(Sassafras albidum) Sassafras ranges from Maine to Florida and into the midwest, and can be found as saplings tenaciously taking over old meadows, or in the forest as much larger trees. I always remember sassafras because of the three types of leaves it has, all growing on one tree: a simple shape, a mitten, and a double mitten. Folklore: Folk names for Sassafras include: Ague Tree, Chewing Stick, Tea Tree and Cinnamonwood. It was the first plant product exported from New England to the old world. Traditional Uses: Sassafras tea is used as a spring tonic, but it is a tasty drink, year round. The roots are best used to make the tea, and can be dug anytime of year that it is not frozen. It is easiest to pull up a sapling from a young grove in the soft ground of spring. Thank the trees, and tell them you appreciate their beauty and strength, and need their good medicine. To make the tea, scrub the roots, and cut into convenient sized pieces. Use fresh or dry for later. Put them in a kettle and add water to cover well. Boil until it turns a nice red color. This gives you a concentrated sassafras syrup that you can dilute half and half with water and add honey to taste. Leftover syrup will keep refrigerated for a few days. To use, fill your cups half full of sassafras syrup, pour in boiling water and add honey. Or make it into iced tea. Native American women used sassafras to ease menstrual cramps and the after pains of childbirth. They also rubbed the juice on sore joints. In Creole cooking, young leaves, dried and powdered are used to thicken and flavor gumbos. There are also recipes for Sassafras Jelly. Dried root bark chips can be used like red cedar, to repel moths. Chickens roosting on Sassafras poles (bark on) will not be bothered by mites. A Sacred Wood: Many trees from England and Europe have magical properties well established. In order to find out the Sassafras' attributes and uses for sacred ritual here in North America, we did a trance to the Sassafras tree. Many people trance to find out their power animal, or spirit guides, and so it is also useful to trance to plants for information, healing and advice. Most tree spirits are ancient wise beings. There were four of us in the trance. We stated our intention, created sacred space with a sassafras root wand, shared sassafras tea and put on a trance drumming CD. Here are our insights into the Sassafras Tree: We found our trees hard to talk to at first, in some cases almost belligerent. (We thought later that maybe that was because it was winter and we woke them up.) Once awake and talking, we could tell that the Sassafras is female, giggly, whimsical, liked by the faeries, and has a crush on Oak. She likes to be on the edges, where the changes are. She also seemed changeable herself. Creating sacred space, healing, channeling energy, and poet's muse were her preferences for ritual uses. She prides herself on her smell, and her color, red-orange. She also likes to dance, and more than one of us ended up dancing with her. Sassafras is a Triple Goddess Tree, symbolized by the three different leaves. Her holidays are also three: the single leaf, Maiden, Imbolc. The mitten shape, Mother ("Wear your mittens!"), Beltane. Burn with Oak for Sex Magic at Beltane! The third shape, like a crown, symbolizes Crone, Samhain. Ritual Fires can include dead sassafras at all three festivals. Magical Properties: Healing, tenacity, Triple Goddess Tree, changes, energy channeling, faeries. References: Blackberry Cove Herbal by Linda Ours Rago Stalking the Wild Asparagus by Euell Gibbons Shamanic Journeying by Sandra Ingerman
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Blessed Be, Lynn Articles, photos, and artwork © 2005 Arcadia Studios Full Transcripts of Trance Journeys: A Journey into the Shamanic Brushlands, Looking for a Sassafras Grove. A little songbird led me to the Sassafras grove, and disappeared inside it. I landed in front of the grove, and faced it. The trees stood absolutely motionless and dark. I walked into the grove, and it was dark -not night or clouds or leafshade, just dark. They were large for trees in a brushland Sassafras grove, some as much as six inches diameter, approx., and with very rough bark, although it was very deep brownish red, reflecting it's tea-color. I asked it if I could speak with it. Nothing. The trees stood silent and there was a frown in the air. I pleaded with it and tried several other ways, trying to do it differently than I'd done with my last plant-trance. Finally, they came to life, demanding something from me for their time/answers, I gave them a bit of my hair and said it was all I had. I remember backing away from the the tree in front of me, only to bump into the one behind, which put it's hands on my shoulders and frightened me, I jumped back away from it. This one seemed male, thought most of the trees in the grove seemed female, as did the one I spoke to. This one took animation- it became a lizardy or dragony-looking creature, made of tree with the scaly rough bark. She knocked me down and crouched, 4-legged, in front of me, uttering angry words which seemed or looked once like fire coming from her mouth, like a dragon. I was surprised, but not afraid, I too looked something like a dragon. The first thing she said to me, other than anger/annoyance, was that we were alike. And she was being eaten at from inside, both fighting this and staying alive/thriving in spite of it. Tenacity. Also to part of my reply to her, she got in my face and gave me a bit of a talking to, trying to 'snap me out of it', something of healing by shaking one to their senses, through fighting or harshness, or perhaps 'tough love.' Yet there was also mention of being humble or unassuming- she was after all everywhere, like a weed and often unrecognized. I remembered that I was supposed to ask of her questions, and remembering one, asked it. Perhaps a tad too bluntly, I am still not sure. What I asked was whether or not she wanted to or could be used as a sacred wood for a ritual fire-starter. She looked at me incredulous for a half-second, and then started just rolling with laughter. She seemed to find the idea a little absurd (esp. with the word 'ritual' in there), but after she could catch her breath, she said 'well sure you can, but I won't burn for you.' The 'you' seemed to imply 'humans,' so I asked, 'well who will you burn for?' and/or 'what trees would you (like to) burn with?' With that she got a look in her eyes. 'Well, I will not burn with blackberry/bramble' -she did not seem to like the bramble one bit- 'but I would definitely burn with the big forest trees, like Maple, and Oak.' She seemed to giggle, or blush a bit, as much as an already red bark-lizard can blush, at the mention of Oak. To burn being something of passion, and her only burning with another, Oak seemed to be the first choice. I was like, OH, so you like Oak, do you? And she was like, yyeaah -she seemed to think his strength and grandeur very sexy and all. So we got a bit girltalky/gossipy. She said that Maple was kind and generous and gentle to everyone. She admired and liked Maple, but not 'in that way.' Seemed like she thought of maple as the friend of everyone in the forest, always willing to lend a helping hand, approachable, and Oak was this crush that she'd never in a million years get anywhere near- unapproachable, out of her league. So of course she'd burn with Oak. She also longed to be a big tree of the forest, she didn't want to be in the brush, or was sick of it. This was also her main reason when I asked her why not blackberry. I am here with blackberry all the time. I am sick of her. She also pointed out that in trance I am/look different from real life, so why couldn't she be somewhere different in magic? With the forest, not the brushland. At some point, she lost her thick 4-legged lizard shape, and became a slenderer upright-mobile form, thought still very barky. She was more cheerful, I think she changed because of that, and that she was warming up to me. She was constantly moving in this form. I asked her about symbols. I said my mother thought of spiral as a Sassafras symbol, and she seemed a tad surprised but very flattered- said she'd be honored to have the symbol. This in fact may be the point where she changed forms. (heh. Flattery gets you places, I guess.) I asked her what her 'season' was, what holidays best fit her -she kind of laughed and said 'I am where the edge is,' which I interpreted as change, and spring and fall, but she said not necessarily. Change is all the time, She (like me) was where things were changing, she was at the edges, where there was (energy) movement and flow. As we talked on, partially about important things, and partially about each other/ourselves/gossipy stuff, we began dancing. We danced together, some kind of ballroom-type dance, the kind where you hold a shoulder and a waist, then swing each other out with hands held. It was fun to dance with her, & some little part of me couldn't help but thinking: Heee, I'm dancing with a girl! At some point I asked her what I should do about something, or I told her about how I'd tranced a previous plant and got off on the wrong foot, and how do I make it right/reapproach it. She kind of wagged her finger at me and said 'I am not an advice tree.' I am used to asking advice of trees, for I find them very wise. Perhaps she is not an 'advise tree' because it is very rare to find a sassafras that is very old. Most of them are young, and the personality does seem talky and girlfriendy and gossipy, rather than a wise-and-knowing-old-tree type. I began to worry and wonder if the CD track would end, then the tree said 'it is time to go!' very decisively, so I bid her farewell and thanked her, and flew out of the Sassafras grove as a little songbird. I am glad she told me to leave then, as it took me quite a while to find my body again. Heh. (there are the more relevant -I hope- bits from my trance.. not all is remembered and I think it's a tad nonlinear, but it's a good bit anyhow.) Sandwalker 1-12-05 Sassafras, a group trance, 1-11-05 by margaret smith volkwein © 2005
A sassafras tree grows from the side of a steep cliff face. Even though it is a young tree, its bark is fissured and the tree's branches twisted. The figure of the tree is humanlike, curved trunk and cupped fingers. I can't find a way to the tree. I cross a deep ravine with rushing water underneath. As I am crawling over the log, I feel sassafras bark under my fingers. I can't find the way through. I step in the water and I am washed into a rushing sinkhole. I go down into the darkness. When I step out onto the underground shore, I step out of a sassafras dugout. Underground I find a chamber with roots and rocks. Over one sand rock are red-gold strings. Sassafras roots. The root tips are alive and glowing. The root hairs themselves glow with power. I grab hold of the tree's hair and start to climb. Hi, I say. Can I be here? Can I talk to you? I guess so, says the sassafras. I have climbed to the sapwood, white and fragrant with sassafras spice. The wood feels like it tastes. I slide through the tubes and pipes of the tree with the sap. The tree is orange, red-orange. I ask her how she sees herself. By the smell, that is her identifying property. She likes pine trees and chestnut trees. A tree that touches as she grows in the wild is an acceptable companion for her. Her sprouts contain the most power of any of her parts. The flowers, yellow green and odd shaped, are her crown. I ask what she likes to have done with her, what sort of magic she likes to do. Making sacred space, healing, and energy channeling are what she feels she is best at. Her branches grow sideways, like they are blown there by the winds of change. I travel through the long rows of sap tubes. I go to the cluster of branch tips, the bud tips. I become the aromatic smoke of the dry sassafras. I become the dry wood that the woodpecker forms into a flute that grows from the earth. I become the wood bark basket that the tree weaves around its sapwood and heartwood. It is time to go back. I whip through the tree and down into the earth, the rock, the hidden chamber. I see everything in dark and light circles. I wonder why until I dive into the water headfirst and find I am a fish, a sleek speckledy one. I swim easily out the sinkhole. I become a woman again, looking at the sassafras trees where the groves of power are singing gold on the hill. Red Leaf's Trance I decided to consult a Sassafras in our line fence at the top of the ridge. At nearly a cubit in diameter, it was the largest Sassafras I knew of on our property. So in my mind I left the mundane comforts of our house, and walked uphill through our meadow. At the uphill edge of the meadow I crossed from the manicured meadow into the woods. I continued ascending the hill, going into deeper woods as I went. Passing the Sacred Grove on the first bench, I kept climbing to the second bench, the woods getting wilder and denser as I got farther from the areas in which I cut firewood. The final ascent to the ridge removed me completely from the managed areas of our "holler", until I stood before the Sassafras tree I sought. "O Sassafras," I intoned, "Most of my adult relations with trees have been through firewood and building, and since you are not well suited for either of these, I have paid you scant attention over the years. But I remember that it was you who kept us warm one hard winter when we had no truck to haul more desirable firewood, and I remember when one of the local old timers sawed out a Sassafras tongue for a horse drawn hay rake. I feel I have little right to ask permission to speak to you, yet here I am, asking just that. Please hear me." I did not get a response right away. In fact, there was quite a long silence until I was granted permission. I did not exactly "hear" Sassafras throughout this trance, the answers just popped into my head, as though by telepathy. I asked if Sassafras would like to be used in ritual fires, and the answer was yes. Upon asking it what its attributes were, I confessed that I brought "healing" with me, and asked "C'mon, is healing really one or your attributes, or did I just bring that one with me?" No clear answer was forthcoming, but I got no objection, so I went with healing. Then into my head popped Poetry. Whimsical followed, as indicated by the different leaves on Sassafras. The Faeries like Sassafras. "Are you male or female?" "Silly human!, Sex is not relevant to me, I am both and neither." I started feeling sharp pains in my shoulders, and realized that Sassafras had grabbed me by the shoulders and was shaking me. It took me a while to understand that it was insisting I come up. I promised I would, and the pain subsided. When I asked which woods Sassafras would like to be in a ritual fire with, Sassafras expressed a preference for the hard woods, especially Oak, but Hickory also appeared in my mind. Fruit wood was also favored. Sassafras said to base its rune on its leaves. I wrote this: Beltane was the only holiday Sassafras mentioned as far as being in a ritual fire. "Sex Magic" flashed into my brain for just a moment. I might have heard a giggle, too. I remember asking if there were any other holidays or rituals. I did not get a response, but I was not sure if it was because there were no others, of if Sassafras was just done. I thanked the tree, but I knew the trance drumming was not done, so I said I'd hang around a bit just in case Sassafras wanted to add something. When the trance drumming stopped, Lynn woke me up. The next morning, I walked up to the tree, as promised. It had been cut down! After examining the area I understood that the tree had broken about 14 feet up. There had been a horrific ice storm two winters ago, that was no doubt when it had happened. The top (which was most of the tree) did not break off and fall to the ground, so the only way to remove the wreckage was to cut the whole tree off just above the fence it held. The fence borders a gas line right-of-way, which must be kept clear, so the gas company guys probably did the cutting. There were no limbs on the tree below the break, so there really had been no chance of survival. I was remorseful that I had not known this, and that I hadn't been up to the ridge for so long. My mind was flooded with remembrances of last night's trance and how this new information fit in. No wonder it took so long to establish contact! Now I was amazed that it worked at all! The others had sensed Sassafras to be female and I had been puzzled by my different answer, but now I understood that "my" Sassafras addressed that question as a spirit. As I worked with the tree that day, I came to know her as female. I felt that Sassafras had wanted me to come up so that I could see what had happened, but also because She wanted me to use her wood. She was unsatisfied with her untimely demise, and using her wood for ritual fires would give her life meaning. I went back down for my chain saw, and when I got back to the tree, I cast a circle and, while in sacred space, cut some pieces of Sassafras for use in ritual fires. When I was done, I carved the rune I had decided upon into her trunk and thanked her. I got a fair amount of wood considering the inaccessibility of the tree, so for as long as this sentence is here, the Sassafras you receive will be from this tree. Blessed Be. Red Leaf Archives Of Previous TreeSpirit Newsletters Articles, artwork, photos © 2005 Arcadia Studios Back to Seven Sacred Woods Back to TreeSpirit Newsletter * |
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