Bramble medicine

Free and ready to eat!

Early Autumn, I love it.   Especially all the wild berries, nuts and I start to feel that I am turning inwards away from the expansiveness of summer.  Yet still light enough to feel a reassurance that winter is not ready.

This is a wee bit different to the previous formats of my blogs.  There is an abundance of blackberries in our local area, I sense much more so than last year.  I am really magnetised to them.  So this blog is all about making connections to the brash bramble and her witchy berries!

I haven’t been in blog mode for a while.  It is like I went into a really different zone in the summer where I did not feel the motivation or inclination to write.  It was a good break.  After the intense study for counselling level 3 which finished in June, I feel I needed to go into a meltdown mode!

Protective, sturdy armour in plant form!

Our gardens are bramble ridden.  Brambles grow in every border, hedge and possible corner.  There are ones at the front in the old trees that exceed six feet in height and 6cm in width!  They are woody and dark brown and do not have any fruit.  Then there are the smaller green softer vines that are now laden with fruit.  Grant and I spent a long time cutting them back, doing runs to the tip with bags of the prickly blighters.  I really can’t stand them.  Something about the appearance and the feel of them….I feel on edge when I look at them growing amongst more appealling plants.

Yet I sense they can help me learn more about myself.  I feel that plants like animals (us included!) have their own medicine.  I have heard brambles called ‘anti-personnel’ plants, or security guards plants!  They can put people off venturing into your garden or house, if there are enough of them in strategic places.  So they are protective and also defensive plants.  They are confident and determined too, they grow fast and strong.  They are cut back, dug up and still they seem to recover and keep growing!  Do you ever feel you could do with some of that willpower and energy?!

The ‘shadow side’ of the bramble is the ‘offputting’ or defensive aspect.  The large thorny prickles can be a bit: ‘Keep off!’  ‘Don’t come too close I can hurt you!’  Personally, I know I can be a bit ‘prickly’ or defensive if I feel I am being ‘attacked’ or misunderstood.  I want to be welcoming and at ease in myself, yet sometimes it is hard to not feel vulnerable.  But it is also good to be true to oneself and not be taken advantage of.

When the berries first appear, the prickles seem less aggressive almost, there is hope!  Black berries are rich, earthy feminine berries.  Their outward colour appears to be black, but the juice is deep purpley red.  

Lovely local ripening and ripe berries

I referred to them as ‘witchy’ berries earlier.  This is because the bramble is a plant associated with the ‘dark goddess’ and for generations it has been seen in folklore and by hedge witches as a plant for reflecting back ill wishes to those who are creating the ill wishes.  The plant and berries are used in protection spells also.

I am feeling a bit different about brambles now.  They are remarkable. 

So enjoy the berries while you can!  Supposedly best to eat them before mid September.

I’m off to pick some berries for scones, bramble scones (without the thorns!)

 Offerings

If you wish to centre yourself, feel more strength and protection against the coming winter’s darkness and virus invaders or because you feel invaded in some way, try making a bramble wreath.  Gather some old brambles (brown or atleast with the leaves brown), wear your gloves (!).  Wrap the stems around each other until you have a sturdy wreath.  Say an affirmation for protection and strength and hang it where you feel it needs to be hung.  Leave it up until it no longer feels right.

Follow your intuition and use the berries in a drink or healing ritual.

Any questions please do ask.

Take care!