Day: October 14, 2011
The Properties of Trees
The Properties of Trees
Below is an extensive list of the properties of different trees:
Alder: Prosperity, security, stability, house moves
Almond: Abundance, prosperity, fertility and love without limits
Apple: Fertility, health, love and long life
Ash: Expansion of horizons; travel, especially by sea; courage, healing, strength, prosperity
Aspen: Clear communication, good news from afar, eloquence, protection against theft, healing
Avocado: Increasing the desire of someone for you, growth of beauty in self or environment
Bamboo: Protection especially of household boundaries and against the negative thoughts of others; good luck, especially in money matters
Banana: Fertility, male potency, prosperity
Banyan: Good luck and optimism
Bay: Fidelity, marriage, preservation of family home, pleasant dreams, abundance
Beech: Knowledge, formal learning, positive change
Birch: Cleansing, health, new beginnings, protection of young children and animals
Boxwood: Discovering hidden treasure, new sources of income, developing forgotten talents, unexpected good fortune
Cedar: Good luck, fidelity in love, mature relationships
Cherry: New love, increasing divinatory abilities, fertility
Chestnut: Abundance, expansion of opportunity, employment
Chestnut, Horse: Money, healing, courage
Coconut: Fertility, motherhood, the flow of new life and energies; give protection against all negativity, especially psychic attack
Cypress: Long life, healing and comfort in sorrow
Dogwood: Clear focus and determination, tests and examinations
Elder: Increases clairvoyance; overcomes negative feelings; healing; good for older women
Elm: Tree of quiet sleep, of family love and giving and receiving in equal measure
Eucalyptus: Cleansing, healing, clarity of thought, overcoming obstacles and misunderstandings
Fig: Wisdom, creativity, fertility, harmony and balance
Fir: Birth and rebirth, new beginnings, cleansing, unexpected gifts and money
Hawthorn: Courage, marking boundaries, purification, protection male potency, cleansing and protection
Hazel: Wisdom, justice, good luck, fertility, knowledge and inspiration, psychic powers
Holly: Protection, especially of the home against all negativity and harm; overcoming impossible odds, persistence; also a tree for money and material gains
Ivy: Fidelity, married love, committed relationship, restoring lost love
Juniper: Protection against all negative forces, purification, prosperity, new beginnings, justice
Larch: Protection, especially against thieves; optimism
Laurel: Protection from illness; success and realization of ambition; winning through in spite of difficulty
Lime/linden: Justice, co-operation with other, partnerships of all kind, dealing with officialdom
Mango: Health, permanence, lasting happiness
Maple: Long life, health of children, fertility, riches of all kinds, pleasure
Myrtle: Stable relationships, married love, fertility, matters concerning young people; also preserving youthfulness; peace, money
Norfolk Island Pine: Assurance that you and your family will never go without the necessities of life
Oak: Knowledge, power, independence, confidence, success, courage, prosperity and potency
Olive: Peace, mending of quarrels; forgiveness, especially of our own mistakes; abundance, healing and fertility
Orange: Love abundance, fertility, marriage, passion, luck and money
Palm: Fertility, potency, energy, starting again, rejuvenation
Pear: New life, health, girls’ and women’s needs, fertility
Peach: Marriage, pregnancy and birth, abundance, happiness, fertility, wishes and long life
Pine: Ending destructive relationships or habits; cleansing negativity; friendship in adversity, knowledge, protection from all harm, money
Redwood: Ambitions, limitless potential, success, spiritual growth, focus, courage, strength, concentration and increased mental acuity
Rowan/mountain ash; Protection of the home, intuition, increasing psychic powers, healing
Silver Banksias; Protection of all kinds, allowing one to let go of sorrow, grief and destructive habits or relationships
Sycamore: Protection and the granting of wishes; increasing influence over others and situations
Tamarind: Love, especially new love and the rebuilding of trust
Vine: Rebirth and renewal, joy, ecstasy, passion, good luck in games of chance
Walnut: Prophetic powers, prosperity, health, increase of mental powers, fertility, granting of wishes
Willow: Intuition, moon magick, healing, prophetic dreams, making wishes comes true, increasing psychic energies, understanding the emotions of others
White Mangrove: Nurturing self and others, being sensitive, intuitive, caring, balanced and in touch with life force
Yew: Endings, of new and good things coming out of the old, of permanence, aims that are slow to come to fruition, enduring strength, what is of worth, union between two people after difficulty
Using Tree Magick
You can use trees in magick in countless ways, the most basic by touching a tree with both hands, palms flat against the trunk and asking for its particular powers to enter you. This is another way of tuning into the different strengths of various trees.
Collect twigs from different trees or small hand-carved items made of the different woods and use them as charms to bring the powers you need into your life.
You can empower these with salt, incense, candle flame or water if you wish, though the natural wood is already powerful.
Craft fairs are an excellent source of small hand-carved items, as are ethnic stores that give a fair price to crafts people.
Carry a different wood when you need its particular strength.
You can also burn incenses and oils made from different trees (where possible, use natural plant products) and state aloud nine times the power you seek from the tree fragrance as you write your needs in the air with the smoke from an incense stick.
You can eat seeds, nuts and fruits from different trees or use products made from the blossoms in your bath to absorb the magickal strengths into your life. Natural tree, as well as flower and herbal products used in the kitchen give your home protection and harmony – and are much better for the environment than many of the alternatives.
Finally you can burn two or three of the woods in a fire dish, barbecue or open fire to release the qualities you need. Create chants or a simple phrase or two incorporating the names of the chosen trees and what you seek from them.
Trees and Magick
Each tree species carries strength and healing, though obviously longer standing tree with deep roots and spreading branches have greater repositories of energy. Each kind of tree also has its own unique powers. These you may associate with the kind of nature essence dwelling in that species or more abstractly with the qualities filtered through different kinds of wood.
Hold a crystal pendulum close to different trees and you will feel in your hands and body, amplified by the crystal, the differing tree strengths. For example, a redwood may make you feel confident and a willow, dreamy and intuitive. Note these feelings in your nature journal along with any images or words that come into your mind.
There are variations in intensity even with different trees within the same species. Take time to explore these energies and to visit forests (children love them) to get yourself attuned.
An arboretum or botanical garden is a good place to start if you are not familiar with trees. Buy a small tree book to carry with you so you can identify trees wherever you go, even in cities.
Making the Tree a Place of Power
Outdoors, your tree will be naturally cleansed and empowered by the weather and if some of the items get battered, don’t worry, However, you may wish initially to cleanse and empower the tree and any artifacts on it at the first full moon after it has been created. You can do this by smudging round the tree with a smudge stick made of a bundle of tied and dried herb sticks. The following is the basic technique for doing this:
- Light one end of the smudge stick and let the flames die down, then gently blow on the end until it glows red and you have a stream of smoke. You can use your other hand to fan the smoke. Smudge sticks are generally held in your power hand.
- If indoors, be careful about sparks and ventilate the room. Also try to stand where you can see the moon or at least the sky through the window. Indoors, you can substitute a sage or pine incense stick if you wish.
- To cleanse and empower the tree, stand facing the tree at about five paces distance. Raise your smudge stick upwards to the sky and downwards to the earth.
- Walk nine times clockwise round the tree, making alternative clockwise and anticlockwise spirals of smoke, high and low, stamping your feet as you move and chant.
- Relax and enjoy the experience. Let your feet carry you, often in a spontaneous spiralling step movement, as you connect with earth energies and your hand weaves smoke patterns. Work barefoot if possible as you have sensitive energy centers or chakras in the soles of your feet.
- Say continuously until you have made nine circuits:
Empowering tree, be for me, strength and healing. Keep away harm, guard what is dear, and keep love near.
- You can repeat this ritual whenever you add something new to the tree or before using it as the focus for a personal spell or chant. Re-empower every third full moon.
Creating a Magickal Tree
You can create your own, albeit more modest but nevertheless magickal, world tree in your garden.
You can use any tree or a large bush as long as it has plenty of branches. Indoors, you can use a large ornamental tree or bush. Alternatively, use large, stripped-wood branches indoors or set them in soil. Wherever it is located, you magickal tree acts as a protective force to repel harm from your property.
You can start the tree with just one or two items. You will need some of the following:
- A witch ball or colored-glass fishing float that reflects the garden and shines in sunlight. These are both protective and empowering. Witch balls resemble huge Christmas baubles and come from the American folk tradition. You can make one by painting a glass sphere with metallic paint or buy one from a New Age shop or website.
- Fishing floats make a transparent glass are on sale in antique stores or garage sales, but increasingly in gift shops and houseware stores. Hang two or three of them from the tree.
- Mirrors. These need only be small to reflect the flow of the life force round the garden and repel all harm. You can use ordinary round mirrors or Chinese lucky Bagua mirrors that display the old Chinese symbols for eight natural forces that together energize the universe and our lives. Convex ones that curve outwards are especially protective.
- Outdoors, nets of seeds and nuts or fat balls bring wild birds to the tree. This is especially important if the tree itself is not living.
- Symbols of fertility and prosperity. Fill small raffia baskets with long handles with coins, sparking crystals like yellow citrine and clear crystal quartz or dried herbs like sage, rosemary and thyme that bring abundance to the garden with your home. You can often buy ornamental baskets set with wooden or ceramic fruits and flowers. Look in ethnic stores.
- Small metal birds (you can sometimes buy them made of recycled metal). They will gleam in the light and encourage the circulation of positivity.
- Feathers on cords to encourage positive change and the free-flowing life force.
- Seasonal flowers, again especially important if the tree itself is not living. These can be weaved into circlets or use as garlands secured with twine. Keep these fresh and replace regularly.
- Sun catchers, crystals or polished glass stones on chains.
- Ribbons tied on the tree for different wishes. Secure the ribbon with three knots on to the tree and make your wish. Use ribbons that are not synthetic.
- Use the following list when choosing the colors of items to put on to your magickal tree:
Blue: Justice, career, travel and house moves
Brown: Animals, property, finances and officialdom
Green: Love and fidelity, for gradual increase in health, alternative healing, prosperity and to heal the planet
Orange: Creativity and fertility
Pink: Children, new or first love, peace, peaceful dreams and reconciliation
Purple: Psychic awareness, peace, alternative healing and for protection
Red: Passion and change
Yellow: Learning and anything that needs to happen fast or temporarily in your life; also for conventional healing
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