Witch Hazel, a Tree that Belongs to Women! part 1 by Sara Wright

Yesterday, I was on my way home at dusk when the clouds parted and the mountains were drenched in deep gold. Still waters mirrored earth, land, sky.

I soaked in the last of the fall color that is still striking in a few protected places, gathering in images of still waters to remind me that nature is home.

Why do I need this visual reminder?

  Yesterday I read an article that queries the issue of human cruelty triggering the usual overwhelm. Every day it’s something. I force myself to stay present to what’s happening on a peripheral level. To do this, I need to keep myself grounded in the rest of nature to help me deal with what’s happening to this planet and her people. I am struggling hard to maintain some sort of balance despite the pain and chaos.

I have no answers to what is happening cross culturally on a global level unless we begin to re-establish a heart- level connection with humans and the rest of nature. The warnings I receive have become more dire making it impossible for me to block them out.

When I can surrender to nature’s beauty, I can also locate myself as a speck in the life of a five -billion year old planet even if it’s just for a few seconds at a time. My love for my dog, the birds at my feeder, free roaming bears, the kindness of neighbors and friends,   also help me to feel that I am being given a gift.

But this center refuses to hold.

 Most of the time I feel stuck. Powerless. Writing is my primary form of activism, but I almost never feel heard. I also use words to help me stay visible to myself. For most of my writing career I have written poetry essays etc. to help trees, animals, fungi and the rest of nature to become more alive to westerners.

Lately I have been focusing on writing about each species as being part of one  interdependent sentient living organism.

 For me, Nature and the powers of the Goddess are one – there is no separation.

I still believe that regardless of outcome, it is necessary to align myself with Life.

I don’t like feeling like I am about to fall off a cliff into a cesspool of despair, and unfortunately as the trees lose their leaves, and the colors fade into the forest floor I experience myself as disappearing too.

 Almost…

This brings me to witch hazel, although I do not expect the reader to follow this logic at least for a moment. Now that most of the trees are bare, blossoming ribbons of the multi-stemmed witch hazel tree are blazing at forest edges.

 At a time when most trees are preparing for sleep witch hazel as if in defiance to the coming of winter is sparkling with fragrant sticky buttery yellow spindles that stand out against the few lingering coppery gold leaves of beech trees and papery yellow moose maples that live nearby.

Every autumn an invisible magnet pulls me into a ‘witch hazel field’ that I am unable to resist. Last week in the woods I discovered at least 20 more thriving trees that I hadn’t seen before in all these years! Yesterday I stopped at two of my multi -stemmed vases after crossing the brook. Each fall I begin visiting these two witch hazel shrubs early in September to record their extraordinary changes while they still have green leaves.

 Of course, I had to peer once again at each witch hazel twig to see who had flowers, buds, and seed pods on one branch. Pollinated witch hazel flowers produce fruit capsules. These capsules remain on the shrub for an entire year. In autumn, ki ruptures, launching a pair of seeds into the air, sending them up to 30 – 45 feet from the parent shrub! Each seed is shiny, ebony in color and oval shaped – a perfect miniature missile. What’s amazing to me is that last year’s seeds are dispersed at exactly the same time the new blossoms appear. Most of mine have expelled their seeds, but new buds are still appearing. This is a magical plant!

Witch hazel is an ancient healing herb and when I was a child my grandmother used ki to treat poison ivy, wounds and bites. I still use the extract and love the scent. Curiously there is some mystery around why this herb works in so effectively though it is a natural astringent, containing tannins flavonoids and other therapeutic compounds. Witch hazel gravitates to wet places, so it is no surprise that Y shaped sprigs are used for dousing.

Witch hazel and women (especially old women) have been entangled for millennia.  In world mythology as some of us know  witch hazel is the Tree of Knowledge, and is strongly connected to wisdom, inspiration and divination. Ki is also a tree of protection, and one that helps the user find objects that are hidden or to uncover hidden truths. Witch hazel’s association with finding things extends to finding one’s path in life. Ki is a tree that helps with journeys, seeking new paths, a tree that assists the dedicated apprentice to navigate uncertain times.

Witch hazel can always be found growing close to water. Water is an element that belongs to women who can bend and flow with change. As already mentioned historically, women, particularly old women, were/are associated with healing, midwifery, prophecy and perhaps most salient at this time of year as we move into the Days of the Dead at All Hallows and the end of the year for some, these women have an ability to work with the spaces in between the worlds of the living and the dead. The witch hazel plant belongs to all women who are being taught by, and work with sentient nature. A magical tree indeed. 

Witch hazel is also considered a Tree of Life.   Perhaps this is the root of my personal cyclic attraction to this plant. At a time when most trees are preparing for sleep witch hazel is blooming on as if in defiance to the coming cold and snow (some call ki the Tree of Winter). What attracts me the most this year is the witch hazel’s ability to flow like water and to help navigate uncertain times. I am also reminded that in mythology as in nature, witch hazel lives on as a ‘Tree of Life’ – a universal symbol of interconnectedness, one that unites all beings as One.

Of course, I had to peer closely at each blooming witch hazel branch to see who had flowers, buds, and seed pods all at once. Like all flowering plants, witch hazel must be pollinated to produce fruit and seeds, and for this, it relies on insects. These include late-flying gnats and flies as well as forest-dwelling owlet moths, all drawn to the scented flowers and sweet nectar. On warm days like the few we have had this week while surrounded by an annoying cloud, I hoped these flying gnats were also busy pollinating lemony witch hazel ribbons.

Part 2, next Tuesday