Lore, trees

Oak Trees.

Can any other plant or tree have so many myths and legends surrounding it? not to mention the very real part that this tree had to play in England's role in world history. For hundreds of years oaks provided the building material for her naval warships, the source of England's "Heart of Oak"

Here are a few of the less weird ones.

Because of its deep roots the oak symbolizes a god whose law extends to heaven, earth, and the underworld.

The oak is said to be sacred to: Allah - Jehovah - Zeus - Jupiter - Thor - Mars - the Dagda - Hercules - Hou, the oak god of Guernsey - Janicot, the Basque oak god - El, the Middle Eastern oak god - Jove - Picus - Cernunnos - Herne the Hunter - Taranis - Teutates - Belenos - Donar / Dunar / Thunar - Perkunas - Perun - Taraa - Baldur - Viribius - Janus. It is also the tree of the wild ox-god.

The image of Jupiter at the Capitol in Rome was originally an oak tree.

Mary was worshiped as Our Lady of the Oak in Anjou, France. She appeared to shepherd children in Portugal as Our Lady of Fatima, crowned in roses and hovering over an oak tree.

The oak is sacred to all thunder and lightning gods. Hercules attracted thunderstorms with sympathetic magic, by rattling an oak club in a hollow oak, or by stirring a pool with an oak branch. Clubs were made of oak in ancient Europe. Woodpeckers were thought to be knocking for rain when they tapped on oak trunks. Black animals were sacrificed to the thunder god for rain. Oaks were believed to court the lightning flash. Old English saying:

Beware of an oak
It draws the stroke.

Rome awarded oak leaves to military heroes.

Europe

Primitive Europeans believed that oak fire strengthened the sun. Sacrifices were made to sacred oaks in Europe until well into the Middle Ages.

It was a crime to fell an oak tree in pagan Ireland. Kildare, where the nuns of St. Brigit maintained the sacred fire, means Shrine of the Oak.

In British folklore ancient, hollow trees (called bull oaks in England, bell oaks in Scotland and Ireland) are trees that stood in old sacred groves. They were often believed to be the home of spirits, elves, fairies or demons. You were supposed to turn your coat or cloak inside out to neutralize their magic:

Turn your cloaks
For fairy folks are in old oaks.

Their spirits were believed to enter houses through the knotholes in oak timbers.

Druids stood their sacred circles of stones under the shadow of a spreading oak or in a grove of oak trees. Pliny says that the Druids believed that anything found growing on an oak tree had been sent from heaven, a sign that the god had chosen the tree and made it sacred. Mistletoe found on oaks was held especially sacred. The Druids cut it each year with a golden sickle in a ritual emasculation of the sacred oak, the royal sun disc. Mistletoe does not usually grow on oaks, so it is likely that they grafted it. They associated the oak with heavenly fire. An oak tree had to be more than 30 years old before Druids would harvest mistletoe from it.

Lithuanians offered sacrifices to oak trees for plentiful crops.

Oak trees in Siberian groves were swathed in cloth and made offerings of kettles, reindeer hides, spoons and other valuable household articles. Orthodox Christians in Russia worshiped a holy oak until the 1870's. They fixed candles to its trunk and branches and prayed: "Holy oak hallelujah, pray for us. "

Acorns

Acorns were the Celtic symbol for Zeus, the Roman symbol of Jupiter. To Greeks and Romans the cupped acorn represented the penis glans (ooh err missus!)

Magic

Toothaches were cured in the 18th century by driving a nail into the tooth or gum until it bled, then driving the nail into an oak tree.

Lore - Trees

Aspen

Ash In Dorset, the number of leaflets on an Ash leaf could be used to predict the romantic future for girls. An even Ash leaf in my hand The first I meet shall be my man The even Ash leaf in my bosom The next I meet shall be my husband
		Placing ash berries in a cradle prevents the child from being traded for a changeling.