Blackthorn ushers in the dark half of the year. Its pale-as-death white flowers, its winter ripening, and black branches, thick with thorns, make it the quintessential life in death tree of Samhain. Once the black door of the Celtic New Year closes, there is no turning back to the light. The hedgerow looms behind us allowing no return. As part of the natural cycle of life-death and rebirth, we must keep faith and travel through the labyrinth of night one more time until dawn rises, and the Hawthorn way of Beltane opens again.
Blackthorn and Hawthorn are sister trees, one representing the dark half and the other, the light half of the year. Where Blackthorn grows near its sister plant, Hawthorn, the site is especially magical, for they are doorways to Faery.
It is Scorpio time. Once the blackthorn closes around us, the harvest of grain is over, the harvest of nuts has ended, the culling of cattle has begun. The dark, windy sky brings the Wild Hunt, and the harvest of souls.
Witches Wheel
Blackthorn, wintry blackthorn
A sign on the doorstep
Your sloe fruits sweeten only in frost
Usher us through the lanes we must must cross
When the gold of October
Turns to white splinters.
For a really nice Ogham book by Sharlyn Hidalgo, go here:
The Healing Power of Trees: Spiritual Journeys Through the Celtic Tree Calendar
Straif ( Strife)
The Blackthorn tree is esoterically known as both the Mother of the Woods and the Dark Crone of the Woods. She who gives life also deals death. Woe to any who encounter her in the dark forest!
The tree is linked to the Irish Morrigan who stalks the battlefield in the shape of a raven. In Scotland, it is the Cailleach who strikes the ground with her Blackthorn staff, summoning the frost and snow. Its sacred number is 13.
The ghostly white flowers of the Blackthorn are like drifts of snow in the autumn twilight.
Fairy tales tell us the Blackthorn is a tree of ill omen. The English word ‘strife’ derives from its Ogham name: Straif. A long hard winter is referred to as a Blackthorn Winter. In tales, such as Sleeping Beauty, it is blackthorn that grows the thick, impenetrable thorn hedge around the enchantress’s castle. Like the beautiful flower of romance, the blackthorn is a member of the rose family, thus leading us to imagine a rose-covered tower.. In traditional stories, Blackthorn often indicates a warrior’s death in service to the High King.
Dark witches love the Blackthorn. A Blackthorn wand, with thorns fixed on the end, is used for binding and blasting. These sharp thorns were called the pins of slumber and reputedly used by English witches to pierce poppets. Witches burned on Blackthorn pyres, for the Devil was said to prick his follower’s fingers with the thorn of a Blackthorn tree to draw the blood used to sign the Contract.
Blackthorn can be used in spells of protection as well. In Irish tales, heroes were aided by the Blackthorn tree. If they threw a twig of Blackthorn after them, it would take root and form an impenetrable hedge or woods, thwarting the pursuing giant. The Norse rune thorn carved on a Blackthorn stave provides protection.
Blackthorn is said to bloom on Christmas Eve. It is one of the trees reputed to form the thorny crown of Christ at His crucifixion. At New Year, celebrants wore Blackthorn crowns which they burned in the New Year’s fire. The ashes were used to fertilize the fields. Blackthorn was sometimes woven into wreaths with Mistletoe to bring luck in the coming year, and the garlands used to wassail the Apple trees.
Blackthorn is an arrow’s mist and smoke drifting up from the fire. These are both harbingers of death.
Of all the trees that grow so fair,
Old England to adorn,
Greater are none beneath the Sun
Than Oak and Ash and Thorn.
(Puck of Pook’s Hill, by Rudyard Kipling, 1906)
Daring to travel with the darker deities of the Celtic pantheon is a spiritual adventure at the deepest level. Blackthorn opens the pathway to Underworld initiation. Meditating under a Blackthorn bush during the Samhain season can put you in touch with powerful Underworld deities, such as the Morrigan. Wear a protective amulet with the Blackthorn ogham, sloe berries, or a blackthorn wand, if you choose to go there. These deities are not to be trifled with!
Here’s a new Tree Oracle by John Matthews!
The Spirit of Nature Oracle: Ancient Wisdom from the Green Man and the Celtic Ogam Tree Alphabet
Magical Correspondences
Magic is Everywhere.
The Wishing Tree
Ogham Letter: Straif
Letter: S, Z
Deities: Morrigan, Dagda, Cailleach, Cerridwen, Morgan le Fay and Gwynn ap Nudd
Animals: Toad, Wolf, Black Cat
Color: Red, Bright Purple
Planets: Mars and Saturn
Gem: Black Opal
Chief attributes: Inevitability of Death, Protection and revenge
Blackthorn Working
Traditionally, Blackthorn is used in protection against evil, creating boundaries, purifying, confronting our own dark side. Blackthorn dispels negativity, toxins, old wounds, and impurities. It can be used in exorcisms. It is associated with chthonic and protective deities.
With Blackthorn staff,
I draw the bound.
All malice and bane,
I thus confound.
The most powerful times of the year to use Blackthorn for purification and banishing are Imbolc (Feb. 1st) and Samhain (October 31st) At Imbolc, Blackthorn is one of the first trees to flower, thus, it aids the ushering in of Spring.
Blackthorn wands can be used for divination and wishing at these auspicious times of year. Incredibly, bridal chambers can be decorated with Hawthorn and Blackthorn flowers for the musky scent of the flowers stimulates desire.