Elder

I have recently been confronted by the Elder tree and not one who believes in coincidences I decided to do some research on the trees meaning.

This is from John Matthews the Green Man Oracle

Sacrifice requires us to set aside something we value in a specifically sacred way. We give what is worthy, honouring our most holy ones and acknowledging the reality of the unseen side of life, which is too often ignored or neglected. We do not give out of fear or in appeasement, but to make space in our daily lives for the divine, for we believe that if we do so the Divine will make way for us. Sacrifice is a way of generous and unselfish giving to the whole of the universe, without something being lost. 

The Elder has strong associations with witchcraft and transformation in Britain. Witches were rather fond of turning themselves into elders.  Some traditions see the Elder as being a strong protection against dark magic, and if elder twigs are collected on St John's eve (just before mid-summer) they are a protection against any bad luck that may surround the Twelfth Night celebrations. In Christian tradition it provided the wood for the cross, and is the tree in which Judas Iscariot is supposed to have hung himself.  A superstition is that people living in houses built in the shadow of an Elder were likely to die young, and it was never used to make furniture.

Pangur-ban