{"id":510,"date":"2009-05-12T11:49:43","date_gmt":"2009-05-12T15:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/?p=510"},"modified":"2013-02-09T18:02:50","modified_gmt":"2013-02-09T23:02:50","slug":"tree-medicine-magic-and-lore-beech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/?p=510","title":{"rendered":"Tree Medicine, Magic and Lore: Beech"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by Ellen Evert Hopman<br \/>\nillustrated by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sirwilliamwesley.com\"target=\"_blank\">Will Hobbs<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The ancient Indo-European word for Beech has bequeathed us the following words in several modern languages; mug, box, buck (to wash or soak in hot lye or buck) and to eat, nourishes, property, luck, rich, God, and to apportion, giving us a sense of the veneration placed upon this tree by our ancestors.<\/p>\n<p><a href='https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/beech.jpg'><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/beech.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"beech\" width=\"214\" height=\"256\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-511\" \/><\/a>Beech nuts were rendered into soap and the Beech nut oil was used for cooking and lighting. The smooth grey bark of the Beeches may once have been used to carve symbols, leading to the words for letter, stick for writing, and book in several languages. Ancient Runic tablets were made of Beech wood (the Runes were an ancient Scandinavian magical alphabet). On the Alban and Esquiline hills of Rome there were once Beech groves sacred to the Goddess Diana. Beech nuts were an important food for swine, totem animals of the Celts. There was a Red Beech in Ireland called Ruadbetheach that was the Bile or sacred tree of the O&#8217;Connors. Beech was an important medicinal for Native American herbalists. The Cherokee chewed the nuts to pass worms, the Chippewa used the bark for lung problems. The Iroquois used the bark for tuberculosis, in abortive mixtures, and in blood cleansing formulas. The leaves were used in poultices for burns and the Potawatomi used the leaves as a poultice for frostbite. The Rappahannock made a wash for poison ivy from the north side of the bark. The Forest Potawatomi relished Beech nuts as a food. They took advantage of the industry of Deer Mice who carefully shelled the nuts and stored them in hollow logs and trees. The Indians were led to these stores by examining the refuse of the mice, scattered on the snow.<\/p>\n<p>Beech trees aerate the soil and distribute potash through their leaves. All trees will benefit from having a Beech in the vicinity. Beech leaves make an excellent stuffing for mattresses. Animals who thrive on Beech nuts include deer, thrushes, pigeons, bears, martins, squirrels, partridges and turkeys. Beech magic: find a twig of Beech and carve your wish or dream upon it.<\/p>\n<p>Bury it under the full or waxing moon.<\/p>\n<p><strong>about the author:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ellen Evert Hopman is a Druid Priestess, herbalist and  author of &#8220;Priestess of the Forest: A Druid Journey&#8221;, &#8220;A Druids Herbal &#8211; Of Sacred Tree Medicine&#8221;, &#8220;Walking the World in Wonder &#8211; A Children&#8217;s Herbal&#8221; and other volumes.  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.elleneverthopman.com\/\"target=\"_blank\">Visit her website for more!<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href='https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/11-05-08-druids_herbal1.jpg'><a href=\"http:\/\/www.celticheritage.co.uk\/EllenEvertHopman\/pagan_books.cfm\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/11-05-08-druids_herbal1.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"11-05-08-druids_herbal1\" width=\"140\" height=\"215\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-463\" \/><\/a><a href='https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/priestess-of-the-forest.jpg'><a href=\"http:\/\/www.celticheritage.co.uk\/EllenEvertHopman\/pagan_books.cfm\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/priestess_of_the_forest.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"priestess-of-the-forest\" width=\"140\" height=\"190\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-462\" \/><\/a> <br \/><\/br><br \/><\/br><br \/><\/br><br \/><\/br><br \/><\/br><\/p>\n<p>Bibliography<br \/>\nAdams, Barbara Means, Prayers Of Smoke, Renewing Makaha Tribal Tradition; Celestial Arts, Berkeley, CA 1990<\/p>\n<p>Baker, Margaret, Discovering The Folklore Of Plants; Shire Publications Ltd., Aylesbury, Bucks, U.K. 1975<\/p>\n<p>Beith, Mary, Healing Threads, Traditional Medicines of the Highlands and Islands; Polygon, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1995<\/p>\n<p>Brunaux, Jean Louis, The Celtic Gauls: Gods, Rites and Sanctuaries; Seaby, London, 1988<\/p>\n<p>Calder, George (translator), Book of Ballymote: Auraicept Na nEces (The Scholars Primer); Edinburgh, 1917<\/p>\n<p>Carmichael, Alexander, Carmina Gadelica, Hymns and Incantations; Floris Books, Edinburgh 1992<\/p>\n<p>Cunliffe, Barry, The Celtic World; St. Martin&#8217;s Press, New York, New York, 1993<\/p>\n<p>Cunningham, Scott, Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs; Llewellyn Publications, St Paul, MN 1986<\/p>\n<p>Ellis, Peter Berresford, Celtic Women; Wm. B. Erdman&#8217;s Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, MI, 1996<\/p>\n<p>Erichsen-Brown, Charlotte, Medicinal and Other Uses Of North American Plants; Dover Publications Inc., New York, NY 1989<\/p>\n<p>Evans-Wentz, W.Y., The Fairy Faith In Celtic Countries; Citadel Press, New York, NY 1990<\/p>\n<p>Farrar, Janet and Stewart, The Witch&#8217;s Goddess; Phoenix Publishing Inc, Custer, WA 98240<\/p>\n<p>Frazier, James G., The Golden Bough, The Roots of Religion And Folklore; Avenel Books, NY 1981<\/p>\n<p>Friedrich, Paul, Proto-Indo-European Trees; The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL 1970<\/p>\n<p>Green, Miranda J., The Celtic World; Routledge, London, 1995<\/p>\n<p>Green, Miranda J., The World of the Druids, Thames and Hudson, London 1997<\/p>\n<p>Grieve, M., A Modern Herbal, Dover Publications Inc., New York, NY 1971<\/p>\n<p>Hoagland, Kathleen, 1,000 Years of Irish Poetry, The Gaelic and the Anglo-Irish Poets From Pagan Times To The Present; The Devin-Adair Company, Old Greenwich, CT 1981<\/p>\n<p>Hopman, Ellen Evert, A Druids Herbal For The Sacred Earth Year; Inner Traditions\/Destiny Books, Rochester, VT 1995<\/p>\n<p>Hopman, Ellen Evert, Tree Medicine, Tree Magic; Phoen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ellen Evert Hopman discusses Beech Lore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}