© Storm Genevieve Black 2015. All Rights Reserved

We are currently under the Hazel Moon

Ogham name: Coll

Full moon: 15th August

Planetary ruler: Mercury

Deity: Manannan Mac Lir

Druidic animal: Salmon

the Hazel was the tree of wisdom and it was a crime punishable by death to fell one. The Celts believed that magical skills and knowledge could be gained by eating Hazel nuts.

Water diviners still use Hazel rods to dowse for water. It has been said that hazel will bend to reveal the water within the earth as it strains to reconnect with its own ancestors, the nine sacred trees at the Well of Wisdom deep in the memory of the land. Hazel is commonly to be found at holy wells all over Britain, and is often notable by the brightly coloured offerings that folk have been leaving in it's branches for years. The Hazel is thought to be the tree of Wisdom, hazel-nuts bestowing wisdom, and even prophetic powers on those who eat them. The word Hazel derives from the Anglo Saxon ‘haesl’ which is a baton of authority. In Folklore it is seen, along with Apple and Hawthorn as the border between the realms where magical things occur. Hazel wood has been used for centuries as a form of protection against evil. It will protect a ships captain ‘That he may weather any storm’ if he wears a cap with hazel woven into it. In the East of England, cottagers place hazel boughs in pots of water around their windows at the end of March to protect against thunder and lightning of Thunnor. It also appears in many fertility superstitions and as late as the 1950s, the saying, ‘Plenty of catkins, plenty of prams’ was taken quite seriously.