OAK is the ogam Duir or Dair, the door. It holds the center place in the ogam of the thirteen moons. The words Druid and dairy are derived from the same root as Duir.
Oaks (Quercus) are one of the most common trees of the temperature regions. I’ve been told that North America was so densely covered with oak forest five hundred years ago that a squirrel could travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River without ever setting foot on the ground. Oak forests also covered Europe several thousand years ago.
One might say civilization was possible due to oak. It provides heat, tans hides, heals wounds and infections, and can easily be fashioned into bows, spears, oars, boats, and houses. When green it bends well. Once dry, it becomes as hard as steel, and is exceptionally durable. (If the second little piggy had built his house of oak, no wolf would have been able to blow it down.)
Oak is not the hardest wood. (That’s ebony.) Nor is it the toughest. (That would be ash.) But it is the hardest tough wood. Oak logs submerged for more than a thousand years have been used in modern buildings. Oak was once valued due to its ability to be worked into rot resistant ships, barrels, and wagon wheels. We rarely use those things today, but oak is still prized: for furniture, musical instruments, firewood, and floors. It burns for a long time, puts out a lot of heat ,and leaves a bed of coals that lingers.
To the botanist, oak is Quercus, which means, literally, “a fine tree.” Oaks are roughly divided into red oaks and white oaks. The leaves of the red oaks are pointed; the leaves of white oaks are rounded. The acorns of the white oaks are the best to eat.
Acorn meal was a staple food of the Native Americans of the west coast of North America. I prepared it once; once. Not only is the labor of picking up acorns literally back-breaking, the process of leaching them, drying them, and grinding them – before they can be cooked, which is a tricky business itself – is more than my modern self wants to endure. Acorns are still important food for livestock. My goats love to (over) eat them. In Spain, I was introduced to “black leg ham” from pigs fed only on acorns. Delicious.
Magically, the oak wand is used to maintain a strong center under adverse conditions. Or, in beneficial circumstances, oak wands are used for help in creating openings to new realms of understanding. Acorns are magical, of course, and are featured in many European fairy tales.
Oak bark is used medicinally as an antiseptic, astringent, and tonic. The tea – four tablespoons of bark per half-gallon of water simmered for ten minutes, and taken half a cup at a time – is said to shrink goiter, reduce glandular inflammation, stop diarrhea, restore loss of voice and ease coughs, dry up mouth sores, and bring down fever.
The Iroquois considered oak an aid for “when your woman goes off and won’t come back.” To cure sinus problems and infections, they smoked the leaves and exhaled the healing smoke through the nose. A strong infusion of the bark or leaves is used as a sitz bath to ease hemorrhoids, fistulas, vaginal discharges, and chronic pelvic pain. Poultices of the leaves are applied to heal stings, bruises, ulcers, broken bones, swellings, and painful joints. Oak is also of value as a wash to remove dandruff and encourage hair growth, and to heal varicose veins, sore eyes, umbilical stumps, burns, and oozing sores.
Oak trees are sacred to Taranis, Indra, Jupiter, Yahweh, Ukho, Rhea, Cybele, Thor, Artemis, Brigid, Balder, the Erinyes, and the Kikonian Maenads.
“My roots touch the Earth’s heart.
My leaves touch the Bear’s heart.
I am the Queen, I am the oracle,
I am the center of the whirling Universe,
I am the door of the year.
I am the mill shaft; I am the axle.
Around my stillness all is motion.
I am fullness and promises fulfilled.
I am love’s memory; I am love’s grandchild.”
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