As I mentioned yesterday, two Plant allies have come to me this year: lemon balm, and Hawthorn.
One must capitalize Hawthorn, for this is a regal tree, a tree that carries the gravitas and majesty of Queendom. She is compelling and complex, Dark and Light, healing and hurtful; more of a shrub than a proper tree, but as commanding as the mightiest Oak.
The Hawthorn that graces my life (I can't say "my" Hawthorn) was planted as a sprig from the Arbor Day foundation 8 years ago, sandwiched between two crabapples. For years it was just a little shrub; and then suddenly, three years ago, it expanded and blossomed right on cue for Mayfaire. The creamy white blossoms enjoy the sunny branches up high. They don't last long, and one poem compares the breeze-drifting petals to tears. (There is a curious amount of poetry about the Hawthorn.) No worries, though: the new leaves are vivid green and tinged red (a clue to Hawthorn's membership in the Rose family), and the astonishingly red berries, called haws, light up the dimmest winter months.
Lady Hawthorn ... how shall I say this? She has a reputation. She's not an aphrodisiac, but men who fall asleep under Her wake up with their heads in the lap of the Faery Queen, and yes, that is poetic euphemism. But Hawthorn isn't interested in your naughty bits. She's after your heart.
What does She want with your heart? Why, she wants to heal it. And that's exactly what She does, blossom, leaf, and berry. Hawthorn has extensive benefits for all manner of physical heart ills. She lowers blood pressure, reduces arterial plaque (arteriosclerosis), gentle dilates the blood vessels and therefore opens up circulation and increases oxygenation, steadies irregular heartbeat, and helps lower cholesterol.
Energetically, She is calming and centering, albeit in a slightly different way than Melissa (lemon balm): you can actually tell that Lady Hawthorn is working in the heart center, whereas Melissa (lemon balm) is more in the head.
You know that feeling in your chest when you are angry, tense, or afraid? Even in healthy people there's a constricted feeling in your breath, a very slight choking that may not even be physical? Hawthorn opens all that up. Hawthorn lets you take that deep breath that helps move the anger away.
Oh, and like the Lady She is, she provides nutrition but also helps normalize your digestion and your appetite.
I am a crab; Cancer is my Sun sign, and there is a strong streak of harrumphy, coldhearted curmudgeon in my nature. Hawthorn helps me loosen my crab-claw grip on the grumps. A little hawthorn, and I can take a deep breath and go into the place of loving or empathy or compassion that I need to be in.
True to my -ishy approach to herbalism*, I started by pulling a couple of berries and eating them. Very powerful. Please understand that when I say "very powerful," I'm not talking about a head-rush or anything like taking a pharmaceutical (legal or illegal). I just could feel my heart chakra open up, my breathing deepen, and my core being get calmer. The blossoms make a wonderful tea, but mine were all gone before I realize they were all gone. However, you can eat the leaves, and they work. They have a bland taste. I think they dry well enough to preserve for teas or capsules.
The thorns .... oh, the thorns! The Lady protects Herself and Her own. She's got, like, 2 inch thorns and they are as sharp as a needle. But then, that's true to Her rose nature, like roses, blackberries, brambles, etc.
Lady Hawthorn helps me connect to my Celtic-ish based practice. I've never fully bonded with the 13 month tree calendar or many of the Ogham because I have no context for many of them in my life. Blackthorn may make many witches quiver with lust, but I've never seen it; I have no relationship with it. Ditto with the much-loved Rowan. They don't grow in eastern NC; they are foreign to me. And I've always felt foolish trying to work magick or divine with something I have no familiarity with. So getting to know Lady Hawthorn up close and personal has been very rewarding from a practitioner level.
In the Ogham, it's called "Huath." The Authorities focus on the thorns and call it a tree of protection and defense; true enough, it's used to make hedge-fences in the old country, to keep in what needs to be kept in, and to keep out what needs to be kept out. It's often determined to be a masculine tree. Well, it's masculine to me in the same that the High Priestess can strap on a sword and be the Priest in a ritual. But she's still a Priestess, and so is this tree.
She is sacred to the Goddess Cardea, of Roman origin but deeply embedded in our subconscious as associated with cardiac, although The Authorities don't recognize Cardea/Cardia's name as a source of the word "cardiac." Cardea is a Goddess of hinges, or doorways, of thresholds. Hawthorn is Her sacred tree. And it's a tree associated with the realm of Faery, of people falling asleep beneath it and actually going into the Otherworld.
There are also levels here about boundaries, personal boundaries, when to open up to people and let them in your heart, and when to provide a beautiful exterior that hides enough thorns to deter those who would steal away the goodness you have to offer. What can Lady Hawthorn, and Cardea Goddess of Thresholds, teach us about loving but having proper boundaries?
There are Mysteries here, mysteries of a whole heart, a green heart, an open heart needed to go into the Otherworld, and to encounter the Queen of the May. And the paradox: it is the Goddess, the Queen of the May, who can heal our hearts. And safety is important for all of this.
* "Ishy" is my vague and idiosyncratic approach to herbalism that is absolutely imprecise. You can do this with mild herbs. I can do it with Hawthorn because my heart is pretty healthy and because I'm cautious by nature and never eat more than two or three leaves. However, I don't know you. Because Hawthorn works on the heart, even in a very, very safe manner, I do not recommend this -ishy approach for anyone else. In fact, if you want to try Hawthorn, read up on all the links on google; inform yourself, check with a doctor if you have any cardiac or blood pressure issues, etc. In other words, you're a grown-up and your relationship with this Plant is between you and Her.
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The Hawthorn in my yard is a "Washington" hawthorn; there are many species. Mine definitely has the medicinal and energetic properties.
Here is a lovely poem from Willa Cather called "The Hawthorne Tree:"
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