The Witch of Forest Grove

In acknowledgement of the coming Samhuinn festival and the beginning of winter I’m going to do a series of posts and articles related to Samhuinn and the Ancestors including crafts and recipes that are part of my own celebration.  Today I’m starting off with local native plants in the Pacific Northwest which are associated with the dead and the underworld. They can be used as greenery for decorations for your house, ritual or party or sought out in the wild forests left untouched and instead used to commune with the mighty dead.

Alder

First of the chieftan trees in Irish and other European mythologies, Alder is a funeral tree that was often planted at the ancient Greek shrines of the Furies, Persephone, Demeter and Hecate. Dwelling in marshy and boggy areas, many an ancient Alder tree witnessed the human bog sacrifices of the Druids.  Alder is also a tree of warriors and battle, fittingly so because when the bark is cut into the tree appears to bleed red which might’ve also led to its association with death. The Brythonic god of war residing of this tree was known as Vernostonos translating from the Proto-Celtic as “the groaning of alder trunks” who may be associated with the Welsh mythological figure Bran. Alder wood was a commonly used by the ancient Celts to make warrior’s shields. In Irish mythology the first woman is created from a Rowan tree and the first man an Alder. The ancients believed this tree grants access to the otherworlds much as hawthorn does. Alder is associated with the fire element, warriors, battle, ravens, and crows.

To celebrate Samhuin, use an Alder tree as a doorway to commune with the ancestors in the underworld by invoking them through the live tree. Alder wood can also be used for a wand or stang for the same purpose – to invoke ancestors or spirits from the underworld. You can also leave an alder branch or some of the leaves or catkins on your Samhuinn or Ancestor altar as offering and appropriate decoration.

Black Cottonwood

Another funeral tree, this one sacred to Demeter in her role as grieving mother, which was once planted at Demeter’s as well as the Furies’ shrines. A massive tree reaching great height and great age, Black Cottonwood (a genus of Poplar) is known locally as a tree of healing as it is the local source of balm of gilead buds, sticky and full of medicine. It’s leaves, dark green on one side and pale white on the other, represent the constant struggle between light and dark – summer and winter, day and night,the upperworld and underworld within which Demeter plays a pivotal roles as mother of the Queen of the Underworld. In the Spring, the seeds of Black Cottonwood ripen covered in fluff and the air is filled with them as if it is snowing for all of the month of May. This fluff can be used for spinning thread when mixed with other fibres, linking it also to the Fates, the most ancient Spinners who dwell at the roots of the World Tree in the Underworld.

Add boughs or leaves of this tree to your altar to acknowledge Demeter’s mourning for her absent daughter come the changing of the seasons at Samhuinn. Staves crafted from its wood can be used in rituals for Demeter and Persephone, to celebrate the Eleusinian mysteries and to invoke the goddesses. Also, the fluffy seed pods can be placed on an altar as an offering to the Fates.

Indian Pipe

Indian Pipe or monotropa uniflora is a very rare plant growing in the darkness of temperate forest floors beneath great trees which contains no chlorophyll at all making it’s colour pure white with some black and red variations in even rarer cases. Instead of feeding from chlorophyll, Indian Pipe takes its nutrients from a parasitic relationship with local fungi through which it steals nutrients from nearby tree roots. It’s other names include corpse plant, ghost flower, ghost pipe, and fairy smoke. Besides being found in the Pacific Northwest this plant can also be found in temperate parts of Asia. White is the colour of the dead across cultures, and black and red are also associated with the mighty dead and the underworld. Indian Pipe mostly dwells beneath the earth as a system of tangled roots and only surfaces the soil to form flowers to reproduce. No one knows how many years it stays beneath the earth before breaching the soil and growing flowers. Indian Pipe’s flowers, which don’t bloom until late summer and fall, always point down to the underworld until the seeds have ripened. Medicinally its root is a sedative further connecting it to coma and death.

Do not attempt to touch, harvest or transplant Indian Pipe as it is so delicate this will kill it on contact. When disturbed in any way it will turn black and eventually degrade into a puddle of goo. If you see black Indian Pipe this is because a person or animal has disturbed it. To use this plant for working with the underworld, one must use it as a plant ally, to seek it out in the forest and ask for its aid. It must not be touched in any way, even for medicinal harvesting, without the express permission of the plant spirit, and even then, only take of it if there is a large colony to draw from as you would be taking away this rare plant from the entire surrounding ecosystem.

Snowberry

Belonging to the honeysuckle family, this poisonous white berry bush is found in North America as well as parts of Central America and Western China. Snowberry is a plant of winter and of the underworld with its large complex root systems and its white berries of which the inner flesh resembles new snow.  In the local Native tongues its name translates as “food of the dead” relating to the fact that if you eat a couple you will become ill and pass out, but eat too many and you will die. In local myth it is believed only the ancestors can eat of this fruit because of its poison and because the fruit is white, the colour of the dead. In winter the berries are an important food to wild birds who are immune to snowberry’s toxins.

The branches of snowberry bushes were traditionally used as broom bristles and would make a fitting besom for a green or hedge witch. In folk magic it is used in spells and workings to attract money – wealth long being associated with the underworld and its gods. The berries are well ripened by Samhuinn and can be picked and placed on your ancestor altar as a food offering to the dead that they may feed off the berries’ essence. Snowberry would also make a good plant ally for one who wishes to learn the mysteries of the underworld and work with the spirits who dwell there.

Yew

One of the oldest living (5,000-10,000 years) and most poisonous trees on earth, Yew has an ancient history of connecting the land and its people with the ancestors and the old religion. Another funerary tree associated with Hecate, Yew is commonly planted in graveyards, a practice stemming from the ancient pagan practice of planting a yew tree over a fresh grave due to the pagan belief that the soul would safely leave the body once the yew’s roots grew through the mouth of the corpse. Yew is also an oath tree, the ancient Celts swearing their oaths to one another in this great tree’s presence believing their ancestors could hear their words through its roots believed to reach the underworld. Modern scholars believe Yew was the original World Tree of the Celts and Norse – Yggdrasil – not the Ash, making it a doorway to both the upper world and underworld, the bridge through which the witch may travel to or speak with the residents of the underworld.

Yew branches were traditional decorations of sacrifices and offerings to Hecate as well as the other underworld gods and ancestors. Place branches or the fleshy red berries of this ancient tree on your Samhuinn altar as offering to the ancestors and your gods of the dead. Craft a wand or other staves from its wood to use in travelling to the underworld or invoking spirits of the dead. Spirit vessels can also be crafted of yew wood to house ancestral spirits you work regularly with. Invite the spirit to dwell in the yew vessel when they visit you from their realm. For Samhuinn seek out a live yew tree in the forest and honour your ancestors before it in ritual knowing they can hear you through the roots of this sacred tree. In accordance with an ancient practice, make sure to leave a good libation to the yew tree at Samhuinn of mead, cider, or ale.