May Totems: Hawthorn

In our tradition we divide the year not only by eight solar and agricultural holidays, but also by the Kalends. We celebrate twelve months of the year by the common calendar, plus a special thirteenth month for Samhain.  These month cycles are associated with different totemic spirits. Each month is assigned an animal, a bird (or other flying creature), and a tree. May's totems are Cow, Hawthorn, and Bee.

The totemic associations are as follows:

Cow (Tarbh/Bò) – fertility, prosperity, protection, nourishment
Hawthorn (Huathe) – fertility, cleansing, protection, joy
Bee (Beach) – fertility, community, sweetness, celebration, organization

Hawthorn

Hawthorns are often used in hedges (some linguistic studies shows that its name may actually mean “hedge thorn”). It is ideal for such a use due to its twisted trunk and dense branches, which make it difficult to penetrate. It doesn’t generally grow very tall, and it is frequently a companion to blackthorn. When it is found naturally with Oak and Ash, fairies are likely to be nearby.

"Oh, do not tell the Priest of our Art,
Or he would call it sin;
But we shall be out in the woods all night,
A-conjuring summer in!
         
And we bring you news by word of mouth
For women, cattle and corn
Now is the sun come up from the South          
With Oak, and Ash and Thorn!"

-Rudyard Kipling's "Puck of Pook's Hill"

The Hawthorn has very sharp thorns that are sometimes used for ritual tattoos. Its white flowers are often woven into garlands for doors and Maypoles at Beltane. Indeed, long ago Beltane was reckoned by the first flowering of the Hawthorn tree. Its wood is the traditional material for the Maypole itself. The Hawthorn is so closely associated with Beltane that to gather its blossoming branches was said to be "going a-maying", and the tree itself is sometimes called simply "The May".  Due to these associations, Hawthorn has long been linked to weddings and fertility rites.

It is also associated with inward growth, cleansing and protection. It is said to be a “village tree” because it seems to prefer growing near people.

Fair Lady of the Bounds,
Raise high the Holy Hedge of Light
Bind fast the Dominion Within.
Pentanthus of the glory-hand,
Reach forth as a Guide amid thy branches,
Draw fast the bone-white thread
As a blessed Needle of Weaving.

~Viridarium Umbris: The Pleasure Garden of Shadow by Daniel A. Schulke

May Totems: Cattle

In our tradition we divide the year not only by eight solar and agricultural holidays, but also by the Kalends. We celebrate twelve months of the year by the common calendar, plus a special thirteenth month for Samhain.  These month cycles are associated with different totemic spirits. Each month is assigned an animal, a bird (or other flying creature), and a tree. May's totems are Cow, Hawthorn, and Bee.

The totemic associations are as follows:

Cow (Tarbh/Bò) – fertility, prosperity, protection, nourishment
Hawthorn (Huathe) – fertility, cleansing, protection, joy
Bee (Beach) – fertility, community, sweetness, celebration, organization

Bull (Tarbh)

The bull is associated with health, potency, beneficence, fertility, abundance, prosperity,  and power. The number of cattle owned were an indicator of wealth, a fact that is carried over in the term “Bull market” = rising stock market. The bull also appeared frequently on Celtic coins. Oxen (castrated bulls) were early power supply.

 Bronze horns and bronze rattle (in the shape of bull’s testes) spoke to the sacredness of the bull. Its horns are used as ceremonial drinking cups even today. An early Irish ritual (“bull sleep”) told of the new king when the old one died. “Gateway ceremonies” involved ritual sacrifice of bulls.

Cow (Bò)

The cow represents nourishment, motherhood and the Goddess. Certain herbs are associated with cows, such as cranberry (cowberry), cowslip, and milk-wort.

In Celtic lands, cows have long been considered sacred. In Britain there were sacred herds of white cattle. Ireland was gifted with cattle when three cows emerged from the sea – one red, one white, and one black. Brighid was reared on the milk of an Otherworld cow and is considered the patroness of cattle. Three of the four sacred festivals were related to cows (Samhain, Beltaine and Imbolc) Many Eastern traditions also hold the cow as sacred.

The cow is also a source of nourishment on many levels – milk, leather, meat, horn. The fact that is contributes to much to daily life is part of what makes it so sacred and special.

In folklore, the Milky Way is also called the Cow Path, and there are Fairy Cows called the  “Crodh Shith.”  Many offerings are made of milk, and the breath and milk of the cow are considered healing.

May Totems: Bee

In our tradition we divide the year not only by eight solar and agricultural holidays, but also by the Kalends. We celebrate twelve months of the year by the common calendar, plus a special thirteenth month for Samhain.  These month cycles are associated with different totemic spirits. Each month is assigned an animal, a bird (or other flying creature), and a tree. May's totems are Cow, Hawthorn, and Bee.

The totemic associations are as follows:

Cow (Tarbh/Bò) – fertility, prosperity, protection, nourishment
Hawthorn (Huathe) – fertility, cleansing, protection, joy
Bee (Beach) – fertility, community, sweetness, celebration, organization

Bee

No animal is a better example of the power of community than the bee. Each bee in a hive has a specific function which she will perform even if it means giving her life for the hive.  There are three types of bees: workers, drones, and queens.  The worker bees are the common bees we are most familiar with.  They secrete wax to form combs, and produce honey to feed the hive.

Bees pollinate all kinds of plants, and many of our food crops would be useless without them.  Because they are the element that carries the reproductive pollen from one plant to fertilize another, bees are strongly associated with fertility and abundance.

Honey was anciently the only source for a sweetener. Thus, the bee has come to symbolize the sweetness of life.

Bees communicate by dancing, and those who work with bees will find themselves drawn to dance and rhythm. The bee's dance is indirect relation to the sun in the sky.  Bees are symbolic of solar celebration.

Honeybees will only sting if they feel that the hive is in danger.  A honeybee gives its life when it uses its stinger.

The queen of a hive is chosen from newly hatched bee larva when the hive requires a new queen.  In summer bees will swarm in search of a new hive.  The chosen queen will be fed royal jelly which will allow her to become the sole reproducer in the hive.  She will be attended by male drones who give their life for mate with her. 

When a new coven of witches is formed from members of an older group it is said that the new coven has “hived off”, just as swarming bees would gather under a new queen.

Druids thought that the bee came from the world of sun and spirit.  They drank mead, a drink made from fermented honey, to celebrate this connection.

Honey and propolis, a resin which bees smear on their hives, are both antiseptic and are wonderful would healers and preservatives.  Thus, bees have powerful healing magic.

All bees everywhere build the combs in their hives at specific intervals of measurement. This is known as “bee space”. If bees are prevalent in your life you may need to examine if you are claiming the right amount of personal space for yourself.

Finally, the bee's droning buzzing can be compared to the sounds of otherworldly trance. Its hum is commemorated in many folk names for the creature, including drumbee, drummer, doombledore, hummabee, and humble-dad. In Welsh the word for harp, tellinn, is a truncated version of the word for bee, an-tseillean.