The Juniper Tree (In Folklore, Healing and Cannibalism)
by Rowan
Originally published at Beltane 1996
One of the characteristic heathland shrubs of the chalk and limestone country is the Juniper - Juniperus communis. The shrub typically grows from 4 - 6 feet high with the trunk or stem often being contorted and twisted. The leaves take the form of needles of a deep green colour sometimes with a bluish-tinge, on account of which it is often known in folk tradition as the needle yew. The berries usually take two to three years to fully ripen, hence it is common to see both the bluish-black ripe berries alongside very green and under-ripe ones on the same bush. When fully ripe, the berries are about the size of a pea and have an aromatic resiny scent(1).
There is some evidence that the juniper may have been one of the first shrubs to colonise the British Isles as the ice sheets retreated at the end of the last Ice Age about 12,000 years ago. Extremely hardy, juniper was able to establish itself on the emerging tundra and its prickles appear to have given protection from grazing animal to other, less well protected, trees. Unfortunately juniper cannot tolerate shade and as woodland grows up around it it eventually dies, and the archaeo-botanical evidence is that the shrub went into something of a decline until neolithic settlers started to clear the wildwood for farmland, thus creating open areas in which juniper could once again gain a foothold. Until fairly recently juniper was often found as the first stage in the process in which abandoned grassland began the move back to woodland, but it has become increasingly rare in recent decades as intensive farming has brought into cultivation previously marginal grassland which it colonised. Juniper is also highly vulnerable to heath and moorland fires and once burned rarely recovers. The extensive heath fires of recent hot dry summers can only make the situation worse, and in lowland Britain juniper is now largely restricted to secluded grassland areas in Wiltshire(2).
Today the most valuable commercial use for the plant is of its berries which produce the distinctive bitter flavouring in gin, which in turn takes its name from genevrier, the French name for the juniper, and Mrs Grieve notes that in Sweden a juniper-flavoured beer is drunk. They are also used in cookery, being especially used in French and southern European cuisines, and particularly complement lamb or mutton. There has also been a demand for juniper oil by the perfume industry for some years, where it is prized as a "masculine" scent much used in aftershave.
Therapeutic Uses
In more recent years, however, a demand has also developed for the essential oil for use in alternative medicine, most commonly aromatherapy, and indeed few keen aromatherapists are likely to lack some juniper oil in their armoury. Approximately 100g of berries are required to produce 1g of oil(3), which is at its most concentrated just at the time that the berries finally ripen. In practice, harvesting usually takes place around September and October when the berries tend to make the final "push" towards maturity. They should be dried slowly to minimise evaporation of the oil. Juniper wood also contains essential oil and oil is commercially extracted from the wood; for therapeutic uses, however, the oil derived from wood is considerably poorer and is therefore little used medicinally(1).
The oil is relatively light, of a greenish-yellow colour and has a balsamic, woody and fresh scent. It tends to evaporate quite easily so must be kept well-stoppered and away from heat.
The most valuable medicinal qualities of juniper are as an antiseptic, especially in treating cystitis and kidney problems, as a diuretic, a carminative (ie for treating digestive upsets) and for easing muscular or joint pain in chronic conditions such as gout, arthritis and rheumatism. In practice it has been used at various times to treat just about everything from period pains and flatulence to epilepsy, cholera, typhoid and dysentery, though with what success is not exactly clear(1,4). The Hopi people apparently boil up the green parts of the shrub and consume them to treat stomach disorders. A few drops of the oil may be used cosmetically mixed with distilled or spring water to produce skin care products which, used as a wash or cleanser, are useful for oily skins which are prone to infection.
During the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic, which is believed to have killed some 20,000,000 people worldwide, a number of hospitals experimented with spraying vapourised essential oils into the atmosphere of flu wards in an attempt to prevent air-borne infection spreading. Juniper was one of the oils which was found to be particularly effective - the others being lavender and thyme, which have both come back into use more recently as antiseptics and disinfectants. According to Robert Tisserand, juniper twigs and rosemary leaves used to be burned in French hospital wards to purify the air as well as being widely used in Yugoslavian folk medicine for treating virtually everything.
Magickal Uses......cont'd
http://www.whitedragon.org.uk/articles/juniper.htm
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