Ozark Tree Magic & Spirituality

Ozarkers have a special reverence for trees, and many special trees native to the area are used in healing, magic, and divination. 

“Some observers have thought they found a suggestion of tree worship, or something of the sort, in the Ozarker’s use of the masculine pronouns as applied to trees.” –Vance Randolph, Ozark Magic & Folklore

Many of these old time spells involved driving a peg into a tree. I have been told that this does not damage a healthy, mature tree, even when done several times to the same tree. However, I will not advocate such practices. Instead I offer these alternatives; tie a string around the tree where the peg would have been in a peg cure/spell, or drive a peg into the ground instead of a tree. Many peg spells proscribe driving a peg into the ground already. In the symbolism of our folk magic, items buried among the roots, or pegs driven into the ground at it’s base, take on qualities or attributes of a tree, or are otherwise linked to its life.

Most trees are considered suitable for healing magic, except the poisonous ones; yew and hemlock. Touching or just being close to trees is believed to have healing effects and alleviate headaches. Items made from the wood take on the tree’s associations. Lightning struck wood is a powerful talisman, and a buckeye nut was a common good luck token kept in the pocket. I’ve already said quite a bit about the Dogwood in my article Snawfus and the Dogwood, as it is quite an important tree in the Ozarks.

“Tie a string in knots – the same number of knots as the number of chills you have had. Tie the string around a dogwood tree and the chills will go away.” –Mary Celestia Parler, Folk Beliefs from Arkansas

Pawpaw trees were featured predominantly in Ozark folk magic. They were considered a witching tree and used in love and peg spells. Papaw seeds were tossed into coffins to insure revenge for a murder. Once I asked my dad if he could remember people working magic with pawpaw trees. He said that when he was a kid, the girls would tear away strips of cloth from their undergarments and tie them to the branches of pawpaw trees for love spells. By the way, the fruit of the pawpaw is incredibly delicious. The best time to harvest them is when they’re falling from the tree.

Red cedar is a type of juniper that holds a special place in Ozark tradition. It is used in spells for protection, especially from accidents and animal attacks, and also used for psychic powers and breaking curses. It’s used as a fumigant and burned for the purification of home, people, and animals (in a similar way that many Pagans use sage). The berries of juniper can be used for charm necklaces. It was once the most common type of Christmas tree used here.

The seeds of the persimmon fruit are used to predict winter weather. Once split open, they reveal the images of “fairy cutlery”. A spoon indicates heavy snow, a fork for mild winter with light snow, and a knife means icy winds. Persimmons are ripe after the first frost.

Fresh young roots of the Sassafras tree are used to make a spring tonic, but it can only be drunk for a few days in the spring, as it contains a substance that can cause liver damage if taken for too long. It used to be used to make root beer. The mitten leaves of Sassafras are used to keep winter clothes fresh when packed away for the summer. Every part of this tree smells good, and the twigs were once used as natural toothbrushes. Sassafras is used for luck and prosperity magic.

There’s all sorts of folklore about the good or bad luck of planting certain trees, and of the cutting down of certain trees as well. A lot of early Ozark folk were animists, and trees and plants and stones were thought of as the residences of some powerful spirits. The sacredness of trees is not at all a foreign concept here, and although we don’t have one tree we hold above all others as our World Tree, I find that the symbolism and imagery of using it in my personal liturgy to be very well fitting. I use the following “Tree of Life” prayer as an ending segment to both short rituals and magical workings: “In the name of the Tree of Life, in the name of the Sacred Three, in the name of the Guardian Ones, and all the Powers together, so may it be.”

Snawfus & the Dogwood Tree

The Ozarks is home to a giant white deer-like creature with blooming dogwood branches growing from his head instead of antlers. The blue haze that hangs over the Ozark Mountains in the early mornings, and especially in fall and winter, is his spiraling exhalations. 

The Snawfus is also said to have the ability to fly and leap into the trees. In a lot of the lore, it’s not because he has wings, but more like he has the agility of a primate. Because of this, the Snawfus is sometimes depicted as a tall man with a deer head (though I’ve rarely come across this depiction– it may be a later idea). 

Crossing paths with the Snawfus is considered a token (sign) of imminent death. But most likely, you will never see him. He will run in circles around you, just out of sight, as you walk through the woods. You may hear the birdsong in his branches, or even catch a glimpse of a dogwood petal, but you won’t see him unless he wants you to. And you may be encircled in the haze of his blue misty breath until you see nothing else.

In Ozark lore, white animals are regarded as an ominous omen. I think that this may have been a cultural memory of the caution and respect afforded to Otherworld creatures. In Celtic lore, Otherworldly creatures are white with red or pink ears, and sometimes red or pink eyes. There is nothing in the lore about the Snawfus having red or pink ears or eyes, but the dogwood flower is either pink or white with gradient pink toward the center. It’s not unrealistic to think that this may be a continuation of Celtic pagan belief, as many of early Ozark settlers were descendants of immigrants from the British isles. Though converted to Christianity hundreds of years ago, it’s no secret that many of the old beliefs held fast. It has been well documented that Ozarkers believed in “Little People” inhabiting stones and hills, and held other animistic beliefs as well.

Thinking along these lines, I ponder if the legend of the Snawfus could also be a local manifestation of the god Cernunnos. Both are antlered and associated with death. The Lord of the Otherworld god-type has manifested in different ways in Celtic myth through the ages- with and without the antlers. Just as those entities once revered as gods or powerful nature spirits became the Little People, so too might such a timeless entity as Cernunnos manifest for his people who traversed so from their origins as well, into a form in which he can be remembered anew.

I’m not alone in this pondering of the divinity of the Snawfus… I’ve come across writings of modern admirers (or should I say followers?) of the Snawfus, that call his blue mist exhalations the “breath of awen”, and regard him as the Spirit of Nature.

Yet there is another aspect of the Snawfus to explore; the great tree that grows from his head. Some stories describe it as a plum tree, but most say it is a dogwood. There’s a legend or two on how it got there- the main one being that a hunter who was out of bullets shot him in the head with a plum pit. That story is just goofy since there is no way a gun would shoot a plum pit, plus it seems to ignore the fact that it is commonly taboo to kill a white deer.

What I am more interested in is the fact that the tree is a dogwood, and the lore and legends surrounding it. The dogwood tree is native to North America and Mexico. Despite where the actual tree originated, there has come to be a lot of Christian legends surrounding it… like it was Jesus’ favorite tree so it was chosen to be used for the cross he was crucified on. (My, they would have had to go a long way to get it…) This legend also states that since that time, the tree no longer grows as tall and straight and the flowers that bloom upon it are in the shape of a cross, with indentations and blood/rust “stains” on the ends where the nails would go. The stamens are supposed to represent the crown of thorns, and the red fruit represents his blood. (No doubt, these colors seen against dark branches, brings to mind the sacred color trinity of red, white, and black.) Add this imagery to the fact that the tree blooms around the time of Easter; from about mid-April to mid-May. There’s also the legend that the dogwood was Adam’s favorite tree and so the devil tried to climb over the wall of Eden to get at it and destroy it, but only managed to take a little bite out of the end of every flower petal. So, what all this tells me, is that Christian settlers perhaps considered the tree both sacred and cursed, as they created a lore that intertwined it in such a way with their beliefs.

Here, dogwood bark took the place of rowan (mountain ash) in the old rowan and red thread protective talismans from the Gaelic countries. Dogwood was used not only for home talismans, but portable ones as well. 

“Some woodcutters who live on Sugar Creek, in Benton county, Arkansas, believe that a mad dog never bites a man who carries a piece of dogwood in his pocket, according to an old gentleman I met in Bentonville.” –Vance Randolph, Ozark Magic and Folklore

Dogwood roots and twigs were also steeped in whisky or boiled into a tea as a remedy for colds and fevers, and the bark was believed to cure colic. Dogwood and redbud are also traditional Ozark ingredients in love spells. Blooming from mid-April to early May, the Dogwood is seen in the Ozarks as an indicator that Spring has arrived. In the old countries this would have been hawthorne, which is not as common here. 

And so, the link Snawfus has with the Dogwood seems to be a profound pairing. For anyone celebrating May Day (Spring Equitherm) in the Ozarks, I think this mythos, imagery, and symbolism are an important part of the season.

More Autumn Equinox Activities for Kids

leaf stained glass
Lay down several layers of newspaper on a flat surface.  On a large sheet of wax paper, let you child arrange pressed leaves in a design or pattern.  Place another sheet of wax paper over this.  Iron the layers together with an iron set on low.  Trim the edges and hang in a window.

Here’s three rhyming games for younger kids:
Autumn
Autumn winds begin to blow (blow)
Colored leaves fall fast and slow (make fast and slow motions with hands)
Twirling, whirling around in mirth(twirl around)
‘Til at last, they touch our Mother Earth (touch ground)

This is the Way We
This is the way we rake the leaves rake the leaves, rake the leaves
This is the way we rake the leaves in the middle of Autumn.
This is the way we jump on the leaves, jump on the leaves, jump on the leaves
This is the way we jump on the leaves in the middle of Autumn.
This is the way we throw the leaves Throw the leaves, throw the leaves
This is the way we throw the leaves in the middle of Autumn.
This is the way we rake the leaves rake the leaves, rake the leaves
This is the way we rake the leaves in the middle of autumn.

Leaves
Little leaves fall gently down
Red and yellow, orange and brown. (flutter hands like leaves falling)
Whirling, whirling around and around. (turn around)
Quietly, without a sound. (put finger to lips)
Falling softly to the ground (begin to fall slowly)
Down and down and down and down. (lie on ground)

~~~

apple crafts
The first weekend of October is apple festival time in Lincoln, Arkansas!  Though apples are usually in season for us here by Autumn Equinox, apple crafts are great for either an Autumn Equinox or Samhain activity.
Apple prints- cut open an apple horizontally to reveal the star pattern made by the seeds.  This can be dipped in paint and used as an art stamp.  Dried apple garlands/wreaths- slice apples ¼ inch wide, soak in 1 cup of lemon juice and 1 tablespoon salt for 2 hours.  Dry on a cookie rack in a 200 degree oven for 2 or three hours.  Let cool.  Poke a hole in the edge of each to string onto ribbon to make a garland, or glue onto a cardboard circle to make a wreath.  You could even try making apple dolls with the instructions at appledolls.org.

Cornhusk Shuttlecock Games
To play this game, you will need a pokean- a shuttlecock made of corn husks and feathers.  Gather together a few corn husks, some twine, and three large feathers.  Lay two large husks on a flat surface in the shape of a sun cross.  Fold a third husk into a square and place it in the center of the cross.  Fold the ends of the husks up over the center and tie with the twine.  Stick the ends of the feathers into the top of the pokean.  One simple way to play is to see who can toss the pokean into the air the most times in a row with the palm of the hand.  More games and an illustration on the pokean can be found on the nativetech website.

Here are some nice picture books about the Autumn Equinox and harvest celebrations around the world.  (I found them at my local library.)
We Gather Together by Wendy Pfeffer
The Autumn Equinox by Ellen Jackson

Another fun little thing is this autumn kaleidoscope.

See my previous Autumn Equinox activites page for more.