|
HUATH: THE HAWTHORN
(© Argante – Arc’Hant
Afallon Alarch)
A small tree grows on one
of the hills in Glastonbury. It is neither nice
nor imposing…it grows a little twisted, slapped
as it is everyday by the Somerset wind.
Every one of its branches
is hung with colored ribbons…It grows there
alone, protected by a low iron grate. Everyday
man and women from all over the world come and
pay homage to it. That small tree is a hawthorn.
And it is sacred….it is the gate to the Realm of
the Ancients.
Huath, the Thorn, means the
Terrible, the Threatening.
But what does this
mysterious and magical tree look like? It blooms
beautifully and displays white petals….and yet,
if you do not pay attention, you will get your
fingers pierced by its long and sharp thorns.
They are not black thorns as with the Prunus
spinosa, but white thorns…hence the name
whitethorn. Its shape is extremely gnarled, it
shows mysterious tangles, it hides events and
places of beauty, it harbors a priceless
treasure, perhaps a spiraling Path to walk in
the tangled intertwinings of its timber…..
Like the Elder, it is
considered a fairy tree and because it falls
under the fairies’ domain, country folks have
always regarded it as a dangerous tree…..a tree
under which it is not considered wise to fall
asleep, especially in bordering moments such as
dawn, dusk, or in those days when the veil
between the worlds is at its thinnest, for
example at Samhain and at Beltane. The risk is
of being abducted by the fairies and end up in
their world where it is easy to get lost and not
being able to find the way back home, or,
another unfortunate fate, of being enthralled…since
in the fairy dimension time flows in a different
and bizarre way: it may seem to the wretched
chap that he has just taken a short 10 minute
nap and had an ‘uncanny’ dream, but after having
woken up again he finds out that 50 years have
elapsed…They also say that the thorn hedge
growing solitary in an open field represents the
border between reality and the Fairy Kingdom,
or, more correctly, between our world and theirs.
Should it be felled, it would bring on bad luck
and troubles, as such an ill-considered action
would mean dishonoring the Otherworld…..and,
since no one ever found the courage to cut them
down, in Irish beliefs, till nowadays, it is
still possible to see how entire yards have been
built around centenarian hawthorns.
On Wearyall Hill (Glastonbury)
there is a magnificent Holy Huath, full of
ribbons and prayers both by pilgrims and locals.
The legend says that Wearyall Hill is the
hilltop where Joseph of Arimathea came carrying
the Holy Grail. The old wise man carried a staff
made of hawthorn wood (a plant that grows
profusely in the Holy Land). When he arrived he
thrust the staff into the ground and the
magnificent Holy Thorn stemmed magically from
it. This variety is unique in the British Isles
and very similar to the variety growing in
Palestine. The Glastonbury Holy Thorn blossoms
twice a year: in Beltane and in Yule, and it is
still customary today to send a budded branch to
the Queen for display on her Christmas table.
The thorn which is nowadays venerated on the
Hill is no longer the original one but…a
descendant. They say that, once the thorn has
grown old, a cutting is taken and planted again
in the same spot, so that the miracle of Joseph
of Arimathea’s blossoming stick is perpetrated.
Huath has sickly-sweet
smelling white blossoms. In the past they said
that this smell reminded that of the female
vulva and for this reason it was considered a
preeminent symbol of the White Goddess, Flora,
Cardea, Blodeuwedd. At the same time, this plant
also has red berries, which recall the menstrual
blood. Its symbolism is thus deeply linked to
the sacred feminine, and contains in itself the
two colours sacred to the Celts: white and red,
the Otherwordly colours. Its name “haw-thorn”
means “thorn of the enclosures”, and underlines
a link with border zones. It is also called
“May-thorn” or May-bush because it blossoms in
May, the month primarily a symbol of rebirth and
dedicated to the sacred feminine in every
culture.
Its smell is also often
associated, even in our modern times, to death.
This leads us to reflect on how this twisted
shrub hides contradictions; the extremes so to
speak…. Beautiful flowers, white and soft,
surrounded by very spiky thorns and unpleasant
smell. It is a plant that contains the extremes:
purity and danger. Its wood is very hard and
resistant and develops a very hot fire. Is it
not similar to Blodeuwedd’s youth? Very
beautiful, but dangerous when she reaches the
awareness of her being a free girl. Passionate,
though hard, since she does not repent and is
not afraid of what she has done to Llew (See the
previous Labrys issue).
From what we have said up
to now, we can well affirm how Huath is a
Guardian, a creature assigned to the protection
of the Doors, the accesses, both of the Doors to
the Fairy Realm or the Otherworld, and of the
doors of common dwellings (to this purpose, one
of the many beliefs related to this plant is of
hanging its branches above the door entrance to
protect the house from negative influences…) .
Being a guardian, it is a symbol both of
protection, as it stands guard on a threshold,
and of ill omen. This is due to the extremely
clear symbolism of its thorn, but also to the
fact that it traditionally protects something
unknown, and unknown things, such as the
otherworld and fairy spirits, often frighten
people!
It is necessary to be
prepared to face what hides beyond the Thorn, it
is necessary to be aware of ourselves, of our
limits, of our desires, or we run the risk of
getting lost….
From this point of view
there could be some sort of analogy between the
mists which protect Avalon and this tree, which
protects the fairies’ world. The white of its
blossoms and its thorns is a colour which in
many cultures symbolizes death, but especially
initiation. Moreover, the hawthorn represents
the Goddess in her Maiden aspect. As Riccardo
Taraglio writes, it represents the female half
of universe, the Goddess who defends the natural
order of things, primordial chaos, the
wilderness, therefore it could be associated, as
already stated, to the Maiden Huntress.. In time,
this aspect of the Goddess (as every other
aspects, after all…) was demonized by
patriarchal culture, and all the related
symbolism with it. It seems therefore logic to
think that the hawthorn has acquired in popular
superstition a yet more frightening character
than the original one. If in earlier times one
had to pay attention to its immense ambivalent
power, today this power has become mean, devious,
demonic. Huath is one of the flowers from which
Blodeuwedd was created. She is the Maiden
Huntress, the May Bride, she is a wild,
enchanted goddess who decides not to submit to
what is imposed and eventually turns up to be an
initiatoress for the husband who was forced upon
her, and whom she betrayed to be true to herself,
to her nature. A Free creature who, in times
full of mysoginy as the ancient times were, must
have aroused a great fear…
In addition to all of the
above, the hawthorn is used as a heart balancer,
eliminates arrhythmia, regulates tachycardia,
improves blood supply, etc. These properties
were already known in the past.
Now: what is more terrible
than something which has control over the heart?
The heart is the origin of life, it is the
supreme sacred organ.
And yet, an excessive use
of its leaves can kill. Healing and death. The
extremes, the bounds still in the hawthorn.
Nowadays they still say
that taking this plant home or into a church
brings bad luck, but actually truth lies
elsewhere: Huath is the symbol of the sexual
aspect of the goddess, a real insult for bigoted
medieval mentality (in the Middle Ages many
pagan traditions were demonized, for example
getting married in May, the month of Beltane –
pagan fertility festival – and of the hawthorn,
was considered unlucky and sexual abstinence was
advised: quite the opposite of what happened in
any wood or clearing on the Beltane night).
Eventually, in its double
nature, Huath the terrible contains the mystery
of the Otherworld, the same concept of the
Pilgrim’s Travel towards Avalon. A fascinating
quest towards an enchanting land, but at the
same time a perilous trip full of pitfalls.
To go through the doors
between the Worlds, towards rich and wonderful
lands implies death. Whether it is real death,
as in folklore, or more likely initiatic death
is of very little concern. The hawthorn speaks
of this. Of the renunciation we have to
undertake in order to pass beyond…beyond the
Gate leading to the Realm of the Ancients.
Photographs by Argante –
Yat Pilgrimage September 2006
Notes: Article by Argante written on the basis
of in-depth studies
within the Study Group ‘Sentieri di Avalon’ (The
Paths to Avalon)
Traduzione a
cura di Abigail_derwen
|
