Features
A Time of Year to Respect Your Elders
Roughly halfway between the Autumn Equinox, (when day and night are of equal length) and the Winter Solstice, (which marks the shortest day), falls Samhain, the end and the beginning of the Celtic Year. Hallowe'en, or Allhallows, on October 31st is the relic of traditional beliefs surrounding this time and All Saints' Day, which is marked on November 1st, copper fastens them: this is the time when the veil between the worlds of spirit and matter can be lifted aside and communication take place.
The people from whom this tradition has come to us lived lives very conscious of their place in the natural world - the Web of Life. Trees were hugely important to them and they saw mystic attributes in the trees by noticing their characteristics.
Symbol of rebirth
The Elder bush was their choice of symbol for Samhain. This time of rebirth out of death is epitomised by the virtual indestructibility of Elder; cut back to the root, it still sprouts again and dead branches can always be found on the living tree. While representing the season of spirit contact, Elder is also used for protection from evil influences and can still be found tied into a cross with red cord for this purpose. Apart from its esoteric connections, every part of Elder has a use: both flowers and fruit make delicious wines, as well as having medicinal uses in fevers and coughs. The leaves provide dye for wool and infused, like tea, cooled and wiped over the skin, repel insects. The straight twigs of new growth have a pith, easy to remove to make a small flute.
As the darkness and cold of winter return, Samhain offers the opportunity for reviewing the Past and for glimpsing the Future. We hold parties at Hallowe'en, at which we bob for apples or attempt to eat one that's swinging on a cord. The Apple tree of the Celtic pantheon represents Trust and Friendship.
Truth seeking
The Hazel is the tree of Wisdom and its fruit - the cob, or hazel nut - fell into the mouth of the Salmon swimming under its overhanging boughs, in Irish tradition. Today the outcome of a relationship is predicted by tossing pairs of cobs into fire or water.
Many people today are seeking a Truth revealed more clearly in Nature than in the liturgies of the established religions and, for them, a return to the symbolism of the trees can have deep meaning. Knowing how the ancients conducted their ceremonies is not so important as their intention. If the intention is clear, so will the outcome be. Celebrations, then and now would surely include flowers or fruits, for both symbolic and festive reasons.
Birch wine
Silver Birch, with its fine, straight and flexible twigs, is still used to make besom brooms. In the Spring, at the Full Moon, the sap of the Birch surges up through the inner bark and can be tapped quite easily, using a sharp knife to make a narrow channel at an angle. A vessel that can be attached close to the bark at the bottom of the cut will catch the sap as it flows along the channel. The character of Silver Birch dispels negativity and evil, so it would be appropriate to use the besom in preparing a celebration site, either literally, or symbolically and to drink the Birch wine for the same purpose of cleansing.
Contact with the other world
Alder, a lover of wet land, has the reputation of endowing farsightedness.
Its convoluted grain gives unsplittable strength, making it ideal for the soles of clogs and, even earlier, as water pipes and gutters. Willow, another wetland tree, is attributed with enhancing the ability to contact loved ones, no longer living on this plane. Also called the 'Sally' bush, it contains salicylic acid , which is the active ingredient in aspirin and the inner bark is used by herbalists for the same purposes as aspirin, without the side-effects. An incense base could include these woods as well as aromatic cedar.
Like the Elder, Rowan twigs are tied into a cross with arms of equal length. The protective intention here, however, is for celebrants as they move through the veil in the ceremony of remembrance and renewed contact with those who have passed on. The dried red Rowan berries can be threaded, like beads, into festive swags. Poplar, too, has a place, because it helps us to cast off old fears and to discard old, outworn notions and perspectives, enabling us to move smoothly and unencumbered into the New Year.
