Yareah Magazine

In Yareah magazine/January, we started to know and see their poetic secrets by analyzing Robert Graves’ famous essay “The White Goddess - a Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth” and what he calls “The alphabet of trees” in Celtic Druidic culture (letters were known by the name of a tree which started with its same initial. For example, “duir” -our oak- was also the letter “D” and “saille” –our willow- was the letter “S”). We explained that this alphabet had five vowels and thirteen consonants and the reasons why these last ones formed a magic seasonal calendar based on trees and “Mother Nature” which was secretly used by Druids for centuries, even after Christian irruption... they had to hide their magic words and spells of their enemies to prevent their possible attacks, a belief shared by old Greek and Roman religions.

The number of January was dedicated to the first holly tree and consonant letter of that Neolithic calendar: to the birch, called “Beth” and which represented the letter “B”. Logically, in the number of February we studied the second tree and letter of the Celtic Druidic alphabet: the wild ash tree, “Luis”-letter “L”; in the number of March, we focused on the third holly tree: the ASH, called “Nion”- letter “N” and in April, our protagonist was the ALDER, called “Fearn”- letter “F”.

Now, in May, we are going to study the WILLOW, “SAILLE”, letter “S”.

In Greece, the willow was dedicated to Hecate, Circe, Hera and Persephone, all of them in relationship with the death. The witches were very fond of willows and in English language, the words “witch” and “wicked” come from “willow”…, also “wicker”.

According with Northern European legends, witches’ brooms were made of:

-a stick of ash tree (see our issue of March) to protect them of drowns (the only way to kill a witch),

-branches of birch (see our issue of January) to tie demons among them,

-and ropes of willow…, to honor the Death.

Druidic human sacrifices were realized during full moon, in baskets of wicker and with cutting stones shaped as willow leaves.

The willow (helice in Greek language, and salix in Latin) gave name to Helicon, home of the Nine Muses, orgiastic priestesses of the Goddess Moon.

After studying old coins from Crete, where Europe (Eur-opa means woman with wide face, therefore “full moon”) appears sitting on a willow and rejecting the love of an eagle, A. B. Cook suggests that not only is Europe the Moon but Eu-rope, or woman with flourishing wickers, is Helice, sister of Amalthea: we should not forget that to wear a tiny branch of willow on the hat protects men of the jealousy of the Moon. 
This fifth holly tree dominated from the 15th of April to the 12th of May. The 1^st of May, famous in old times by its orgies, is in the middle of this druidic month.

Isabel del Río

Isabel del Río was born in Madrid (Spain). She has studied in the University of Valladolid and she has a degree in Geography and History. She likes Arts and she has been painting for years. Now, she is teaching in a secondary school in Madrid and investigating about old lost female painters. She has published a novel called “Ariza” (Grupo Editorial Alcalá ISBN 978-84-96806-52-8).

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http://www.isabeldelrio.wordpress.com