Since Imbolc I have been reading up on yew trees. The aim is to assimilate as much knowledge as possible about this incredible species so that when Spring Equinox comes around I will be able to begin the process of understanding my yew staff’s potential powers. At the moment it is merely a piece of yew with a stag’s antlers on top. Soon I am hoping that we will forge a relationship that will be as fruitful as the one I had with my ash staff.
To start the process off I read Allen Meredith and Janis Fry‘s book “The God Tree“, as recommended by Philip Carr-Gomm‘s blog post.
This book revealed many amazing insights which I had never considered before such as:
- yew trees may have been transported here from the staves carried by such well-known early Celtic Christian saints such as Cadoc, Patrick, Christopher and Bueno
- the trees may be the source of the myth of the “golden bough”
- the yew tree is the origin of the concept of the World Tree – or the Tree of Life
Regeneration and Immortality
The idea that the yew is the Tree of Life makes much more sense than other species which have been considered for that role such as Ash or Oak. The yew has the quality of “immortality” associated with its incredible regenerative method. This is further argued by Paul Greenwood in his passionate book “A Brief History of Yew Trees“.
Links to The Otherworld
Any tree would provide the symbolism required to sustain the image of a link between the three invisible worlds: Upperworld, Middle Earth and Underworld (‘The Otherworld’ as I collectively term them). There is a stronger and more obvious link between the yew tree and the Underworld. Long has the yew tree in particular been associated with death and rebirth. In addition, it’s supposed hallucinogenic qualities may have been the means by which the transition between the worlds was performed.
Nemi and The Nemeton
Fry’s book “The God Tree” suggests evidence from ancient texts about the link between the Underworld and the Yew, and between the Golden Bough and a growth on the yew tree. In Sir James George Frazer‘s “The Golden Bough” it is suggested that the tree from which the Golden Bough was taken was the oak – a strong hint at the idea of Mistletoe being this golden bough.
“Within the sanctuary at Nemi grew a certain tree of which no branch might be broken. Only a runaway slave was allowed to break off, if he could, one of its boughs. Success in the attempt entitled him to fight the priest in single combat, and if he slew him he reigned in his stead with the title of King of the Wood (Rex Nemorensis). According to the public opinion of the ancients the fateful branch was that Golden Bough which, at the Sibyl’s bidding, Aeneas plucked before he essayed the perilous journey to the world of the dead. The flight of the slave represented, it was said, the flight of Orestes; his combat with the priest was a reminiscence of the human sacrifices once offered to the Tauric Diana…
…Amongst the Celts the oak-worship of the Druids is familiar to every one, and their old word for sanctuary seems to be identical in origin and meaning with the Latin nemus, a grove or woodland glade, which still survives in the name of Nemi….
…it was from an evergreen oak, according to Virgil, that Aeneas plucked the Golden Bough….”
(source: The Golden Bough, J.G.Frazer)
Interestingly, Greenwood points out that Frazer never mentions the yew tree at all in his famous book, even though the family have a history relating to that tree, he argues.
The Golden Bough
The significance of this mythological golden bough is that it is used as a means of entry into The Underworld. In mythology it permits Aeneas to cross the Stygian River to Hades, and then to enter into the Elysian Fields where the shades of the recently departed (who lived just and fulfilling lives) are located. In terms of modern druidry we might say that the golden bough can be used to facilitate a trance state which allows a crossing into the presence of The Ancestors – a world of death energy.
So, is the golden bough real? Or is it simply mythological? According to Allen Meredith the bough is a reality – a very rare condition of a yew tree in which the branch takes on a golden hue, and in The God Tree he mentions that he has found a tree in deepest Wales where this condition was realised: The Defynnog Yew.
It now remains for me to visit this tree to find out for myself what I can learn from this tree and its ancient secrets, and how they relate to my own yew staff.
