The Power of the Willow Tree

First published - White Dragon Magazine. Imbolc 1997. Revised 2006.

By Glennie Kindred - www.glenniekindred.co.uk

The Willow tree is associated with the Moon, Water, the Goddess, and all that is feminine. It is the tree of dreaming, intuition and deep emotions. Symbolically it belongs to the beginning of Spring, when all of life is stirring from the depths and begins to shoot outwards once again. In the Ogham alphabet, the Willow's name is Saille, which became anglicised to 'sally', which means a sudden outburst of emotions, action or expression (to 'sally forth'). The Old French 'saille' also means to rush out suddenly and the Latin 'salire' means to leap. This is the underlying energy of the Willow, and the key to understanding the powerful spirit of this beautiful tree.

 

The early Spring Celtic festival of Imbolc, Oimelc or Imolg is one of the two great female Fire Festivals among the yearly cycle of four. Imbolc is celebrated at the beginning of February and, like the Willow, is sacred to Brigit, Brigantia, and Bride, being the Maiden aspect of the Triple Goddess. It celebrates her re-emergence as a young virgin from the mountain fastness of her mother Caileach - she who is of Winter, the Goddess of burial mounds and dark places. Cailleach, the Crone aspect of the Triple Goddess, drinks from the well of youth and is transformed into Bride/Brigit who is her other self. This is the Celtic version of the Demeter/Kore story of death and rebirth. Imbolc is sacred to women and the power of the feminine principles of inspiration, illumination and seer-ship. Bride is the Goddess of healing, poetry, the hearth and smith-craft. It is a time of initiation and of beginnings and celebrates the renewal of the potency of the Earth mother and the union with the male principle of the returning light. The Church transformed this festival into Candlemass but kept much of the Celtic/Pagan symbolism.

 

The Willow has much to teach us in its associations with our feminine aspects. By spending time with Willows, or using the wood to make a talisman or wand, by taking it herbally or as a Bach flower remedy, we can deepen this connection. Spending time with Willow trees at the full Moon will increase the potency of the insights and understanding to be gained from our dreams. Working with the Willow in the early Spring, when the Willow's energy and the Earth's energy are aligned, is also a particularly potent time to explore its aspects.

 

The Willow has always been known as a tree dreaming and enchantment, and it was associated in Celtic legend with poets and with spells of fascination and binding. This is the Willow Moon energy, which puts us in touch with our feelings and deep emotions. It is the ability of the Willow to help us to express these, let them out, own them and change them in fantastic leaps of inspired eloquence and understanding.

Our deep unconscious thoughts speak to us through our dreams. If you have lost touch with your dreams or wish to increase their potency, make your self a Willow wand and sleep with it under your pillow focusing on your intention to work with your dreams, before you go to sleep. You will find your dreams will immediately become more vivid and meaningful. Studying your dreams, writing them down, opening your intuition to interpreting them can lead to healing emotional problems and releasing tension in your life.

 

Movement on the emotional level, of allowing the emotions to come through to the surface, is the power of the Willow's essential energy. Deep emotional pain blocks the energy of the body and can cause many illnesses. The Willow will allow the person to move through the many levels of sadness, express the pain though tears and grief, and, by moving through these emotions, facilitate healing. The Bach flower remedy Willow is to be taken by those who have suffered adversity or misfortune in life and remain embittered by it. Willow will help the movement out of this negative state to a greater interest and in the present.

When you are either over-stimulated by your feelings or cut off from them, connecting with a tree with a Water attunement will greatly help. If you are attracted to a particular tree, then allow this and reach out to the tree with openness and a willingness to accept your intuitive responses. Physical contact with a tree will help balance your bodies' energy, and as you stand or sit with a tree you might receive some insight and inspirational thoughts. If you feel you have made a deep connection with a tree and want to end that communication, thank the tee and then move slowly out from it and focus some Love-light around the tree. It has been proven that the plant world is greatly enhanced by this. An attitude of thanks and gratitude for nature is also a sure way of opening up the channels of communication with tree and plants.

 

On a herbal level, Willow bark has been used for its pain reliving qualities for at least 2,000 years. The Willow contains salicin, which is converted to salicylic acid in the body. Salicylic acid is closely related to aspirin, the synthetic drug that has displaced Willow bark from popular use. Willow bark reduces fever and relives rheumatism, a common ailment in these damp isles. A decoction can be used for gum and tonsil inflammations and as a footbath for sweaty feet. The bark is collected in the springtime, being careful not to ring the tree or it will die. The decoction is made by soaking 3 teaspoons (15ml) of the bark in a cup of cold water for 2 - 5 hours. Then bring to the boil. Strain and take a wineglassful each day, a mouthful at a time. The bark can be dried, powdered and stored in any dark container, for it is light that will destroy its herbal properties.

Black Willow (salix nigra) is used in very much the same way as the White Willow, (salix alba). Willow bark tea is recommended for indigestion, whooping couch and catarrh. The same decoction can also be used as an antiseptic and disinfectant.

 

Culpeper says in his Complete Herbal "The Moon owns the Willow". Moon magic puts us in touch with our emotions and unconscious, which balances out our solar rational conscious mind. By working with the Moon and the cycles of the Moon, we reconnect to the duality of the Light (waxing) and the Dark (waning) and the tides, the seas, underground as well as surface Water. This puts us in touch with the healing energetic qualities of Water, which include flowing, surrender, harmonising, memory, intuition, change, reflection.

Willow was also known as the witches' tree and the tree of enchantment. Robert Graves suggests that witch, and wicker are derived from the word Willow. Willow rods ('withies') are certainly used for binding magical and sacred objects and the popular witches' broom (the besom broom) is traditional made with an Ash handle and the Birch twigs that make the broom are bound with Willow.

Willow wands are used for any ritual association with the Moon and as a protection on deep journeys into the Otherworld and the unconscious.

 

The Willow will always enhance inspired leaps of the imagination and is recommended to be used when seeking to assimilate the teachings of an elder, wise woman or master. Understanding another person's enlightened place is made easier through the Willow's energy. Also work with Willow energy when seeking to understand ancient ways, so that you can assimilate past levels of information and quickly move through the underlying emotions of the times, to appreciate humankind’s patterns and move forwards, to utilise this information for change.

 

Willow is used for charms of fascination and binding, and during the Spring Moon we link to the myths and legends that tell of the power of the Spring Maiden who fascinates and binds the power of the young King. Aphrodite is associated with the Spring, the bright half of the Moon, courtship and Union, which blesses the land with fertility. British and Irish mythology is also rich with legends of the beguiling willowy Spring Maiden called Olwen, Niwalen, Gwenhyver, Cordelia, Blodeuwedd and many others, who initiate the young King into deeply sexual experiences.

 

Tree magic generally falls into the class of sympathetic magic, which operates through the 'Doctrine of Signatures'. This states that a plant will act on that part of the body that it most resembles. This can be sub-divided into homeopathic magic (the Law of Similarity) and contagious magic (the Law of Contact, using a magically charged object).

Homeopathic magic works on the principle that 'like begets like', and by using Willow wood for a wand or talisman it will be charged with the energetic properties of the Willow tree. The flexibility of the Willow's twigs inspires us to move with life and our feelings, rather than resist what we are feeling. It can also help you to let go of conditioned responses to life's experiences and to move towards a greater acceptance of self and others.

When one of the Willow's branches or twigs becomes disconnected, it will easily grow into a new tree if it finds some soil and Water, teaching us that contained within a loss, or a new direction, is the capacity for growth and healing. Willow is one of the best water-divining woods, along with Hazel and Birch.

Willow's weeping stance reflects its association with grief. By wearing a piece of Willow (as in the popular song "all around my hat I will wear the green Willow") a person will be able to access all the levels of grief connected with a loss, and be able to move through all these different levels, experience the whole deep emotional experience, to reach the place where they can gain healing and inner strength from it.

 

Homeopathic magic and contagious magic can be combined in the making of wands, talismans and any other objects made for personal or ritual use. Making a wand from Willow will help you connect to all the Willow's qualities, which are naturally contained within the wood. Although you may want to charge or empower certain aspects for specific use.

Willow wands are used whenever there is a need to connect with intuition, dreams, seer ship, visions, poetic and inspired writings or images, and whenever there is either an emotional numbness or emotional excess, or where there are negative emotional feelings, which need to be worked through.

I like to work with wind blown wood that has naturally broken from the tree, but it must be a piece that the tree has recently shed. Alternatively ask the tree for a piece to use and cut your wand in a respectful and intuitive way, thanking the tree in what ever way feels appropriate. You may like to use a penknife to take the bark off, or some of the bark off, and carve it and energise your wand with magical symbols. It is easier to carve fresh wood and then let it dry out. Small twigs dry out quickly in a porch, out house or shed but it is better to let larger pieces of wood dry slowly under a hedge, in the wind and the rain, to prevent cracking. When it is dry, after carving or working the wood, it can be sanded with varying grades of sandpaper, from rough to fine. Then it may be oiled or polished using a wood oil or several layers of beeswax to protect and feed the wood and stop it drying out.

 

Talismans may be made in the same way, perhaps using the natural shape of the wood to suggest and inspire a carving. Talismans may be worn round the neck or as a brooch, or carried within a pouch and kept close. They may be magically charged by the power of intention and carved with symbols relevant to their use.

 

Symbolism is not fixed, there are no correct versions of anything, and the Willow particularly stimulates our ability to follow our intuition and find our own meanings behind symbols that bring meaningful inspired leaps of understanding and personal insights. It is true there are traditional meanings associated with symbols, but traditions must evolve and include new insights and adapt to new circumstances. What was meaningful to people in one part of our evolution or history may no longer apply. Past interpretations may no longer speak to the conscious or the unconscious minds of our present age. New inspirations are waiting to evolve, if the old symbols are to have relevance and power. The patterns, which a seer unfolds, need to be potent and meaningful to our present spiritual evolution. We have been taught to regard our intuition as unreliable but we know that this isn't true and we must use it more in order to develop our abilities. Willow can enhance this resolve.