Rowan (The Alchemical Wand)
The rowan and its red berries in winter are connected with the Otherworld. Twigs are sometimes worn on clothing for protection from malevolent spirits. Rowan berries signal chthonic protection, divination, good luck, and sometimes healing and the giving of wisdom.
Invoking the Qualities of Otherworldly Protection.
The rowan tree or mountain ash, is honoured throughout the Celtic world for its role in the magic and enchantments emanating from the Otherworld. Its aspect can be potent and fierce. In the mythological cycle of Irish tales, Etáin is struck with a "wand of scarlet rowan berries" and instantly disappears into a pool of water. In the Fionn Cycle of Irish tales, the hero Finn acquires understanding of all things by eating a red-speckled salmon that fed on the berries of the enchanted rowan tree overhanging the pool.
Rowan trees are favoured because they provide chthonic or otherworldly protection and good luck. People like to have one neighbouring the house and holy places or to secretly fasten small twigs to their clothes to bring good luck. A rowan branch above the door protects the home from fire and unkindly intruders and spirits. In a story collected in the last century in the lowlands of Scotland, the rowan protects the peasantry while watching the procession of faeries, which takes place at the coming of summer. From beneath a door arrayed with rowan branches, they can safely "gaze on the cavalcade, as with music sounding, bridles ringing, and voices mingling, [as] it pursued its way from place to place."
Rowan berries and rowan branches are the certain protectors of cows, sacred to the goddesses of the underworld. Rowan are kept in the barn "to safeguard the cows; put in the pail and around the churn to ensure that the profit of the milk [is] not stolen." In a story told in County Cavan in the 1940s, Charles King relays that the "old people would tie roundberry [rowanberry] to the cows' tails. They would make a small ring of the roundberry and tie it with a red rag, and slip it in as far as they could on the cow's tail.... That was done as a 'protection' against the butter being taken from the milk during the year."
Rowan wood also serves in divination. It is likely that the Norse carved runes from rowan wood. A rowan wand is used in divining the future. A fire of rowan wood casts spells and anticipates danger by summoning underworldly spirits, not all of them benevolent.
IF YOU ARE DRAWN TO THIS ORACLE, the protection and good luck of the rowan are being offered to you. Are you presently engaged in challenging or risky situations that beg extra protection and comfort? Do circumstances or the time of year invite circumspection and care? Do you feel any need to shield yourself from the unkindness of others or from spirits in the psychic realm? The presence of the rowan suggests both caution in worldly affairs and the protection of unseen forces. Its otherworldly authority dispels fear and anxiety, enabling life to proceed beneficially.
It may be an auspicious time to consider and appreciate the chthonic forces at hand in your life. Such forces stir within the human realm, bringing vitality and even healing and guidance. In the slow, steady pace of the underworld, you may be dreaming or "seeing" in new ways, prompted by otherworldly forces stirring within your unconscious mind. In this way, the presence of the rowan is a means of divining your next step, goal, relationship, or endeavour. Usually, there is no great drama or vision, just a gentle and pervasive shift in perspective and inclination. Like the rowan's red berries in winter, changes accord with the rhythms of nature.
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