Post by bluefedish on Oct 14, 2007 20:25:38 GMT -5
Yews are densely-branched trees. As solitairs their width is often greater than their height, which rarely exceeds 50ft. However, straight columns topping 100ft have been reported in the mountain forests of Caucasia.
The needle-like leaves are 1/2in - 1 1/4in long, dark green above & pale green beneath, & arranged in spirals or 2 ranks. The reproductive organs are situated in small roundish heas in the leaf axils. Male & felmal flowers open in early spring & are usually borne on separate trees. The seed is partly enclosed by a bright scarlet, fleshy cup called an aril. Birds are the main distributors.
Yews grow extremely slowly - at about half the rate of many other European tree species.
The age of yews cannot be assessed easily, mainly because the trunks of almost all old trees eventually become hollow. This is not a sign of weakness or final decay: a hollow tube is much stronger & more flexible than a solid one. Unfortunately the hollowing process destroys the "ring" that helps us discover a trees' age.
Practical Uses:
All cultures have appreciated the qualities of the slow-grown, hard but flexible, fine-grained & water-resistant yew wood, also called "iron wood" because yew fence poles are siad to outlast metal ones. When the original yew foundations of some buildings in Venice were replaced in the 1950s, the refurbished yew beams were sold to the building trade. The oldes man-made artifact (a spear thought to be c.150,000 years old) is of yew; so are the oldest musical instruments.
Natural Healing:
Every part of the yew, except the red aril, is poisonous because it contains taxicantin. Eating as little as 50-100 grams of chopped leaves would be fatal for an adult. However, taxicantin poisoning is very rare - all 10 reported fatal cases in the 20th century were deliberate.
In the early 1980s, paclitaxel (formerly taxol), a substance derived from yew bark, was discovered to be a potent ainit-cancer drug. After pharmaceutical companies had subsequently raided almost all the yew stands in the United States, a newly-discovered method of part-synthesizing the drug from a related substance in the leaves saved the last trees.
Culture, Myth, & Symbol:
Many ancient Celtic communities & tribes named themselves after the yew which indicates the significant sacred status of this tree. The Ibero-Celts, native to Spain, got their name from merging with their non-Celtic neighbours, the Iberians. These Celts were the first Celtic invaders of Ireland, the ancient name of which is lerne, "Yew Island". A 2nd kingdom named Iberia also existed in medieval Georgia, Asia, where the yew is still today called the "Tree of God".
The 13th rune in the old futhark, the oldest Norse rune alphabet, is called ihwas or eiwaz, both variations meaning "yew", and representing death & rebirth. A 2nd rune for this tree, from a younger Scandinavian rune set, yr, is identical with the Stone-Age symbol for the roots of the Tree of Life. The Nordic Tree of Life, Yggdrasil, not only represents the central pole, the foundation & the unity or the universe, but is also connected intimately with the spiritaul search for divine knowledge. In the Icelandic scriptures, the Eddas, Yggdrasil is described as a "winter-green needle-ash". Unfortunately, over the past few hundred years this has been interpreted as meaning that Yggdrasil was an ash tree. But the ash is not evergreen, nor has it needles.
In myth, Odin, the god of wisdom, hangs himself from Yggdrasil's branches for 9 days & nights, on a vision quest from which he brings back runes - the magickal alphabet - to share with humankind. Odin climbing the Universal Tree is an exponent of the truth-searching shaman - a tradition found throughout Eurasia.
The Germanic peoples connected the yew with the midwinter solstice on December 21st. The Saxons celebrated the 3 longest nights of the year as the modraneht - the "Mother Nights" - to pay respect to the dark & still womb of the Great Goddess who gives birth to everything on earth. The Norse celebrated the solstice over an even longer period - 13 nights of Yuletide.
By contrast, the Celtic calender connects the yew with the festival of Samhain, when the gates between the world of the living & the dead were said to be open. The ancient Greeks saw the yew as a gate to the underworld. However, the yew is not the "tree of death", as some 18th - 19th century poets called it. On he contrary, it's the Tree of Life, & has been employed in various ways in burial rites to counter-balance the power of death.
Symbolism: The Tree of Life, immortality, rebirth, & protection.
Divine Associations: The Great Goddess (Neolithic), Dione (pre-Greek), Artemis (Phrygian & ancient Greek), Persephone, Hecate (ancient Greek), Astarte (Syrian), & Odin (Norse).
Astrological Associations: Saturn & Pluto.
Superstition: That someone might die just from sleeping underneath a yew is an idea that has been reappearing in literature ever since the Greek physician Dioscorides first mentioned it in c.77CE.
Historical Spotlight: Charles Darwin, the great English naturalist (1809-82), sometimes rested under the great yew in St. Mary's churchyard in Downe, Kent, and here he wanted to be buried. However, public opinion preferred a high-status burial for him at Westminster Abbey, London.
Selected Sources:
The Meaning of Trees by Fred Hageneder
www.flickr.com/photos/85064977@N00/301052414/
The needle-like leaves are 1/2in - 1 1/4in long, dark green above & pale green beneath, & arranged in spirals or 2 ranks. The reproductive organs are situated in small roundish heas in the leaf axils. Male & felmal flowers open in early spring & are usually borne on separate trees. The seed is partly enclosed by a bright scarlet, fleshy cup called an aril. Birds are the main distributors.
Yews grow extremely slowly - at about half the rate of many other European tree species.
The age of yews cannot be assessed easily, mainly because the trunks of almost all old trees eventually become hollow. This is not a sign of weakness or final decay: a hollow tube is much stronger & more flexible than a solid one. Unfortunately the hollowing process destroys the "ring" that helps us discover a trees' age.
Practical Uses:
All cultures have appreciated the qualities of the slow-grown, hard but flexible, fine-grained & water-resistant yew wood, also called "iron wood" because yew fence poles are siad to outlast metal ones. When the original yew foundations of some buildings in Venice were replaced in the 1950s, the refurbished yew beams were sold to the building trade. The oldes man-made artifact (a spear thought to be c.150,000 years old) is of yew; so are the oldest musical instruments.
Natural Healing:
Every part of the yew, except the red aril, is poisonous because it contains taxicantin. Eating as little as 50-100 grams of chopped leaves would be fatal for an adult. However, taxicantin poisoning is very rare - all 10 reported fatal cases in the 20th century were deliberate.
In the early 1980s, paclitaxel (formerly taxol), a substance derived from yew bark, was discovered to be a potent ainit-cancer drug. After pharmaceutical companies had subsequently raided almost all the yew stands in the United States, a newly-discovered method of part-synthesizing the drug from a related substance in the leaves saved the last trees.
Culture, Myth, & Symbol:
Many ancient Celtic communities & tribes named themselves after the yew which indicates the significant sacred status of this tree. The Ibero-Celts, native to Spain, got their name from merging with their non-Celtic neighbours, the Iberians. These Celts were the first Celtic invaders of Ireland, the ancient name of which is lerne, "Yew Island". A 2nd kingdom named Iberia also existed in medieval Georgia, Asia, where the yew is still today called the "Tree of God".
The 13th rune in the old futhark, the oldest Norse rune alphabet, is called ihwas or eiwaz, both variations meaning "yew", and representing death & rebirth. A 2nd rune for this tree, from a younger Scandinavian rune set, yr, is identical with the Stone-Age symbol for the roots of the Tree of Life. The Nordic Tree of Life, Yggdrasil, not only represents the central pole, the foundation & the unity or the universe, but is also connected intimately with the spiritaul search for divine knowledge. In the Icelandic scriptures, the Eddas, Yggdrasil is described as a "winter-green needle-ash". Unfortunately, over the past few hundred years this has been interpreted as meaning that Yggdrasil was an ash tree. But the ash is not evergreen, nor has it needles.
In myth, Odin, the god of wisdom, hangs himself from Yggdrasil's branches for 9 days & nights, on a vision quest from which he brings back runes - the magickal alphabet - to share with humankind. Odin climbing the Universal Tree is an exponent of the truth-searching shaman - a tradition found throughout Eurasia.
The Germanic peoples connected the yew with the midwinter solstice on December 21st. The Saxons celebrated the 3 longest nights of the year as the modraneht - the "Mother Nights" - to pay respect to the dark & still womb of the Great Goddess who gives birth to everything on earth. The Norse celebrated the solstice over an even longer period - 13 nights of Yuletide.
By contrast, the Celtic calender connects the yew with the festival of Samhain, when the gates between the world of the living & the dead were said to be open. The ancient Greeks saw the yew as a gate to the underworld. However, the yew is not the "tree of death", as some 18th - 19th century poets called it. On he contrary, it's the Tree of Life, & has been employed in various ways in burial rites to counter-balance the power of death.
Symbolism: The Tree of Life, immortality, rebirth, & protection.
Divine Associations: The Great Goddess (Neolithic), Dione (pre-Greek), Artemis (Phrygian & ancient Greek), Persephone, Hecate (ancient Greek), Astarte (Syrian), & Odin (Norse).
Astrological Associations: Saturn & Pluto.
Superstition: That someone might die just from sleeping underneath a yew is an idea that has been reappearing in literature ever since the Greek physician Dioscorides first mentioned it in c.77CE.
Historical Spotlight: Charles Darwin, the great English naturalist (1809-82), sometimes rested under the great yew in St. Mary's churchyard in Downe, Kent, and here he wanted to be buried. However, public opinion preferred a high-status burial for him at Westminster Abbey, London.
Selected Sources:
The Meaning of Trees by Fred Hageneder
www.flickr.com/photos/85064977@N00/301052414/
