Best Wood?

Yew is certainly found in Ontario, though I don't think it grows wild (it's that evergreen-looking bushy thing, rather shiny needles, used a lot in front of houses and in landscaping. Ovoid, translucent-looking single red berries. We have one in front of our porch...) I've seen yews in Britain, though, and our pathetic ones don't really compare. Thinking about that, my impression would be that the powers of Yggdrasil, as represented by yew at least, are not so strong.

If you wanted a tree with some similar associations (gateway of the dead etcetera), which IS native, there is cedar, which was traditionally planted in cemeteries.

Ash is everywhere.

I also think the traditional fruit tree shouldn't be dismissed. Apple, for instance, has wonderful symbology of power, knowledge and otherworldly connections.

It's important (in my opinion at least) to be flexible when adapting ancient traditions to your own use. Thinking, once again, of the yew thing... you are not in the ancient Norse lands, so perhaps you would want to use a tree with power in your country (coconut shell, heh! But not in Canada...) The traditional associations are valuable, yes, but it also needs to have power for you.

You might like to go out and meet some trees in situ, as it were; get to know the tree itself before deciding to fix your thoughts on any one wood. If you don't have any resonance with/understanding of the tree, its powers will be diminished for you anyway. Remember that all these traditional powers and associations emerge from a rural population, who knew what an ash looked like in the wind, and that if there was a lightning storm you didn't stand under an oak -- because they had experienced it firsthand.

Here is an interesting resource I turned up: a database of native Ontario plants including trees. http://www.evergreen.ca/nativeplants/search/index.php

Don't use a fallen branch? That's all well and fine, but I don't have a garden with big trees growing in it. You can't just go and steal branches off living trees, it's illegal (besides any carmic problems with it).

I'm working on a set made of beech (I think that's translated correctly, round leaves, make little triangular nuts in spiky jackets) because it's the dominant tree in the local 'forest'. (More like a park to be honest, but hey.)

And yes, it was a fallen branch. I haven't finished the set yet, but don't expect problems. Tarot cards are printed on ground wood pulp mixed with stuff. They work.

Humpf.

Yggdrasil was an ash tree... I think...

So ash would be a good wood to use.

But then again, I think there are many other woods which would be good, all depending on what you want the Runes to be.

Me, I'd like a set of apple-wood runes, because the apple for me is a sacred fruit, and I go with the idea that a fruit-bearing tree symbolises a fruit-bearing life. (or in this case, a fruit-bearing divination system!)

If you want strength (Whether it be physical or spiritual) in your runes, Oak is good. Oak is also associated with wisdom.

On the other hand, if you want a little mystery and magick in your runes, rowan is the tree traditionally associated with such things, as it hazel.

Birch for new beginnings, yew for changes and protection, willow for intuition...

On the subject of using/not using fallen branches. Personally, I'd prefer to use a fallen brance, instead of cutting a branch off a tree. Often, I find that the things I need for my magickal tools have shown up on the ground anyway: A wonderful stick for a wand, and holey stone, an aphrodite sea shell... I trust that when I go out to look for my wood for my runes, I'll get presented with a fallen branch with which to work. It saves me cutting it off a living tree, that may or may not want me to go hacking bits off it! (There is always the process of asking the tree permission, but that's a whole different thread!)

Kiama

Kiama said:

Yggdrasil was an ash tree... I think...
Kiama

Click to expand...

Yggrasil was a Yew tree

Everything I've read says that Yggdrasil was an ash tree. But I've just come across this interesting paragraph on an internet site:

Yggdrasil (pronounced egg-draw-sill) is known as "The World Tree, " The Ash Tree," "The Yew Tree," and "The World Ash Tree." The Yggdrasil is more commonly referred to as a Ash Tree in most translations and by most researchers of Medieval literature studies. The Yggdrasil is sometimes spelled with two "l's" as in Yggdrasill and sometimes with one "l" as in Yggdrasil. When spelled with two "L's," it has been assumed to be the connection of Odin's horse to the World Ash Tree.

Click to expand...

I'm gonna stick to calling it an ash.

Kiama

Yes I have read it being Ash as well.

However in reference to the Rune "Eihwaz" (2:13 = Yew) it is the trunk or vertical axis of the world tree Yggdrasill. This is the column by which the squirrel Rataoskr runs to spread mayhem between the summit of the tree and the roots. Or that between the Eagle and the Serpent Nidhhoggr. It is the Rune which runs through the three worlds of Yggrasill (Asgardhr, Midhgardhr and Hel).

Just my little piece of info....

MystiqueMoonlight:

Could it be that the interpretation you gave for Eihwaz is as it is because of the fact that people felt that Yggdrasil was a Yew tree... What I'm saying is, maybe it was an effect of the thought that Yggdrasil is a Yew, and not the cause.

Kiama

Kiama said:

MystiqueMoonlight:

Could it be that the interpretation you gave for Eihwaz is as it is because of the fact that people felt that Yggdrasil was a Yew tree... What I'm saying is, maybe it was an effect of the thought that Yggdrasil is a Yew, and not the cause.

Kiama

Click to expand...

Um...er.....

elsewhere in this forum is that very same discussion...

Yew, Ash...

I'm here to solve it...

Yggdrasil was a tree...still is...

Or a metaphor, shaped like a tree...