ASH
© Anna Franklin
‘Beware the ash, it courts a flash, beware the oak, it courts a stroke’ says the old rhyme, meaning that these two trees, above all others, attract lightening. The ancients saw the lightening strike as the fertilising power of the sky god, darting from the heavens to be transmitted to the belly of Mother Earth through the agency of the tree, standing with its roots in the damp earth. The word ‘ash’ derives from the Icelandic aske which means ‘great fire blaze’, while the botanical name Fraxinus means ‘great fire-light’. Because of this the ash often appears in mythology as the father of mankind. In Greek myth Zeus is said to have fashioned the bronze race of men from ash, while oak trees are the mothers of the present race. In Scandinavian lore the first man Askr was made from ash, while the first woman Embla was made from alder, or some say rowan or elm.
THE WORLD TREE
As the ash could channel lightening from the heavens to the underworld it was viewed as an axis mundi or World Tree, linking all the planes of existence. According to Norse mythology the chief god Odin created Yggdrasil, a massive ash tree which linked all the realms of creation It had three roots in the primal source of being: one in Nifl-heim [the Underworld or the cold north]; one in Midgard [the Earth], home of mankind, and the third root in Asgard, the home of the gods, near the Urdar fountain. Yggdrasil’s branches towered over all the other worlds and reached up into the heavens where its leaves were the clouds and its fruit the stars. The topmost bough was called Lerad which means ‘the peace giver’. On it perched an eagle and between his eyes sat Vedfolnir, the falcon, looking down towards the earth , the underworld, and the heavens, reporting all that he saw to Odin.
The leaves of Yggdrasil never withered and were the food of Odin’s goat, Heidrun, which supplied the mead the gods drank. They also sustained the four stags, Dain, Dvalin, Duneyr and Durathor, whose horns dripped honeydew upon the earth, which furnished the water for all the rivers of the world. The squirrel, Ratatosk,[‘branch borer’] ran up and down the tree, gossiping about everything it saw and heard to both the dragon at the roots and to the eagle above.
At the Nifl-heim root the serpent or dragon Nidhug lived, continually gnawing at the root, aided by many worms, with the aim of killing the tree as its death would herald the end of the gods.
The three Norns, Urd, Verdani and Skuld, were personifications of Past, Present and Future who wove the web of fate. One of their duties was to daily sprinkle the sacred tree with water from the Urdar fountain and put fresh clay around its roots. Some say that Odin took over the Yggdrasil from the three Norns, an older representation of the Triple Goddess. In myth, their mother was Wyrd, an ancient and primitive fate goddess. When she spoke the leaves of Yggdrasil shook, the eagle on the topmost bough flapped its wings and the serpent, Nidhug, suspended its work of destruction at the roots.
Because the ash tree ordered the cosmos, when it finally fell the known order would end, and with it, the gods- Ragnarok, when the gods would be defeated by the frost goants and only two would remain to repopulate the world.
SHAMANIC JOURNEYS
Legend tells us that Odin hung from the World Tree for nine days and nights to gain the secrets of the magical alphabet, the runes, which he was given in return for one of his eyes. The loss of the eye is significant from the viewpoint of the seer or shaman, who is often described as closing one eye to look into the inner world, while the open eye looks out on the everyday one. As might be expected, the ash figures heavily in the symbolism of the runic alphabet. In the Northumbrian system the thirty third rune Gar represents Yggdrasil itself, standing still at the centre, the beginning and the end, with all other runes falling under its influence. Gar means ‘spear’, specifically Odin’s own ash spear Gungnir, a personal and moveable World Tree, just as the magician’s ash staff or witch’s ash-poled broomstick is a portable axis mundi. This association of the ash tree with the shaman’s pole and his access to other realms persisted in folklore until recent times, when it was thought that placing ash leaves beneath the pillow resulted in prophetic dreams. The bark of Yggdrasil was said to exude a narcotic vapour which aided the shaman on his trance journeys.
Perhaps the most significant rune connected with the ash is the horse rune Ehwaz or Eh. The horse is the sacred steed which carries the shaman on his journey throughout those realms connected by the axis mundi. The ash can be seen as the horse itself, with its buds and leaf scars resembling hooves. The dark ash leaf buds look very much like the underside of a horses hoof, from the fetlock to the frog - the centre of the hoof. These ‘hooves’ can be seen throughout winter and the twigs look like horses forelegs as they stretch to gallop or jump. Askr Yggr-drasill can be translated as ‘the ash tree that is the horse of Odin’ [Yggr is one of Odin’s titles]. In ancient Ireland and Wales as well as Greece, rods for controlling horses were always made from ash as were the shafts of pony traps which not only supported the trap but controlled the power of the horse.
The properties of the ash and the sacred horse was utilised in the rite of the Nidding Pole or Scorn Post, used to curse an enemy, this time channelling energy from the underworld upwards, rather than the heavenly lightening downwards. These ash poles were nine feet long, carved with cursing runes. A horse skull was affixed to the top and it was stuck in the ground facing the enemy’s house. The pole channelled the destructive forces of Hel, the underworld goddess of death, up through the pole and thence projected through the horse skull, invoking the linking power of the horse rune, Ehwaz.
The Greek ash god was the sea god Poseidon, whose totem animal was also the horse. His father Cronos [the Crow God, Lord of Time and cognate with the Celtic alder god Bran] had castrated Uranus, and thrown the genitals into the sea. From the blood had sprung the ash spirits or Meliei, along with the three Furies or Erinnyes, death aspects of the goddess. Poseidon and his two brothers in turn deposed Cronos and assumed rulership of the realms as follows- Zeus the sky, Hades the Underworld and Poseidon the sea. [To the Greeks, the earth was the first element, the air that rises above it the second and the water that surrounds it the third element.] Poseidon lived in an underwater palace where he kept white chariot horses- the white horses that are the white foam tipped waves. He is said to have invented the bridle and horse racing. Both Odin and Poseidon were patrons of horses, shamanic and everyday travel, and both became patrons of seafaring when their peoples took to the sea.
The white horse is also symbolic of the sun, or draws the sun chariot across the sky, down to its daily death over the western sea in the evening, through the underworld to its rebirth in the east at dawn. Thus the ash is also symbolic of the sun and Pagan practices utilising the ash were employed at both the midwinter and midsummer solstices. Red ash buds were eaten at midsummer to protect from enchantment, and the ash divination wand was cut at this time to attract inspirational fire from the heavens and mediate it thought to the earth. One version of the Yule log was a bundle of ash faggots burned at the midwinter solstice and the wassail bowl was carved from ash wood. This sun connection made the ash made the ash a tree of fertility, birth and regeneration. A Druidic ash wand with spiral decoration representing rebirth was found on Anglesey, an island off the coast of Wales where the Druids made a last stand against the Romans.
Because of this connection with regeneration and fertility Viking women in labour were given the fruits of the ash to eat to give them strength. Thus the ash was a tree of healing, a tradition preserved in folklore: the ash tree reputedly had the ability to cure warts by taking them from the sufferer’ 'Ashen tree, ashen tree, pray buy these warts of me', a pin is then used to prick the wart and then is inserted into the tree. The warts then appear as knobs on the tree. If a live shrew was buried in a hole bored in the ash and then plugged up, a sprig of this Shrew Ash would cure paralysis supposed to have been caused by a shrew crawling over the victim’s limbs. As a cure for rickets the baby was passed widdershins through a cleft made in an ash sapling. The tree was then bound up and the cleft sealed with clay, and afterwards a sympathetic bond between the child and the tree existed, any subsequent damage to the tree was reflected in the health of the child and vice versa, therefore the ash tree could never be cut down as this would result in the disease returning Juice extracted from the ash leaf had the reputation of being able to cure snake bites. Pliny wrote that such was its power over snakes that 'serpents dare not touch the evening and morning shadows of the tree.
It is easy to see why folklore tells us that the ash is a lucky tree, and why pieces of it were sought for amulets. A Cornish tradition is that a leaf from an even ash [one that has the same number of branches each side] is a particularly lucky charm, as are leaves with an even number of leaflets. On the other hand, any failure of an ash tree, or the ash seed crop, was a very bad omen. This was said to have happened just before the execution of Charles I.
Apart from the sea god, the ash has many associations with water. Robert Graves suggested that it was the tree of sea or water power and that Yggr was derived from the Greek hygra meaning ‘sea’. The ash grows alongside streams though, unlike the alder, does not like its roots to be water logged. In Norse myth Yggdrasil’s leaves were clouds and in Greek myth the ash was the image of rain clouds, the ash nymphs being cloud spirits. The ash was used in rain making ceremonies, and this tradition comes down to us in folklore with the country sayings ‘ash before oak, there will be a soak’ or ‘oak choke, ash soak’ meaning that if the ash comes into leaf before the oak it will be a wet summer, though in fact the oak always greens first.
For the Celts also the ash was one of the most sacred trees, named as one of the seven chieftain trees of the ogham alphabet, Niun, and the Druids dispensed justice under its boughs. It was used for making king’s thrones [perhaps to keep the king in touch with all the realms] and the pillars of temples. The felling of an ash tree was forbidden, and the penalty for doing so was the fine of one cow. In Ireland, the ash trees of Tortu, of Dathi and the branching tree of Usnech were three of the five magic trees whose fall in the year ad 665 AD symbolised the triumph of Christianity over paganism [the other two tree were an oak and a yew].
Gwydion was the British ash god and in lore made his wands of enchantment from ash wood. Here too there is a connection with seafaring as Gwydion sailed away on a voyage to one hundred and fifty islands. A descendant of the sacred tree of Creevna in Ireland , an ash, was still standing at Killura in the 19th century; its wood was a charm against drowning and emigrants to America carried pieces with them.
For the Celts too, the ash functioned as an axis mundi tree. One of the five magic trees of Ireland, the Bile Uis-nech stood at the magical centre of Ireland in County Meath. In Celtic myth the ash connects the three circles of existence, Abred [the underworld or subconscious], Gwynedd [the earth plane or conscious] and Ceugant [the heavens or superconscious],
The Celtic poem ‘The Battle of the Trees’ describes the ash as ‘a cruel tree’, perhaps because the wood was used to make weapons; the straight grain made it ideal for spear shafts, axe handles, clubs and bows. In this strange and mystical poem ranks of trees are ranged against each other in battle, including the ash and the alder in opposition. There has been much speculation and debate as to what the poem signifies, some saying that it may be a mnemonic for memorising the complex symbolism of ogham, and others claiming that it describes a battle between two tribes or cults. Robert Graves suggested that it describes the seizure of a shrine [possibly Avebury] by the ash cult of Gwydion from the alder cult of Bran. However, we have already seen that there is a mystical opposition or duality between the ash and the alder and not only in Celtic lore. In Norse myth ash is the father of mankind, while alder is the mother. In Greek myth the alder god Cronos overthrows the ash god Uranus, only to be overthrown in turn by another ash god, Poseidon.
Both trees have a connection with the water, but whereas the ash is concerned with crossing water, the alder stands with its roots in water; the Greek word for alder, Robert Graves tells us, is derived from ‘I confine’ or ‘I enclose’ . Whereas the ash makes excellent fire wood, the alder is very poor, but the battle of the trees tells us that it is ‘the very battle witch of all woods, the hottest in the fight’ perhaps referring to its use by charcoal makers. Whereas the ash is concerned with inspirational fire from the heavens, the alder is concerned with a different kind of prophecy, associated with both the Celtic Bran and the Greek Orpheus who were both decapitated and taken to the underworld, but whose heads continued to sing and prophesy, confining the wind or spirit in the flutes that are made from the head of the tree. Whereas the ash channels energy from the sky into the underworld, the alder’s symbolism is concerned with fire from the underworld, the sun emerging from the underworld and its resurrection in the spring, with its warmth drying the winter rains.
The wood of the ash is used to make the staff, a portable axis mundi, used in personal ritual as a connection to all three realms. It channels the fire of inspiration from the heavenly realms, and can also be used to mediate energy upwards from the underworld. A variation on this is the stang, a forked staff or stave, favoured by some witches.
An ash wand and incense of ash can be used to invoke the Sky God, Ares, Athene, Cernunnos, The Fates [Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos], the Furies, Gwydion, Herne, Jupiter, Llyr, Mars, Minerva, Neptune, The Norns [Urd, Verdani and Skuld], Odin, Poseidon, Thor, Uranus, Woden, Wyrd, Ymir and Zeus.
Ash shavings are used in incenses designed for astral travel and for connecting with a horse familiar, which carries the magician across the realms, and the bird familiars the snipe and common turn.
Ash incenses and wands may be used during the rites of passage of birth, death and first degree initiation and the festivals of Herfest, Coamhain, Ostara and Yule. A bundle of ash faggots may be used as the Yule log and a tea of ash buds be used as a ritual drink at Midsummer.
The ash is a tree of the sun, and the bark and leaves can be used in sun incenses or a tea of the leaves can be taken to infuse the body with the vitalising, healing energy of the sun.
Ash incense may be used to consecrate sea green beryl , coral and garnet gemstones.
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