Plant & Crystal Magic 10: Hawthorn & Rainbow Crackle Quartz
It’s May, the threshold month that brings us to Summer. It is the time of year when the earth is abundant with activity, flowering, and the potential for magic. This month we will explore the May Tree, Hawthorn, and the rare Rainbow Crackle Quartz, two allies with associations in the realms of enchantment.
Hawthorn
Hawthorn is known as the May Tree, and is deeply associated with Beltane and the Faerie realm. It’s white flower buds open to reveal delicate pink and a musky scent that heralds the fullness of Spring, and the beginning of early Summer. Hawthorn is actually part of the rose family, and is often kept small and used a garden or landscape shrub. It is said that this tree is under the protection of the Faeries and marks the entrance to their realm, and that anyone who sleeps under it on May 1st, especially on a Faery hill, could find themselves permanently transported to that other world. Hawthorn is also strongly associated with witches and magic, and named as one of the three sacred trees in British and Celtic lore: Oak, Ash, and Thorn. When these three grow together it is said to be a Faerie place, and women knowledge often included them in magical gardens. Superstitious onlookers, in times of fear regarding magic and healing, claimed that witches could turn themselves into Hawthorn at will, though this idea could have come about because of women healers and herbalists collecting the very useful medicine of this tree on a regular basis.
Because of the strong connection to Faerie, it has long been considered an offense to cut down a Hawthorn tree, and most practitioners collect only those branches, flowers, and fruits that have fallen on their own. The exception, however, is during the rituals of Beltane, when after an evening in the woods, flowers and branches of Hawthorn were collected as part of the ritual and used for refreshing the home, making a flower wreath for the Maypole, and weaving flower crowns to give as gifts. Hawthorn was considered a tree of fertility, love, and betrothal, partly because the scent of its flowers was said to be erotic, and something like feminine sexual secretions. It has been associated with the rites of marriage, the virginal Welsh Goddess Olwen, celebrated as the May Queen, the Roman Goddess of flowers and fornication, Flora, and the Greek God of marriage, Hymen, just to name a few, and still is used as wedding bouquets, adornments, and ceremonial wedding torches. It also has ritual associations in funerary rites. The Teutons, for example, revered Hawthorn as sacred to Thor and as a mirror of celestial fire, or lightening. They used its wood in funeral pyres so that the souls of the dead would escape through the burning thorns and ascend upwards. Hawthorn is the hottest burning wood. In ancient Ireland, Hawthorns were known as Holy Thorns and grew near sacred wells. Pilgrims would often tear off pieces of their clothing to hang on the trees as prayer flags, in hopes that their supplications for healing and good health would be carried to the Gods through the movement of the wind in the branches. They were also left as offerings of gratitude, for cures that had helped them and their loved ones. These practices continue today.
There are very practical reasons for this level of reverence and for the associations with love. Hawthorn berry is a potent cardiac tonic. It can normalize blood pressure, though if used for too long it can cause lower blood pressure than normal. It can address the following functional heart problems: heart murmurs, inflammation of the heart muscles, fatty degeneration of vessels, aortic disease, arteriosclerosis, leaky valves, and dropsy of cardiac origin. Furthermore, the homeopathic remedy Crataegus is made from Hawthorn and is used as a heart tonic that can affect a wide range of conditions such as chronic heart disease with weakness, feeble heart action, high arterial tension, oedema, irregular heart beat, myocanditis, arteriosclerosis, pressure on left side of chest, heart failure, and associated irritability, apprehension, insomnia, and despondency. This medicine is also given to young children with diabetes.
The berries can work as a cure, along with proper diet, exercise, sleep, and medical care for serious conditions, but can also be a strong preventative. They help to tone the heart and can improve one’s resistance to infections that have the potential to injure the heart, such as strep throat, rheumatic fever, and tonsillitis. It is often used in combination with other herbs such as motherwort, borage, garlic, dandelion, and cayenne for these applications.
The flowers, leaves, and fruits all have properties that reduce blood pressure, stimulate the heart, and act in a sedative manner, making them good for circulatory issues, migraines, angina, menopausal discomforts, and insomnia. The flowers have the strongest sedative effect and medicinal actions. They can be decocted into teas for drinking or for external use for skin blemishes. The berries are high in Vitamins B and C, and can also be used to treat diarrhea, dysentery, and kidney disorders. Because of its strength as an herbal medicine, and its effect on the heart, it is best to work with an herbalist when using Hawthorn for physical issues.
In terms of magic, Hawthorn has long been used to increase fertility. This is the primary reason for its incorporation into wedding ceremonies, though it has also been used to maintain chastity, by placing leaves beneath the mattress or around the bedroom. Plants often have a dual action based on one theme, and chastity, fertility, and sensuality are of course interconnected. (Think of the Goddess aspects Olwen and Flora, named above.) Carrying a piece of Hawthorn was said to bring luck in fishing, and was used as an amulet to ward off depression and bring happiness. Its chastity aspect was also utilized to keep to a period of waiting and inner silence, when focused attention was needed, while waiting for renewed activity and the results of efforts or magic. It has also been called on for protection magic, particularly protecting the home from storms, lightening, and harmful ghosts. Romans put Hawthorn in or under cradles to protect infants from spells. Hawthorn’s association with fertility also makes it an ideal ally for manifestation magic. From the rituals of witches held beneath its branches, and the practice of sitting beneath one to develop the ability to see fairies, to the folk magic of prayer flags tied to its branches, Hawthorn attracts the attention of the sacred and mysterious, and can direct it to one’s focused intention. Finding one to build sacred relationship with, or planting one, can potentate one’s magic.
Beltane season recipes for working with Hawthorn: (from Tree Medicine Tree Magic by Ellen Evert Hopman)
May Brandy: Try this folk style recipe by filling up a mason jar at least 3/4 full with fresh Hawthorn flowers, excluding the stems. Cover with Brandy and allow to sit for 3 months. Strain and drink, or add honey to make a lovely cordial.
Hawthorn Cocktail: You will need 1 bottle of white wine, a sprig of lemon thyme, 1/2 bottle of red wine, 2 sprigs of borage, 1 orange cut into slices, and a handful of Hawthorn flowers. Pour the wine into a bowl, then add orange slices, herbs, and flowers. Cover this with a cloth and let it stand for a day and a half. Strain the mixture, and shake with ice in a cocktail shaker. You can make it beautiful by decorating the glasses with pretty blue borage flowers. This mixture will lighten the heart and would be great for May celebrations.
Rainbow Crackle Quartz
Rainbow Crackle Quartz is a rare stone, and one worth finding. It is a form of Quartz that contains cracks within it, which can occur naturally or be forced through the use of heat. Rainbow Crackle Quartz is generally a natural stone that appears clear, until it is exposed to a beam of light and reveals a rainbow prism of color within. The unique magical quality of this stone, which has long been viewed as a symbol of hope and positivity, has to do with the combination of the crackle effect and the rainbow light spectrum.
Crackled Quartz, with its visible lines and cracks, dispels and counteracts negative energy. For this reason, it is often used in a defensive manner, as an amulet to ward off negative intrusions, or for the general purpose of diffusing ones own heavy thoughts, moods, and emotions. It can help to cultivate a clearer, lighter, more positive mind, and assist one in recovering a positive emotions, ideas, and inner self talk. It absorbs negative energy, and acts as a filter, allowing for more balance in ones energetic body and mind. The absorption capacity is stronger the more cracks it has inside. In addition to this protective aspect, it also can easily be used for activation and intention programming, as with all Quartz crystals. When the rainbow aspect is added, this potential is magnified. Rainbow Crackle Quartz can both pull out the negative energies and replace them with positivity and intention.
All Rainbow crystals have special gifts in manifestation. This is because they contain the full spectrum of light, all the colors of the rainbow, inside them. This gives them the ability to stimulate all energy centers (Chakras, or in the Mexica tradition Totonalcayos). This stimulation reaches all inner creative levels, our full system for accessing, grounding and projecting energy. The implication is that the full spectrum of color can make it easier to bring one’s manifestations all the way into creation in everyday, physical reality.
Rainbow Crackle Quartz can also enhance the gifts of seers, psychics and magical practitioners, potentially opening wide the intuitive senses and allowing for a prismatic window into the past, present, and future. Clear seeing and clear thinking are not only helpful, in general, but essential to the work of manifestation, lest you get what you asked for without awareness. During magical workings and in times when action is needed, this stone can be a great ally in clairvoyance and the cultivation of power.
One word of caution: though direct sunlight can reveal the rainbows inside, these crystals should not be kept in the sun for more than a few minutes. And, when using them in the sun, be aware that clear Quartz can heat and even amplify the sun’s rays enough to start a fire if placed on paper, dry wood, or other combustible materials! Here, in Northern California, we have good reason to be extra cautious when it comes to the potential for fire.
Suggestion for May manifestation magic with Hawthorn and Rainbow Crackle Quartz:
Find a Hawthorn tree or shrub in the wilds or in your own garden, if possible, as the setting for this working. Alternately, make a Hawthorn flower tea, Brandy, or Cocktail, and offer it to the earth, the Faeries, a dab for your crystal, and last to yourself.
Begin a manifesting meditation with your Rainbow Crackle Quartz crystal by lying down, under the Hawthorn tree, or another sacred place on the earth. If there are flowers present, this will be better for manifestation magic. Place the crystal on your solar plexus or navel. Either will work, but in my training it was described that the navel is the center for dreaming, and particularly with the physical womb as a powerful center of creation in this area, it could be a better choice for those who are physically female. Visualize and breath in each color, moving it through the crystal, through the solar plexus or navel, and into the corresponding chakra. These associations can vary some, but in general begin with red for the root chakra, orange for sex and sacrum, gold for solar plexus, green then pink for the heart, blue for the throat, purple for the third eye, and white light for the crown. For each chakra take 7 breaths, inhaling for seven counts and exhaling for seven counts each time. This will align you to the energy of the moon, 7 being the number of days in each of the four phases. The moon is a force of change, for both creation and destruction, and is important for manifestation magic. Once you have attuned to your crystal and activated your energy centers, you can begin to program your intention into the crystal or use it to amplify your spell work.
Program your crystal. Crystals hold memory and command, both based on their original composition and in response to our focused intentions when programmed. The process is not hard. Begin with meditation and supplication, asking your ally to help you focus thought and for its permission to be directed in this manner. Make sure to articulate your intention well, being clear, rather than overly general, but leaving enough room for your outcome to be brought to you in the best alignment with your highest good and manipulating no one. You can clear this intent later, when it is no longer relevant, run more than one program per crystal, or set into your intention a particular timeline. Crystals are flexible this way, and generally willing to work with you. They absorb and then generate your intention, and magnify it with their own properties. In fact that action of absorbing and radiating is what crystals do, even if you don’t intentionally activate and program them, which is one very good reason for cleansing the crystals you wear and keep in your home regularly. To program your crystal, focus on your intention and then blow your will into it. If it has a point, you can use that to blow. You may also speak, sing, or commune with the crystal in your own way, as long as your process is clear.
Make an offering of gratitude. Gratitude is not only respectful, but also a kind of appointment with the future positive outcome.
May you move manifest in grace and abundance!
-This blog was written by Melusina Gomez, originally for publication with the eleventh house.