by Maurizio Corrado

The history of our relation with the willow tree is paradigmatic of the metamorphosis of the relation between men and trees in the Western culture. Typically, when addressing symbols and myths, there is no “one-size-fits-all” interpretation, but rather a common thread running through the myriad of existing tales. Originally connected with the primordial goddess and her symbols – water and fertility – the willow tree has shared her same destiny and has gradually become associated with negative elements.

Any attempt to address the myth – this elusive and evasive subject – by following a chronological order turns out to be extremely difficult. I admit to having made such an attempt, but I have eventually preferred to (or rather had to) respect myth’s very nature, which can be more easily explored by analogies, evocations and allusions.

We shall begin from Nennius’ Historia Brittonum, or The History of the Britons – which very much influenced the legends surrounding King Arthur – probably written at the beginning of the 11^th century. According to Nennius, Beli – the ancient Brythonic god, to whom Stonehenge solar temple was probably dedicated – originated from Belus, Danaus’ father. Some believe that Beli is a metamorphosis of Bel, the Babylonian god of death, member of a trinity of male gods, who had become the recipients of the competences of a previous deity – older even than Ishtar herself – the Sumerian white goddess, Danaë’s mother, also known as the goddess of the moon, the trees, love and death. The goddess’ name was Belili and she was the sister-lover of Tammuz, the god of crops and pomegranates. Over the time, her name grafted out words, with only seemingly different meanings: beli, white in Slavonic languages, bile, the sacred tree in Goidelic languages, bellus, beautiful in Latin, billa and billus, tree branch and tree trunk in Medieval Latin, billet, piece of wood in English. Originally, all trees belonged to Belili. She was the goddess of wells, springs and particularly willow trees.

Thus, the willow tree was the favourite tree of Belili, the first deity worshipped in the Middle East

Her name resounds also further North, in Lithuania, where the goddess of the moon was named Blinda. A complete Christianization must have occurred in Lithuania only in very late times, considering that still in 1805, in Kalnekai, a village on the banks of river Neman, peasant women prayed for wealth and proliferation of children in front of an old willow tree, the recognized symbol of Blinda. As the representatives of the newly spreading Catholicism did not succeed in stopping the worshipping, the best they could manage was to place a crucifix on the trunk. Legend has it that Blinda was so fertile, that she could give birth from her feet, hands and head. For that reason, the goddess Earth, full of jealousy, decided to weed her out and one day, while Blinda was walking in a swamp, the Earth sucked her down into the mud and turned it into a willow tree.

So far, then, the willow, the favourite tree of Belili/Blinda, may legitimately be considered as the tree of fertility. Led by the sound of the goddess’ name, we have reached Northern Europe, where the willow was the Moon’s tree, the tree worshipped by the witches par excellence. In this area, the very word witch originated from the word for willow, as did both wicked and wicker. The North Berwick witches confessed to King James I that they flew on sieves used to sift cereals, once made out of willow wood. The witches of the Île de Sein sailed the high seas heading to their Sabbaths on board a wicker basket. English witches’ brooms were made of an ashwood stick, birch twigs and wicker strings.

In this overview, one cannot help looking at the Celtic tradition, according to which the willow was the fifth tree of the year and it corresponded to the period starting with the 15^th of April and ending with the 12^th of May. It is no coincidence that Beltane – with its orgiastic feasts and the magic love-evoking dew – falls halfway through this period.

For the Druids, the willow corresponded to the fifth letter of the Beith-luis-nin tree alphabet, an orally transmitted communication hand system, in which letters are named after the trees. The willow corresponded to the tip of the little finger, the oracular finger with divinatory potential.

Following the tenuous, albeit persistent thread of sound, let’s move on to Greece, where the original form of letter S was C, originally a Cretan linear writing’s hieroglyphic representing a waning crescent moon; the moon, once again, the willow’s favourite travel companion. On some Cretan coins Europe is portrayed sitting on a willow, making love to an eagle and holding a wicker basket. Some believe that this is indeed Euro-ope, the wide-faced one, resembling the full moon, but also Eu-rope, the one adorned with blossoming willow branches, i.e. Helike, the nymph-goat who, with her sister Amalthea, was nursemaid to infant Zeus on the mount Ida. On Mount Ida, according to Plutarch, Zeus’ cradle hung from the branches of a willow, and his wet nurse’s name was Itea, meaning willow in Greek. In Greece, the willow was sacred to Hekate, Circe, Hera and Persephone, the chthonic personifications of the triple goddess. The mount Helicon – home of the Muses, orgiastic priestesses of the Moon goddess – takes its name from the archaic Greek word heliké, meaning willow branch, but also she who spins, i.e. Ursa major.

Wrynecks, the birds-snakes sacred to the goddess, show a V sign on their plumage, and in the name of the wryneck Dyonysus himself was invoked during arcane erotic charms. Polygnotus portrayed Orpheus in the act of touching the willows of a forest sacred to Persephone, seeking to receive the gift of mystical eloquence, which is often hardly distinguishable from the erotic one. Therefore, besides being the tree of magic and the earthly symbol of the Moon, the willow was also the tree sacred to poets, since it was from a willow that Orpheus, poet and musician par excellence, received his gift.

Having noticed that after the blossoming, willow fruits ripen very rapidly and fall on the ground, the Greeks believed that the tree killed its own offspring. Homer called it the “fruit-destroying willow” and he evoked the Mother Earth who constantly generates and takes its offspring back into her womb. As any other self-respecting symbol, the willow was ambiguous: it was associated with both fertility and chastity or sexual abstinence, since it has no offspring, àgonos. It showed a twofold nature, mother and virgin, blossoming and chaste. During the Thesmophoria, the sacred day dedicated to Demeter and Kore, in order to preserve their chastity, women were supposed to lie on a couch made of willow branches. In his Naturalis historia, Pliny the elder stated that a brew of finely ground willow leaves could restrain sexual ebullience and, if taken often, it could even eradicate it.

Indeed, both the leaves and the buds of Salix Alba are proven to be sexual sedative and effective against insomnia. The use once of the willow bark for curing rheumatisms and humidity-related diseases is owned to its salicin content, known for its anti-rheumatic, anti-inflammatory and astringent action. Today, salicin has been replaced by acetylsalicylic acid, the active principle in aspirin.

It is possible that initially the Ancient Thessalonians worshipped a willow goddess, who subsequently became Athena, whose name, in turn, resembled that of Anatha, the goddess of the rain-inducing willow, worshipped in Jerusalem.

This brings us to Jerusalem, the holy city of the three monotheistic religions. In the cult of Yahweh, the day of the Feast of Tabernacles was called the Willow day: thus, the thanksgiving ritual for the fruits of the earth, although crystallized in the celebration of a historical event, had preserved intact its link with the sacred tree. According to Leviticus: “you shall take the fruit of goodly trees, branches of palm-trees, and boughs of […] willows of the brook”. Willows grow next to water, that is the symbol – for the Jews as well as for other peoples from the same area and desert people in general – of life constant renewal and evolution. As we read in the Book of Isaiah:

(…)

Continue in Nemeton 5, april 2011

Share!

• 

Tags: Alberi, Dea, myth, pensiero, philosopy, scienza, simboli