Blessings from the trees: Willow

Willow weaves lunar and intuitive wisdom with flexibility, creativity and regenerative strengths.

Hail Willow!

Bending, flowing,

Moon anchor

releasing, growing.

Visionary tree!

Inspiring, dreaming,

Intuitive mentor,

creating, birthing.

In this monthly tree blessing post, I weave in Willow magic from art and literature, Pagan beliefs and my own journeys with Willow. Willow is linked to this time in the Celtic Tree Calendar and I often see willow baskets with eggs in as altar decorations for Spring.

I share a blessing from Grandmother Willow further on in the post both by written word and audio.

This tree blessing post has a slightly different shape to the other tree blessing posts for I have referred to Willow a lot in previous posts. Do have a look through my catalogue of posts using the term Willow to find them.

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The Irish Gaelic words for Willow are Saileach and Saille. The ogham symbol is below.

My Willow Ogham disc from my Ogham set.

Willow is an ally who is very much part of the liminal landscape along the Antlered Path. I walk close to her often. I have a self seeded Goat Willow shrub which started growing by our pond a few years ago. We created the small pond for wildlife and although frogs have not come, we have seen newts in there and lots of insects. Birds bathe and drink there as does our hedgehog visitor and it feels a safe space for wild ones. Willow found her way to this little watery microcosm, to this little wild edge, this liminal space in our humble back garden. She rode on the wind or on the soil attached to a boot. Or she dreamed herself there…..Knowing Willow in my heart, I sense this to be a strong possibility!

Our resident Willow growing between the rocks by the pond. With sturdy stems and new leaves for Spring. She is very happy here in this damp corner! My photo.

Goat Willow is also known as Pussy Willow or Great Sallow. The male catkins are similar to cat’s paws hence the folk name of Pussy Willow. I used to love these soft, comforting catkins when I was a child. Willow has been in my life a long, long time. Over the years I have connected to Weeping Willows and White Willows aswell as Grey Willow. They each have their own signature, energetically speaking but also have common traits too.

Willow loves watery spaces and most Willow species will be found close to marsh, rivers, lakes or wetland. A lot of the folklore linked to Willow has references to water, to the moon, to emotions and dreaming. Willow is also linked to rebirth and transformation because of it’s strong ability to regrow after being cut back. Willow cuttings grow easily directly in soil or water too.

And because it has been Easter this weekend just gone, I love this depiction of a hare next to a Willow, both are linked to lunar wisdom, rebirth and magic!

A coaster I was gifted with Hare and Willow, teasels too and the shimmer of moonlight. Evocative of lunar dreaming and creative magic afoot. Photo by myself.