A Druid's Handbook to the Spiritual Power of Plants: Spagyrics in Magical and Sexual Rituals - Jon G. Hughes 2014

Harvesting Ritual
The Tree
Assessing the Natural Resources

As we have seen, the three cardinal essences derived from the tree are refined from the leaves, bark, and wood of the donor plant. It is necessary to harvest these three cardinal components in the correct proportion, so that they will each yield the desired amount of cardinal essence for our use.

This is not as daunting a task as it first sounds. All we need to do is select a suitable young branch, about eighteen inches (45 cm) long with abundant foliage. Once this is harvested, it will provide us with the correct proportion of each part as determined by nature herself. What is important for us, then, is to make sure we use every part of our harvested branch for our refinement process. Every leaf, all of the bark, and all of the wood: leave nothing as waste; include every iota of the harvested branch to refine the complexes.

Example of a solitary tree

Targeting a donor tree and selecting an appropriate branch for refinement can be a much more difficult and time-consuming task than with the flowers we looked at previously. Trees are influenced to a much greater extent by their environment. If we accept, in general terms, that the mass of the plant below the ground is more or less equal to its mass above ground, and that the plant’s area of influence extends to its farthest extremities, then we can see that the tree exerts its influence over a much larger area than do the smaller flowering plants.

This area of influence is further complicated by the way in which trees congregate in mixed forests with the taller trees forming a forest canopy covering and sheltering the growth of smaller genera and species beneath their lofty branches. To find a donor tree that is imbued with only its own energies and attributes, it will be necessary for us to locate a solitary tree, growing in isolation, such as the one pictured above.

If this same tree were growing in the middle of a dense forest, its individual energies and attributes would be profoundly influenced by the plants surrounding it. This need not be a bad thing; indeed, it is a feature we sometimes deliberately seek out. But it does complicate the issue of harvesting. It means that, in most cases, we need to get to know our donor trees much more intimately than we do other plants. We also need to study its environment much more critically.

Much of this detective work may be done with the aid of printed field guides and botanical reference books, though eventually you will discover the benefit of committing the contents of these books to memory. Remember that the ancient Druids (and the not-so-ancient ones like myself) were not allowed to write down this information or record it in any way, so we members of the old school had no option but to memorize all these facts as they were told to us.

What you need to bear in mind, whether you are using reference books or depending on your own recall, is that a plant exerts its effects on any other plant that comes within its area of influence. A neighboring plant’s influence becomes stronger the closer it is growing to the donor plant. If the two plants are growing outside each other’s area of influence, then they do not affect each other at all.

It is for the reader to develop his or her own skills in this facet of the art. Experience is the best way to learn this particular skill, so challenge yourself whenever possible to work out the influences exerted on any individual plant by its neighbors. We all have this innate talent; however, it is necessary to nurture it to the point where it becomes effective.

As we have seen, the plant’s environment, state of health, and so on affect its energies, and this influences us as we target a specific donor plant in order to extract its physical and magical attributes. One thing we did not need to take into account in harvesting flowers is the location of the branch on the tree’s trunk in relation to the cardinal points of the compass. For maximum potency, it is necessary to harvest our branch from the north side of the donor tree. The branch is therefore growing in a south-to-north orientation, which allows it to absorb the maximum energy from the earth’s magnetic fields (or as Druidic lore sees it, the earth’s collective energy).

Now, having targeted a suitable branch on a suitable donor tree, we can prepare ourselves for the ritual of the harvest. Once again, as is common in the Druidic tradition, I shall use a practical example to illustrate the ritual of the harvest for the complex of the tree.

Here follows an account, with additional explanations, of the harvesting of a branch from the oak tree (Quercus robur) shown in the photograph below. This branch provides the basic material for the demonstration of the refinement method of the complex of the tree (see here).

This particular oak is growing in a secluded grove deep in the heart of the oldest oak forest in Europe. It is a place of supreme significance to me, and this huge, ancient oak has donated much to the physical and spiritual development of my work. This tree is surrounded by many other oaks, each of which reinforces and strengthens its energies. In the spring and early summer, large numbers of bluebells, foxgloves, and primroses grow under the dappled sunlight of its canopy. Its mighty trunk plays host to ivy and holly bushes growing at its feet. All that is missing from this king of trees is mistletoe. But the tree’s potency is no lesser for that.

An oak from the oldest oak forest in Europe

Druid lore reveres the oak above all trees, and it was a custom to carve a four-segment circle (the symbol of the earth we saw earlier) into the trunk of the tree to protect it from harm and to prolong its life.

I know this tree intimately, so it was not difficult for me to pick out one of its new branches as an ideal candidate for harvesting. Oak branches are best harvested in April and May, when tender new branches appear all over the tree, and it was one of these young branches, covered in leaves of the most delicate fresh green, that I selected to harvest. The oak is a tree of the sun, so I planned my harvesting to take place early in the morning of the following day.

For the harvesting ritual we need the following materials:

· Your stave to cast the protective Circle before harvesting.

· Your dagger or triple-knotted rope to seal the cast Circle.

· A sharp knife or pruning shears to cut the branch from the donor tree.

· Your ritual robe (or the harvesting may be done nude if you prefer).

· A suitable wood sealant or natural beeswax to seal the stub of the branch left on the tree after harvesting and the end of the harvested branch.

· A length of string or natural twine to tie the harvested branch into a loop.

· A compass. It is essential that you be aware of your orientation as you begin the harvesting ritual. If you are not familiar with your intended location, take a compass to find the cardinal points.

· An earth gift. A small token to leave at the harvesting site in return for the plants harvested. I often use the remains of libations or incenses used in previous rituals that I have stored in sealed bottles labeled “Earth Gifts.”

· A small cloth or working stone cover on which to lay out the ritual tools and perhaps for you to sit on during the harvesting.

Having gathered all my essentials, I set out on one of my many harvesting journeys. Walking deep into an oak forest is a spine-tingling experience on any occasion. But on this morning the floor of the forest was covered in a dense mist that thinned out as it rose to the treetops. It was cold but bright, and the shafts of sunlight pierced the mist and became diffused as they reached the dense lower level of the mist, illuminating the forest floor and making the huge oaks look as if they were floating on an iridescent sea. Apart from giving a distinctly “otherworldly” feeling to the forest, the mist was very disorienting, and I was surprised to discover just how much I depended on the contours of the forest floor to navigate through the many, very similar oaks.

As I walked farther into the forest the sun climbed higher and the mist began to evaporate. I soon found my way to the familiar glade and my favorite major oak. I knew the orientation of everything in the glade, as I had visited the place many times and had set my bearings during one of my visits years before. (If you are not sure of the orientation of the tree from which you are harvesting, use the compass to locate the cardinal points.) I had established earlier that the branch I intended to harvest was growing due north out of the northern side of the oak, so I positioned myself and my cache of tools to the south of the tree, facing the tree and the north.

I changed into my ritual robe (you may choose to facilitate the harvesting in the nude if you prefer) and, facing the tree with both my hands on the head of my stave, I adopted the power position of the inverted pyramid stance. Having raised my sensory awareness to a level where I felt prepared for the task ahead, I held the stave in both hands, lifted it high above my head, and began the ritual with the opening words of every Druidic ritual:

“And so it begins.”

I then cast a protective Circle, as shown, around the base of the tree, allowing enough room for its perimeter to enclose my cache of tools, laid out on the cloth in front of me.

The protective Circle encompassing the oak

I put aside my stave and removed my robe before sitting at the base of the oak with my spine resting against the tree’s trunk. As I sat, I began to focus on the sensory experiences I had heightened a little earlier, exploring my five senses and their interaction with the sounds, smells, airborne tastes, and feel of the forest that surrounded me.

Having established myself as part of the nature of the forest, I turned my attention to the donor oak. My spine became the conduit for the tree’s latent energies as I “plugged in to” its core. I searched my inner feelings to see if there was any negative emotion placed there by the tree and continued to do so until I was convinced that the tree had no objection to my harvesting. Returning to a state of worldly consciousness, I stood up and walked to my cache to collect the pruning shears.

Back at the tree, I cut off the branch about one inch (2.5 cm) from the tree’s trunk. I then quickly sealed the open ends of the stub on the tree and the end of the harvested branch to contain its natural energies. As I did so, I said:

“Thank you for your gift; I will use it well.”

Next, I looped the harvested branch so that its tip touched the cut end at its base and tied it in position with the twine. This serves to contain the natural energies of the branch as it circulates around the closed loop. If the branch ends are left open, the energy quickly disperses. There is a risk that in looping the branch it may break or crack. If this happens, it is interpreted as a significant indicator that the branch has not been gifted to you in the proper way. Any such cracked or broken branches are returned to the base of the donor tree as you say:

“I take what is given freely and return to you what is yours. May it always be the way.”

I then hung the looped branch from the stub left on the tree and walked back to my cache to collect the bottle containing my earth gift. Scattering a little of the earth gift onto the ground as I walked around the tree, I said:

“I take what you have given and return to you what was once yours. May this always be the way.”

At this point the harvesting is complete, so the ritual is closed in the usual way. Picking up the stave in both hands, I raised it high above my head and said:

“And so it ends, at the beginning.”

The end of this ritual is also the beginning of the cycle that will eventually produce the tree’s complex and incense.

I then unsealed the Circle and erased it in the usual way (the details of which may be found in part 4, in the section “Unsealing and Erasing the Circle: The Ritual”), and having dressed again in my everyday clothes, I gathered up my ritual tools, collected the harvested branch from the tree stub, and made my way back to my workshop.

This, then, is the ritual of harvesting trees. If you adhere to it closely, the branches you harvest will retain the very best of their latent energies and attributes.