The Alder tree (Alnus glutinosa) is one of the sacred trees of Wicca/Witchcraft and also a member of the Birch tree family. In folklore the Alder is known as the 'King of the Waters' with the 'Willow' tree as it's Queen. This association is due to their natural habitat near lakes, rivers and streams. The Alder tree is native to the British Isles and continental Europe where it flourishes in temperate and cold climates. The leaves of the Alder are broadly ovate, stalked and usually smooth. It produces catkins (so named for their resemblance to cat’s-tails) that are formed in the autumn, the fruiting ones having scales rather like tiny fir cones). The tree’s flowers appear in early spring before the leaves are fully out and its woody nearly globular female catkins are its so-called berries.
Alder trees are usually small in stature but can reach heights of 70 ft (21 meters) in perfect conditions. There are four stages of production on the Alder tree at any given time, the old cones of the previous year’s fruiting, the new year’s leaves or leaf-buds, and the new year’s male and female catkins. The tree matures at about 30 year’s of age at which time it is capable of producing a full crop of seeds. After this, it can live on to reach an age of about 150 years. It is also the only broadleaved tree to produce cones. To the ancients of old the Alder was particularly revered for it appeared to bleed like humans. When an Alder tree is felled its inner wood is white but gradually over time turns to a reddish-pink.
The wood of the Alder has many uses. When young it is brittle and very easily worked but the more mature of its wood is tinted and veined. Due to the Alders resistance to water, in times gone by it was used in the construction of bridges, particularly the long heavy piles driven into the ground or sometimes under water to support it. This quality for long endurance under water also made it valuable for pumps, troughs and sluices for which purposes it is said to have been used in sixteenth-century Venice, as well as France and Holland.
The roots and knots of the Alder furnished good material for cabinet-makers. These were used for making the clogs of old Lancashire mill-towns, however demand exceeded supply and Birch had to be used in its stead. It was also used for making carts and spinning wheels, bowls, spoons, wooden heels and herring-barrel staves etc. On the Continent it was largely used for cigar-boxes for which its reddish Cedar-like wood was well suited. After lying in a bog, the wood of the Alder has the color but not the hardness of Ebony. In the Highlands of Scotland this 'bog Alder' was used for making handsome chairs from which it became known as 'Scottish Mahogany'. The branches of the Alder made good charcoal and was a valuable commodity for making gunpowder. Dyers, tanners and leather dressers used its bark commercially and fishermen use it for making nets.
In Celtic folklore the Alder is associated with the fairies and it was believed that doorways to the fairy realm were concealed within its trunk. The Alder was sacred to the god 'Bran' who carried a branch of it with him during the 'Battle of the Trees' saga, an old Celtic legend. Bran’s totem animal was the Raven which also became associated with the Alder. Ritual pipes and whistles were often made from Alder wood, many in the shape of the Raven. A Taliesin riddle once asked the question: “Why is the Alder purple?”, the answer is because Bran wore purple into battle. In some Norse and Irish legends the first man was formed from the Alder while the first women came from the Rowan. In the Ogham alphabet, the Druids allocated the letter “F” the third consonant to the Alder.
Italian witches used to mix the sap from the Alder tree with that of the madder plant, a Eurasian plant (Rubia tinctorum of the family Rubiaceae) to produce red dyes. These were then used to color ribbons, cords and sashes for use in magick and ritual. Ritual bags made of wool and dyed red have been highly prized by Italian witches since classical times. Also in Italy the wood of the Alder was used to light the fires for the spring festival.
In dyeing, the Alder’s bark is used as a foundation for blacks with the addition of copperas. Alone it dyes woollens a reddish color (Aldine Red). The Laplanders chew it and dye leathern garments with their saliva. The young shoots of the Alder dye yellow and with a little copper a yellowish-grey useful in the half-tints and shadows of flesh in tapestry. The shoots cut in March will dye cinnamon, and if dried and powdered produce a tawny shade. The fresh wood yields a pinkish-fawn dye and the catkins a green. The leaves have been used in tanning leather. They are clammy and if spread in a room are said to catch flea’s on their sticky glutinous surface.
Magical and Medicinal uses:
The bark and young shoots contain from 16 to 20 per cent of tannic acid but so much coloring matter that they are not very useful for tanning. This tannin differs from that of galls and oak-bark and does not yield glucose when acted upon by sulphuric acid, instead it resolves it into Aldine red and sugar. Alder acts as both a tonic and astringent. A decoction of the bark is useful to bathe swellings and inflammations especially of the throat and has been known to cure ague. Peasants on the Alps were reported to be cured of rheumatism by being covered with bags full of the heated leaves. Placing Alder leaves in your shoes will ease weary feet, useful for walkers and hikers. Of old, Alder leaves were collected in the morning with the dew still upon them making them sticky and gummy, these were then carried around the home attracting fleas and trapping the pests. Horses, cows, sheep and goats are said to eat Alder leaves but some say it is bad for horses as it turns their tongues black, swine refuse to eat it.
The Alder tree is known by the folk names: King of the Woods and Scottish Mahogany. Its deity association is with Bran. Its planetary ruler is Venus and its associated elements are Fire and Water. The Alder is used to attract the powers needed for: Protection of self, Divination, Oracles, Healing and anything to do with the element Water.
Astrologically Alder people (i.e. those who were born in the month of February) are like the Phoenix rebuilding him or herself after each defeat or set back. They have tendencies to be oracles being psychically aware, but also have to be careful not to abuse their gifts. They can be brutal in their frankness yet they are also kind. They might sometimes be in need of protection spiritually because others will envy what they have and try to use it or take it from them. As the Alder takes 30 years to mature so Alder people can be very immature acting and make rash poorly thought-through decisions for themselves.
