Folklore

Beech and Sycamore Plant-lore

Angela PorterLeave a comment

A bit more trolling round the world weird web, as well as my reference books, for information on some of the plants I saw on my travels on Friday.  I get lost far too easily in the search for knowledge and information, but it’s always an enjoyable journey.

Beech (Fagus sylvatica)

Around the UK wishes can often be seen tied to beech trees.  This custom has it’s origins in Celtic tree mythology where the beech is known as the tree of wishes.  Fallen beech branches were seen as invitations to make a wish by writing it on a beech twig and then pushing the twig deep into the ground.  The wish would then be taken by the wishing fairies to the Fairy Queen who would consider it. [1] Rods of beech are often favoured by water diviners. [2]

The Greek deities Apollo and Athena were said to have sat, as vultures, in the branches of an oak or a beech tree to watch the war between the Trojans and the Greeks. [3, 4]

Beech nuts are known as mast [5].

Norse tradition says that tablets of beech were used to make the very first writing tablets for the runes.  It is also a sacred wood of the Summer Solstice [10].

Sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus)

The Sycamore is also known as the Great Maple [5].  The winged seeds of the sycamore are called helicopters and were used in flying competitions by children.  The sycamore was the favoured wood for making love spoons in Wales, which are made from a single piece of wood [6].

In Montgomeryshire there was a belief that sycamore trees kept the fairies away and stopped them from spoiling the milk [7].

In Scotland the feudal lairds used sycamore tress, known as dool or joug trees, as their gallows.  Further south, in Wiltshire, sycamores had unlucky associations, perhaps because they were also sometimes known as ‘hanging trees’ [8].

The Sycamore is sometimes called the Martyrs’ tree after the Tolpuddle Martyrs who first met beneath a sycamore tree in 1843 and formed a secret society to fight starvation and poor wages.  Unfortunately, they were caught and sentenced to seven years transportation to Australia.  They were pardoned after two years and returned home [9].

  1. Tumbling Woods
  2. Oaken Woods
  3. Mystical World Wide Web
  4. messagenetcommresearch.com
  5. Botanical.com
  6. The Woodland Trust
  7. members.multimania.co.uk
  8. Roy Vickery – Plant Lore
  9. Forest of Leeds
  10. Spiritual Forums

Rosebay Willowherb and Fern Plant-lore

Angela PorterLeave a comment

Rosebay Willowherb (Epilobium angustifolium)

The genus name of Epilobium comes from two Greek words: epi meaning upon and lobos meaning a pod which alludes to the fact that the flowers seem to sit upon the top of long, thin pod-like seed vessels that look rather like thick flower stems.  The name willowherb refers to the leaves which look rather like the leaves of the willow tree.

Rosebay willowherb was restricted in its habitat to clearings in woodland, until the advent of the railways.  The disturbance of the ground by the construction of the railways and the corridors of movement which they provided allowed the rosebay willowherb to spread far and wide

Rosebay willowherb, known as fireweed in the USA and greater willowherb in Canada, rapidly colonises burnt ground.  During the bombing of London during WWII, this plant often colonised derelict sites giving a much needed splash of colour during this grim time.  In the later months of summer it produces lots of pollen and nectar which bees turn into a rich, spicy honey.  It is the main food source for the caterpillar of the Elephant Hawk-moth.  In Russia it is used as a substitute for tea, and is called kaipor tea.  The leaves of rosebay willowherb can be fermented just as the leaves of tea can.

‘The willowherb will stop bleeding, heal wounds and drive away snakes, gnats and flies’ [1]

Picking the flower would mean your mother would die.[2]

Thunderstorms ensue from picking the flowers.[2]

Boys in the Thteford area used to smoke the fluffy down from the plant, but it was a very hot and strong smoke.[2]

Ferns

In Elizabethan times, fern seed was believed to be invisible, expect for a few moments around midnight on Midsummer Eve when it could be seen falling to the ground.  Anyone who could catch some in a pewter plate would be invisible while they carried it (the seed not the plate!). [2]  Shakespeare, in Henry IV, wrote ‘we have the receipt of fern seed, we walk invisible’.

In 19th century Lancashire, young people would go to Clough, near Moston, to silently gather the seeds of ‘St John’s Fern’ on the Eve of St John’s Day.  They would do this in order to gain the affections of those maidens who would not accept their attentions.  In Lincolnshire, St Mark’s Eve was called ‘the Devil’s Harvest’ because ferns were said to bud, blossom and release seed all between midnight and 1 a.m. and it would be the Devil that would harvest it.  If anyone managed to catch some of the seed between two pewter plates, then they would become as wise as the Devil. [2]

In the 17th century it was believed that the burning of bracken – either in the preparation of potash (used in the manufacture of glass or soap) or for its control – would lead to rain.  [3]

If you cut a fern stall horizontally you will see a significant letter, supposedly the initial of the person you will marry. A less common superstition, but one that was more serious, was the idea that the initial is always a ‘C’, signifying Christ, and for this reason witches are said to detest the plant. [2]

Another version is that the shape is a representation of an oak tree, the clearer the shape the better your luck will be [1].

The Druids classified ferns as sacred trees.  At Midsummer, uncurled fronds of Male Fern were gathered, dried and then carried as good-luck charms.  Fern leaves also have the reputation of preventing evil from entering one’s home.

  1. E Radford and M A Radford – Encyclopaedia of Superstitions 1949
  2. J Simpson and S Roud – A Dictionary of English Folklore
  3. R Vickery – Dictionary of Plant-Lore

Raining…daisies?

Angela PorterLeave a comment

It’s started to rain steadily and quite heavily here. It’s also feeling rather chilly for an August day. The rain prompted me to look at folklore and superstitions mentioning rain. As I was sat at the ‘puter it was easier to go and do a Google than to go looking for my books on such topics.

There’s a good list of weather-lore at Down Gardening Services, and a lot more on the world weird web.

I like ‘The daisy shuts its eye before rain’ simply because I like daisies! I always think they look bright stars set in a green firmament. They always cheer one up!

The name daisy comes from the Old English ‘dæges eage‘ which means ‘day’s eye’ because the petals open at dawn and close at dusk (unless it’s about to rain!).   In Welsh they are called ‘Llygad y Dydd‘, which also means ‘eye of the day’.  It’s scientific name is Bellis perennis.

According to Roman mythology, Vertumnus, the guardian deity of orchards, pursued a young tree nymph named Belides after he saw her dancing with the other nymphs at the edge of the orchard.  Belides did not want his attention and so she asked the gods for help to escape Vertumnus.  As the powerful King of Argos was grandfather to Belides, the gods agreed to help.  They transformed her into a tiny flower called Bellis, and so she escaped a terrible fate.

The Celts had a legend that daisies were the spirits of babies who had died during birth. The daisies grew to help relieve their parents’ grief with their simple beauty and innocence.

Making daisy chains was a childhood activity enjoyed by many of us. I wonder how many of us knew at those tender ages that parents used to put daisy chains around children’s necks to prevent them being stolen by fairies. Apparently, daisy chains should always have their ends joined so that they form a circle that represents the Sun, the Earth and the cycle of life.

Plucking the petals from a daisy, one by one, and reciting ‘s/he loves me, s/he loves me not’ is a common divinatory superstition. Placing the root of a daisy under one’s pillow is said to produce a dream or a vision of one’s future love/partner.

The symbolic and legendary meanings of flowers dates back to Elizabethan times, however it was the Victorians who assigned simple messages to flowers. It was a period in time when social etiquette meant that men and ladies could not express their feelings openly and so the use of the colour and type of flower to express what they could not say or show became popular. The daisy was associated with simplicity and modesty. The message of the daisies in the language of flowers is that of gentleness, innocence and purity in both the giver and receiver.

Morning musings…morning meanderings

Angela PorterLeave a comment

What is this blog about?

I’ve just been doing a bit of Luddite-style journalling – pen and paper that is! And I was musing about why on Earth I’d want to blog when I keep a journal, and this perhaps seems as a doubling up of work.

However, much of my Luddite-journal is very personal and I’d not share with anyone, no matter how close they are to me, and no-one will have access to them until I “have shuffled off this mortal coil”.

I suppose that this blog is a vehicle for me to share with anyone who wishes to read about my fairly random thoughts, research, insights, questions, perhaps even little stories, poems and some of my arty-crafty stuff. In other words things I’d like to share with others, but don’t really have the opportunities to do in my ‘real life’, and I think the relative anonymity the blog affords me may allow me to do so.

Like so many, there are parts of my life that are kept fairly separate, for instance my ‘day job’ and my spirituality and spiritual practices. My spirituality is with me always, but I can’t talk about it, my practices, or express it openly in my job, with those I work with, although I do get away with meditation during my working day when I begin to feel stressed or upset! The people I interact with spirituality are good souls (mostly), but generally have a fairly narrow spiritual view, and I tend to be a searcher looking for more, trying things from different traditions, working out what sits well with me, what works for me, what helps me find words for what I instinctively feel inside of me, finding ways to express to express this inner knowledge and understanding, changing and adapting things, melding and moulding them into something that is uniquely me. I do not, and would never, profess to be an expert, to have the one right answer, I’m just a seeker looking for what is right for me.

Along my way some of my musings, discoveries, thoughts, practices may help others also seeking their way, whether they agree or disagree with what I may write. Indeed, it is often through a disagreement that you can arrive at a better understanding of what is right for you. I sometimes think you can only find out who you truly are by finding out what it is that you are not (and that may be what others have told you to suit their own conscious or unconscious purposes/needs).

Spirituality is just one thing it’s difficult for me to share with others. I find the same is true of my art (to a much lesser degree), writing (about the same degree), and my interests in so many things, including folklore, folk-medicine (ethnopharmacology or ethnobotany), archaeology, history, etymology, self-help, counselling, forensic psychology, cookery, nature, astrology, astronomy…and that’s just a few things!

I’m very much a ‘random’ and sporadic researcher/reader/student of all the things I’m interested in. The cycles of interest wax and wane randomly, depending on whether something has sparked an interest in me. I tend to dive into that interest wholeheartedly for a while – a few weeks or months – and as my interest is beginning to feel quite sated, some other spark comes along and re-ignites another flame of passion and so off I go.

It must be frustrating for those who know me, who must think I’m quite shallow in my interests and passions as I seemingly flit from one thing to another.  I know I’ve often questioned how serious I am and how deeply I get into things, but I know I dig as deeply as I need to into whatever is my current passion (or passions), and that interest/passion never entirely departs, it just becomes somnolent for a while…until I’m ready to continue digging deeper!

A dear friend of mine always said he was determined to turn me into a polymath (see Dictionary.reference.com or Wikipedia) Much more difficult to do in this day and age of so much information and knowledge. Polymaths were far more common in the past – Isaac Newton for instance. I think it’s quite clear, if my prior ramblings in this entry are clear, that I love to learn! If I didn’t have to work to pay the bills and keep a roof above my head (and keep my pusscat in Purina food!) and could afford it I’d be a perpetual student! As it is, I read, I browse the world weird web (with that sack of salt by my side!), listen to others, and soak it all up, processing it in my own internal way.

A cute tale about me being a sponge for knowledge is of a young person I worked with. They were discussing with another person what they’d like to do for a career and asked if they knew what qualifications they’d need. The person listening said that she didn’t know. The young person then suggested ‘Let’s go and ask …, she is the internet after all!’. Praise, maybe, though I would never, ever claim to be such a thing!

I can be a ‘mistress of the art of the Google’ when others fail to find what they wish while trolling around the weird wide web. So, perhaps another use of this blog will be to keep a record of my wanderings as I come across things of interest, or otherwise, in a way my Luddite-journal doesn’t! No doubt a series of wanderings that are unique to me.

It may turn out interesting to see how this blog evolves and develops.

Morning meanderings

I love alliteration – you have been warned!

Anyway, my morning meanderings through the world weird web included a search for moon-phase information to go into my Luddite-Journal, and that led me to an Astrological Diary that I will almost certainly be purchasing to use next year. My only whinge about diaries is that they rarely have a full year planner for the next year, and as one of my evening activities involves taking bookings at year in advance then I really need it! I guess I’ll just have to go looking for something I can stick in the back of the diary to accommodate my needs.

I did find a moon phase table for 2010 that suited my purpose (without me having to type it all out from my ephemeris!) and it’s a shame I couldn’t find one for 2011 at the same website. However, the search did lead me to the diary I found, and will be ordered very soon!

I do have an interest in astrology – but not your newspaper astrology, the ‘proper’ stuff. I’ve found my natal chart and the analysis of it to be most helpful in understanding myself and helping to heal myself from the wounds of the past, and much more than that. When done properly it can really help to understand what is going on in an individual’s life at any time. It is my experience that it can be incredibly specific, detailed and helpful, but only when done well. It’s not something I rely on and live my life by, but I do find it interesting to study. Perhaps it’s because science pooh-poohs it that I find it so fascinating – I can be terribly rebellious in such cases! I may be a scientist by education, but … it just fascinates me! And it is something I feel I ‘should’ spend more time on, but when I start I get so engrossed that nothing else gets done…