The ancient & revered medicine of Elder Tree

Here is some traditional mythology and common feelings around the medicinal properties of elder, however, I encourage you to build your own unique relationship with elder. To trust in your own intuition and inner guidance system to reveal the medicine of elder for you.

PLANT SPIRIT MEDICINE ~ CYCLE 1 ~ ELDER TREE MEDICINE

She will initiate you into the Shamanic realms of the underworld to meet with the Primordial Grandmothers, Crones, Power Animals & Plant Allies that will guide you through this sacred apprenticeship.

This Sacred plant apprenticeship brings you into deep connection and relationship with the spirit of this Ancient and Sacred tree, her medicine will be revealed to you throughout our journey, will be completely unique to you and yet interwoven within the Traditional beliefs. Trust and enjoy the journey!

Elder is a Sacred Celtic tree, under the the protection of the fairy realms. She has a wise old grandmother energy, that of an elder, a wisdom keeper. She guards the entrance of the underworld, the lower world where we journey into the shamanic realms for insights and healing.

The lower world are the descending feminine dimensions, known as hell. This is the death and the darkness, the void, the great mystery. The unknown. This has been a place of fear in over culture. Yet is the potential from which all life is birthed into the light from this space of darkness. Elder is the keeper of the cycles and teaches us to honour our natural rhythms of life – death – rebirth. When we can honour the death and the darkness, we can be deeply restored, renewed and rebirth a new.

She is the cycles and gifts the medicine of wisdom, transformation and renewal. She very much represents our descent into our winter season, our moon blood, the shamanic death in to the raw, wild feminine realms as we bleed , renewing us back into the light and rebirth as the cycle renews.

As the guardian of the Underworld, she guides us across the threshold of initiation, teaching us to trust and surrender into the death and unknown, to extract the power and wisdom from our experiences and journey through life.

Elder is the archetype of the Crone, she will reconnect you with your ancient roots, activating the wisdom of the cycles and your ancestral lineages within you. She is the tree of life, embodying the 3 shamanic worlds and a doorway into the shamanic realms to meet your ancestors, plant allies and animal spirits.

In the Ogham, the Celtic tree alphabet, elder is known as Ruis (symbol below). It is the tree of the 13th month, sacred to Samhain (Halloween), the festival that marked the end of the Pagan agricultural year. Elderberry wine was said to be drunk at Samhain, when it was consumed to promote divination and hallucinations and help commune with spirits and the ancestors.

Samhain is a time to honour our ancestors, when the veil between the realms of the living and the dead is at its thinnest. It was also a time to let go of the old and prepare for the new. Elder is celebrated within this festival as she embodies the crone and death energies at the end of a cycle. She is a natural symbol for regeneration.

A favourite in folk medicine

Elder has long been a useful plant in folk medicine, leading the German physician Michael Ettmueller (1644-1683) to describe it as “the medicine chest of the country people”. Green elder ointment, made with the leaves, was a domestic remedy for bruises, sprains, chilblains and for applying to wounds (Grieve, 1931). The flowers were believed to lower fever and the berries to treat colds and flu. The bark was recognised as an emetic (to induce vomiting for purging) and also used as an expectorant and diuretic. Its other miscellaneous uses include as an insect repellent, and as a dye, with different colours being produced by the branches, leaves, roots and berries.

ELDER Medicine

Some mild caution is required when foraging for this plant. While elderflowers are edible, elderberries should only be consumed after cooking, fermenting or pickling.

The stems, leaves, wood and roots are all toxic to humans as they contain cyanide and lecithins, while the fruits also contain tannins.

Elder is abundant and can be usually be found in hedgerows and woodland edges, where it particularly favours ditches and small streams. It is a tolerant plant, able to adapt to varied soil types, salty conditions and levels of atmospheric pollution, hence its frequent appearance at roadsides. It can grow as either a large bush or a tree, reaching a height and spread of around 6mx6m. It can also be found as a purple, ornamental variant with pink flower heads — great for making pink-tinged elderflower champagne!

Actions Diaphoretic, Anticatarrhal, Antiviral, Expectorant, Alterative, Astringent, Demulcent, Diuretic, Inflammation-Modulating, Vulnerary

Taste Sweet, Floral

Energetics Cooling, Gently Drying, Relaxant

Constituents Elderflower contains flavonoids, composed mainly of flavonol glycosides (astragalin, hyperoside, isoquercitrin, and rutin) and free aglycones (quercetin and kaempferol); minerals, mainly potassium; phenolic compounds, volatile oils, free fatty acids (linoleic, linolenic, and palmitic acids) and approximately 7% alkanes; mucilage; pectin; plastocynin (protein); sugar; tannins

Organ System Affinity Respiratory, Immune, Renal, & Integumentary Systems

Specific Indications Elderflower is specifically indicated for the following tissue states:

Heat/Excitation Wind/Tension Damp/Stagnation

Uses Elderflowers are commonly used cross-culturally to support acute and chronic respiratory conditions, inflammation, skin conditions, and the immune system. Most cultures have a very similar understanding of the medicinal properties of elderflowers, citing their use for things like colds and flus, to induce diaphoresis to support and break a fever.

Grandmother Elder – Planetary Ruler – Saturn

Grandmother elder is a protective and stabilising plant, she is incredibly supportive of people who feel ungrounded, fearful, overwhelmed with anxiety, or punished by the harshness of life. Sitting with elder is like having a cup of tea with your grandmother. She’ll offer you gentle support when you need it most while also bolstering your confidence with stern, yet gentle, clarity. Elder is here for those who need support in cultivating their inner wisdom. As a Saturn-ruled plant, elder helps to strengthen our boundaries, cultivate inner wisdom, and accept things for how they are. There are limitations of our lives, the world we live in, our own bodies, and Saturn teaches us about those limitations, embodying the ageing process of gradual decay and death – the final end of this incarnation.

Elder offers a softer side of Saturn – a feminine, grandmotherly expression of Saturn. Communing with grandmother elder offers us clarity and insight while helping us break down illusions and structures that we carry that are not true to our core essence. Elder says, “No dear, that isn’t quite for you,” and sets us back on our path with acceptance. Lean on this plant for a grounded reality-check, a reminder of who you really are, and get ready to do the supported work of becoming a wise elder in your own time.

“…In my experience it’s a teacher of the ways of the forest, a master plant that teaches us what it means to be a person of the plants and an instrument for their healing. I believe it was no mistake that this plant was the “sign” of the herbalist in European folk medicine, for it was not only associated with its nature as a panacea, but also because it is in a way, a sigil or mark of a true person of the plants.”– Sajah Popham

She holds the ancient wisdom of the wise women, the herbalists and mid-wives that walked before us and guides into the remembrance of this ancient knowledge that resides within each of us.