Beware the Tree Spirit: Celtic Folklore about Trees

[This is an update of my 2019 post “Beware the Tree Spirit: Celtic & Irish Tree Folklore”]

Note: This post is meant to entertain. Nothing in it is intended as medical or lifestyle advice.

Don't cut down that tree! You might anger the faeries or tree spirits that guard it!

Nature holds an important place in Celtic culture. The ancient Celts were fishers and farmers so their lives depended on nature. Even today, many Scots, Irish, and Welsh make their livelihoods from those occupations. Also today, as in ancient times, nature can be destructive, even deadly. Lightning, floods, and snow storms are taken lightly only by fools. This is true for all humans of any culture, but the Celts didn’t simply rely on and contend with nature. They respected and valued it highly. Celtic spirituality teaches that there is a spark of the Divine in everything. Rocks, streams, trees all have a touch of the mystical in their core. Trees, however, are particularly important in Celtic culture.

How intrinsically important trees are to the Celts shows up in a few ways. First, there is a belief system that has become known as Celtic astrology. The term, I contend, is an inaccurate one since the system has little do with stars and planets, but drawing an analogy between this Celtic system and western astrology is reasonable. Both systems teach that the time period in which one is born affects one’s personality and behaviors. The difference between the two philosophies is that western astrology is based on stars, planets, and constellations. Celtic “astrology” is not. Western astrology has twelve sun signs. The Celtic system has thirteen tree signs. For example, according to western astrology, my sun sign is Cancer the Crab which is ruled by the moon. My Celtic tree sign is the Holly. This means I’m a leader. In Celtic culture the holly is a royal tree.

That brings me to the second piece of evidence that trees are an integral part of Celtic culture. The Druids had an extensive classification system for trees, dividing them into Commoners of the Woods, Nobles of the Woods, and other categories. Some were sacred. Two (holly and oak) were royal. Trees were treated according to their status. In Brehon law, an Irish legal code used until at least the seventeenth century, cutting down certain trees was punishable by fine or even death (depending on the tree’s status). The same was true in Scotland. For an extended example of law and ritual regarding trees, see my post on mistletoe. Hold on, you say, mistletoe is a plant, not a tree. It seems like a fair point except that the Druids classified anything with a woody stem as a tree. So mistletoe, vines, and ivy (which was considered distinct from vines) were, to the Celtic mind, trees.

Perhaps the strongest evidence of the central role trees played in Celtic culture can be found in Irish, Scottish, and Welsh folklore. Below is some of my favorite Celtic tree lore (and a few laws as well).

PROTECTION

For Babies and Children

--To protect children from harm, bathe
  them in water infused with holly
  leaves.

--To keep the faeries from stealing a child,
  place ash berries in the crib [Note: this
  is a choking hazard!]

--Place the baby in a crib made of elder
  wood. This will prevent faeries from
  kidnapping the child.

--Or maybe not! Some versions of folklore
  say placing the baby in an elder wood crib increases the chance of the Good People
  replacing your child with a changeling.

For Homes

--To protect your house from lightning, plant a rowan or willow tree near it. Lore also
  recommends ash trees but some Irish folklore says ashes actually attract lightning so this
  tree is risky!

--Celts believed mistletoe was placed on oak trees by a lightning bolt sent by a thunder god.

Because of this, folklore says hanging the plant in a home protected the structure from
  lightning. Mistletoe also was believed to protect from evil and faerie mischief.

--The Druids considered ivy, sinister but
  magically powerful. Celts believed
  that ivy growing on or near a home
  protected the family from evil and
  misfortune. The caveat is that, if
  the ivy fell down, grew sick, or died,
  the family would suffer calamity.

Protection from Faeries, Evil Spirits, Witches, and the Dead

--Holly trees were believed to offer
  protection from evil spirits.

--Rowan trees provided protection from
  witchcraft and enchantments. Burning
  rowan wood in the fireplace on May
  Day morning was said to provide protection from the evil plans of witches.

--Placing rowan flowers on windowsills and doorsteps kept evil spirits from entering the
  house. In addition, rowans were planted in graveyards to protect the dead from evil
  spirits and to keep the dead from rising from their graves.

--Willow branches, placed in a home, kept the family safe from witchcraft and evil.

--Bringing holly leaves into the house in winter provided faeries a shelter from the cold,
  resulting in their blessing the whole household with good fortune.

Never Cut These Trees!

--In Ireland, cutting an alder tree was
  against the law. Perhaps because the
  wood of the tree changes from white
  to red when it is cut, folklore taught
  that cutting one angered the tree
  spirits who guarded it. The lore said
  that the angry spirits would retaliate
  by burning all nearby houses.
  So cutting the tree had
  consequences for the community as
  well as the perpetrator, thus
  harvesting an alder was prohibited.

--In Scotland, cutting an aspen was not only illegal, but was considered equivalent to killing a
  human.

--According to Irish and Scottish oral tradition, chopping down a hazel tree was punishable by
  death.

--While disturbing a Hawthorn tree was and is not actually illegal, it is considered dangerous.
  Hawthorns are believed to guard the entrance to the faerie world, so disrespecting the
  tree in any way (let alone chopping it down) risks the wrath of the faeries.

Some Miscellaneous Fun Folklore

--Elder trees were believed to have a bad temper or mischief inside of them. Folklore taught
  that striking a child with an Elder stick, would cause the child to stop growing.

--Ivy growing on a grave indicates a restless spirit.

--Despite warnings against disturbing
  hawthorn trees, an Irish folk custom
  is to place strips of cloth or
  ribbons on hawthorn trees on the
  feast of Beltane. Each cloth or ribbon
  represents a wish. It's similar to
  throwing coins into a wishing well.
 --Often, the ribbons were of symbolic
  colors such as green or gold for
  money, blue for peace, red for love,
  yellow for happiness and so on.

--An Irish legend warns that if you sleep
  under an elder you may never wake up. This may come from the fact that the leaves have
  a mildly narcotic affect.

--Want to get rid of a wart? Carry a needle around for three days then stick it into an ash tree
  (poor tree!). The wart will be transferred to the ash in the form of a knot.

--An ash, oak, and willow growing near each other indicates a magical pace where faeries can
  be seen.

--The sound of the wind rustling willow leaves is faeries whispering inspiration to poets.

--Have a secret? Tell it to a willow. The tree
  will take the secret in and lock it away
  so it never gets out.

--Don't eat bramble berries after Samhain.
  Folklore warns that the Puca, a
  mischievous shape-shifting faerie,
  spits (or possibly pisses) on them!

--The elder, it is said, walks at night and
  peers through the windows of
  children's rooms. How creepy!

--The willow can walk at night too. It
  follows strangers and mutters after
  them.

I hope you enjoyed this sampling of Celtic folklore. If you did, please LIKE and SHARE. You can SUBSCRIBE to the blog for FREE by clicking the “Sign Up” button in the upper right of this page.

Joy and peace in the New Year! Slainte!

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