Nine Woods in the Cauldron Go . . .
archived here for public reference
"Nine woods in the cauldron go -
Burn them fast and burn them slow..."
Many Craft traditions have some variation on the Nine Woods theme. The ritual element of it, for the sabbat circle at Yule, was given to me thus: a sprig of mistletoe is suspended by a thread directly over a cauldron in the center of the circle. A fire is built in the cauldron from the other eight woods, and then the mistletoe is cut down so that it falls into the cauldron. Precise methodology varies somewhat from group to group.
It came into Blue Star from Margot Adler (may she rest in peace), and while we have the actual doing of it, there isn't a great deal of lore surrounding it, beyond the reference in the Rede and the lore of the individual woods. There are many lists of "nine woods" out in the world, but the Crystal Blue BOS lists the Nine Woods for Blue Star as follows (although Tina's teaching notes state clearly that this only one possible list):
But, that's our list. And beyond that list, and the ritual action itself, there isn't One True Way to approach this ritual in Blue Star, and no particular details of symbolism have been passed, as far as I'm aware. (Tina says only that they had seen Margot do it, and thought it was a good bit, and brought it home with them.)
So, in working with this in Summer Oak (and since, in Balefire and White Oak), I was forced to come up with My Own Grand Theory™, which has worked pretty well over the years, to which I will now subject you:
We have nine woods. Mistletoe is separated out for special handling, so that leaves us building a fire of eight woods. Where else do we have eight? The Wheel of the Year. Since Yule is all about turning from an old Wheel into a new Wheel (and the word yule/jul, itself, means wheel), the link here seems obvious to me. So we have eight woods, and eight sabbats in our wheel. (Yes, I know a year with eight sabbats is an entirely modern construction. I never said this theory bore any resemblance to what anyone was doing 1000 years ago. Work with me, here.) So, the next question is, which trees represent which sabbats?
Here's how it shakes down, for me:
Imbolc - Birch
Ostara - Willow
Beltane - Rowan
Litha - Oak
Lammas - Juniper
Mabon - Apple
Samhain - Pine
Yule - Holly
These eight, combined, create the year itself within the fire of the cauldron (or in the fireplace as symbolic cave/womb, because why build a fire in a cauldron if you have a fireplace? >:-) This leaves Mistletoe as the ninth wood, the Seed of the God, the sacrifice of which brings the wheel into harmony and fertilizes the coming year. Pretty powerful stuff; no wonder the Druids harvested it with a golden sickle. :-)
Here's how I arrived at those sabbat attributions, and I admit up front that some of them were obvious, and the others were sorta shoehorned into place; many of these trees could easily be placed in other slots, and some of them could be argued for at any of the eight sabbats, really, but this is my arrangement:
Imbolc - Birch - associated with Brighde and various other Ladies, purification, etc. Children's cradles were made from birch, and it's one of the first trees to grow on bare soil (and therefore "births the forest"). Also, you can tap it like a maple and make syrup and sugar.
Ostara - Willow - greeny-golden branches with their feet in the water, drawing up lifesap in the watery springtime; also willow's role in healing and connection to herbology.
Beltane - Rowan - the flowering May-tree (one of them, anyway), associated with all sorts of magic with its tiny pentagram on every berry, its masculine and fiery nature belongs with a fire festival. Many of the animal-protecting charms associated with Beltane involved rowan: sprigs tied to cow and horse tails, sheep jumped through hoops of it, etc., and the rowan crosses that protected children from baneful magic and malicious faeries were renewed each May Day.
Litha - Oak - Oak King rules at the peak of his strength; opposite holly for obvious reasons (oak and holly were the first and most obvious placements).
Lammas - Juniper - I put this here because of the gin connection to booze, frankly; juniper berries are picked in the fall, although that's a bit loose since they take several years to ripen, which is why you sometimes see green and blue together on one tree. Junipers need lots of sun, they don't tolerate shade well, so an August placement seemed appropriate. The berries are so useful in the kitchen, this tree belonged in the harvest season somewhere.
Mabon - Apple - 'tis the season, Mab and harvest and all that, the promise of life's renewal in the season of sacrifice; apple is the earliest cultivated tree, and therefore works as a symbol for the Great Feast.
Samhain - Pine - evergreen reminding us that life is eternal, even as we're surrounded by death; owls calling among the pines, that sort of thing. It's also associated with the expiation of guilt, which sorta goes with Samhain's debt-settling/debt-forgiveness thing.
Yule - Holly - Holly King rules at the peak of his strength, the Green Knight of Winter, this one is pretty self-explanatory, I would hope.
Happy Accidents department: my arrangement means it is possible to cook with the fruits of the trees of Beltane, Litha, Lammas, and Mabon (the trees of Summer and the growing season), but not so much with the other four (birch is edible in several ways but doesn't really produce fruit, per se), which creates a nice balance.
So, the following incantation was written to accompany the ritual of the Nine Woods according to my Grand Theory™, which is not the slightest bit traditional in its details. (Others would argue that the woods should be added to the cauldron in the order that produces the most stable fire; I'm aware of that theory, and it may be more traditional, but I prefer this one.) We usually split these lines up between whoever is putting the woods into the fire, and we do them in this order, memorized by participants or read off notecards if necessary. Note that they rhyme in pairs, so they really should be said in order, and at sufficient tempo for one to flow seamlessly into the next (obviously, don't say the blue headings out loud).
IMBOLC - BIRCH
Birchwood, birthwood, bright and cleansing,
remember fire, and kindle spring;
OSTARA - WILLOW
Healing Willow, watery wanderer,
vernal rains and floods to bring;
BELTANE - ROWAN
Rowan, witch-tree, guide and guardian,
bless the bower with berries bright;
LITHA - OAK
Oakwood, world-door, strength of summer,
raise the sun to heaven's height;
LAMMAS - JUNIPER
Juniper, ginberry, lover in sunlight,
Kitchen friend in laughter burn;
MABON - APPLE
Harvest Apple, gift for the fairest,
Starheart pledge of life's return;
SAMHAIN - PINE
Faithful Pinetree, green forever,
Vigil stand at winter's gate;
YULE - HOLLY
Holy holly, king in darkness,
leaf and berry bless our fate;
MISTLETOE
Mistletoe, beloved all-heal,
shadow's dart and mother's tear,
maiden's peril, bright god's passion,
lightning-seed, renew the year!
===========================================================================
Well, there you go -- that's what I see in this rite. Take it or leave it. :-)
"Nine woods in the cauldron go -
Burn them fast and burn them slow..."
Many Craft traditions have some variation on the Nine Woods theme. The ritual element of it, for the sabbat circle at Yule, was given to me thus: a sprig of mistletoe is suspended by a thread directly over a cauldron in the center of the circle. A fire is built in the cauldron from the other eight woods, and then the mistletoe is cut down so that it falls into the cauldron. Precise methodology varies somewhat from group to group.
It came into Blue Star from Margot Adler (may she rest in peace), and while we have the actual doing of it, there isn't a great deal of lore surrounding it, beyond the reference in the Rede and the lore of the individual woods. There are many lists of "nine woods" out in the world, but the Crystal Blue BOS lists the Nine Woods for Blue Star as follows (although Tina's teaching notes state clearly that this only one possible list):
- Apple
- Birch
- Ash/Rowan
- Juniper
- Pine
- Willow
- Holly
- Mistletoe
- Oak
But, that's our list. And beyond that list, and the ritual action itself, there isn't One True Way to approach this ritual in Blue Star, and no particular details of symbolism have been passed, as far as I'm aware. (Tina says only that they had seen Margot do it, and thought it was a good bit, and brought it home with them.)
So, in working with this in Summer Oak (and since, in Balefire and White Oak), I was forced to come up with My Own Grand Theory™, which has worked pretty well over the years, to which I will now subject you:
We have nine woods. Mistletoe is separated out for special handling, so that leaves us building a fire of eight woods. Where else do we have eight? The Wheel of the Year. Since Yule is all about turning from an old Wheel into a new Wheel (and the word yule/jul, itself, means wheel), the link here seems obvious to me. So we have eight woods, and eight sabbats in our wheel. (Yes, I know a year with eight sabbats is an entirely modern construction. I never said this theory bore any resemblance to what anyone was doing 1000 years ago. Work with me, here.) So, the next question is, which trees represent which sabbats?
Here's how it shakes down, for me:
Imbolc - Birch
Ostara - Willow
Beltane - Rowan
Litha - Oak
Lammas - Juniper
Mabon - Apple
Samhain - Pine
Yule - Holly
These eight, combined, create the year itself within the fire of the cauldron (or in the fireplace as symbolic cave/womb, because why build a fire in a cauldron if you have a fireplace? >:-) This leaves Mistletoe as the ninth wood, the Seed of the God, the sacrifice of which brings the wheel into harmony and fertilizes the coming year. Pretty powerful stuff; no wonder the Druids harvested it with a golden sickle. :-)
Here's how I arrived at those sabbat attributions, and I admit up front that some of them were obvious, and the others were sorta shoehorned into place; many of these trees could easily be placed in other slots, and some of them could be argued for at any of the eight sabbats, really, but this is my arrangement:
Imbolc - Birch - associated with Brighde and various other Ladies, purification, etc. Children's cradles were made from birch, and it's one of the first trees to grow on bare soil (and therefore "births the forest"). Also, you can tap it like a maple and make syrup and sugar.
Ostara - Willow - greeny-golden branches with their feet in the water, drawing up lifesap in the watery springtime; also willow's role in healing and connection to herbology.
Beltane - Rowan - the flowering May-tree (one of them, anyway), associated with all sorts of magic with its tiny pentagram on every berry, its masculine and fiery nature belongs with a fire festival. Many of the animal-protecting charms associated with Beltane involved rowan: sprigs tied to cow and horse tails, sheep jumped through hoops of it, etc., and the rowan crosses that protected children from baneful magic and malicious faeries were renewed each May Day.
Litha - Oak - Oak King rules at the peak of his strength; opposite holly for obvious reasons (oak and holly were the first and most obvious placements).
Lammas - Juniper - I put this here because of the gin connection to booze, frankly; juniper berries are picked in the fall, although that's a bit loose since they take several years to ripen, which is why you sometimes see green and blue together on one tree. Junipers need lots of sun, they don't tolerate shade well, so an August placement seemed appropriate. The berries are so useful in the kitchen, this tree belonged in the harvest season somewhere.
Mabon - Apple - 'tis the season, Mab and harvest and all that, the promise of life's renewal in the season of sacrifice; apple is the earliest cultivated tree, and therefore works as a symbol for the Great Feast.
Samhain - Pine - evergreen reminding us that life is eternal, even as we're surrounded by death; owls calling among the pines, that sort of thing. It's also associated with the expiation of guilt, which sorta goes with Samhain's debt-settling/debt-forgiveness thing.
Yule - Holly - Holly King rules at the peak of his strength, the Green Knight of Winter, this one is pretty self-explanatory, I would hope.
Happy Accidents department: my arrangement means it is possible to cook with the fruits of the trees of Beltane, Litha, Lammas, and Mabon (the trees of Summer and the growing season), but not so much with the other four (birch is edible in several ways but doesn't really produce fruit, per se), which creates a nice balance.
So, the following incantation was written to accompany the ritual of the Nine Woods according to my Grand Theory™, which is not the slightest bit traditional in its details. (Others would argue that the woods should be added to the cauldron in the order that produces the most stable fire; I'm aware of that theory, and it may be more traditional, but I prefer this one.) We usually split these lines up between whoever is putting the woods into the fire, and we do them in this order, memorized by participants or read off notecards if necessary. Note that they rhyme in pairs, so they really should be said in order, and at sufficient tempo for one to flow seamlessly into the next (obviously, don't say the blue headings out loud).
IMBOLC - BIRCH
Birchwood, birthwood, bright and cleansing,
remember fire, and kindle spring;
OSTARA - WILLOW
Healing Willow, watery wanderer,
vernal rains and floods to bring;
BELTANE - ROWAN
Rowan, witch-tree, guide and guardian,
bless the bower with berries bright;
LITHA - OAK
Oakwood, world-door, strength of summer,
raise the sun to heaven's height;
LAMMAS - JUNIPER
Juniper, ginberry, lover in sunlight,
Kitchen friend in laughter burn;
MABON - APPLE
Harvest Apple, gift for the fairest,
Starheart pledge of life's return;
SAMHAIN - PINE
Faithful Pinetree, green forever,
Vigil stand at winter's gate;
YULE - HOLLY
Holy holly, king in darkness,
leaf and berry bless our fate;
MISTLETOE
Mistletoe, beloved all-heal,
shadow's dart and mother's tear,
maiden's peril, bright god's passion,
lightning-seed, renew the year!
===========================================================================
Well, there you go -- that's what I see in this rite. Take it or leave it. :-)