, even if, right now they seem invisible.








In 19th century Germany, it was thought that there were witches beneath the bark of hazel trees - hence only peeled branches were allowed in churches.




LESSON OF Hazel
from The Wisdom of Trees by Jane Gifford


The Hazel encourages us to seek out information and inspiration in all things and emphasizes the value of the enquiring mind and of learning of all kinds. Just as the hazel concentrates all its goodness and its continued existence in the kernel of its fruit, so we attain wisdom by reducing knowledge down to its purest form and passing it on down the ages. Through meditating on the essence of wisdom, we gain creative inspiration. Like the limbs of the hazel, we must remain pliant in our approach to learning. Concentrated thought in an open mind can, like the hazel, become a connection with the divine source of all things. The hazel teaches us the noble arts of learning, teaching, communication, and healing.




Celtic Moon sign - Hazel Moon


The hazel produces its nuts in fall, after having spent the year building the inner strength to protect them. The shell of this nut is so hard, in fact, and contains its treasure so well, that is was the inspiration for the phrase "in a nutshell." Born under the sign of the hazel tree, you also have an inner treasure to offer - the fruits of your knowledge. Your wisdom and ability to communicate ideas make you capable of transforming the thoughts and opinions of others. Be careful how you wield your word-wizardry. Written by Kim Rogers-Gallagher, and Llewellyn's Witches' Datebook 2000


Born under this sign, you are wise and have the ability to communicate ideas, making you capable of transforming the thoughts and opinions of others. This is the best time of year to focus on gaining wisdom and absorbing knowledge. Cast spells to heighten your senses and concentration.


Hazelnut Tree, The Extraordinary: charming, undermining, very understanding, knows how to make an impression, active fighter for social cause, popular, moody and capricious lover, honest and tolerant partner, precise sense of judgment




I honor the energy of hazel, the tree of wisdom.
I will heed my own inner intuitions, and will be wise and informed in my choices.
So mote it be.




Pray Peace






Ulmus Campestris


Elm is the Arbitrator that listens without judgment


Planet: Mercury, Saturn
Element: Water
Symbolism: Communication and Relationships
Color: Turquoise
Birds: Lapwing, Ruffled Grouse
Deity: Orpheus, Odin, Hoenin, Lodr
Folk Names: Elven, English Elm, European Elm


Medicinal properties:
infusions from the inner root bark to treat colds, coughs, diarrhea, internal bleeding, and fever. Apply to external wounds, or drink to ease menstrual problems.


Magickal properties:
The tree essence energizes the mind and balances the heart. It attracts love, protects, and aids in sharpening psychic powers.
The wood of the elm was used for coffins in England, and you could find it in graveyards in ancient Greece. It was found in the underworld and at the crossroads leading to the faery world.
Elm is very popular with the Elves.
Elm is now used to protect against lightening strikes.
Carry Elm to attract love.


Survivor Tree (American Elm) By: Gerald Klingaman, retired Extension Horticulturist - Ornamentals Extension News - May 16, 2000






At the Oklahoma City National Memorial, the site of the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building, stands the Survivor Tree. The tree stands guard over a native stone plaza and its courtyard of 168 empty chairs. The fact that the tree survived the bomb blast that killed so many transformed it from a mere tree to a talisman for the comfort of all who survived.
That a tree should take on such symbolism in the aftermath of a tragedy is hardly surprising. Mankind has long placed significance on its venerable old trees, and the greater the age or the more momentous the event surrounding them, the more important they become.
The Survivor tree is an American elm, Ulmus americana. While the species is capable of attaining a height and spread of more than 100 feet, this tree is more modest in its stature with dimensions of about 40 feet. Photos taken in the 1920's when the property was the back yard of a family home indicate the tree is about 100 years old. The tree's low-forked trunk is tilted at an odd angle and, were the circumstance different, it would have hardly attracted visitors' notice.
But in the aftermath of the blast, the off-balanced yet well-rooted stature of the tree make it a perfect symbol for survival. It seems to proclaim to all who enter the hallowed site and will pause a moment to listen that the senseless act of destruction perpetrated by the few will not be the final word. The very fibers of its bole seem to radiate hope for the future just as a lighthouse sends its light into the dark night.
Chronicling the story of our nation's historic trees has never been a very organized affair, yet individuals with a sense of history and biology occasionally come forth with compilations of historic trees. To my knowledge, the first such attempt was during the Civil War by Harper's New Monthly Magazine, which described many of the significant trees from the Colonial era.
A modern account of historic trees was prepared during the height of the green movement when the editors of Outdoor Life published Trees of America in 1973. Because trees are transient and events of importance are constantly changing, an updated version is sorely needed for those of us interested in this small slice of Americana.
During the last decade the folks at the National Arbor Day Foundation have been selling seedlings or grafts of historic trees. While these trees may not have superior horticultural characteristics, their historic significance is great. Every plant in a landscape has a story to tell and these historic trees can serve as a touchstone to our past.
I don't know if there have been efforts to propagate the Survivor Elm. While there may be considerable interest in doing so, it is probably not the best idea. American elms are highly susceptible to Dutch elm disease and the fact that this tree has survived probably has more to the fact it is located at the western extent of the trees range than with any inherent resistance to the disease. Several disease resistant American elms are now being grown by wholesale nurserymen so gardeners interested in growing a venerable elm for their landscape would be better advised to seek out one of these for planting.


Tree Magick
by Gillian Kemp


"Because of its rich foliage and sap,
the Elm is sacred to Saturn,
Roman god of agriculture.
Representing fertility,
it foretells that your wish
will meet with success.
Its other meaning is their need to
give way and let nature run its course,
to sacrifice what you have for what could be.
Elm wood is flexible and durable,
and does not rot when wet.
You probably know in your heart
that your wish will be granted.
A hopeful sign is that Elm twigs
are used as divining rods.
The Elm tree stands at the entrance
to the underworld as a living connection
between the living and the dead.
What comes to you is blessed by heaven.
It may be that all you need do
is wait and have faith in nature."






Pray Peace