Monday, August 15, 2011

Hollow Tree Woman

The black elderberry (Sambucus nigra) is one of the sacred trees of sorcery and witchcraft, and represents the thirteenth month in the Celtic tree calendar. The thirteenth month was October, the end of the Celtic year. Nowadays, instead of celebrating the new year on November 1 Halloween arrived.

The English word for elder is elder. It is derived from the Anglo Saxon word meaning aeld some fire. The hollow elder branches were in fact used to blow fire. The Dutch word elder comes from the Low German word which refers to the Flieder feathery leaves.
The botanical name Sambucus appears in the writings of Pliny the Elder (Roman author of Naturalis Historia) and other early botanists. The Greeks and Romans, "Sambuca" a stringed instrument made from elder wood because of its exceptional hardness. This is inconsistent with the fact that most of elder wood wind instruments were manufactured.
Catapults and whistles were always made of elder wood. Italian farmers produce one or more elder whistle, known as sampogna.
Mythology and folklore
Shakespeare says in "Love's Lost's about" the apostle Judas has hung an elder. I believe the famous English poet knew nothing of the botanical characteristics of the elder, because then he could have known that the branches of the elder too weak, to prepare themselves to hang.
There are a number of European countries, many stories told about the magic of the elder. It has been talking about the hollow tree (the tree of Mother Hulda). In England it is the hylde nut or elder-tree mother, who lives in a tree to guard him. An elder person who cuts by the hylde nut and chased in the accident paid. hylde nut
A forester once felled without permission from an elder hylde nut to produce a cradle for his newborn child to make. Every time we put the child in the cradle, appeared hylde nut and pulled the baby to his legs. This meant careful when he was pulled out of the crib. An elder must be cut, because they had to hylde nut ask for permission first
The black elderberry was often as a defense against witches planted near farms. Also believed that he fire a lightning protected.
Well known is the following story:
. Even in the 17th and 18th centuries people asked to excuse him as an elder had to cut it to one medicine. From Silesia, the following message: Before you take wood from an elder, one must kneel, pray and bush to apologize. The hard-working girl at the source of Frau Holle
Gypsies traditionally took their hats when they passed an elder came.
In the Baltic countries it was believed, that gnomes (called berstukken) in the roots of the elder lived. Germans and Celts also believed that among the elder branches dwarfs lived.
Goddess of Light
The patron saint of the elder is in the Scandinavian and Germanic tradition, the goddess of Perchta Holla (which in southern Germany and Switzerland the 'shining' means). If she got a Hulda place in the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. Therefore, the tree where she lived and they protected the German "Holunder" called. Hulda rewards conscientious people. She is protectress of animals and plants, and, as goddess of spring after the long, gray winter with the friendly, white flowers of the elder light back. In the tale of Frau Holle is still another feature of the goddess Holla out, that her relationship with sources. When a man wanted to visit her had he / she first dive into a resource like the industrious Mary in the story. Frau Holle
The origin of this story goes far back into pre-Christian times. The people then believed that the goddess especially around the time of the winter solstice the earth moved, accompanied by snow and ice, with the death-bringing forces to fight so that the earth could get back her fertility back. The gold which the hard-working girl is rewarded, it is a symbol for knowledge and wisdom.
Evil spirit of wise woman
After Christianization, the old custom to resources and elderberry bushes to pray and sacrifice severely punished. The way light goddess, according to the church a dangerous phantom, an angry woman and small children lazy their flax spinners and people stealing their bellies cut open, fill with stones and closing strokes.
When we realize how respectful our ancestors coped with the elder, what this tree meant to them, maybe we can encourage elders to protect and to plant our gardens. An elder close to home or patio keeps flies and mosquitoes at bay.

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