Planet: Mars, Saturn

Element: Earth, Fire

Zodiac: Aries, Scorpio

Symbolism:  The inevitability of Death, Protection and Revenge, Strife and Negativity,
The Balance between light and darkness.

Stone: Black Opal, agate, bloodstone

Birds: Thrush

Color: White, Black, Red

Deity: Morrigan

Sabbat: Samhain

Folk Names: sloe, sloe plum, wishing thorn, faery tree

THE CELTIC TREE ORACLE 

by Liz and Colin Murray

The Blackthorn is a wintery tree. The fruits, known as sloes, ripen and sweeten only after the first frosts. The white flowers open early, often before the leaves appear. A cold spring was traditionally known as "a blackthorn winter." Black-barked and with vicious thorns, the Blackthorn forms dense thickets when given the opportunity to spread. The Gaelic word "straif" has links with the English "strife."  The wood of the Blackthorn is that traditionally used for the Irish cudgel, or shillelagh; the thorns, those used in witchcraft to pierce wax images.

Medicinal properties: The fruit and leaves contain Vitamin C, organic acids,
tannins, and sugars. Steep the flowers for a diuretic, tonic, and laxative.
Her dried fruits can treat bladder, kidney and stomach ailments.
Boil the leaves for a mouthwash or to sooth the throat from tonsillitis or laryngitis.

Magickal properties: The thorns were used as pins to stick in a poppet.
Wand or Staff can be used for help in exorcisms or for protection from fire and for
general protection.  A staff can be used to make wishes, and carrying the wand or
Staff protects one from evil. The wood makes a good divining rod.

The blossoms, the fruits and the crimson sap display the three colors of
the Great Goddess: 

white, black, and red. The dangerous long spikes and the red "blood" that flows in
the veins of this tree enhance the dramatic effect of her symbolism.
The advance of dualistic religions, which separate the world into "good" and "evil" 
brought about the demonization of the Blackthorn tree.

Where it once had provided magical protection against negative influence, 
it now became the emblem of evil forces. 

Blackthorns are sacred to the Luantishees, which are Blackthorn Fairies who guard the trees. 
Their Festival is November 11th.

Blackthorn has twisting and angular branches, seldom reaching over twelve feet in height.
Traditionally used in hedgerows, it produces white blossoms in spring and later,
sloes (clusters of small round berries.) It's most potent feature is the thorns which are long,
slender and extremely sharp. These thorns may be the reason for the association with strife,
warfare, and wounding. 

"Straif" is a tree-letter associated with pain, wounding and damage...however,
it also offers initiation into the mysteries of self conquest and transcendence. 

Protection Spell:

Carefully gather a few thorns from the tree. 

On a piece of paper, 

write the name of the person or situation 

from which you seek protection, 

and then wrap it around the thorns.  

Bury this in the ground - if possible near the tree 

from which the thorns were collected. 

Whispers from the Woods, by Sandra Kynes

LESSON OF THE BLACKTHORN

from The Wisdom of Trees by Jane Gifford

The blackthorn was respected as a cantankerous old crone, the hag aspect
of the White Goddess, whose thorns remind us of our own negative attitudes
that tear us apart. These attitudes also take root and grow into impenetrable
thickets if they are left unchecked. We are advised to look at the many ways
in which we hurt ourselves and others, and to think of ways to prevent this.
When we face up to our own negativity, blackthorn guides us through the
darker parts of our personality, helping us to pay off spiritual debts, and to
accept the inevitability of our own death, which is the one thing on earth
of which we can all be certain.

The Great Goddess

Morrigan

Morrigan is a Triple Goddess of battle, strife, and fertility. She reigns over Destruction and Creation. Her name means “Great Queen,” “Phantom Queen.”  She also was a prophet and a shape-shifter, frequently appearing as a hooded crow, and the raven of battle. Some say she evolved into Morgana LaFay, sorceress of the Arthurian Legend. Worship Her at Samhain, the Festival of Death, and the decent into the time of dormancy.  

The vine of muin is the berry vine, and so the image is that of the bramble thicket.
This is a symbol with a wealth of meanings. The traditional symbolic meaning of
Muin is to range over a wide area and gather together useful things. This would
seem to be about possessions but it is not really about material things but about
understanding. The line about Muin in the centuries-old Druid Ogham poem is,
 "I am a hill of Poetry." The Celts did not view poetry as a literary process or as a
form of self-expression but as a means of making Magic and understanding their
world. Learning required memorizing long teaching poems, allusive lists, and
mystical riddles. Once they were committed to memory, since writing down Magic
was forbidden, they needed to be protected.

Just as the ancient Irish made walls out of bundles of thorny branches to protect
their cattle and settlements so they would put Muin up as protective walls in
their minds to keep their learning safe. The hill in the Ogham poem is the hill-fort,
the place where all of the community gathers to be protected in times of trouble.
The hill-fort is the seat of the local king's court, the location of the Druid's college,
and the vantage point from which the sentries keep watch. The hill is Poetry,
symbolic of the precious learning and wisdom protected inside, and also
of the beauties of Nature.

A modern image of Muin is the thorn hedge around Sleeping Beauty's castle.
The personification of the Maiden Goddess sleeps inside and can be awakened by
the completion of a magical quest. Another image is Br'er Rabbit's brier patch
where he is safe and can venture forth to gain what he needs.
The rune Thorn is associated with the ogham Bramble. Thorn and Bramble
both have a common secondary meaning: they scratch at the same time that
they keep out intruders. Acquiring knowledge and keeping precious things
safe always has some cost; in time, in trouble, in giving up some other path.
Focusing on a certain path or way of study always means shutting out
something else. The choice must be made with understanding, trying to recognize
the validity that rests in other choices.

The Song of the Blackthorn Fairy

The wind is cold, the Spring seems long
a-waking;
The woods are brown and bare;
Yet this is March: soon April
will be making
All things most sweet and fair.

See, even now, in hedge
and thicket tangled,
One brave and cheering sight:
The leafless branches of the Blackthorn,
spangled
With starry blossoms white!

by Cicely Mary Barker

The symbolic berry vine includes the symbolic berry.
A high point of any summer is the family or group expedition to go berry picking.
All the pickers, from the least to the eldest, are able to contribute to the sweet harvest.
Some are enjoyed at once (some are always eaten in the field) and some are
distilled down into a delicious treasure for enjoyment all year long.
With its thorns, Muin protects the fruits of learning and understanding.

Another way to express this meaning is by the modern saying,
"Knowledge is Power." Learning about things is the purest and best kind
of possession. If we learn about anything we can: history, philosophy, psychology,
science; it is all useful and we end up by learning about ourselves.
The reversed card warns us about closing ourselves off from learning
and being intractable. The message of Muin is, "Know yourself by looking outward."