MAGIC OF THE HAZEL TREE

Hazel works for healing, protection, luck, clairvoyance, divination, inspiration, wisdom, defense, fertility & wishes.
The air surrounding hazel trees is said to be magically charged with the quicksilver energy of exhilaration & inspiration.
If you need a magical protection, quickly draw a circle around yourself with a hazel branch.
Place twigs of hazel in window frames to protect your house from lightning.
Three pins of hazel wood driven into your house will protect it from fire.
Hazel nuts can be carried as charms. They ward off rheumatism & lumbago.
Hazel branches were woven into headpieces that were worn to protect warriors from evil. A ship master who wears such a cap is guaranteed to weather any storm.
Old, supple twigs of Hazel were woven into crowns & called “wishing caps”, which when worn & if you wished very hard, would make all your desires come true.
Sailors, believing them to offer protection against bad storms at sea, also wore wishing caps.
The ancient druids believed they could induce invisibility by wearing them.
String hazel nuts on a string & hang them in your house. Fairies will come to your aid.
Twigs of Hazel placed on window ledges give protection against lightening & 3 pins of Hazel hammered into a wall of the house would protect it from fire.

Because the nut reminds of a baby in the womb it is believed that it carries powers to enhance fertility.
To increase fertility carry a nut on your person.
Also drink a tea made from the essence of the nuts & include hazel nuts in your meals.
In Devon an old woman would give a gift of hazel nuts to a bride to ensure fertility.

A rod made from hazel wood will protect against evil spirits. It awakens inner intuition & insight & can stimulate poetic & artistic skills, calms passions & improves virtues.
Hazel wood magic wands must be made on holy days like Good Friday, St John's Day, Epiphany or Shrove Tuesday during the evening hours. If the night is a full moon they are even better.
The wood must be cut from the eastern side of the tree by a cutter facing east. It is then presented to the rays of the rising sun.
A virgin branch (one with no side shoots) is the most powerful.
If you cut a hazel rod on Good Friday or St John's Eve, you can swish it through the air while naming your enemies. It will cause them pain, no matter where they are.

Hazel has the power to draw on magical & other energies in the earth.
Forked hazel branch is used as a divining rod. Held by the ends of the fork with the longer end held straight in front of you, you move around looking for water.
When the end dips toward the ground you have found water. The harder it points down the better it will be to dig a well.
The divining rod can also be used to find other treasure as well.

Fishing rods made of hazel wood will give you the knowledge of the best place to fish.
Then the fish are drawn to the magic of the hazel in the rod. You will have a good catch.

Carrying a piece of hazel cut that was cut on midnight on Halloween will keep you from getting drunk.
On Halloween young people in love celebrate Nut-Crack Night.
They cook hazel nuts over fires. The way the nuts burn will determine the course of their love over the next year. Either the nuts will burn together or fly apart.
Cattle were driven through Beltaine & Midsummer fires. Their backs were singed with hazel rods to protect against disease & the evil eye.
The scorched rods were used the rest of the year to drive the cattle.

If the hazel trees have a lot of catkins, there will be a lot of babies. The saying is "the more catkins, the more prams".

There is an old saying that if a girl goes nutting on Sunday, she will meet the Devil & have a baby before she can marry.

If you find a double hazel nut you will have twins.
A double hazelnut will also prevent toothache.

If the hazelnuts have thick shells, the winter will be bleak; if their shells are thin, the winter will be mild.

To dream of a Hazelnut tree predicts wealth as well as unexpected good fortune.

Hazel is an ancient Celtic tree of wisdom, inspiration & poetry.
Hazel tree was revered by the ancient druids & is the ninth tree of the Celtic tree calendar, dated 5th Aug – 1st Sept.
The Celts were of the view that people consuming hazelnuts were provided with knowledge & motivation.

In Prussia a sign of the cross was made from a rod cut in the spring during the first summer thunderstorm.
It would bless all rain for the coming year.

Mythological characters that used hazel rods are Thor, Hermes & Mercury.
Norse mythology considered the hazel tree to be sacred.
Thor used hazel as a protection against lightning.
Apollo gave Mercury a hazel rod to help him maintain his godly virtues.
Hermes hazel rod made him the personification of intelligence.
Christian pilgrims often carried hazel rods as staffs. They used the same rods their whole lives & the rods were often buried with them.

In Wales if you make a cap of hazel leaves & twigs you can make a wish & it will come true.
In Merionethshire in Wales corpses were buried with hazel rods to protect from witchcraft.

In Scotland the hazel grove is called calltuin. A Calton is considered to be an entrance to the Otherworld.

In England hazel branches are gathered on Palm Sunday & kept alive in water inside the house.
They will protect the house from thunder & lightning.

In Germany hazel is a sign of immortality because it flowers at the end of winter.

A hazel wand cut on the Sabbath day before rising is used as a charm to protect against evil witches.