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YEW IRISH/GAELIC NAME :- Ioho RULING PLANET:- Saturn SEASON:- Winter ABILITIES:- Guardian to the Door of Rebirth. Rest after the struggle of life. Divination. Dowsing. Bows. To do with the element of earth. The yew tree helped form the great primeval conifer forests which covered the earth long before the advent of broad-leafed trees. It can live for many hundreds of years and is thought that many living yews pre-date Christ by many thousand of years. One in Perthshire The Fortingal Yew is claimed to be up to 9,000 years old. Yews are mentioned in the Doomsday Book of 1086 and one of the oldest weapons found is a crude yew spear from the Old Stone Age. The yew is one of Irelands five magical trees, it rivals the oak, hawthorn, elder and rowan in magical importance. An old folk-tale tells why yews are dressed so darkly. When the yew was a young species, in times when there were few people, it thought that all other trees were more beautiful, for their colourful leaves could flutter in the wind unlike its stiff pine needles. Thinking that the faeries had deliberately made it unattractive the tree pined. But the faeries wanted to please the yew, and it woke one sunny morning to find its needles had changed to leaves of gold and its heart jumped with joy. But thieves came and stole the leaves, making the tree confused and sad. So the fairies tried again and gave it leaves of pure crystal and the yew loved its sparkle, but a storm of hail came and the crystals shattered. Then they gave it broad leaves and it waved them in the air, only to be eaten by goats. At this the yew gave up, for it realized that its original dress was by far the best, for it was of permanence, of long ages and deep knowledge, and in this the tree found comfort. Yews have been associated with country churchyards for a long time with numerous reasons. The Druids are said to have preached a doctrine of the soul's immortality of which the yew is an emblem. One possible link could derive from druidic ceremonies being performed under yew trees and later transferred to the church which was built nearby. The main difference between Druid temples and Christian churches was that, Druids worship of nature in groves of trees or stone circles, never deemed themselves mighty enough to contain the all-powerful spirits of gods in a building. Yew is a golden yellow very hard wood, with a great variety of uses from furniture to masts. When it burns it gives off great heat, and doesn't rot away. The Anglo Saxons reckoned a post of yew could out live one of iron. When yew is seasoned and polished it as an extraordinary power of resisting decay. For this reason magical wands of yew are considered especially powerful. |