Tree Profile: Hickory’s Magical, Medicinal, and Herbal Qualities - The Druids Garden

Shelled shagbark hickory nuts

I am going to do a series of posts on trees–I started a second 3rd degree Adept project for the AODA, and its on expanding the traditional Ogham to include plants native to the Mid-west/mid-Atlantic region. This project will also take me three years, but its work well worth doing :). The first tree I want to focus on as part of this work is the Hickory tree–which is a bit of an elusive tree in terms of Western knowledge, but when we look to native American traditions, we find a wealth of information.

Physical Properties: Hickory trees typically produce a good crop of nuts every third year after they reach 30 or 40 years old (depending on the sub-species).  Hickory wood is extremely tough, and was used by natives and settlers alike in the USA as a wood for axe handles and other tools (a practice that continues to this day). The Ojibway used the wood for bows due to its elasticity and strength. Hickory wood remains one of the most efficient woods in North America for burning (only Black Locust, a non-native tree, has a higher BTU).  Hickory also makes an excellent charcoal (and savory smoke).  In Michigan, we have a number of hickories, including red hickory, pignut hickory, shellbark hickory, and shagbark hickory.

The Doctrine of Signatures:  The Doctrine of Signatures is used in traditional Western herbalism and suggests that the plant itself and its physical qualities help us understand the qualities that it helps heal. I’d like to propose, also, that we can use the doctrine of signatures to understand the magical properties of trees, especially those that are not traditional to the western magical literature, like hickory.

So let’s take a look at its physical properties and the magical lessons it might teach us:

• Patience: Hickory is very slow to grow. A typical hickory tree takes 30 or 40 more years to produce nuts.  Furthermore, after you’ve waited the 30 or 40 years to see the tree produce nuts, if you’ve ever tried to get at hickory nutmeats, you’ll know its hard to get the full nutmeat out easily.  Both of these qualities lend themselves hickory being associated with patience.
• Strength yet Flexibility.  Hickory wood is prized and used for tools, bows, and furniture because is nearly as strong as steel but very flexible.  It burns very clean and makes a long-lasting fire.  Both of these qualities inherent in the tree lead to its qualities of strength and flexibility.

Traditional Western & Magical Herbalism.  Very little in the traditional lore books speaks to hickory, neither traditional herbals (Wood, Grieve) or magical herbals (Greer, Beyerl). I was expecting to see something from the Hoodoo tradition, but it, also does not appear in Yronwode’s Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic. Cunningham, who I don’t always like to trust, has something about the tree focusing on law/keeping away the law, but I have no idea where he derived his information.  I’m not seeing it repeated anywhere else, and its not consistent with the doctrine of signatures nor the native lore.

Unshelled bitternut and red hickory

Native American Lore/Myths: Native American mythology sheds some substantial light on the magic of the hickory. The Seneca discuss hickory trees at length in their mythology (as described in Seneca Indian Myths, collected by Jeremiah Curtin).  The hickory is featured prominently in these myths is  connected with the dead and bringing the dead to life.  In “Okteondo and his Uncle”, “Man-Eater and his Brother,” “Owl and His Jealous Wife,” “Uncle and Nephew” and “Hodadeio and His Sister” the bones of the dead are  placed before a great hickory tree (usually after being eaten by cannibals) and, typically,  the living person who placed the bones pushes against the hickory and shouts “Rise up or the tree will fall on you” the dead rise up and become living again.   In “Hodadieo and his Sister”, after Hodadieo’s sister rises up from the dead under threat of being crushed by the hickory, Hodadieo throws a hickory nut to the west and commands the other nuts to follow, which they do, and all the nuts end up in the family’s stores for the winter.  In other tales, the hickory is made into canoes (Wishakon and His Friend Visit Plethoak) for travel.

Native Herbal Uses:  The sap of the Shagbark hickory was used by the Iroquois as a sweetener and, when mixed with bear grease, a bug repellent.  Shagbark’s young shoots/leaves were used by the Ojibway for headaches.  The Potawatomi boiled the bark and applied it to tender muscles for arthritis pain.

My Hickory Nut Experiences: I have been having a difficult time this year, as I mentioned in an earlier post about blight and the magical garden. I have found myself really, really drawn to the hickory tree during the last few months. A friend and I have been gathering an abundance of hickory nuts this year–more than either of us have ever seen (see photos, lol)!  We probably have over 100 lbs of hickory nuts we are now shelling. One night, despite the fact that I had lots of other things to do, I found myself shelling hickory nuts for a long while.  It was a peaceful, relaxing activity, and the more I shelled, the more I was at peace.  A few days later, I went back down to this amazing pignut hickory tree at the corner of my property, where I had been gathering the nuts.  I sat with my back against the tree (this is a practice described in John Michael Greer’s Celtic Golden Dawn curriculum, which I’m working through) and did a tree meditation.  It was incredible.  I watched the sun set, and I felt the hickory tree healing me and calming me.  I’ve also been making a “four sacred trees” brew using hickory nuts and some other trees–I’ll blog about that shortly in my next post :).