Hawthorn The Fairy Tree, The Crown of Thorns
I’ve been told that the crown of thorns Jesus wore on the day of his crucifixion was made out of hawthorn branches. The crown of thorns is also depicted commonly in catholic imagery wrapped around a bleeding sacred heart. I find the association between hawthorn and the crown of thorns very poetic. It pierced Jesus’s crown causing him to bleed. In holy communion it is the blood of Christ that people consume recognizing our unity with one another, all sharing one body.
Known in Western Herbalism as is heart medicine. soothing our physical and spiritual heart strain. In ancient Rome Hawthorn used to be associated with the Goddess Cardea which I find interesting the similarities between the word Cardea and Cardiac. Cardiac meaning “relating to the heart”. In Roman lore Cardea presided over doorways or more specifically hinges as a protector of the energy and spirits coming in and out.
In Celtic lore Hawthorn is also a doorway to the other world and a tree of the fairies. Humans were so scared and had so much reverence for this tree that no one would cut it down. There have been roads built around the trees and building plans stopped because there was a hawthorn tree in the way. It is associated with Beltane and love and protection. It is representative of May Day because it starts blooming in May. Tradition had it for lovers to go and make love under the hawthorn tree and bring back bushels of hawthorn May Flowers. Hawthorn is such a sacred tree that in Ogham (primitive Irish) Huath, Hawthorn is the 6th consonant of the alphabet.
Before modern security fences, hawthorn was grown into hedges to protect against unwanted visitors such as people and animals coming into one's land. On a plant walk with one of my teachers, upon meeting hawthorn, I was told a story that the inventor of barbed wire inspired by studying Hawthorn and Rose to design barbed wire. He was a runaway slave who aquired land and became rancher. His invention was of course stolen by and accredited to a white man.
May day is also associated with striking and fighting back against the labor system. May day is associated with collective organizing. This summer with all the protests happening I was imagining the people in the streets as blood in the veins of the streets. The people being the workers having the power and making movements happen. Whether it be being abused for labor or standing up and creating new ways of being.
A couple years ago when I was first being introduced to this tree, I was in a cab driving through Greenpoint. I saw a tree in Mcarren Park with striking bright red berries. After tattooing I had to walk through the park and climb in the tree. I felt silly being an adult woman sitting in a tree with joggers and people walking by. But that’s the beauty of the City. You can pretty much do whatever you want and look however you want without anyone thinking twice about it or even noticing. I went home and made a decoction of the berries and drank it. At the time I struggled with sleep disorders and insomnia and I’m on the couch before 9 pm, I could barely keep my eyes open. My father died of heart diesease, and knowing that there is preventive medicine that myself and others can take is hopeful.
Symbolically hawthorn to me represents a protective barrier. Jesus wore hawthorn as his crown, he was a man of the people who ridiculed and challenged rich and powerful people while empowering lower class folks and spent time with sex workers. It’s a protector of doorways and conduit of spirits of the otherworld, and it is soothing and ruling over our life blood. In order for us to change the world we need to also take care of our mind and body. Micro and macrocosm.
Hawthorn (Crataegus) is native to temperate regions of Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America. It is in the Rose (Roseacea) Family and is a tree of the heart.
It has striking thorny branches. Little white ,sometimes pinkish, five petaled flowers that look similar to. cherry blossoms, the leaves are long, oval, and have 3 lobed sections.
The flowers bloom in late spring, and the berries that look like rose hips or little tiny apples, are ripe when red in autumn. Some species bloom twice a year.
The leaves and flowers as well as the berries are medicinal and are used as a mild sedative to treat insomnia, however it is mainly heart medicine. It has been used medicinally for thousands of years, it’s origins tracing back to Traditional Chinese Medicine. Studies have shown that hawthorn can help regulate, circulation, irregular heart beats, strengthen the integrity of our cardiovascular system including veins and capillaries while helping clean out plaque from these systems helping lower our risks of heart disease. The berries also contain flavonoids and vitamin C giving our immune system a boost.
Hawthorn berries can be used fresh or dried, fresh made into jam or a made into tea using the decoction method (1tbsp of berry per cup of water simmered on the stove covered for 15-20 minutes), as well as tinctured, or powdered.
Do not eat the seeds, if you make jam take the seeds out as they can cause an upset stomach if consumed.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3249900/
https://www.mountsinai.org/health-library/herb/hawthorn
http://www.thegoddesstree.com/images/FWSHawthorn.jpg
http://www.ecoenchantments.co.uk/myogham_hawthornpage.html
http://www.thegoddesstree.com/trees/Hawthorn.htm
