Hazel Tree Magick

• Ruler: Hermes, Aemgus, Artemis, Diana
• Type: Tree
• Magickal form: Branch, Nut, Catkins

The Hazel is a holy tree, associated with poetry and knowledge, fire and fertility. Hazel is one of the nine sacred woods used to kindle Need-fire at Beltane and other great festivals. It’s nuts are associated with love and child-birth, and are used in divination.

Hazel wood is excellent for making all purpose magickal wands, it is one of the most powerful wands for divination. Wands made of this wood symbolize white magick and healing. Dowsing sticks (forked sticks) are used to find water, buried treasure, and locate lost objects.

If you are outside and in need of magickal protection quickly draw a circle around yourself with a hazel branch. For protection while walking, wrap hazel twigs or branches around your walking stick or cane.

Eat the nuts to draw love and wisdom into your life. Eat together with a lover to increase the length of the relationship. To clear a stubborn cough, finely powder the nuts and mix with water and honey.

To enlist the aid of plant fairies, string hazelnuts on a cord and hang up in your house or ritual room. Magically, hazel wood is used to gain knowledge, wisdom and poetic inspiration. Weave hazel twigs into a crown. Put this on your head and wish very hard. Your wish may come true!

Twigs of Hazel are placed in window frames to protect the house against lightning, and three pins of hazel wood driven into your house will protect it from fire.

In England, branches of Hazel leaves gathered on Palm Sunday and kept alive indoors in water were said to protect the house from thunder and lightning. In Wales, fresh hazel leaves worn as a chaplet for the head brought general good luck and ensured the granting of wishes, as well as protection for those at sea from shipwreck.

At lambing time, if the catkins are brought indoors and set about the rooms, it is helpful to the sheep.

Scottish children born in autumn were sometimes given the ‘milk’ of the hazelnut as their first food, for that brought good luck and health. If, later on, they did not thrive as they should, they were strengthened with doses of the ‘milk’ mixed with honey.

The air surrounding hazel trees is said to be magically charged with the quicksilver energy of exhilaration and inspiration. In 19th century Germany, it was thought that there were witches beneath the bark of hazel trees – hence only peeled branches were allowed in churches.

The Hazelnut is a magical tree for relaying messages, which is why a Y-shaped Hazel branch is used for divination. To dream of, or to have a hazelnut tree show up in an unusual way may mean the answer to a dilemma is imminent. To dream of a Hazelnut tree also predicts wealth as well as unexpected good fortune.

Because the Hazelnut tree bestows powers of wisdom, symbolized by the cracking of the nutshell to get to the nourishment inside, a hazelnut or hazelnut tree may also mean that you will crack a situation.

The nut and shell also represent the heart within the body and female fertility, because the nut is like a baby inside a mother’s womb. With such life-giving qualities, this tree is an auspicious sign that love and new projects have the magical ingredients for success.

Male and female flowers, being borne on separate trees, forecast a lover’s meeting.

Collected from various sources