Folk Names:

May Tree, May Blossom, Quickset, Thorn Apple Tree, White Thorn.

 

Planetary Correspondance:

Mars, Venus

 

Symbolism:

purification, sacred marriage, male-female unity, fertility Herb, herb of love, sacred herb

 

Invocatory Connection:

Bloddeuwedd, Cardea, Flora, Olwen, Gardea

 

Birds:

Blackbird, Owl

 

Lore:

The graceful hawthorn tree, always has been sacred to people on pagan and spiritual paths of the European lands. 

 

The open fields In Britain were enclosed by hawthorn hedging, between 1600 - 1800, to keep in livestock, and to keep crops protected from cold wind.

 

Wire was very expensive in those past days so farmers planted countless miles of small hawthorn seedlings. These hawthorn plants eventually grew into the grand hedges of the British Isles, home to birds, badgers, foxes, deer and hundreds of species of butterflies, bees and beetles.

 

It's a tree well under the very close to the earth goddess , and one should never harm or harvest a hawthorn tree (except with ceremonious respect)

 

The May Queen, Bloddeuwedd is a daughter of the hawthorn tree.

(from the White Goddess, by Robert Graves)

 

Robert Graves also wrote the following..

"The ascetic use of the thorn, which corresponds with the cult of the goddess Cardea must, however, be distinguished from its later orgiastic use which corresponds with the cult of the goddess Flora, and which accounts for the English mediaeval habit of riding out on May morning to pluck flowering hawthorn boughs and dance around the maypole."

 

USAGE

Due to the proscription against harvesting or cutting into the hawthorn tree, using any part of the hawthorn, should be done with upmost and respect. The Hawthown has a very powerful fast working magical craft and should only be used within a ritual context, giving honour to the seven directions and prayers and offerings to the goddess within the earth.

 

The flowers, leaves and fruit of this tree are edible and all have properties which greatly reduce blood pressure and stimulate the heart, but dosages can vary from person to person, and using the flowers and berries should only be done with very small doses and with care and respect to the tree.

 

The flowers are known to have a sedative effect, and the berries can be used in cleaning the kidneys. Try the young leaves, simply great to eat and have an interesting nutty taste but always strive to give thanks to the tree when harvesting for for everyday luck and protection.

  

Practice

On May 1st, sit down or lay down underneath a hawthorn tree, close your eyes for 10 minutes taking long slow deep breaths and take your consciousness into the earth below the tree, down to the roots, then open your eyes, and notice the branches reaching out to the sky, feel deeply the hawthorns subtle energy.

 

this simple 20 minute meditation done on or around the 1st of may brings positive light filled energies and great luck into our lives. 

 

Peter Carvello,

April 2024.