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in the framework of [[http:// | in the framework of [[http:// | ||
[[http:// | [[http:// | ||
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+ | The trees in the Forêt de Soignes are the arboreal persona with most rights in the Brussels' | ||
+ | //History// | ||
+ | //EU Green corridor// | ||
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+ | When you walk down the Drève du Comte from the parking space, you find a beautiful oak at your left hand side, just before taking to path that leads you to the field with picnic tables. | ||
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+ | {{: | ||
- | * Vlier, Elder, Sambucus | + | Please meet the oak, the father, priest and the guardian of the world. |
+ | Three of the past, the present and the future. This oak has lived more than 100 years and will survive us by another 150 to 200 years if the climat does not change too drastically. | ||
+ | Oak grows as deep as it grows tall. | ||
+ | It provides shelter and food to millions species in the forest. | ||
+ | One grown oak is equivalent to a metropole as big as New York. It can have up to 350 species living in, on, around and from him. | ||
- | Please meet this pharmacist of the forest. | + | Among the sacred trees in many legends, the mighty oak stands noble and tall as The Tree of Life. The oak tree in folklore and myths represents great symbolic meanings to the pantheons of mythology, to the druids, the faeries, and many cultures around the world. |
- | Small and scruffy | + | |
- | It will be swarmed with insects. | + | It is a slow grower. So it is all about time. |
- | Elder | + | Just imagine growing trough your life so slowly that 500 years can fly by. Imagine species, landscape situations you could witness. Well Oak does. It is a time machine. If we learn its language maybe we we could learn a very different history from the one we know now. |
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+ | **// | ||
+ | Throughout the major cultures of Europe the oak tree has been held in high esteem. To the Greeks, Romans, Celts, Slavs and Teutonic tribes the oak was foremost amongst venerated trees, and in each case associated with the supreme god in their pantheon, oak being sacred to Zeus, Jupiter, Dagda, Perun and Thor, respectively. Each of these gods also had dominion over rain, thunder and lightning, and it is surely no coincidence that oak trees appear to be more prone to lightning strikes than other trees, whether because of their wood's low electrical resistance or the fact that they were frequently the largest, tallest living things in the landscape. | ||
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+ | The Druids frequently worshipped and practised their rites in oak groves (the word Druid was probably a Gaelic derivation of their word for oak, Duir, and meant men of the oaks). Mistletoe, probably the Druids' | ||
+ | Ancient kings presented themselves as the personifications of these gods, taking on the responsibility not only for success in battle but also the fertility of the land, which relied on rainfall. They wore crowns of oak leaves, as a symbol of the god they represented as kings on Earth. Similarly, successful Roman commanders were presented with crowns of oak leaves during their victory parades, and oak leaves have continued as decorative icons of military prowess to the present day. | ||
+ | Oak leaves' | ||
+ | If the oak before the ash, then we'll only have a splash. If the ash before the oak, Then we'll surely have a soak! | ||
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+ | In Celtic mythology, oak is the tree of doors, believed to be a gateway between worlds, or a place where portals could be erected. In Norse mythology, the oak was sacred to the thunder god, Thor. Some scholars speculate that this is because the oak, as the largest tree in northern Europe, was the one most often struck by lightning. In Classical mythology, the oak was a symbol of Zeus and his sacred tree. | ||
+ | The Oak tree is traditionally sacred to Serbs and is widely used throughout Serbia on national and regional symbols both old and new. In the Bible, the oak tree at Shechem is the site where Jacob buries the foreign gods of his people. In addition, Joshua erects a stone under an oak tree as the first covenant of the Lord. In Isaiah 61, the prophet refers to the Israelites as “Oaks of Righteousness”. | ||
+ | The oak tree is used as a symbol by a number of political parties. It is the symbol of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom, and formerly of the Progressive Democrats in Ireland. In the cultural arena, the oak leaf is the symbol of the National Trust (UK) and The Royal Oak Foundation. | ||
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+ | ** * Vlier, Elder, Sambucus** | ||
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+ | {{: | ||
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+ | Please meet the pharmacist of the forest. | ||
+ | With its small and scruffy | ||
+ | But wait until it starts blossoming! It will be swarmed with insects. And in the autumn they get replaced by birds. | ||
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+ | The elder is beneficial not only to the animals. | ||
People have been using it for ages. | People have been using it for ages. | ||
- | Not only enjoying sweet smell and taste of the blossom in the teas and syrups but also making jams from berries. | + | Not only enjoying |
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+ | **//Healing power//** | ||
The entire tree is to be used for healing purposes. | The entire tree is to be used for healing purposes. | ||
Flowers and berries are used in treating the flu, alleviating allergies, and boosting overall respiratory health. | Flowers and berries are used in treating the flu, alleviating allergies, and boosting overall respiratory health. | ||
- | As well Elder is used in Traditional Chinese Medicine, dissolved in wine, for rheumatism and traumatic injury | + | The elder is also used in Traditional Chinese Medicine, dissolved in wine, for rheumatism and traumatic injury |
- | But be careful. Some powers can become | + | But be careful. Some powers can become |
- | Eating | + | Eating |
+ | Washing her face in dew gathered from elderflowers was believed to enhance and preserve a woman' | ||
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+ | **// | ||
Branches from the elder are also used to make the flutes. Magic flute? Sounds can heal deepest illnesses... | Branches from the elder are also used to make the flutes. Magic flute? Sounds can heal deepest illnesses... | ||
- | In common with other trees with white blossom, such as hawthorn and rowan, the elder had strong associations with Faery- and Goddess-centred mythology. Like rowan, the elder was thought of as being a protective tree, and it was auspicious if it was growing near one's dwelling, especially if it had seeded itself there. If the rowan' | + | In common with other trees with white blossom, such as hawthorn and rowan, the elder had strong associations with Faery- and Goddess-centred mythology. |
+ | Like rowan, the elder was thought of as being a protective tree, and it was auspicious if it was growing near one's dwelling, especially if it had seeded itself there. If the rowan' | ||
+ | Cheese cloths and other linen involved in dairying were hung out to dry on elder trees, and the smell they absorbed from the leaves may have contributed to hygiene in the dairy. | ||
+ | Elder trees were also traditionally planted by bake houses as protection from the Devil (what with all those hellishly hot ovens within!) and loaves and cakes put out to cool under the elders. Any foods left out overnight under an elder however were considered a gift to the faeries. | ||
In common with many other native trees and plants with potent pagan associations, | In common with many other native trees and plants with potent pagan associations, | ||
+ | Notwithstanding these negative beliefs, elder continued to be put to such a wide range of medicinal uses that the mediaeval herbalist John Evelyn called it "a kind of Catholicon against all Infirmities whatever" | ||
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+ | *** Hazelnut, hazelnoot, corylus** | ||
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+ | Please meet the witch of the forest. | ||
+ | Down through the ages the Hazel has always been considered magical, and was used primarily for its powers of divination. | ||
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+ | It was believed that hazelnuts was concentration of wisdom and poetic inspiration. There are several variations on an ancient tale that nine hazel trees grew around a sacred pool, dropping nuts into the water to be eaten by some salmon (a fish revered by Druids) which thereby absorbed the wisdom. The number of bright spots on the salmon were said to indicate how many nuts they had eaten. | ||
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+ | Hazel has long been a favourite wood from which to make staffs, whether for ritual Druidic use, for medieval self defence. Hazel shafts were used for water divining, and this practice evolved into the making of pilgrims’ staffs, shepherds’ crooks and walking sticks. | ||
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+ | **//More stories//** | ||
+ | Known as the Tree of Knowledge in Norse mythology, the hazel was sacred to the god Thor. In Irish and Welsh folklore, the hazel was believed to be a fairy tree, and it still grows near many holy wells. Tara, the seat of ancient Irish kings, was located close to a hazel wood. and it is said that members of the Fianna, a legendary band of Irish warriors, learned to defend themselves with only a hazel stick and a shield. | ||
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+ | Since mediaeval times trees have been considered sacred. For example Hazel for its wisdom and the Oak for its strength and so on. Any unjustified felling of an Apple, Hazel or Oak tree, was a crime worthy of the death penalty. Hazel-wands have often been found in the coffins of notable personalities, | ||
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+ | In Roman mythology the Hazel is attributed to the god Mercury (Mercurius), | ||
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+ | **//Magical Uses//** | ||
+ | The use of Hazel divining rods (dowsing rod) to detect water and mineral veins comes down from antiquity, the art of which is called “rhabdomancy”. Typically a divining rod has two forks off its main stem shaped like the letter “Y”.The two forks of the rod are gripped with the fore fingers along the forks, so that the tail end of the rod points down toward the ground to begin searching. Another method was to peel the bark of the rod and simply lay it on the palm of the hand. The same method was used to find treasure, thieves and murderers. | ||
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+ | The practice of dowsing is still common today in Cornwall, and in other European Country’s. According to folklore and superstition, | ||
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+ | No doubt it was from using Hazel rods in divination, that its fruit the Hazelnut became associated with fortune | ||
+ | telling. In Scotland an old custom of love divination is still practiced on Halloween, in which two hazelnuts are given the names of lovers and placed on burning embers. If they burn quietly and remained side by side, the lovers were considered faithful, but if the nuts crack, spit or roll apart, they were considered to be ill-matched and one of them unfaithful. | ||
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+ | In ritual Hazel wands are used in connection with mercurial energy from which poetic and magical inspiration is gained and imparted. Hazel wands can also be used to divine suitable places in which to work magick. An old method of cutting a wand was to find a tree that has yet to bare fruit, and at sunrise on a Wednesday (the day ruled by Mercury), to cut a branch with a single stroke from a sickle. | ||
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+ | The Hazel is considered to be at its most powerful during early spring while its sap is still rising, and in autumn when its sap and energy is fully contained within ready for its harvest of nuts. A good divining rod is said to “squeal like a pig” when held under water. | ||
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+ | The nuts of the Hazel were commonly used to bring luck by stringing them together and hanging them in the house. Such a string of nuts were often given to a new bridesmaid as a gift to wish her wisdom, wealth and good health. When eaten the hazelnuts are said to increase fertility, and of old were eaten before divination to increase inspiration. | ||
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+ | Also the old, supple twigs of Hazel were woven into crowns and called “wishing caps”, which when worn and if you wished very hard, would make all your desires come true. Sailors, believing them to offer protection against bad storms at sea, also wore wishing caps.The ancient druids believed they could induce invisibility by wearing them. Twigs of Hazel placed on window ledges give protection against lightening, and three pins of Hazel hammered into a wall of the house would protect it from fire. | ||
- | Notwithstanding these negative beliefs, elder continued to be put to such a wide range of medicinal uses that the mediaeval herbalist John Evelyn called it "a kind of Catholicon against all Infirmities whatever" | + | But my favourite story of Hazelnut is the legend about golden snake. The legend says that if you find a hazel tree with the mistletoe growing |
- | * Hazelnut | ||