My moon with Alder
Continuing the spiral wheel of my personal Lunar Tree Calendar, last moon we transitioned from the Rowan tree on to Alder – the tree of balance, discernment and protection.
During this Alder Moon I continued to build on the new tree relationships I have been forming since our move here nearly four years ago now. In my elemental tree system the Alder is one of the Water Element Trees, having Water as its dominant element; its secondary element is Fire.
This moon my closest Alder trees are a little further afield than outside my front door and my local favourites are a small line of tall Alders that grow in a marshy area that sits between the track we walk each day and the sea loch. Nearby there are also a couple of Alder Carrs (groves of alder that grown in boggy areas) full of young Alder trees just a few years old. So, this moon I decided to put on my wellies and go be with both these groups of trees and see what wisdom they had to share with me.
Alders bridging the space between land and sea
As I spent time with the Alders over this moon, I soon noticed that this year they were much slower to come into bud and to have their catkins create that wonderful purple haze that I always associate these trees with, such a powerful sign that Spring is around the corner.
I had to wait longer than I anticipated to collect cones, buds and twigs for creating some Alder dyes with which to colour to some rawhide offcuts set aside for some rattles I wanted to make. This was the beginning of the message that timing is everything and everything comes in its time.
Alder Catkins and Buds
In the past I have often worked with Alder to help me bring balance to my personal elemental make up.
As part of the Celtic Tree Journey, we spend one week at a time over the moon focussing on each of the four elements of Air / Wind, Fire, Water and Earth; allowing this tree’s wisdom to guide us into balancing the elements in our lives.
This year following on from my work with Rowan, I felt I needed to ask Alder for support in balancing my masculine and feminine aspects. Alder is the tree of discernment it helps us to know when to defend with the shield or to fight with the sword and I wove this into my exploration of my own feminine and masculine strengths and weaknesses as well as tuning into my energy patterns – when I am outwardly active and focussed which are some of my masculine strengths – and when I am more introspective, working from my intuition and creating which are some of my feminine strengths.
A lot of curiosity arose around this – how it was impacted by the aspect of the moon cycle I was in and even the weather seemed to allow me to work with the two polarities in different ways – and the weather has been very varied this moon from hard frosts and sunny days to wild stormy and unseasonably mild times too!
How was your Alder Moon, have you felt this tree’s influence in your life? Feel free to comment below!
If you would like to explore the tree year with me, or deepen your connection to one or more of the Celtic Trees then take a look at some of my tree offerings – just follow the links below
