Planet: The Sun and Neptune

Element: Water, Fire

Symbolism: Mastership and Power

Stone: Turquoise, Lepidolite (Increase psychic awareness)

Birds: Common Snipe

Color: White, pale Blue

Deity: Eostre, Frigg, Hel/Holle, Minerva, Nemesis, Odin, Nemesis, Poseidon, Neptune

Folk Name: Hoop Ash, Nion - (a rune name from the Irish Gaelic word Nionon which means heaven.)

Medicinal properties: 

Ash bark can make an infusion that is a mild laxative and diuretic. The rood bark is the most potent with astringent properties, and was used to treat liver diseases and arthritic rheumatism.  Other uses include reduce fever, treat kidney and urinary infections, expel intestinal parasites, and treating malaria.

Magickal properties: 

The leaves attract love and prosperity. Burn Ash wood at Yule to receive prosperity. Sleep with them under your pillow and you will have psychic/prophetic dreams. Sleep with them in a bowl of water next to your bed to prevent illness. Wearing garters of green ash bark protects against the powers of magicians. Ash can heal children just by passing the child through a split in the tree's trunk. It promotes strength, harmony, and a sense of being in tune with your surroundings.   In an ancient Greek creation story, humans were formed from Ash and Oak trees. 

Ash wood was used for the traditional handle of the besom broom.  Druid wands were often made of ash because of its straight grain, and the poles of witches' brooms were often made of ash and was representative of protection and strength. Ash wands are good for healing, general and solar magic. Ash Tree attracts lightening, so don't stand under one during an electric storm. 

Greek mythographer Hesiod claimed the first man was born from the ash tree. This became the custom of planting an ash tree at the birth of each baby. The state of the tree served as an indicator of that person's health and strength.

Ash is the key to healing the loneliness of the human spirit, forming a link between the gods, humans, and the dead in the spirit world. Ash holds the key to Universal Truth and Cosmic Wisdom, and it takes on the important role as a Tree of Initiation.

Beechwood fires are bright and clear,
If the logs are kept a year.
Chestnut's only good, they say,
If for long it's laid away.
Make a fire of elder tree,
Death within your house shall be.
But ash new or ash old
Is fit for a queen with a 
crown of gold.

Birch and fir logs burn too fast,
Blaze up bright and do not last.
It is by the Irish said,
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread.
Elm wood burns like
churchyard mold,
E'en the flames are cold.
But ash green or ash brown
Is fit for a queen with a
golden crown.

Poplar gives a bitter smoke,
Fills your eyes and makes you choke.
Applewood will scent your room
With an incense-like perfume.
Oaken logs if dry and old,
Keep away the winter's cold.
But ash new or ash old
Is fit for a queen with
a crown of gold.
~Anonymous~

HERB MAGIC FOR BEGINNERS

by Ellen Dugan

Ash is a healing tree, so two ash twigs may be fashioned into a solar amulet, and the solar energies used to help fight off the wintertime blues. Create this amulet on a nice, sunny day. Take two small ash twigs about six inches in length, and tie them together into an equal-armed cross (also known as the solar cross.) Fasten a gold ribbon at the center of the twigs, and knot the ribbon three times, saying:

By the powers of the ash tree, herb magic, and the sun,
Do as I will, bringing harm to none.
Then hold the amulet up to the sunshine, and bless it with the following charm to ward off the winter blues and to encourage healing:

I take two ash twigs, and tie a ribbon round,
A simple solar amulet I have bound.
Bring sunshine to my life and guard me, I pray.
Keeping those wintertime blues far, far away.
You can Hang this amulet in a prominent location in your home, or tuck it into your locker or desk at work. This amulet would also be easy to adapt to a pocket charm, if you keep the twigs about two inches in length. Now, you have yourself a little portable solar amulet.

Three of the Five great trees of Ireland were Ash: 

the Tree of Uisnech, 

the Tree of Tortu, 

and the Tree of Dathi. 

The Five trees were located in each of the five provinces and symbolized the guardians who protected the sovereignty of the land. They were destroyed in 665 CE by the Celts themselves, rather than surrendered to the encroaching Christians.

Whispers from the Woods, by Sandra Kynes

19th Century England and France: 

If a person had fever or toothache, they buried their finger-nail and toe-nail clippings under an Ash tree because they believed it would help cure the ailment.

The Fairy Bible

by Teresa Moorey

The Ash Fairy is androgynous and ambiguous, carrying great mysticism and power and making many connections: between this world and the Otherworld, between masculine and feminine, and between differing ideas. The ash fairy understands that problems are rarely solved on the level at which they were created.

The most famous ash was the Norse World Tree, Yggdrasil, on which Odin hung, to receive the wisdom of the runes. Thus ash possesses indescribable knowledge - things we cannot really know in our heads and can only reach through expansion of consciousness. Ash fairy may bring the gift of poetry, which has the power to evoke  ideas and associations that elude the conscious mind. Ash is associated with communications of all sorts. Witches were believed to fly on ash-handled broomsticks, while Viking ships were made of ash. Many ancient cultures believed that humans originated within the ash - for instance, souls were born in the branches of Yggdrasil. The goddess Nemesis carried an ash branch. And so ash fairy teaches balance, and unity in diversity. It takes an open mind and breadth of soul to travel in the Otherworld!

Celtic Moon sign - Ash Moon

The ash tree is famous, although anonymous, since it's the tree from which the Hanged Man is suspended in tarot decks. The roots of the ash penetrate deeply into the earth, and the tree itself is known for its speed of growth. Its energy, then, also builds quickly, but is dispersed just as fast. Born under this sign, you have a "knowing" of the connection between ourselves, our planet, and our universe. You feel the pain and joy of all other creatures, from trees to animals to those humans less fortunate than yourself. This lends a compassion to your personality that's incomparable.

Written by Kim Rogers-Gallagher, and Llewellyn's Witches' Datebook 2000

This is a good month to do magic that focuses on the inner self. Associated with ocean rituals, magical potency, prophetic dreams and spiritual journeys, the Ash can be used for making magical (and mundane) tools -- these are said to be more productive than tools made from other wood. Love spells and loved ones should be foremost in our minds in early spring.

Born under this sign are those who have a knowing of the connection between ourselves, our planet, and our universe. You feel the pain and joys of all living creatures, which makes you most compassionate.  Other traits: Uncommonly attractive, vivacious, impulsive, demanding, does not care for criticism, ambitious, intelligent, talented, likes to play with fate, can be egoistic, very reliable and trustworthy, faithful and prudent lover, sometimes brains rule over heart, but takes partnership very serious.

The Ash tree has deeply penetrating roots and sours the soil, making it difficult for other vegetation to grow beneath it. Its twigs are thick and strong. In Norse mythology, this tree spans the universe - its roots in hell, its branches supporting the heavens and with Earth at its centre. In Celtic cosmology in particular it connects the three circles of existence - past, present and future, or as confusion, balance, and creative force; there being no fell, but only continual rebirth as passage is made from circle to circle until the Land of the Blessed is finally reached.

Also, the Ash can be seen as spanning both microcosm and macrocosm, the little world and the great world. In this interpretation, man and Earthly things are reflections in miniature of the universe, the cosmos being reflected in us, and thus expressing the meaning of the old expression:

as above, so below.

THE CELTIC TREE ORACLE 

by Liz and Colin Murray