Previous Tree Cycle: Birch
Tree Cycle: Rowen
Ogham: Luis
Rowen Tree Cycle Dates: November 29th – December 26th
Key Words For Rowen: Spirit, Attunement, Synchronicity, Hearth & Home, Comfort, Experience, Observation, Journey, Clarity, Charms, Protection, Boundaries, Fae, Magic.
Lunation: 2nd
Souls Evolution Stage: Attunement
The Council of Trees - Hidden Tree Cycles: Holly & Hazel/Apple
The Council of Trees - Hidden Tree Cycles Date: May 29st - June 26th
Key Words of the Council of Trees:
Holly – Protection, Security, Grip, Mountain, Healing, Hope, Strength, Loyalty, Commitment, Reason, Resilience, Discernment, Regeneration, Action, Focus, Purpose, Observation, Trust, Abandonment, Challenge.
Hazel - Litter Picking, Inner & Outer Landscape, Stewardship, Wisdom, Shadows, Divination, Mystic, Insight, Signs, Knowledge, Tools, Conduit.
Apple - Magic, Balance, Mysteries, Protection, Duty, Responsibility, Abundance, Thrive, Community, Prosperity, Seer, Devotion, Recycling, Humus.
Spiritual Weather: Disconnection, Disharmony, Homelessness, Unawareness.
Celebration: Winter Solstice
Reflected Celebration: Summer Solstice
Animal Guide: Owl
Tree Cycle: Rowen
Rowen offers us a space to expand into after our transmigration through Birch, the birth of our spirit into the newness of form, pathway, perspective. We are now moving through a cycle of attumement of spirit with all that otherness out with and within. We are supported to create harmony, connect with others and feel a sense of home within ourselves and from our environment. Others may take the form of other people, animals, nature or other embodiments of sensuous relations that keep us company. Rowen time can feel cosy, comforting and festive, if we embrace it. This is the cycle that brings us up and through the winter solstice and Christmas time. This time of year can generation mixed feeling for many of us. We sense togetherness from connection with those closest to us yet we are also reminded of our losses and the disharmony in our lives. Rowen is a very protective tree cycle. We find ways to protect ourselves and self soothe our aches and pains. Rowen supports us to draw in our loose threads and knot them. Stemming the outflow of energy, allowing us to preserve ourselves in concentration. Rowen is also a distinctly magical time. Rowen is associated with the protection against unwholesome energies, be they spiritual, psychic, elemental, or physical. Rowen supports those parts of ourselves that are strongly rooted and steady. Rowen offers a gift, a glowing ember in our centre, as if to encourage a thaw of held resentments. We feel a sense of sensibility, hope. We may choose to reach out to others, to try to mend bonds. Or we may feel a sense of peace in our choice, our need for distance and simply wish those others well from afar. Rowen supports us individually with our everyday thoughts and feelings. Rowen clears the path for second sight, we may even be blessed with encounters with nature spirits during Rowen season. We become more tuned in to synchronicities, signs and noticing unusual things in each day. Our spiritual eyes becomes more sensitive to the wee folk. With our responsibilities, we may also find ourselves distracted during Rowen and then peddling harder to catch up. It is time for us to lessen our load, carving out time for ourselves to be free. Rowen wants us to plan empty time, time that we don't fill with stuff. This allows for spontaneity and a sense of 'anything can happen'. How do we know what may be waiting for us, if we don't open space for something to land for us. Rowen also amplifies our protective intentions. Barriers will be strengthened and spells woven will hold. Rowen energy has the potency to un-weave that which has been previously woven and to undo hexes and curses. An un-weaving incantation will be offered this tree cycle -Nine Beads to Un-Sow. You may wish to create a charm with dried Rowen berries to use with this incantation, thread the Rowen beads onto a white twine to symbolise cleansing, knot 9 times in-between the beads, with the final bead and knot, joining the other end to make a tied complete circle.
Spiritual Weather & The Council of Trees
Spiritual Weather during the Rowen tree cycle can be cold and blustery. The collective wellbeing is very much sensed by the many. Disadvantages of personal circumstances may be static in the air, giving off little shocks when web like fibres are unwittingly brushed against. There is potential for closeness, richness and joy during Rowen however every person is torn between feeling festive wonder and magic and jaded by past grievances and bitterness. So it can be hard to channel the former fundament. It is possible to support the being to feel all parts of the self. By letting all our feelings settle and have a home. Losses can be kept company by joys. No part of ourselves should be left out in the cold.
Influence: Holly
Holly influences us in the first two weeks of Rowen season. We are offered an opportunity to remember who we really are, who we want to be and who we need to be. We can have many ways of expression of being. Or even two distinct sides in how we express ourselves. One side is our best self. This side knows all of those things that make us feel good and healthy, creative and open, curious and energised. The other side is our crutch, the side we fall back on during hard times. This other side knows all of those things that satisfy our habits and guilty pleasures, we become self-bound and feel toxic, we have no energy and we cant be bothered with anything good for us. Holly shakes us and tells us to get a grip of ourselves. Holding up a mirror ‘is this who you want to be’? Holly explains to us in moments of insight that the reason we don’t feel our best is because we are not being our best, doing our best. Holly leads by example, showing strengths, resilience and focus, Holly really looks their best at this time of year. With leaves and berries richly saturated in colour. The red berries that grow in bunches remind us of our strong will and passion. Holly also wants us to know that we can only be responsible for ourselves. We need to be loyal and committed to our own evolution. So while we experience life through the lens of Rowen and find ourselves somewhere betwixt joy and jade, we can take a deep breath and remind ourselves we are first responsible for ourselves.
Inspiration Hazel & Apple
Hazel and Apple engages us within the final two weeks of the Rowen tree cycle and are the companions of Rowen through the winter solstice. Hazel and Apple both inspire mystical and magical energy flow. Hazel is a conduit for inner power with outer environments and Apple is the community of elemental power. The Winter Solstice is a time of reclamation of power and soul/body parts. We have journeyed through the solar year and approach the solar new year in the next tree cycle. We may well be feeling a build up of pressure in our blood flow as we approach the solstice and if we close are eyes and sense inwards we may feel that tidal push and pull or a rocking sensation. Hazel and Apple are cleansing for the sensing field. they support the release and decomposing of our energetic litter. They support us in the drainage of toxins in our energy field which creates a stronger cleaner inner landscape and a higher vibration. When we are cleansed and renewed we have a stronger locus of evaluation, we are balanced, centred, grounded and ready to do things. We are also calmer and more confident as we don’t feel any weaknesses that we need to defend. Hazel and Apple know the magical empathic beings that we are and that we can attract crap like magnets. During the second half of Rowen we need to sain our person and space with fire and smoke. Saining is a Scottish folk practice of using dried plants and herbs wrapped tightly in twine, by lighting the end to create a purifying smoke. We are also holding a mirror at this time to the summer solstice which is at the exact opposite side of the yearly cycle, when the shortest day is mirrored by the longest day. No other festivals hold this much astringent energies where the contraction and expansion are felt so clearly in the atmosphere and through he body.
A Blessing For Rowen
Incantation
Nine Beads to Un-sow
One to call the crow,
Two to carry the sorrow,
Three to stand alone,
Four to the morning light,
Five to choose new sight,
Six to bend back and make right.
Seven to unimagine the known
Eight to reverse the flow
Nine to un-sow.
An Offering to the Council
All three trees of the Council and indeed this cycles guardian Rowen all speak to us of our inner power, deepening our confidence, our self-surety and our commitment to our own development. They all support us in tapping into our magical ways and opening us up spiritually and psychically. Honouring the deeper magical threads of our practices, drawing them into us and knotting the ends is integral for our inner magic at this time.
Creating a concentration and potency in our being, by spending time in sacred 'doings' may be a sensuous way to honour the council during Rowen. One inspired idea could be to create a protection charm for the home and family within. This is a very grounding action that engages our inner being in purpose and focus. The creation of a personal family protection symbol or charm would be a creative and fun solitary or family activity to do. Marking the symbol or charm onto a stone pebble or a piece of wood to be placed by the home entrances for protection and wholesomeness of all that dwell within will generate a sense of connection of spirit, unity and shared power. We could invoke the name of Hazel and Apple in our working, giving thanks to them for their company on our journey.
Next Tree Cycle: Alder
Yours in always in the heart of the woodlands.
Mags.
beautiful piece. thank you! x
🙏