tree letter
Coll/ hazel

Dylan was born when his mother, Arianrhod (her name means silver wheel), stepped over a hazel wand. The wand was used as a trick by Dylan’s father Gwydion, who knew Arianrhod did not want him. Yet Dylan grew into possibly the most famous celtic bard, becoming best known as Taliesin. Taliesin had many shapes “I am a blue salmon” and was famed for his teaching of wisdom. Salmon, wisdom and hazel are all connected into the mystic Salmon of Wisdom, who each year travels his long journey to catch the falling Hazelnuts of Knowledge at the Well at the World’s End before returning “the ways of the round rolling world”.

Salmon of Wisdom

This tale is at the root of many ancient stories where, to save someone from certain death, the hero must go the Well at the World’s End and catch the magic nut before it reaches the salmon. The nine nuts of wisdom at Connla’s Well in Tipperary hint at the magical property of numbers, while white hazel wands — wrapped in a craneskin and carried by druids — hint at the legend of the crane who brought the tree alphabet from Egypt and the healing power of hazel itself.

Botanic

The hazel flowers after nine years. Catkins appear first, before the leaves, and the female flowers a month later, with scarlet stigmas.

Leaves and bark are ancient remedies for heart problems and prevent dilation of blood vessels.

Useshazel will often grown in groves, as a small to medium tree. The bark is smooth with lightly ‘blistered’ nodes. nuts. hazel fruits after nine years, sometimes in clusters of nine. several species of moth may be found as chrysalis under hazel leaves. in hotter countries, almond can occasionally be substitute for hazel. medicine. witch hazel is excellent for healing skin irritations