The Amazing Willow Tree

From The Scot’s Herbal by Tess Darwin: “Willows were one of the first trees to appear in Scotland after the last Ice Age and no doubt this versatile species has been used since prehistoric times for a great variety of purposes.

In addition to many practical uses of willows for basketry, rope, house building, fencing, beehives, lobster pots and coracle frames, it was a magic tree. A willow wand symbolized the goddess, and was used for divination—the original magic wand. Willow was one of the druids sacred woods…the word wicca (the craft and wisdom of witches) is said to be derived from the use of willow to make a wicker frame to build an effigy of the Celtic God Balder, king/consort to the queen/goddess, ceremonially sacrificed on Beltane.

Fear of the power of willow persisted long into Christian times: witches’ broomsticks sometimes had a willow shaft, and persecuted witches from North Berkshire were said to sail in willow winnowing riddles. In central Perthshire willow wands were reportedly used to work the evil eye. Black magic worked with willow could be counteracted by rowan.

On the other hand, a branch of willow catkins in the home is still believed to bring good health; this may relate to its medicinal uses. The bark contains acetylsalicylic acid (the main constituent of aspirin) and has long been used as a pain killer.”

In America, the willow is considered “one of Nature’s most valuable gifts to mankind.” From Field Guide to Medicinal Wild Plants by Bradford Angier. He goes on to say, “The North American Indians soon discovered that tea decocted and steeped from the cambium of the majority of willows was important for arthritis and for reducing fever and many pains—this centuries before the isolating and marketing of aspirin. The ashes of burned willow twigs were blended with water and used for gonorrhea. Willow roots were powdered with stones and turned to in an effort to dry up sores from syphilis. The settlers soon joined the Indians in using potent teas brewed from the cambium or inner bark of the bitter willows to treat venereal disease.

The dried and powdered bitter bark, astringent and detergent, was applied to the navels of newborn babies. It was utilized to stop severe bleeding, as were the crushed young green leaves, the bark, and the seeds, also stuffed up the nostrils to stop nosebleeds. These were also used for toothache.”

 And the uses go on, including a spring tonic made of steeped willow roots, an Indian practice adopted by the settlers. The roots were used to kill and expel worms and willow tea to bathe sore eyes. Some settlers also shared in the Indian practice of using pussy willow catkins as an aphrodisiac. Probably in the form of a bark tea, but it doesn’t say.

“Raindrops are like fairy whispers,”~ Fairy Quotes & Images

Faeries, come take me out of this dull world,
For I would ride with you upon the wind,
Run on the top of the disheveled tide,
And dance upon the mountains like a flame.
~William Butler Yeats, “The Land of Heart’s Desire,” 1894

Fairies are invisible and inaudible like angels.  But their magic sparkles in nature.  ~Lynn Holland

The fairy poet takes a sheet
Of moonbeam, silver white;
His ink is dew from daisies sweet,
His pen a point of light.
~Joyce Kilmer

Spread your wings and let the fairy in you fly!  ~Author Unknown

"Nothing can be truer than fairy wisdom.  It is as true as sunbeams." ~Douglas Jerrold

The fairies break their dances
And leave the printed lawn.
~A.E. Housman

Princess Edane… heard a voice singing on a May Eve like this, and followed half awake and half asleep, until she came into the Land of Faery, where nobody gets old and godly and grave, where nobody gets old and crafty and wise, where nobody gets old and bitter of tongue.  ~William Butler Yeats, “The Land of Heart’s Desire,” 1894

When the winds of March are wakening the crocuses and crickets,
Did you ever find a fairy near some budding little thickets,…
And when she sees you creeping up to get a closer peek
She tumbles through the daffodils, a playing hide and seek.
~Marjorie Barrows

Every time a child says, “I don’t believe in fairies,” there is a fairy somewhere that falls down dead.  ~James Matthew Barrie, Peter Pan

This is a work of fiction.  All the characters in it, human and otherwise, are imaginary, excepting only certain of the fairy folk, whom it might be unwise to offend by casting doubts on their existence.  Or lack thereof.  ~Neil Gaiman

Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.
~William Butler Yeats, “The Stolen Child“

A lady, with whom I was riding in the forest, said to me, that the woods always seemed to her to wait, as if the genii who inhabit them suspended their deeds until the wayfarer has passed onward: a thought which poetry has celebrated in the dance of the fairies, which breaks off on the approach of human feet.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, “History”

We the Fairies, blithe and antic,
Of dimensions not gigantic,
Though the moonshine mostly keep us,
Oft in orchards frisk and peep us.
~Thomas Randolph

Each fairy breath of summer, as it blows with loveliness, inspires the blushing rose.  ~Author Unknown

No child but must remember laying his head in the grass, staring into the infinitesimal forest and seeing it grow populous with fairy armies.  ~Robert Louis Stevenson, Essays in The Art of Writing

The wall is silence, the grass is sleep,
Tall trees of peace their vigil keep,
And the Fairy of Dreams with moth-wings furled
Plays soft on her flute to the drowsy world.
~Ida Rentoul Outhwaite

We call them faerie.  We don’t believe in them.  Our loss.  ~Charles de Lint

And as the seasons come and go, here’s something you might like to know.  There are fairies everywhere:  under bushes, in the air, playing games just like you play, singing through their busy day.  So listen, touch, and look around – in the air and on the ground.  And if you watch all nature’s things, you might just see a fairy’s wing.  ~Author Unknown

The Realm of Fairy is a strange shadow land, lying just beyond the fields we know.  ~Author Unknown

Blind folk see the fairies.
Oh, better far than we,
Who miss the shining of their wings
Because our eyes are filled with things
We do not wish to see.
~Rose Fyleman

A rustle in the wind reminds us a fairy is near.  ~Author Unknown

The fairies went from the world, dear, 

Because men’s hearts grew cold: 

And only the eyes of children see What is hidden from the old…

~Kathleen Foyle

I think that people who can’t believe in fairies aren’t worth knowing. ~Tori Amos

Any man can lose his hat in a fairy-wind.  ~Irish Saying

Garden fairies come at dawn,

Bless the flowers then they’re gone.
~Author Unknown

If we opened our minds to enjoyment, we might find tranquil pleasures spread about us on every side.  We might live with the angels that visit us on every sunbeam, and sit with the fairies who wait on every flower.  ~Samuel Smiles

All royalty free images

Snippet from Historical-Paranormal Romance Novel The Bearwalker's Daughter

Autumn, 1784, the Allegheny Mountains of Western Virginia

Instinctively, Karin reached out to trace the glowing stone, warmer now. A blue-green light radiated from it at her touch. She sucked in her breath. Tearing her eyes from the phenomenal gem, she looked at Jack. “Did you see that?”

Giving a nod, he slowly lowered his fingers to the iridescent surface—pulling back as if repelled. “It doesn’t want me to handle it.”

“What do you mean, it doesn’t want? ’Tis a necklace, for God’s sake,” she said, using stronger language than usual at the nameless fear that sprang up inside her.

She looked back down and cautiously extended her hand to the pool of light encompassing the gem. A shape flickered across it in the form of something—an animal. She jerked. “What was that?”

“A bear.” He spoke with the tenor of one trying to conceal his own disbelief. “We must’ve imagined it.”

“Both of us? Jack, what’s going on?”

He shifted his eyes around the room then returned to the necklace. “I’m not sure yet.”

“Maybe not, but you’re keeping something from me. Is this some sort of bear stone?”

“No. Moonstone. Rare, and known for its magical powers, if you believe that nonsense.” He didn’t sound as skeptical as he might have only moments ago. “The stone is also a lover’s amulet and the eye of seers. Wearing it is said to strengthen intuition.”

“If by intuition, you mean the hair standing up on the nape of my neck, I can tell something mighty peculiar is going on and—”

She broke off at a persistent sound carrying above the wind. “Do you hear that scratching noise?”

“Probably just a tree branch.”

He’d lied to shield her from something, she just knew, and clutched his sleeve with one hand. The necklace hung from her other. “Jack—”

He swiveled his head at the room again. “Calm down,” he said, but didn’t seem any easier than she.

The scratching intensified and came nearer to them. She gripped him harder. “’Tis at the door!”~

***The Bearwalker’s Daughter is available in Amazon Kindle for .99!