The Tree of Enchantment APRIL 15 - MAY 12 Willow is a tree that
has been sacred in numerous religious beliefs and rituals dating
back to the Old Stone Age, from which were found funerary flints
shaped as willow-leaves. The words “witch,” “wicked” and
“wicker” are all derived from the same ancient word for Willow,
and all Druidical human sacrifices were offered at the full moon
in wicker-baskets. A warning from the antique Song of the Forest
Trees: “Burn not the Willow, a tree sacred to poets.” There is a
famous Greek painting representing the poet Orpheus, as Graves
writes, “receiving the gift of mystic eloquence by touching
willow trees in a grove of Persephone,” the Underworld-goddess.
In ancient Greek myths and religions the Willow is the tree
sacred to several other Underworld-goddesses--among them, Circe,
Hera, and Hecate, Mother of Witches. In Jerusalem, in the
worship of Jehovah, the Great Day of the Feast of Tabernacles--a
fire and water ceremony--was called the Day of Willows; in Sumer
circa 4000 B.C