Yew

Cultivation

Most Yews bear either male or female flowers, although very occasionally a tree can be found which have flowers of both sexes born on different branches. In Nature the seeds lie on the ground for about 18 months in all weathers before they will germinate. If you want to grow Yews from seed, it is therefore best to imitate this lengthy process before planting them.
Yews are more often grown from cutting or by layering the branches. It is also possible to graft Yew. If you live anywhere near Yew trees, you can also keep your eyes open to see if you can spot any seedlings, which may not have room to grow where they germinated and may be glad to find a new home. Yews thrive on chalk, but any soil which is not waterlogged will serve. Young trees are well able to cope with shade. They are not prone to any serious disease and resistant to pollution.

back to contents

Uses of the wood

Yew wood is extremely hard and durable and "resists the action of water upon it".
In East-Anglia, East Yorkshire and Ireland ancient Yew wood has been dug up from bogs, fens and peat-land and this beautiful wood, after careful drying, is perfectly useable for making furniture and carved objects. Before the days when iron was easily available, it must have been extremely precious. Farmers used to say that "A Yew tree post will outlast a post of iron". It is also the most 'elastic' of woods and can withstand great tension. It was used for tool handles and for making weapons: spears (a yew spear, found near Clacton is the world's oldest wooden artifact at around 150.000 years old), dagger handles and, famously, for making long bows. For proper tensile strength the bows needs to be made from staves cut from a straight trunk, rather than a branch.
The suitability of yew wood as supreme material for the making of long bows was the cause of a great decline of the amount of yews growing in Europe in the late Middle ages. In England, Edward III made it compulsory for every able-bodied man to practice archery. This degree led to a huge demand for the wood, which could not be satisfied by home grown Yew. Parliament degreed in 1492 that every ship landing in an English harbour had to bring at least 4 yew bows per ton of freight to remedy this situation. Hundreds of thousands of bows and more were imported from the European Continent, which also had to satisfy its own considerable demand for long bows. This early form of arms industry led to a huge decline of Yew stands in Spain, the Alps, Austria and Bavaria. It is likely that any remaining trees, both at home and abroad, and their descendants would not have the top quality timber needed to make the best bows, as all the gnarly and other unsuitable 'timber trees', which were left over, have since parented the trees we know today.                          
The Vikings used yew wood for nails in the building of famous long boats. Wine barrels were sometimes made from Yew, which gave rise to a saying in Ireland that "Yew was the coffin of the Vine."
The beautiful patterns in the wood with its darker rusty red-brown heartwood, golden/orange sapwood  and irregular ring structures have made it much sought after for making furniture, ornaments, sculptures  and keep-sakes of all kinds. The 17th century arborist John Evelyn recommended Yew wood for: "Parquete-floors, cogs of mills, axles and wheels, the bodies of lutes, bowls, pins for pulleys and for drinking tankards." The wood has also been used as a high class veneer.
Yew makes an excellent quality firewood, when it is available, although it seems rather a waste of this sacred wood unless you make the fire for a very special purpose.

There is a Yew-tree, pride of Lorton Vale,
Which to this day stands single, in the midst
Of its own darkness, as it stood of yore;
Not loth to furnish weapons for the bands
Of Umfraville or Percy ere they marched
To Scotland's heaths; or those that crossed the sea
And drew their sounding bows at Azincour,
Perhaps at earlier Crecy, Poictiers.
Of vast circumference and gloom profound
This solitary tree! a living thing
Produced too slowly ever to decay;
Of form and aspect too magnificent
To be destroyed"

William Wordsworth
Inspired by  the magnificent Yew at Lorton, Cumbria.
The girth of this tree was measured as 27 ft in 1806. Today half the trunk remains (19 ft circumference).

back to contents

Medicinal properties

All parts of the yew are extremely poisonous. The only exception is the fleshy part of its arils (berries), but the seed within is deadly. This is definitely not a tree for self-medication!!! 
In spite of this it has been used in the past by herbalists to treat a variety of ills, such as a small amount of the powdered leaves (1-5 gr) for epilepsy and its use as an abortifacient. Although the Yew alkaloids generally cause paralysis, it stimulates spasms in the womb. Like so many other ways of inducing an arbortus, it was too often practiced by women desperate enough to take great risks. The fact that these practices had to take place in deep secrecy must have contributed to many fatalities, because it was difficult to spread knowledge and experience in a climate, where ending an unwanted pregnancy was still a mortal sin.
Yew medicine was also used in Europe for snakebites and rabies, obstructions of the liver and bilious complaints. John Lowe (physician to the Prince of Wales in the Victorian era and author of "The Yew Trees of Britain and Ireland" 1896) actually carried out experiments on himself and found it was a powerful cardiac tonic, which in minute quantities, slows down the pulse. His research also found that the leaves had been used in India as a stomach medicine and, in the form of a decoction, to treat rheumatism.  Due to its extreme toxicity and uncertain action, it is no longer used in herbal medicine in this country. Native American tribes used the Pacific Yew (Taxus brevifolia), which has a similar chemistry to our yew, as an anti-inflammatory, and for rheumatism, scurvy, lung and bowel complaints.
The Yew is still used in homeopathy. A tincture is made of the fresh leaves, diluted and shaken (succussed) many times until the appropriate potency has been achieved, and used, for example, to treat gout and rheumatism, arthritis, urinary tract infections and heart and liver conditions.

The National Cancer Institute of the USA started a campaign to find new medicines to treat cancer and over the next two decennia researched between 114.045 plant extracts and 16.196 animal extracts! The one promising thing, which came out of this research was a substance called Taxol, prepared from the inner bark, or cambium, of the Pacific Yew (Taxus brevifolia), though all species contain the active chemical. It works in a completely different way from other cancer drugs. It halts the division cancer cells not by breaking them down, but through paralysing them by 'imprisoning' the cancerous cells within a cage of microscopic tubules. The drug is introduced directly into the tumour to stop the lethal fast growth. It is often used where conventional chemo-therapy has failed and seems to be particularly effective in breast and ovarian tumours and possibly also in lungcancer.
It is by no means a cure-all, as only about one in three patients responds to the treatment, but considering the large amount of people, who suffer from cancer, it can offer significant increases in life expectancy for thousands without dreadful side effects. A immense problem is the fact that it needs the inner bark of six trees to gather enough Taxol to treat one patient! This situation poses a great dilemma because the numbers of Pacific Yews have much declined due to logging the forests where they grew. The Yew itself was not even harvested, but seen merely as a trash-tree and often burned together with other remains of the clear-felling. Hopefully the Pacific Yew will be better loved and appreciated in the future and many nurseries have already sprung up in the USA to meet demand.
Research is carrying on. Pierre Potier of The Chemical Institute of Natural Substances in France has produced a substance called 'baccatin' from the branches of European Yews, which can be used to create a drug called 'taxotere'. It is chemically extremely closely related to taxol and may be easier to administer and more effective than its natural counterpart.

The healing power of Yew is safely accessible through vibrational remedies. The following is an example of remedies currently being made and their indications. 
Mother Nature's Celtic Tree Remedies:
Keyword: Immortality.

• Yew energy is an invaluable ally for those who are ill or ageing and facing death, as it can assist in breaking through dogma, doubts, fear and conditioning by elevating  our spiritual frequency.
  It also helps all of us to integrate splits in our understanding and experience of spirit and matter, between mortality and eternity and has the extraordinary ability to aid us to see/feel the importance of our own unique being as a vital part of the world soul: Yew assists us to heal the connection between our brief mortal lives and eternity. Yew facilitates the linking between our separate, temporary identities and our larger self: the Source: the One Soul searching to know and experience its endless possibilities.

• Yew also strengthens energy levels, flexibility, resilience and immunity when we are genuinely trying to follow whatever we perceive as our calling and vocation in life. It does not matter whether this expresses itself in 'small' or 'great' deeds, in actions or in pure 'being'. The important thing is that we follow our heart. When we do this fully, it will inevitably lead us to a richer and more fulfilled life, as well as be good for the greater whole.

• Lastly, Yew energy, with its multi-million years of consciousness, knows that to be fully present in the Here and Now and to appreciate each moment as a unique gift, is the Gateway to Renewal.

• For all these reasons, the Yew remedy is applicable to a wide assortment of conditions and states of mind, ranging from 'burn out' to feeling lost and alienated; from minor illnesses, which let us know that we are out of touch with ourselves to terminal illnesses, which may make us aware that we are out of touch with our Divine  Source.

back to contents

Other uses

Yew toxins were used all over Europe to smear unto arrowheads to make them absolutely lethal. This was often done by making an extract of the seeded arils, which was then distilled. The 17th century herbalist Nicolas Culpepper says: "In this form it is the most active vegetable poison known in the whole world, for in a small dose it instantly induces death without any previous disorder; and its deleterious power seems to act upon the nervous system, without exciting the least inflammation in the part to which it more immediately enters. It totally differs from opium and all other sleepy poisons, for it does not bring on lethargic symptoms, but more effectually penetrates and destroys the vital functions, without immediately affecting the animal. "
Just as Hazel has been used for water divining and Rowan for finding metal, Yew sprays were sometimes used as dowsing tools to find things which are lost, both in the mythical stories as well in mundane lives. I love to hear from anyone who has experience with finding lost objects this way!
The Druids were known to gather  pollen to create special magical effects during clan gatherings. They threw a handful of pollen in the fire at night, which creates many little sparks. Different types of pollen provide different effects. I've never had the opportunity yet of trying this myself with the abundant Yew pollen.  Again, I would be grateful to receive information from people who have tried this. Any information I receive about this and other subjects, will in turn be shared on this website.

back to contents

The Yew as a poisonous plant

The red fleshy part of the fruit is quite edible and are eagerly eaten by many birds, such as fieldfares, thrushes, blackbirds and redwings. The hard seeds pass through them without harm and are distributed in their droppings. Country children have often not been able to resist the temptation to eat the sweet attractive looking flesh, but such familiarity with the tree may have its real dangers, as they might chew the seeds in the arils, or even be tempted to chew the green shoots.
All parts of the tree, except for the flesh of the arils are very poisonous.
"They contain the highly poisonous alkaloid taxin, a small amount of auxiliary alkaloids and the  glycoside taxicatin. The needles contain the greatest concentration of taxin in the winter (2 percent) and the least concentration in the summer (0.5 percent). The seeds contain approximately 1 percent. The decoction from just 50 - 100 gm of needles or a mere 30 'berries' is fatal for an adult."
"The action of the poison is extremely rapid because taxin is quickly absorbed in the digestive system. It is a very poisonous cardiovascular toxic substance and causes vomiting and abdominal pains, painful diarrhoea, dilated pupils, pallor, collapse, cramps, unconsciousness, and death due to cardiac arrest and respiratory failure often within an hour following ingestion. Horses are the most susceptible of all animals and may die within several minutes of feeding on the young shoots. The literature states that 100 - 200 gm of the needles is a fatal dose for a horse. Pigs are also susceptible, but a five-fold amount is required to poison cattle." (from F. Starý "Poisonous Plants" Magna Books, 1990).
The above quotation explains what has often been a mystery to many country people: how can cows browse on the tree and walk away unharmed on some occasions and yet be poisoned after a short nibble at other times. It seems to me that the tree is purposefully trying to protect itself by increasing the amount of toxins in the winter, when it may be the only bit of greenery around. A similar phenomena occurs, as we noted above,when talking about collecting Trimmings from a Yew hedges and topiary trees for medicinal purposes: They have to be from trees, which are trimmed every year, because the Taxol (also a potentially toxic alkaloid) is produced in much greater quantities in new growth! It is also interesting to note that clipped and half-withered yew branches are said to be especially poisonous to cattle.
Hageneder reports that 0.2-03 gr of yew leaves per kilogram of body weight is regarded as a fatal dose for a horse. About 1 gram of leaves, or 3-5 seeds, per kilogram of bodyweight is fatal to human being. Small children are more sensitive to the toxin, as they are to all medicine. He also says that "Some wild animals feed on Yew, particularly deer who receive some kind of 'kick' from the yew's alkaloids (nitrogen compounds)."(Hageneder "Spirit of Trees, science, symbiosis and inspiration", Floris Books, 2000)

Finally one more contribution on the subject seems justified in view of its potential importance. The following quotes are from "A guide to wild plants, the edible and poisonous species of the Northern Hemisphere" by M. Jordan, B Sc., M.Inst.Biol., Millington 1976:
"Initial symptoms are nausea and vomiting, accompanied by severe abdominal pain and diarrhoea. There is a rapid weakening of the muscles, and the skin becomes cold and clammy, with a pallid appearance caused by peripheral circulatory failure. The toxin acts as a cardiac depressant, and the heartbeat becomes drastically slowed.
The terminal phase is normally rapid and may involve delirium and convulsions prior to coma. Death is from heart failure or, less frequently, asphyxia. The lethal dose for an adult is estimated to be not less than 50 gm. of the leaves, but as few as 4 or 5 of the seeds may prove fatal for a child."
"In cattle, which browse on yew, death can be sudden and often without any prior symptoms, and the virulence of the toxin is in no way diminished by drying in fodder. It is interesting to note that British law recognises the careless disposal of yew clippings as a basis for award of damages when stock has been lost through taxine poisoning."
"Treatment: no specific antidote is recognised for taxine poisoning, and therefore normal first aid must be very prompt. Stomach washing by qualified medical personal with weak tannic acid solution followed by treatment with activated charcoal suspension must follow rapidly, and where indicated appropriate drug therapy to stimulate the heart."

back to contents

Some Varieties of Yew

The following varieties and cultivars of Yew can be found in Gardens, Parks and Collections in Great Britain. This list is not complete, but it gives a good guide to those of you enjoy identifying species. Yew species can be confused with Torreya (Nutmeg Trees) species and with Cephalotaxus (Cow's tail Pine Family) species. The Torreya's have longer, more spiny, leaves with white bands underneath and the bark is a very shallow network of ridges, either pale red-brown or grey-brown. The Cephalotaxaceae have bigger, broader leaves with white band underneath.

• Taxus baccata - Common Yew. Also known as the English Yew. Described above.

  • T. baccata 'Fastigiata' - Irish Yew. Also known as the Florence Court Yew, because the farmer who discovered this variety presented it to his local Manor. The branches are erect and form a column-like tree. The leaves spiraling around the stem. Height up to 20 - 30 feet. Very common in churchyards and garden in Great Britain.

    • T. baccata 'Fastigiata Aurea'.  Has yellow-splashed leaves.

    • T. baccata 'Fastigiata Aureaomarginata'.  Has yellow-edged leaves

    • T. baccata 'Fastigiata Standishii'. A yellow dwarf form of Fastiagiata.

  • T. baccata 'Semperaurea'. A male variety which is the brightest of all the Golden Yews.

  • T. baccata 'Repandens'.  A wide-spreading groundcover Yew, which only grows to 2 ft in 10 years.

  • T. baccata 'Adpressa'. A female variety with very short leaves, which creates dense shoots, of which some are pendulous (hanging down). There is also a golden form of this variety.

  • T. baccata 'Dovastonii'. A beautiful, male, variety with a single stem and long wide-spreading branches, which have pendulous smaller branches hanging down from them..

  • T. baccata 'Fructo luteo'. A variety with yellow, rather than red fruits, which otherwise is very much like the Common Yew.

  • T. baccata 'Elegantissima'. A variety which bears leaves, which have a silver colour when they are young.

• Taxus cuspidata - Japanese Yew.  A broad bushy tree with a spreading habit. Grows up to 8 meters high. It has stiff hard needly leaves with sharp points which grow upwards from the twigs in an erect habit.. They are dark green with brownish -yellow or  gold  below. The fruit on the female trees is pale scarlet and more abundant than the Common Yew.

  • T. cuspidata 'Nana'. A very slow growing spreading Yew variety.

• Taxus x media.  Hybrids produced from crossing T. baccata and T cuspidata.

  • T. x media 'Hicksii. A dark green rounded bush form, which is the most common of the hybrids. It has a fatigiate (erect) habit, short spines, which are paler underneath and scarlet, shiny fruits.

• Taxus celebica - Chinese Yew. A broad bushy tree, which grow up to 8 meters high. Its foliage, flowers and fruits are sparse and some bits of the twigs are bare. Its leaves are a pale yellow-green, which like the common Yew form are arranged in two rows. Some leaves curve backwards. The fruits rarely ripen and are green with a dark olive cap.

back to contents

PART TWO: THE TREE OF IMMORTALITY

The Oldest Tree?

back to contents

 The Graveyard Tree, which can live 'forever' 

The Yew, which once was probably once the dominant forest tree in Europe is now most familiar to us as "the graveyard tree". The poet Tennyson echoed the old belief in Brittany, that the roots of the tree reach out to the mouth of every corps when he wrote:

Old Yew, which graspest at the stones
That name the under-lying dead,
Thy fibres net the dreamless head,
Thy roots are wrapt about the bones.

The people of Selborne were able to see this with their own eyes, when the ancient yew in St. Mary's churchyard blew over in a terrible gale at then end of January, 1990. It exposed quite a few bones, some of which were tangled up in the root ball. I guess that they may well have grown in and out of  skulls, being a bone with several orifices, as was the belief in Brittany. Archeologists were called in to collect these human remains to protect them from dogs and other creatures on the prowl. They were allowed to use this rare opportunity for an archeological dig, after which the rudely disturbed skeletons would be reburied. It was established that the remains of as many as 30 people had been resting beneath the mass of roots.
There has been much heated discussion and many opinions expressed as to why the Yew is so often found in churchyards. Some say it is the deep-dark green, almost eerie and shady presence of the tree. Other say because it is the tree of death, due to its poisonous chemistry, or that it was put in churchyards, where it would not be accessible to life-stock to grow wood for longbows. Christian scholars have associated it with Christ as 'the tree of the cross' or with the theme of resurrection.
However, the evidence is now overwhelming that the Yew was the archetype of "The Tree of Life" to people all over Europe eons before Christ was born. 
A tree of the Yew family (which is itself at least 200 million years old) is the one living creature who, 'barring acts of God or man', is biologically able to live indefinitely: forever! It is difficult to imagine for us, for whom 80 years of consciousness is a long, long time, what it is like to be a Yew. It is not surprising therefore that, for long millennia, visionary and sensitive people have turned to the Yew sensing it can teach us about eternity and immortality and that its Spirit is, in spite of its toxicity as a plant substance, a miraculously healing Spirit. The Yew has served the Earth since prehistory and it has always served us as human beings by providing a Spiritual presence, which is as close as we can get, in tangible physical matter, to the concept of God and Eternity.

back to contents

The Yew was the original Church
a presence beyond our own dimensional experience

Before churches were ever build, the Yew itself was 'the Church', the sacred tree or grove where mortal people could go and be in a spiritual aura , which put us in contact with both the magnificence of the Life-force, as well as the mysteries beyond. Being in the presence of a Yew gives us an opportunity to get in touch with so many things which can not be expressed in words, but which can be felt, about the eternal source from which we all come and to which we shall one day return.
One of the many extra ordinary qualities of the Yew is its ability to rejuvenate itself and there are many reports of old haggard and injured yews which decennia later suddenly decide to resurrect themselves and begin sprouting again and put on new growth.
Lots of ancient churches were build on old Pagan Sacred Sites where people used to come since memory began and 'partake' in the Yew's presence. There is no doubt that ancient people were sometimes buried near the Yew, if this could be arranged, or that ashes were brought to the Sacred tree, as it was a Gateway to the Otherworld, where the Ancestors are. This practice made it also possible for Pagan people to have a point, where they could get in touch with the collective wisdom of generations of ancestors, who 'had merged' with the tree spirit. An early form of 'logging in' to a virtual world, you might say!
The idea of the Yew as a gateway is reinforced by the fact that all older Yews form hollow trunks, which can easily be seen by poetic minds as an entrance to the Otherworld.
The lives of ancient people in the temperate zones were marked by seasonal and other natural cycles, such as those of the moon and sun, and their spirituality reflects this deeply. Nature was their sacred book. The unique quality of the Yew is that it represents the dimensions beyond these cycles, because it simply does not seem to be dominated by the cyclic changes everything else is subject to, apart from its flowering and fruiting. It follows therefore that it was seen either as the still centre of the Life force, the 'Axis mundi' (meaning: the centre of the world) or as being related to the dimensions beyond this world.

back to contents

Traditions of the Yew in connection with churches

The new Christian religion, introduced to this country by its Roman invaders and colonisers, had a hard time trying to establish itself. Most ordinary people, deeply steeped in their local nature-religion traditions, did not take to 'this foreign cult' readily, judging by Roman Laws which put hefty penalties on possessing and displaying 'Pagan Idols'.
It took well over a thousand years to 'christianise' Britain and even by the end of the Middle Ages the Old Nature Religion had to be forcibly repressed, for example through the horrendous witch hunts, which these days would be classed as genocide (9 million people, mostly women, were killed or tortured by representatives of the Church) and 'ethnic cleansing" (except the cleansing was based on religion rather than race). In order to save 'the heathen souls', early evangelists often preached under the Sacred Yews and build their churches near to it, either in order to gain respectability for the new religion by association or by trying to replace it. St. Patrick, for example, build his first church near a Sacred Irish Tree, thought to be a Yew. And so it was, that Yews and Churches lived side by side, and it became an acceptable practice to plant yews in the churchyard, even long after the original spiritual significance of the Yew had been forgotten. 
We owe Alan Meredith a great debt for his tireless work in proving that many of the Old Yews in churchyards really are much older than the churches. I wholeheartedly agree with his view that these trees are monuments, no less than a Cathedral, and that they should be venerated as such. The fact that they are far more ancient, as well as alive, makes them all the more special.
It was a common tradition to bury people with a spray of Yew in their grave. This practice presumably originated in the desire of grieving relatives to give their loved ones the closest thing they could think of as a guide to the Otherworld.
In Pagan Ireland Yew staves were used as an aid by gravediggers to measure corpses.
It was also common practice in many parishes up and down the country to carry Yew branches in processions on Palm Sunday, as well as decorating the church with Yew sprays on this occasion. Willow branches have also been used for this purpose, especially where Yew was not available.

back to contents

The Tree of Immortality: Other Yew traditions

Landmarks
Yews were often used as landmarks, for example to mark boundaries, roads and paths, on ridge ways, on blind springs and so on. They were of course eminently suitable for this purpose, because of their longevity and because, as one of the very few native evergreen trees in this country, their dark-green foliage could be spotted and easily identified from far away.

back to contents

Yews in the centre of territory
Yew were also often planted at the centre of a tribal territory, which often served as a gathering place for clan meetings. The Fortingall Yew (see above) is one such example. Another is the Ankerwyke Yew near the Thames River in Buckinghamshire. Alan Meredith has shown, to the satisfaction of many historians, that this was the place were the historical Magna Carta was signed after 9 days of talk between King John and the Barons of England, who had many complaints about the way the country was run. Britain has never had a constitution and the Magna Carta is the closest thing we have to bill of rights.
A quarrel over a Yew tree was the cause of the Battle of Mag Mucrama, as told in the Irish myth of "The Yew Tree of the Disputing Sons" (a well documented tale of which there are at least two versions in existence). Caitlín Matthews, a renowned researcher into the Celtic Tradition, gives the following commentary: "It may be thought strange for princely warriors to fight over a tree, but the ancient trees of Ireland were focal points of tribal meeting and were thought to possess memory and have the power of witness. Trees were central emblems of tribal continuity." (Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom, Element, 1994).

back to contents

The life of a Yew, the length of an Age
"The lives of three wattles, the life of a hound;
The lives of three hounds, the life of a steed;
The lives of three steeds, the life of a man;
The lives of three eagles, the life of a yew;
The life of a yew, the length of an age;
Seven ages from Creation to Doom.
                   Nennius (9th century historian), "Seven Ages"

back to contents

Himalayan Yew veneration
John Lowe, the Victorian Yew scholar, told us that the Yew was held in great veneration in some parts of the North West Himalayas. It was sometimes called deodar, meaning 'God's Tree' (not to be confused with another magnificent Himalayan cedar (Cedrus deodora), commonly known as the Deodar). The women there made a paste from powdered yew bark, which Hindu's apply to their forehead, exactly on the spot where our third eye is located. Yew wood was burned for incense and its branches were carried in religions processions. The Yew grow throughout the Himalayas up to 10.000 feet. In Nepal the green twigs were used to decorate houses at religious festivals.

back to contents

Hecate and the Yew
One of the oldest triple Goddesses, Hecate, is associated with the Yew.
In Greek mythology she is the daughter of the Titan Perses and of Asteria. She preceded the Olympian Pantheon, and was acknowledged by Zeus, The patriarch of the Olympian Gods, with enormous respect. "Hecate was one of the many names for the original feminine trinity, ruling heaven, earth and the underworld. Hellenes tended to emphasize her Crone or underworld aspect, but continued to worship her at places where three road met, especially in rites of magic, divination and consultation with the dead." (Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" Harper Collins, 1983)

back to contents

Nordic World Tree
The World Tree at the centre of Nordic European mythology was for many centuries thought to be an Ash tree. Many scholars now think that a mistake has been made in interpreting the old texts and that the mythical Yggdrasil was in fact a Yew. It seems that the Ancient Norse language has an alternative name for the Yew, which was 'Needle Ash' (barraskr) and this caused the confusion.
The actual species of tree is never actually mentioned anywhere in the saga's, except for in the name of the dwelling place of the Gods in the tree, which is called Asgard. There is no doubt that both the Ash and the Yew were held in great reverence. Yew has the immense advantage for qualifying as the World tree because of its ancient origin, longevity and the fact that it is evergreen. Ash is a much taller tree and faster growing tree, which produces the finest firewood anyone in a cold country could wish for. I wrote my essay on the Ash (also on this website) many long years ago in the mid 80's, well before I heard about Alan Meredith's research on the Yew. In it, you can find the Nordic mythology of Yggdrasil described in some detail. I've heard that Allan insists that Yggdrasil was a real tree, an actual Yew around which the legends and stories grew. He is probably right, as he has been about so many other Yew issues! I have not had the opportunity yet to research and re-write the Ash portrait I wrote and am happy to go on living with my own intuitive deeply held belief that every tree is The World Tree, although I'm awed by the implications of his insights (see below) and support Alan's campaign to care for the Yews with all my heart!

back to contents

Druids and the Yew
The Druids are predominantly associated with the oak cult. The Oak is a wonderful majestic tree, but it may well be that the utmost sacred tree of Druidry in these isles was in fact the Yew. Ancient yews at the older sites of worship in England and Wales, Irish mythology and legends and recent research all point in this direction. 
The arils on the female Yew were frequently called 'acorns' (the unripe green fruits), 'apples' (the red ripe arils: all red fruits on a tree were often called apples in days past), or 'nuts' (the actual seeds or even the hard green fruits). The Yew spray was also known as "the branch with three fruits". This means that when we have interpreted the tree to be either an Oak, an Apple or a Hazel, whereas it could actually well have been a Yew.

back to contents

The bleeding Yew Tree of Nevern
In the Churchyard of Nevern, Pembrokeshire, Wales is an short avenue of yews, between the gate and the entrance to the church. One of the trees there is known as "The bleeding Yew". The site is visited by Christian and Pagan pilgrims alike. The Christian story goes that the tree bleeds every year in sympathy with Christ. For the Pagan folk the tree is an embodiment of the Great Mother Goddess in her Virgin aspect. The beautiful tree, still a youngster for its species, has a recessed orifice in its bark which reminds one of female genitalia and it exudes a small amount of dark red thick fluid or resin, which looks remarkably like menstrual blood. I wonder if anyone knows of other Yew trees, which 'bleed' their sap like this? The only other one I have seen was in Avebury churchyard, but here the exudation was a much darker brown.

back to contents

Glastonbury and the green tree
Glastonbury is nowadays probably more famous for the successful Glastonbury festival in the nearby village of Pilton, than for its ancient history. Nevertheless it remains an important spiritual centre in this country and is considered by many as the heart chakra of England and a centre from were many innovative people fertilise the nation's psyche. The name 'Glastonbury' means 'Green-tree-bury' and is derived from the Celtic 'glas' - meaning (ever) 'green' and 'tann' - meaning 'tree'. Archeological excavations around the well have found the stump and root of an Ancient Yew by the famous holy Chalice Well at the bottom of Glastonbury Tor. Scientific examination concluded that this tree must have been growing there around 300A D.

back to contents

The fertility Yew of Stoke Gabriel
A 850 year old female Yew in Stoke Gabriel, Devon, with a girth of 17 ft is associated with a fertility ritual. It is said that fertility is achieved for a woman if she walks forwards around the tree and for a man by walking backwards around the tree.

back to contents

Yews and Wells
Yew is one of the guardian trees, which is traditionally planted near wells and over blind springs. There used to be many lovely practices in the country, in which communities, as well as individuals expressed their thanks to the life giving water. One was singing to the well at Midsummer night. Another, which is still practised in in some places in Derbyshire, is called 'Well-dressing'. The well is decorated with petals and sprays of yew, often in beautiful patterns.

back to contents

Magical objects
Yew wood was frequently chosen for making sacred and magical objects, including talisman; not only in this country, but also by the Germanic and Scandinavian tribes. In the Netherlands, my native country, archeological finds include a 9th century Yew wand with a runic inscription to calm the wild waves of the sea (The Westeremden Yew Wand) and a 7th century Yew amulet with the runic inscription "Always carry this Yew. Therein lies strength" (The Wijnalden Amulet).
If you cannot carve or write runes, there is an alternative: Tradition has it that keeping a yew stick behind your door wards off evil.

back to contents

The Yew as a Scottish clan badge
As someone who has married into the Fraser Clan I can not fail to mention here, that the plant badge of the Clan is the Yew. The Fraser tradition was to fasten sprigs of yew in their bonnets before entering battle. The plant badge of a clan was thought to be a charm or talisman against evil and to bring good luck, rather than a means of identification. This Fraser Clan tradition probably originates in ancient traditions of using Yew as talisman  and amulet, and may also be associated with the widespread custom of burying the dead with a yew spray as a guide and comfort to entering the world of the death, a place where many warriors would inevitably be heading for, rather than returning home.

back to contents

The Yew in topiary and mazes.
When the Dutch prince, William of Orange, became King of England in 1688, he brought a passion for clipped greenery with him, which became a fashionable craze throughout the Kingdom and was known by some as "The Golden Age of Topiary". Yew was one of the most popular victims for this treatment. Others were Box and Holly. William also had a hedge maze planted in the gardens of the royal palace at Hampton Court.
Horace Walpole noted: Gods, animals and other objects were no longer carved out of stone: but the trees, shrubs and hedges were made to double service as a body of verdure and as a sculpture gallery." Another commentator, Joseph Addison, wrote in the Spectator of 1712: "Our British gardeners on the contrary, instead of humouring Nature, loves to deviate from it as much as possible. Our trees rise in cones, globes and pyramids. We see the mark of the scissors on every plant and bush. I do not know whether I am singular in my opinion, but for my own part, I would rather look upon a tree in all its luxuriancy and diffusion of boughs and branches, than when it is thus cut and trimmed into a mathematical figure..."
A reaction against this extreme form of gardening was inevitable and Capability Brown was the instigator of a new fashion of natural landscaping, which was eagerly adopted by many land and estate owners. Formal gardening and Topiary continues to be passionately practised by  many gardeners today, but others feel equally passionately that the custom is hideous. A famous churchyard in Painswick, Gloucestershire, has as 99 yews, all clipped, which make an extraordinary spectacle, which some people greatly admire.
Yews respond to clipping by growing very thick and dense and make admirable hedges.  The maze at Hampton Court is now probably one of the most famous hedge mazes in the world and has a deceptively simple looking design, as the many thousands of visitors who get lost in it every year can testify. It covers a third of an acre and its paths are half a mile long. The yew hedges are approximately 7' high and 3' wide and were gradually replanted in the 1960's with fast growing Yew.

back to contents

The encyclopedic Yew staves
The Celts used Yew staves and tablets to record knowledge i, which was important to the tribes, such as the names of rulers, the phases of the moon and traditional law. In Druid colleges such Yew wands were used as memory devices or for Divination and other Magical purposes.

back to contents

Irish tales and myths
Yews frequently feature in ancient Irish literature. The tales shed light on various facets of the importance of Yew in the old culture. Here are just a few examples:
The 14th century Irish book of Lismore contains a summing up of the ages of various things and concludes with "Three lifetimes of the yew for the world from its beginning to its end." This shows the Irish regarded the Yew as one of the most ancient beings on Earth!
A tale is told ("The Wooing of Etaine") of Eochaid, who is searching for the abducted Etaine. He seeks the help of a Druid who makes 4 staves of yew and inscribes them with Ogam. This enables him to divine that Etaine is staying with the fairy king, Midir, in the sidh.
In the Irish romance of Deirdre and Naoise, it is prophecied that Deirdre, daughter of the king of Ulster's storyteller, would bring ruin to the land. King Conchobar brings her up and plans to marry her but she falls in love with Naoise and flees to Scotland. The jealous King kills Naoise and his brothers and Deirdre dies from sorrow. The king tries to separate the graves of the lovers with yew stakes. However the Yews united the lovers in death by growing their branches together.
The famous story of Tristan and Iseult: Tristan tells his uncle, Mark, King of Cornwall about a beautiful Irish princess Iseult, who cured his wound, and is send to Ireland to ask for her hand in marriage on behalf of Mark. The couple fall unwittingly in love when they drink a potion and tragedy ensues. When they are buried on either side of the chapel in Tintagel Castle, the Yew trees sprouted on their graves, grow up and reach out for one another over the chapel roof. Poor King Mark had the trees cut down three times, but eventually he accepted he could not stop the enduring love between the two people he had loved so much himself.
There is another tragic love story where a young man called Bale dies of grief for the beautiful Ailinn. A yew tree grows out of his grave and expresses the likeness of his head in its branches. (N.B. Yew bark with its fluted ridges and wonderful shapes contains many figures and faces Check it out on your next meeting with these trees). Poets cuts the tree down after 7 years and make writing tablets out of it!
In the The tale of The Exile of Conall Corc, a swineherd has a prophetic vision relating to the Rock of Cashel, Tipperary: "I saw a wonder today on these ridges in the north, I beheld a yew bush on a stone and I perceived a small oratory in front of it and a flagstone before it. Angels were in attendance going up and down from the flagstone. The Druid of Aed interpreted this vision: "that will be the residence of the King of Munster for ever, and he who shall first kindle a fire under that yew, from him shall descend the kingship of Munster".

back to contents

The trance-inducing Yew
There are many indications in the wide ranging literature about the Yew, that it may have been used for inducing trance-like states. The tree gives off a vapour on hot days, which in a dense grove may possibly be enough to cause this condition, although I've never heard any first-hand accounts of such an experience.
An other possibility is that, with the right knowledge, a shamanistic drug can be created from the Yew, which would allow a fearless shaman to travel to the Otherworld, either in a sort of near-death experience or as an astral traveler. 
These suggestions are inspired by the Nordic myth of the God Wodan (also known as Odin), who hung for nine days (the number  9 stands for a complete cycle in occult sciences) on the World Tree in a trance and received the wisdom of the Runes for his ordeal. The Shamanic practice of climbing a tree as the entrance to a Shamanic journey is widespread, at least all over the Nordic hemisphere. The 12th card of the Major Arcana in the Tarot portrays the Hanged Man, which may mean that the practice of hanging on a tree to gain enlightenment was not confined to Nordic mythology.
To anyone considering it out for themselves, I would advice to follow a traditional 12-20 year shamanic apprentice ship first! In other words: don't attempt it without sufficient training or knowledge!

back to contents

The Yew in the Ogam and Runic Alphabets

It is not easy for modern people to understand the many enigma's and mysteries of ancient alphabets such as the Irish Ogam script or the Scandinavian/Germanic Runes. The word 'Rune' is said to be related to old European words for 'mystery'. We have been educated to think that an alphabet is simply a set of tools used to write down language. But both the Runic and Ogam alphabets were much more than that. Like our own alphabet every 'sign or letter symbol' represents a sound. However 'sound' is an immensely creative principle, as it creates waves and frequencies of a particular kind. This is one of the foundations on which true magic spells were based (for example: "God said 'Let there be light, and there was light"). Runes and Ogam letters are not just mere symbols, but they are also invocations of the creative energies set in motion by this sound. This is a subject which makes probably more scientific sense to a modern physicist than to most of us, who did not pay enough attention at school in physics. Runes and Ogam were seen as energy flows or patterns on "The Tree of Life". When I used to teach courses in my former "Mother Nature Centre", I often encouraged students to think of Runes as 'the thoughts of God' (=the creative principle) or as 'Dry Riverbeds', the usage of which fills the rivers and makes mighty streams on which people and happenings are carried closer to their purpose. Both Ogam and Runes were magical alphabets, used in an oral culture, to "sing the world into being". Carving the representations of these creative sounds in sacred wood was seen as an act of magic, as you literally manifest these energies in physical matter.
The understanding of Ogam is complicated also by the fact that the alphabet was used as a memory aid in a predominantly oral culture. There are dozens and more of ogams for every area of knowledge which the Druidic student had to learn about: An Ogam for trees, an Ogam for birds, an Ogam for colours, an Ogam for agriculture and so on. The basic alphabet is just a series of sounds in a particular following order, just like our own "A, B, C, D, etc. All the important concepts in each particular area were listed in these Ogams by their beginning sound. A very ingenious way to use the alphabet as a memory tool in a world without books!
The Ogam alphabet consists of cross lines on a stave and the ogamfew (=letter/sound) for Yew consists of 5 horizontal lines on the stave. Its name is 'Idho' (pronounce: EE-yoh), which is the fifth and final vowel in the Ogam and is associated with death, renewal and rebirth.
As far as I am aware, there are three runes associated with the Yew in the various Rune alphabets in Europe. They are called respectively 'EOH', 'YR', and 'UR' (from left to right in the illustration on the right) . EOH is the death rune. YR (also known as 'eur', 'eibe', and 'eihwas') is the Yew rune, which is said to activate the roots of the Tree of Life in us, the seat of our inner power, which "understand matter"! UR is the rune of the world womb, the female fruit bearing power in Nature, the Well and the Source, which creates well-being through earthing and gives healing and nurturing powers.
It is interesting to note in this context that in the Anglo-saxon languages the name of the Yew is related to the words for 'eternity'. Dutch: eeuw-ig, Old German: ewa or ewi. The names for the Yew in the Celtic languages have a very similar sound (please see top of this article under 'Names')

back to contents

Yew, the tree of Life: God/dess incarnate on Earth?

As a lover of trees I always find it strangely pleasing when any places are named after trees. And although I believe in "Small is beautiful", I can't help getting excited when a whole country is called after a tree! For example: 'Caledonia', the old name for Scotland, animates me more than 'Acacia Avenue', although that is nice too. So something stirred in my psychic cauldron when I read:

"Allen believes ... that the name Ireland really means 'Yew Island'. Aristotle and the Greeks called Ireland 'Ierne', and the Romans had a variety of forms in Latin, all close to the Greek, such as 'Iubernia' or in Caesar  'Iuvernia'. By the ninth century this has become, in the Latin of the historian Nennius, 'Eumonia' or 'Euboniam Insulum'." (Chetan and Brueton "The Sacred Yew - Rediscovering the ancient Tree of Life through the work of Allan Meredith, Penguin Arkana 1994).

I had often wondered if there was a connection between the Old Goddess 'Io' (the Sacred Cow, the ancient horned, milk-giving, lunar Triple Goddess, whose abundance gave rise to the Milky Way) and 'Yew', between 'IAO' (traditionally one of the most revered and secret names of God, which is said to be the Deity invoking itself) and 'Yew'. 
I had also pondered on possible connections between Io and Iona and too many others to mention here, because playing with the sound of words has been fascinating past-time ever since I became aware of the creative potential and power of sounds whilst learning about Runes in the early 70's. However they stayed mere (amusing) musings and I never did spend the time or found the resources to research this subject more thoroughly.
As I've become more acquainted with Alan Meredith's work however, I feel strongly that all of it merits looking at much more seriously. Yes, it does make sense that the name of Ireland (or Eire) derives from 'Yew-land', when we examine the words, sounds and mythology more closely. The Irish word for Yew is 'Iúr, the Manx equivalent is 'Euar' and Ireland has a remarkable number of tales in which Yew feature prominently. We also know from a Norman cleric called Gerald of Wales, who wrote "History and Topography of Ireland" on the basis of 4 visits to the emerald isle, between 1183 and 1204, that the Yew was more widespread in Ireland than in any other country he had visited. Since then many of the Sacred Trees have been destroyed, for example by Henry II's soldiers raiding the trees for bow staves, and the general deforestation in Ireland has alas been extremely severe.
Eire is not the only Yew island: An early name for the Isle of Man was 'Eubonia, The Isle of Arran was at one time known as "Eamhain Ablach" and Iona, not just an important spiritual centre through the ages, but also the burial ground of 48 Scottish Kings, "was originally just known as I or Hi, probably deriving from a Celtic word for yew tree. This element was then incorporated into various forms of the name, and appeared in a document from around AD 700 as 'Ioua insula', 'island of the yew-tree place'." (Chetan and Brueton)
And yes, all these ancient names are very interesting, but the implications of this and Alan Meredith's other insights are beyond being interesting: they are awesome! Not only do they compel us to review much of European Tree traditions and lore, but they also suggest that the Yew is not just a 'mere' Tree of Life, but an entity, which comes as close as we can imagine to the incarnate living consciousness of God/dess on Earth!
It appears that this was something our ancestors were aware of, but which we have forgotten.
We have missed it in our study of old tree traditions, probably because our up-bringing and education makes us assume, on some unconscious level, that we ought to be more evolved than our ancestors.
It is an astounding experience to me, after knowing about Alan's work theoretically for many years, to have the implications of his insights gradually sinking in and realising that the Yew is as pure a manifestation of divine consciousness in our midst, as the presence of a Buddha or Christ is!

back to contents

The Future of Yews

The number of ancient Yews in  Britain have halved since the Second World War. A few have fallen in the great storms we have experienced, but the majority were victims of 'progress' and had to make way for new developments or 'tidy-ness'. It cannot be over emphasized that a haggard looking Yew or a Yew which appears to have stopped growing is still a healthy Yew. Even remains of old trunks should be protected, as they have the ability to come to live again. The trees are best served by being left alone, as their wisdom is greater than ours. Branches should not be cut off. They store energy in this evergreen tree, similarly to the roots and will eventually grow, reach the ground and serve as an anchor for the tree and allow it to live on once the trunk hollows with age. Cutting back the larger branches also weakens the tree, because the structural equilibrium is disturbed and this can split the trunk and/or make the tree much more vulnerable to severe storms. Hollow trunks should never be filled up. Not only does it look abhorrent, but it adds weight and stress and inhibits the growth of aerial roots. 
We can all help to protect the ancient beings, which the Yews are, by visiting our local trees, keeping an eye on them and making sure that they are given a Tree Protection Order. Details on how to care for the Ancient Yews can be obtained from The Conservation Foundation, 1 Kensington Gore, London, SW7 2AR, England  UK, tel:  +44 (20) 7591 3111, fax:  +44 (20) 7591 3110.
And because the number of Yews is in decline, we can also plant Yews and look after them in the hope that in ages to come there may be plenty of venerable trees contributing their consciousness to the Earth. Who knows, in 5000 years time, they may remember you now and then? 

Our ancient Yews are far more than just another group of monuments. They are living beings with a consciousness of a depth and range that we can only guess at.
If that statement sounds exaggerated to you, please read "The Secret Life of Plants" by Peter Tompkins & Christopher Bird, which explores  the world of plants and its relation to humankind as revealed by the latest discoveries of scientists. It includes remarkable information about plants as lie detectors and plants as ecological sentinels; it describes their ability to adapt to human wishes, their response to music, their curative powers, and their ability to communicate with humankind.
As we, as the human species, are beginning to assess the damage caused by the phenomenal Sorcererer's Apprentice game we've been playing with our Earth and are trying to find ways to restore balance and create a sustainable future for all the Earth's creatures and ourselves, we will need all the help we can get! The presence of Yews in our midst is a treasure of consciousness, a teacher and a venerable being, which we can not afford to loose. 
From a pure practical point of view: Taking care of our Yews, and increasing their company amongst is not even a particularly expensive or demanding task. It can be done by ordinary people everywhere such as you and me.

Yew is the physical manifestation of the famous Celtic knot.  Or rather, to be more accurate: I believe that the imagery of Celtic knots emerged as an attempt to represent Yew consciousness, the voyage of the soul through all its transformations. Yew helps us to make the connection between our brief mortal lives and eternity. 'The Yew and me', a link between our separate, temporary identities and our larger selves: the source: the one soul searching to know and experience its endless possibilities.

  Yew Tree, I honour thee!

Important sources for writing this article were:
Alan Mitchell "A Field Guide to the Trees of Britain and Northern Europe", Collins, 1974
Chetan and Brueton "The Sacred Yew - Rediscovering the ancient Tree of Life through the work of Allan Meredith", Penguin Arkana 1994.

HOME  |  CONTACT US  |  JOIN US  |  LINK TO US  |  SITEMAP  |  NO-FRAMES SITEMAP