March 18: the Bleeding Tree and the Fisher King

March 18, the beginning of Fearn, the Alder Month of the Celtic Calendar.

I am a shining tear of the sun-the ogham glyph attributed to Fearn, the Alder month-from the Song of Amergin. (1).

According to some Celtic scholars, some  Celts in Britain and Ireland used a lunar calendar where each of the lunar months were named for a sacred Celtic tree.  The Alder is a sacred tree associated with the hero Bran and with male blood rising. According to JM Patterson:
In ancient Greece Cronos was represented by an alder tree. In Norse legends March was known as the ‘lengthening month of the waking alder’. In Irish legend the first human male was created from alder, and the first female from rowan. Alder’s burning qualities have always been prized amongst metal workers and smiths. It was known for its hot charcoal. As a tree which ‘bleeds’, alder is bound up in the legends of the Rollright stones in Oxfordshire where the King Stone, which stands alone, was once reputedly associated with a grove of alder trees.

The Alder was a part of a mythic battle of trees according to the highly controversial and historically questionable book The White Goddess, by Robert Graves.:
 In Cormac's tenth-century Glossary of obsolete terms the alder is called ro-eim, which is glossed as 'that which reddens the face': from which it may be deduced that the 'crimson-stained heroes' of the Welsh Triads, who were sacred kings, were connected with Bran's alder cult. One reason for the alder's sanctity is that when it is felled the wood, at first white, seems to bleed crimson, as though it were a man… But principally the alder is the tree of fire, the power of fire to free the earth from water; and the alder-branch by which Bran was recognised at the Câd Goddeu is a token of resurrection- its buds are set in a spiral. This spiral symbol is ante-diluvian: the earliest Sumerian shrines are 'ghost-houses', like those used in Uganda, and are flanked by spiral posts. (3)

The Fisher King

The meanings of the Alder and its role in Celtic ancient life are perhaps obscured in history.  All that is left is its association with the hero Bran and the rising passions of Spring.   Bran's association with the Holy Grail and the Fisher King make a easy connection of the Alder to the regenerative powers of the wounded healer.   A few years ago, I had a Fisher King dream which I am only beginning to unravel.  First, I was foiled in an attempt to enter the Grail castle in a boat with a beautiful Italian maiden [this Grail Castle was in Italy for some reason, or perhaps just an Italian film].  Next, I pretended to be one of the comical guards , dressed in Renaissance garb with matchlocks, and was on my way in the castle when I awoke.  The mystery of the wounded healer in the Fisher King is that our wounded nature is part of what makes us all human, and therefore what could divide us may also help us see ourselves as one.  Our wounded nature is dualistic:  in it lies our pain and our demise, but also birth and joy.
1 Linda Kerr, What is the Celtic Tree Calendar, http://www.faeriefaith.net/treecal.html
2 JM Patterson, A Tree In Your Pocket, from the webpage The Alder Tree , http://www.thornr.demon.co.uk/bran/alderims.html
3  Robert Graves, The White Goddess, http://www.thornr.demon.co.uk/bran/alderims.html