Alder: Ogham Tree for January

 

The ancient Celts used the first alphabet in Europe which is called the Ogham script.  Each letter is associated with a tree or an important plant.  The alphabet was used as a mnemonic device to encode knowledge, the Celtic song of the universe, Ceolta na Cruinne (Diana Beresford-Kroeger).  The thirteen months of the year (pre-Gregorian calendar) were each represented by a particular tree.  The new year began on Nov. 1^st with Birch, followed by Rowan in December.  The tree associated with January is Alder.  It's Celtic name is Fearn and it was represented by the letter F.   It seems to me that in the midst of chaos and change, some ancient knowledge might lend a guiding hand or at least some perspective.

Fearn or Alder Ogham script

Alder is a member of the Birch family.  It often grows on riverbanks or lakeshores which it stabilizes with its fibrous root structure.  Alder is an early colonizer tree of barren ground.  Through its symbiotic relationship with the bacteria Frankia aini which is found in the root nodules and absorbs nitrogen from the air in return for sugars from the tree, the soil around the Alder roots is replenished with nitrogen.

On the shore of Georgian Bay, Ontario, Alnus incana (Tag Alder, Speckled Alder)
The British variety Alnus glutinosa is a much taller tree.

The oily wood of the Alder does not rot in water.  In fact, it becomes harder in water, so its has been used for centuries to build roads over wet places, provide pilings for buildings in Venice and some Medieval cathedrals as well as wagon wheels, milk churns and wooden clogs.  The wood makes good charcoal which was used in smithing and metalworking. The wood which is not good firewood is however used to smoke food such as salmon. When cut, the wood turns pink or orange resembling blood or fire and so the wood was also used to make shields with the belief that the wood would bleed instead of the warrior.

You can see the grey bark on the trunk and the reddish brown twigs.

Medicinally, inner cambial Alder bark contains salicin which turns into salicyclic acid in the human body.  The bark has therefore been used for pain relief for the gums, the mouth, for the pain of scalds and burns, or externally for joint pain.  A leaf inside the shoe was thought to help aching feet.

Alder was also used to make dyes – green from the flowers, red from the bark, brown from the twigs and yellow from bark, young shoots and ferrous sulphate.

The tree has both male catkins that provide pollen and female catkins which when fertilized (by wind or bees) turn into tiny woody cones.  When these cones open, the seeds may fall into the nearby water where they float due to air chambers inside of them and an oily exterior.  Thus, the seeds are spread by air or water.  Alders represented balanced male and female energy so they were thought to help in knowing when to move forward and when to find inner stillness.

Here you can see the long male catkins and the tiny cones which have released their seeds.
The small female catkins will appear in the spring.

Here you can see the tiny Alder cones in relationship to my thumb.

Pan pipes were made of Alder twigs and Alder wood was also used in Fender electric guitars.

Alder was thought to help people “take up challenges, move into new situations and face things previously avoided.” (Glennie Kindred).  And finally, from Elen Sentier: Alder is “about forgetting the little personal self, your personal wants and needs and focusing instead on the needs of the earth…. [This] Wisdom means you know that you are just a part of the whole, and that, by thinking of the needs of the earth, you can help things work out appropriately.” (p. 27-8)

And so, through the Alder tree, the knowledge of protecting the earth, balancing our male and female energies and finding our place in the whole is shared.  Ancient knowledge and yet very timely for the place and time we find ourselves in.

References:

Diana Beresford-Kroeger (2019) To Speak for the Trees. Random House: Canada.

Glennie Kindred, (1997) The Tree Ogham. Glennie Kindred: UK.

Elen Sentier (2014) Trees of the Goddess. Moon Books: Winchester, UK.