Metaphysical Properties Of Green Mountain Ash
Official Name: Sorbus acuparia
Other Names: Rowan, Delight of Eye, Mountain Ash, Quickbane, Ran Tree, Roden-Quicken, Roden-Quicken-Royan, Roynetree, Sorb Apple, Thor's Helper, Whitty, Wicken-Tree, Wiggin, Wiggy, Wiky, Wild Ash, Witchbane, Witchen, Witchwood
Gender: Masculine
Planet: Sun
Element: Fire
Deity: Thor
Metaphysical Powers: Psychic Powers, Healing Power, Success, Protection
Common Magickal Uses and Folklore of Green Mountain Ash
- When the wood is carried, it increases psychic powers, and the branches are often used for dowsing rods and magical wands.
- Add the leaves and berries to divination incenses as well as those designed to increase psychic powers.
- Carrying Mountain Ash berries (or the bark) helps in recovery, and they are added to healing and health sachets and mixtures and all power, success, and luck sachets.
- For centuries green mountain ash has been used for protective purposes in Europe. Two twigs tied together with red thread to make a cross is an ancient protective amulet.
- Cornish peasants carried these in their pockets, and Scottish Highlanders inserted them into the lining of their clothing.
- Walking sticks made of rowan wood are excellent tools for the person who roams the woods and fields by night.
- When carried on board a ship, mountain ash will prevent it from being in a storm.
- When it's kept in the house, it guards against lightning strikes.
- When green mountain ash is planted on a grave, it keeps the deceased from haunting people and places.
- When a rowan tree is planted near the house, it protects the occupants.
Green Mountain Ash is a dominant tree in history and folklore, often seen as the "world tree," the tree of healing, and the tree from which humans were created or emerged. In nearly every culture, it has some extremely sacred significance.
Native Americans used the ash more broadly: as a laxative (decoction of the leaves), as a childbirth tonic for women (leaves), as an aphrodisiac (seeds), as a diuretic encouraging the flow of urine and flushing of the kidneys, for various kinds of sores and itchy things (a bark tea). Juice from the leaves also helped with the swelling and itching of bug bites. One tribe, the San Fernando Indians, "refreshed themselves" with water from the bark of ash trees in that region.