Hi, my loves and welcome to WiccaNow. Recently I’ve been sharing a lot of guides to all my favourite magickal herbs and plants, like this guide to the magickal properties of daisies. I’ve also shared a post about elderberry magick, one about the magickal uses of fennel, another all about ginger and most recently my guide to the magickal properties of lemon balm. Today I want to continue on in this vein by sharing the magickal properties of oak and acorns with you.
Oak trees are a revered all over the world and are even considered sacred in some cultures. Oak bark has been used to treat various ailments, such as inflammation and pain for hundreds of years. The magickal properties of oak and acorns include protection, abundance, healing and fertility among others.
If you want to learn more about the magick of plants and herbs, check out this hand-illustrated plant grimoire we’ve created! It contains our favourite 29 plants and details correspondences and associations along with tips on how to use each plant in your magickal practice. Check it out below (or keep scrolling to learn more about oak and acorns).
History of Oak Trees
The humble oak, a tree or shrub found in the Quercus genus of the Fagaceae family, has around 600 different variations. This genus of plants is native to the Northern Hemisphere and includes both evergreen and deciduous species. North America has the biggest number of different species, with 160 different species found in Mexico alone, 109 of which are endemic.
Oak trees are seen as a keystone species, meaning that they are integral to keeping balance in the environment that they are in.
Oaks belong to a lineage of trees which are thought to be over 85 million years old. The oldest fossils which have been found relate most closely to beech trees, but there is also evidence that something similar to a chestnut may have existed. These belong to the same family as oak trees.
The first fossils similar to oaks appear around 33-35 million years ago, with trees similar to the oaks we have now appearing around 25 million years ago. Oaks are now found all over the world, growing up to 45 tall in the right conditions.
Oak trees have been considered sacred by some for an extremely long time. The Indo-European tribes (think late Neolithic period, so 6,000-4,000BC) worshipped oaks and connected them with thunder and lightning. This early tradition has trickled into many classical cultures with the Ancient Greeks believing the oak tree to be sacred to Zeus. The Druids also believed that the oak was sacred and connected to lightning. This may be because oaks are more likely to be hit by lightning than any other tree of the same height.
The Druids held all of their sacred rituals amidst oak trees and ate the acorns in the hopes of having prophetic visions. Interestingly, they also believed that mistletoe was sacred, and often mistletoe was found in oak trees. This is probably due to the frequency with which oak trees are hit by lightning. The lightning opens a small wound in the bark of the oak, meaning that the parasitic mistletoe has a place to start growing. The Druids believed that mistletoe was a gift from the gods, meaning that oaks were also seen as holy.
Oak trees are first mentioned in the mid 400s BC by Heroditus. He believed that oaks held the gift of prophecy in their branches. Oaks actually have an important part to play in history. They produce something called an “oak apple”. These “oak apples” are produced by a wasp laying an egg onto a developing leaf bud. The larvae then secretes a chemical which changes the leaves into a hard “gall” which the larvae then feeds on until it turns into a wasp. These “apples” are used to make ink, which has been used to write down much of our early history.
There are so many different varieties of oak that it’s hard to write about the history of them without talking about one specific species. Let’s just say that they are a favourite for building, are loved as ornamental trees and have a long magickal history of worship. Acorns were used to make flour in prehistoric times and oaks are so ingrained in our history that many coins today still carry some form of oak on them.
Oaks grow very old if in the right conditions and the oldest living oak is found in the famous Sherwood forest. It’s around 800-1000 years old and weighs approximately 23 tons while measuring about 10m around.
In more recent times, oak trees have come under threat of extinction. This is partially due to climate change and partially to do with changing landscapes with oak forests being cut down to make space for other farming activities. Around 78 species of wild oaks are thought to be under threat and this, in fact, may be much, much higher as not enough information was known about 300 out of 500 species…
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