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Pip Wilson

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Today is

And fill all fruit with
ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd,
and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel.
John Keats; from 'To Autumn'

"If you do not make these three oxen men as they were before, I will put you into a red-hot oven." She answers her: "No! go to such a dell, and take thence three hazel sticks, 4 and strike each of them three blows on the back." And she did what she told her, and they were changed into men the same as they were before.
Wentworth Webster, Basque Legends, 'Basa-Jauna, The Wild Man', 1879

The doctor always seems as if expecting you, and had full knowledge of your coming. He bids you be seated, and after looking fixedly on your face for some moments, his proceedings begin. He takes three rods of witch hazel, each three inches long, and marks them separately, "For the Stroke," "For the Wind," "For the Evil Eye." This is to ascertain from which of these three evils you suffer. He then takes off his coat, shoes, and stockings; rolls up his shirt sleeves, and stands with his face to the sun in earnest prayer. After prayer he takes a dish of pure water and sets it by the fire, then kneeling down, he puts the three hazel rods he had marked into the fire, and leaves them there till they are burned black as charcoal. Ali the time his prayers are unceasing; and when the sticks are burned, he rises, and again faces the sun in silent prayer, standing with his eyes uplifted and hands crossed After this he draws a circle on the floor with the end of one of the burned sticks, within which circle he stands, the dish of pure water beside him. Into this he flings the three hazel rods, and watches the result earnestly. The moment one sinks he addresses a prayer to the sun, and taking the rod out of the water he declares by what agency the patient is afflicted. Then he grinds the rod to powder, puts it in a bottle which he fills up with water from the dish, and utters an incantation or prayer over it, in a low voice, with clasped hands held over the bottle. But what the words of the prayer are no one knows, they are kept as solemn mysteries, and have been handed down from father to son through many generations, from the most ancient times. The potion is then given to be carried home, and drunk that night at midnight in silence and alone. Great care must be taken that the bottle never touches the ground; and the person carrying it must speak no word, and never look round till home is reached. The other two sticks he buries in the earth in some place unseen and unknown. If none of the three sticks sink in the water, then he uses herbs as a cure. Vervain, eyebright, and yarrow are favourite remedies, and all have powerful properties known to the adept; but the words and prayers he utters over them are kept secret, and whether they are good or bad, or addressed to Deity or to a demon, none but himself can tell.
How a fairy doctor treats a patient, Lady Francesca Speranza Wilde, Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland, 'The Fairy Doctor', 1887

The hazel-tree has many virtues. It is sacred and powerful against devils' wiles, and has mysteries and secret properties known to the wise and the adepts. The ancient Irish believed that there were fountains at the head of the chief rivers of Ireland, over each of which grew nine hazel-trees that at certain times produced beautiful red nuts. These nuts fell on the surface of the water, and the salmon in the river came up and ate of them, which caused the red spots on the salmon. And whoever could catch and eat one of these salmon would be indued with the sublimest poetic intellect, hence the phrase current amongst the people: "Had I the net of science;" "Had I eaten of the salmon of knowledge." And this supernatural knowledge came to the great Fionn through the touch of a salmon, and made him foreknow all events.
Lady Francesca Speranza Wilde; ibid, 'The Properties of Herbs and their Use in Medicine'

"Should you ask of me the question,
How I recognized the bridegroom
Mid the hosts of men and heroes,
I should answer, I should tell you:
'As the hazel-bush in copses,
As the oak-tree in the forest,
As the Moon among the planets;
Drives the groom a coal-black courser,
Running like the famished black-dog,
Flying like the hungry raven,
Graceful as the lark at morning,
Golden cuckoos, six in number,
Twitter on the birchen cross-bow;
There are seven bluebirds singing
On the racer's hame and collar."
Elias Lönnrot, The Kalevala, translated by John Martin Crawford, 'Rune Xxi. Ilmarinen's Wedding-Feast', 1888

But when the men came to the place where the field was enhazelled, there were all the hazel-poles set up to mark the ground where the battle should be.
Rev. WC Green, transl., The Story of Egil Skallagrimsson, Ch LII, 'Of the gathering of the host', 1893

The country people retaine a conceite, that the snakes, by their breathing upon a hazel-wand, doe make a stone ring of blew colour, in which there appeareth the yellow figure of a snake, and that beasts which are stung, being given to drink of the water wherein this stone hath bene socked, will there-through recover. This was clearly one of the so-called 'Druidic rings,' – examples of which may be seen in our museums, – which have been found in England and in Ireland.
Richard Carew, The Survey of Cornwall, in Robert Hunt, ed., Popular Romances of the West of England, 'Adders, and the Milpreve', 1903, 3^rd edition

And the three things they put above all others were the plough and the sun and the hazel-tree, so that it was said in the time to come that Ireland was divided between those three, Coil the hazel, and Cecht the plough, and Grian the sun.
Lady Augusta Gregory, Gods and Fighting Men: The Story of the Tuatha De Danaan and of the Fianna of Ireland, Part I Book I: 'Fight with the Firbolgs', 1904

The Sons of Turann went searching for the Island of Caer, the Land that is under the Sea-Wave. They heard tidings of it in many places, but no one knew where it could be found. Wise Druids told them that the Island was protected by the magic of Fand, the Sea-Queen, the daughter of Flidias, and no one who went there ever returned.
The sun had risen and set many times on the search. Brian, Urcar and Ur were weary; the wind had failed hem, and they were labouring at the, oars: it seemed to them that they would never find the Island of Caer.
"Let us rest a little," said Urcar, "for my strength is spent."
They rested from the oars, and Brian cast a line over the side of the boat. He drew up a fish, white as silver and covered with. crimson spots.
"Brother," said Ur, "your fish is purple-spotted like the Salmon that swims in Connla's Well and eats the crimson nuts of the Hazel of Knowledge: let him go free for sake of his beauty."
Brian threw the fish back to the water, and suddenly knowledge came to him ...
Ella Young, Celtic Wonder Tales, 'The Eric-Fine of Lugh', 1910

Of Lir but little may be affirmed, and nothing can be revealed. In trance alone the seer might divine beyond his ultimate vision this being. It is a breath with many voices which cannot speak in one tone, but utters itself through multitudes. It is beyond the gods and if they were to reveal it, it could only be through their own departure and a return to the primeval silences. But in this is the root of existence from which springs the sacred Hazel whose branches are the gods: and as the mystic night trembles into dawn, its leaves and its blossoms and its starry fruit burgeon simultaneously and are shed over the waters of space.
Æ (George William Russell); The Candle of Vision, 1918

Conversation. What is it? A Mystery! It's the art of never seeming bored, of touching everything with interest, of pleasing with trifles, of being fascinating with nothing at all. How do we define this lively darting about with words, of hitting them back and forth, this sort of brief smile of ideas which should be conversation?
Guy de Maupassant, French writer, born on August 5, 1850

Love means the body, the soul, the life, the entire being. We feel love as we feel the warmth of our blood, we breathe love as we breathe air, we hold it in ourselves as we hold our thoughts. Nothing more exists for us.
Guy de Maupassant

I went out to the hazel-wood
Because a fire was in my head 
Cut and peeled a hazel-wand 
Tied a berry to a thread 
And when white moths were on the wing
And moth-white stars were flickering out
I dropped the berry in a stream
And caught a little silver trout ...
WB Yeats; from 'The Song of Wandering Aengus'

As soon as the generals and the politicos can predict the motions of your mind, lose it. Leave it as a sign to mark the false trail, the way you didn't go. Be like the fox who makes more tracks than necessary, some in the wrong direction. Practice resurrection.
Wendell Berry, American author, born on August 5, 1934; Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front 

My work has been motivated by a desire to make myself responsibly at home in this world and in my native and chosen place.
Wendell Berry

Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.
USA President George W Bush, speaking to a roomful of top Pentagon brass, Washington, DC, August 5, 2004. No one in Bush's audience of military brass or Pentagon chiefs reacted.    Source    And another source    Watch video clip

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August 5 is the 217^th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (218^th in leap years), with 148 days remaining.
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Celtic tree month of Coll (Hazel) commences  (Aug 5 - Sep 1)

Like other Iron Age Europeans, the Celts were a polytheistic people prior to their conversion to (Celtic) Christianity. The Celts divided the year into 13 lunar cycles (months or moons). These were linked to specific sacred trees which gave each moon its name. Today commences the Celtic tree month of Coll.

Hazels are a group of about ten species of trees and large shrubs that are native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The botanic name of the genus is Corylus, and it is placed in the family Corylaceae, though some botanists include this family within the Betulaceae.

The nuts obtained from the species Corylus avellana are the common edible hazelnuts. This large shrub is grown extensively for its nuts. Nuts are also harvested from some of the other species, including the filbert, from the Balkan species Corylus maxima, however the terms hazelnut and filbert are often used interchangeably, particularly in the USA, where imported filberts were grafted onto native hazel rootstock.

The term 'filbert' may derive from 'full beard' (German vollbart), for its long, leafy husk, or simply because hazelnuts mature on or around the feast day of Philibert and Fabrician, August 22 (Middle English, from Old French (nois de) filbert, [nut of] Philibert). Both types are sometimes called cobnuts. There is also an Australian 'hazel' tree (Pomaderris apetala) grown especially for ornament and its fine-grained wood and edible nuts.

Coll, the hazel, is symbolic of wisdom and druidry. Through its use by water dowsers, hazel symbolises divination of hidden or lost things.

Holy Rood Day, September 14, is traditionally known in Britain as Devil's Nutting Day (a custom which persisted in England until the First World War), or the Day of the Holy Nut, and hazel nuts gathered today are said to have magical powers. If you find two on one stalk on Nutting Day, they will guard against rheumatism, toothache and evil spells from witches. But you must not gather nuts early in the morning, as that is unlucky.

Prognosticating the future was always an important part of Samhain (Halloween), and European girls would look for signs of their future husbands in the way hazelnuts burned on the kitchen fire-grate, on 'Nutcrack Night' as Britons sometimes called Halloween. Hazelnuts' greatest magical potency is at Samhain, when the veil between the material and metaphysical worlds is thinnest.

Wishes are said to be come true if, when making the wish, one adorns the hair with individual twigs or with 'wishing caps' made of hazel twigs.

The cutting of hazel should be done at the waxing moon, because when the moon is waning, the sap of the hazel wood goes down into the root, leaving the wood brittle and without pith. Or, so it is said. The same is true of willow and pine (but you can cut gum trees at any old time if you're a fair dinkum Aussie).

Adam, Eve and hazel

According to one ancient legend, after banishing Adam and Eve from Eden, God gave both of them the power to create any animal he desired. To create this beast Adam had to strike the sea with a rod of hazel. The first animal that Adam created in this manner was the sheep, while Eve created a wolf which attacked the sheep. In order to control the wolf, Adam then created a dog. The dog overcame the wolf and harmony was restored. Thus, the mystical properties of Corylus was attached to humankind's breeding of the domestic dog from the wild wolf, with the former's abilities to protect humans and their husbandry from its ancestor.

The legend of Fionn MacCuill

In Irish mythology, MacCuill (Fionn mac Cumhail; Finn Mac Cumhaill; MacCool), one of the last Tuath kings, may have been so-called because he worshipped the hazel (coll). Hazel, in fact is associated with him in legend:

The ancient Irish believed that there were fountains at the head of the largest rivers of Ireland, over each of which grew nine hazel trees that at certain times produced beautiful red nuts. These nuts fell on the surface of the river, and when the salmon in the river came up and ate them, the fishes' flesh gained red spots.

It was believed that whoever could catch and eat one of these Salmon of Knowledge would receive praeternatural powers. (Moreover, it was hazel nuts that gave the bards their ability to write their poems and songs of the ancient legends.) A bard lived by the river Boyne, and caught such a salmon. The hero Fionn (Finn; Finne), who was studing under the bard for seven years, cooked the fish and burned his thumb. While it cooked, he burst a blister on the salmon, which burned his thumb; Fionn then sucked his thumb. As piece of the salmon's skin had become attached to his thumb, which Fionn then swallowed, thus gaining special knowledge, including precognition. He then knew how to gain revenge against his rival, Goal mac Morn, and in subsequent stories was able to call on the knowledge of the salmon by sucking his thumb.  

Pictured at right: Finn Mac Cumhaill (Before his encounter with Aillén the Burner) Stephen Reid, 1910

More folklore

The hazel tree and nut are allied to the supernatural or witchly in many lands. For the divining rod, which is, according to "La Grande Bacchetta Divinatoria O Verga rivelatrice" of the Abbate Valmont, the great instrument for all magic and marvels, must be made of "un ramo forcuto di nocciuòlo" – a forked branch of hazel-nut" – whence a proverb, "Vracarice, coprnjice, kuko ljeskova!" – "Sorceress, witch, hazel-stick." This is a reproach or taunt to a woman who pays great attention to magic and witchcraft. "This reveals a very ancient belief of the witch as a wood-spirit or fairy who dwells in the nut itself." More generally it is the bush which, in old German ballads, is often addressed as Lady Hazel. In this, as in Lady Nightingale, we have a relic of addressing certain animals or plants as if they were intelligences or spirits. In one very old song in "Des Knaben Wunderhorn," a girl, angry at the hazel, who has reproached her for having loved too lightly or been too frail, says that her brother will come and cut the bush down. To which Lady Hazel replies:–

"Although he comes and cuts me down,
I'll grow next spring, 'tis plain,
But if a virgin wreath should fade,
'Twill never bloom again."

To keep children from picking unripe hazel-nuts in the Canton of Saint Gall they cry to them, "S' Haselnussfràuli chumt" – "The hazel-nut lady is coming!" Hence a rosary of hazel-nuts or a hazel rod brings luck, and they may be safely hung up in a house. The hazel-nut necklaces found in prehistoric tombs were probably amulets as well as ornaments.
Leland, Charles Godfrey, Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling, 1891

Hazelnut and Filbert Recipes and Cooking Instructions

"Hazel produced record wind gusts at a number of locations. In Hampton, winds gusted to 130 mph; Norfolk had 78 mph sustained hurricane force winds with gusts to 100 mph. Washington National Airport in Arlington, VA had sustain winds reach 78 mph (over hurricane force) with a gust of 98 mph; Baltimore had a sustained wind of 73 mph with a gust to 84 mph; Salisbury recorded 52 mph with a gust to 101 mph and Philadelphia gusted to 100 mph ... Hazel caused a total of 95 deaths in the U.S. and over a quarter of a billion dollars (1954 dollars) in damages."
Hurricane Hazel, USA, October 15, 1954

Hazel Heb. luz , (Gen 30:37), a nut-bearing tree. The Hebrew word is rendered in the Vulgate by amygdalinus, 'the almond-tree', which is probably correct. That tree flourishes in Syria.

"The Gaelic word for hazel is Coll. It appears frequently in placenames in the west of Scotland, such as the Isle of Coll and Bar Calltuin in Appin, both in Argyll-shire where the tree and its eponymous placenames are the most common. It also appears in the name of Clan Colquhoun whose clan badge is the hazel. The English name for the tree and its nut is derived from the Anglo-Saxon haesel knut, haesel meaning cap or hat, thus referring to the cap of leaves on the nut on the tree."
Mythology and folklore of the hazel

The cock and hen a-nutting (Norse folk tale)

Witch hazel

The nones of August, ancient Rome

In the Roman calendar, the nones of a month were the fifth day of the months January, February, April, June, August, September, November, and December, and the seventh day of March, May, July, and October; traditionally the day of the Half Moon. The nones were nine days before the ides (depending on the month, these could be the 13^th and 15^th day; traditionally the day of the Full Moon), reckoning inclusively, according to the Roman method.

The term none came into Christian liturgical use, meaning 'the fifth of the seven canonical hours' (no longer used) or 'the time of day appointed for this service, usually the ninth hour after sunrise'.

"While the Lares and Di Penates are honored every day in the pious Roman household, the Nones (celebrated on either the 5th or 7th day of the month; see the Calendar) are days when a more elaborate ceremony should be observed. The Nones are sacred to Iuno Covella (Iuno of the Hollow Moon).

"The Nones ritual is usually celebrated early in the morning at sunrise by the head of the household (usually the eldest male). If circumstances (or family tradition) dictate, it may be performed at noon or before sunset. No sexual activity is permitted prior to the rite. The performer of the rite does not break his fast prior to performing the rite (if celebrated at sunrise); only a little tea or coffee is permitted.

"Before the rite the Paterfamilias washes his hands (having also previously bathed or showered beforehand) while saying the prayer for ablution …"
Nones Ritual

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Feast day of St Oswald of Bernicia (Oswald of Northumbria), King of Northumbria and martyr English King of Northumbria and saint, Oswald (604 - 642) was son of the pagan King Aethelfrith the Ravager of Bernicia and Princess Aacha of Deira, the second of seven children. How much Anglo-Saxon pagans suffered at his sainted hand, we shall probably never know. Oswald, a benefactor of the poor, was sitting eating one day, when crowds of beggars came and he gave them food from his own table. There was insufficient to feed them all, so he had one of his silver dishes cut into pieces to distribute among the rest. Aidanus, a Scottish bishop, took him by the hand and blessed his hand, saying "Nunquam inveterascat haec manus!" ("May this hand never perish!"). On  August 5, 642, Oswald lost his life in the Battle of Maserfield with a neighbouring king, Penda of Mercia (d. 654 or 655); his friends, remembering Aidanus's blessing, took care to preserve his arm. The saint's body had been hacked to pieces on the battle field, and his head and arms stuck triumphantly stuck on poles. One of his arms was taken to an ash tree by Oswald's pet raven, and where the arm fell to the ground, a holy well sprang up. According to Bede, the place of his death came to be associated with miracles; people took so much dirt from the site, a hole was dug as deep as a man's height. The arm of St Oswald was kept at Peterborough Cathedral, England, and held in special esteem because King Stephen once came to see it. When the monks washed the bones prior to enshrinement, they poured the water onto the ground nearby and the locals came to believe that the ground had power to heal. Now, it is enshrined as a relic in the Bamburgh church. Picture of St Oswald's Church, Oswestry, Shropshire, UK where you will also find a link to shopping in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. And if you can say that, they should give you a shopping voucher. More   Clipping the Church Day, Guiseley, England At the Yorkshire, UK village of Guisely, on St Oswald's Day, it is a day to carry out the ancient custom of forming a human ring around the church. During the 9:30 am service on that day, the congregation led by the choir, churchwardens, and clergy process out of, and around the church singing Saint Oswald's Ballad. Then all join hands to encircle (clip) the church and say 'God Bless our Church' three times. For a reason I cannot divine, this church celebrates St Oswald's Day on the first Sunday in July. Other 'clipping the church' customs in the UK Dog Days, ancient Rome (Jul 3 - Aug 11) Feast day of St Abel Feast day of St Addai Feast day of St Afra, and companions (her mother, Hilaria, and the servants Digna, Eunomia and Eprepria), martyrs Feast day of St Aggai Feast day of St Cantidius Feast day of St Cassian of Autun Feast day of the Dedication of St Mary ad Nives (Our Lady of the Snows; Dedication of Saint Mary Major) (Egyptian water lily, Nelumbo nilotica, is today's plant, dedicated to this feast.) A feast day to commemorate the dedication of a church on the Equiline Hill, Rome. A silver image of the infant Jesus is on display in an underground chapel; touching it excited the religious fervour of such saints as Jerome and Paula. "The legend says that during the pontificate of Liberius, the Roman patrician John and his wife, who were without heirs, made a vow to donate their possessions to Our Lady. They prayed that she might make known to them how they were to dispose of their property in her honour. On 5 August, during the night, snow fell on the summit of the Esquiline Hill."   Source   Feast day of St Emidius (Emygdius; Æmedius, Emigdius) A cephalophore Christian martyr (c. 304 during the Diocletian persecution) and bishop also commemorated on August 18, Emidius was a pagan Teuton of Trier who became a Christian. He was ordained and consecrated a bishop by Pope Marcellus I (reigned 308 - 309). When Emidius cured a blind man, the people of Rome believed him to be the son of Apollo and carried him off by fo