Ash Trees

I love ash trees and have a few here on my wee farm. There is a massive one that stands by my driveway and I call it the mama as I think it has produced most of the other ash trees growing on our property. The four young ash trees below I call the four sisters and they stand at the upper side of our horse paddock. I have several ash walking sticks I have made and often use when hiking.

The Ash tree has always been given mystical import and character, frequently being associated with healing and enchantment. In Celtic literature, there are many references to the Ash tree, but in particular as associated with the Welsh Magician-God Gwyddion, who bears an Ash staff/wand, a symbol of healing and especially transformation and empowerment in matters of destiny. As such in the Mabinogion the magic of Gwydion is concerned with tricking Arianhrod to give the young Llew his arms which she had previous sworn never to do, having placed a Geis ( or conditional curse or fate ) upon him. Gwydion used his powers of enchantment and transformation, to create a Phantom army fleet of ships which then tricks Arianhrod into giving Llew his arms, and thus removing the Geis upon his destiny. Llew is later said in the myth to rest as an Eagle in an Ash Tree.

Ash was often used for spear shafts or handles for weapons and hence also Ash can be also seen to be Checking the powers of peace as above in the Word Ogams of Morann Mac Main. In this sense, application of force to destiny may bring peace through resolution of a conflict - which would be seen as healing. The English name Ash may have been derived from the Anglo-Saxon word Asec which is the name for a ritualistic spear. The name Nuin or Nin, literally means letters in the Celtic languages.

Ash trees are trees of the family Oleaceae (Olive-tree like). They are medium-height to large trees. Some of them are evergreen, but most are deciduous. The seeds are commonly known as keys in English. They are a type of fruit known as samara. Ash wood is used to make various tools, handles, bows. It also makes very good firewood. Ash trees are also perfect material for old fashion shafts for bow and arrows.

In Norse Mythology, the World tree Yggdrasil is commonly thought to be an ash tree. The first man, Askr, was formed from an ash. The first woman was made from an alder.





The Ash Grove


The ash grove, how graceful, how plainly to speaking
The harp through it playing has language for me;
Whenever the light through its branches is breaking,
A host of kind faces is gazing on me,
The friends of my childhood again are before me.
Each step wakes a memory as freely I roam.
With soft whispers laden its leaves rustle o'er me,
The ash grove, the ash grove alone is my home.

My lips smile no more; my heart loses its lightness,
No dream of the future my spirit can cheer.
I only can brood on the past and its brightness.
The dead I have mourned are again living here.
From every dark nook they press forward to meet me;
I lift up my eyes to the broad leafy dome,
And others are there, looking downward to greet me.
The ash grove, the ash grove alone is my home.





The Ash Grove (Welsh: Llwyn Onn) is a traditional Welsh folk song whose melody has been set to numerous sets of lyrics.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust

All that is not of God must die

All that is crushed will be restored

All that is lost will be made new

God may we repent of ways that do not serve you

And admit to the tensions that tell us where we need to change

Christ is coming walking towards the cross

God may we see him clearly

Pouring out love

Pouring out mercy

Pouring out peace

May we kneel before him in humble adoration

May we take up our cross and follow

And walk with Christ into the ways of life




'Christ be with me, Christ within me

Christ behind me, Christ before me,

Christ beside me, Christ to win me,

Christ to comfort and restore me,

Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,

Christ in hearts of all that love me,

Christ in mouth of friend and stranger'.





.

Ash Wednesday 2011

Ash Wednesday 2011: What's the Origin and Meaning of the Christian Event?


Torie Bosch


Tomorrow, when the revelers in New Orleans are feeling their hangovers (or are still drunk) from Fat Tuesday, many of the faithful will be in church.

Because after Fat Tuesday comes Ash Wednesday in the Christian calendar. Both are part of the lead-up to Easter, the holiest day of the year for Christians.

Here's how it works. Fat Tuesday is a last hurrah. There's Mardi Gras in New Orleans, for instance, and the raucous Carnival in Latin countries.

Once Fat Tuesday has come to a close -- and that's at midnight sharp in New Orleans -- Ash Wednesday begins. Ash Wednesday is the first day of the season of Lent, a several-week-long period of repentance and contemplation for Catholics. Lent observation and its rituals were formalized for Christians by the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. and have evolved over the following centuries.

On Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent is marked with church services in which priests and ministers place ashes in the sign of the cross on the faithful's foreheads. As he places the ashes upon the person's forehead, a priest will say, "Remember, man is dust, and unto dust you shall return"; "Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel"; or "Repent, and hear the good news."

Traditionally, ashes are a sign of penance, and wearing the ashen cross tells the world that you are repenting your sins. The ashes themselves are composed of holy water mixed with the burned remains of the palm fronds from the prior year's Palm Sunday service. Palm Sunday falls on the Sunday before Easter.


For Catholics, Ash Wednesday is also a day of fasting, as those between 15 and 59 are expected to abstain from meat and eat only one full meal during the day. During Lent, Catholics are to abstain from meat on Fridays as well.

Lent lasts for 46 days (or 40 days without counting Sundays) and ends on Easter. Catholics are also encouraged to give up something for Lent, so Ash Wednesday for many can also mean the first day of abstaining from, say, chocolate.

While the Catholic Church's observance of Ash Wednesday may be the most well known, other churches also mark the holiday, including the Lutheran Church and the Methodist Church. Eastern churches instead celebrate "Clean Monday" or "Ash Monday."




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Blessed sister, holy mother, spirit of the fountain, spirit of the garden,
Suffer us not to mock ourselves with falsehood
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still
Even among these rocks,
Our peace in [God's] will
And even among these rocks
Sister, mother
And spirit of the river, spirit of the sea,
Suffer me not to be separated
And let my cry come unto Thee."

- T.S. Eliot, from his poem "Ash Wednesday"

Lent has begun

Lent, in some Christian denominations, is the forty-day-long liturgical season of fasting and prayer before Easter. The forty days represent the time Jesus spent in the desert, where according to the Bible he endured temptation by Satan. Different churches calculate the forty days differently.

The purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer—through prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial—for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, which recalls the events linked to the Passion of Christ and culminates in Easter, the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In Western Christianity (with the exception of the Archdiocese of Milan which follows the Ambrosian Rite), Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and concludes on Holy Saturday. The six Sundays in Lent are not counted among the forty days because each Sunday represents a "mini-Easter", a celebration of Jesus' victory over sin and death.


In those churches which follow the Byzantine tradition (e.g. Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholics), the forty days of Lent are calculated differently: the fast begins on Clean Monday, Sundays are included in the count, and it ends on the Friday before Palm Sunday. The days of Lazarus Saturday, Palm Sunday and Holy Week are considered a distinct period of fasting.


Lent starts today Wednesday, the 25th of February and will continue for 46 days until Saturday, the 11th of April. This is of course Ash Wednesday it it the seventh Wednesday before Easter and the first day of Lent, on which many Christians receive a mark of ashes on the forehead as a token of penitence and mortality.