Brighid's Ogham Grove

Every Celtic festival has at least one Sacred Plant linked to it. For Autumn Equinox, the Druids chose the BRAMBLE, with its Black Berries.

In Shamanic traditions, Bramble is associated with Brigantia, Brighid, the Sidhe, various Harvest Goddesses and the Triple Goddess. Not surprisingly, Bramble’s element is water and gender is female.

The Bramble flowers, which can be either white or pale pink, consist of five petals, the sacred number of the Goddess, and bloom from May onwards. It has an incredibly long picking season because both ripe and unripe fruit appear on the same branch at the same time. This is another sign of the Triple Goddess: the green fruit, which appear first, represent the Maiden; then they turn red, as the Mother; and finally black as the Crone, thus completing the Triple Cycle.

Tradition tells us not to pick any more blackberries after Michaelmas, which used to fall on 11th October but now takes place on 29th September, just one week after Autumn Equinox. If you are wondering why, then read on!

I love how Philip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm describe the essence of Bramble, in their book The Druid Plant Oracle. “If you have ever tried digging up Bramble roots, you will know how tenacious they are! They travel long and deep and some root systems can cover a wide area and be of great age. For this reason, the Bramble is the perfect symbol for TENACITY and ROOTEDNESS.

“It’s not going to be pushed around and it’s not going anywhere! If you have chosen this card [Bramble], it’s possible that you feel like digging your heels in and just staying put – holding your ground and protecting all that you hold dear. It’s also possible that this card represents another person or situation that is “prickly” and stubborn. It may be necessary to remember how difficult it is to remove a Bramble from its position and how – at the right season – it can yield delicious fruit that is full of goodness. Knowing our own boundaries is vital to our emotional and spiritual health, and when it comes to relationships, being sensitive to other people’s boundaries is vital too.”

Of course, the negative side of Bramble is that the Goddess, as Mother, can protect too fiercely, becoming instead “smothering”, as she seeks to defend her offspring at all costs. Tenacity may start to look more like intransigence!

For a more scientific view, this is what Thomas Bartram has to say about Rubus villosus, in his ENCYCLOPEDIA OF HERBAL MEDICINE. Parts used are leaves and root bark. Constituents are tannin, malic acid and pectin. Bramble is a powerful astringent, the root even more so than the leaves. It is used for diarrhoea, dysentery, infant’s irritable bowel, bleeding from colon or rectum, Appendicitis (tea freely), Enteritis (tea and enema), Sore throat (gargle), mouth ulcers, bleeding gums (leaves chewed). According to folk medicine, frequent use of Bramble mouth-wash is claimed to fasten loose teeth. Bartram also reports an isolated instance of anti-tumour effect.

Here is Bartram’s recipe for making tea from the leaves: 1 oz (30g) of dried leaves to 1 pint (500ml) of boiling water. Leave to infuse for 15 minutes. Strain and use as a drink or allow to cool and use topically as an enema or as a wash for wounds. Bartram recommends that Bramble leaves combine well with Agrimony. Mixing equal parts of Lemon Balm and Bramble can be used as a substitute for Indian and China tea.

Considering how beneficial and widely available the Bramble is, it is hard to understand why so few herbal manuals feature it, preferring instead to highlight its cousin the Raspberry. In those few “enlightened” books that do feature it, Bramble is listed as Rubus fruiticosus. As Julie Bruton-Seal and Matthew Seal write in their book HEDGEROW MEDICINE, Blackberry is an aggregate of many taxonomically difficult species, being related to Raspberry (Rubus ideaus) and Dewberry (Rubus caesius). “It is promiscuous in hybridising with similar thorny trailing plants of the Rose family!” Evidently, over 2,000 different Blackberry “Species” have been described in Europe alone, neither counting those in North America, nor those introduced to Australia and New Zealand, where Bramble has become a notifiable “Pest”!

Whether you love or hate the invasive Bramble, its Black Berries are high in Vitamin C and minerals, as are the leaves. Our ancestors knew its value. Blackberry seeds have been found in the stomach contents of mummified stone-age bodies! The ancient Greeks used a drink made from the berries to treat gout and the Romans used it for inflammations of the mouth and of the bowels.

You can harvest the various parts of the Bramble at different times of the year. Pick the fresh green leaves in the spring and early summer. Remember to dry some for use during the winter. Bramble leaf tea makes a great spring tonic for general health after the winter months, especially for anaemia. In the winter, take the tea to treat sore throats, colds and flu, and for fevers. You can also make a lotion by steeping the leaves in water, strain off the liquid and apply to black heads and acne. Generations have used such a lotion to heal burns and scalds.

You can also make a tea from the berries. Boil and sieve the blackberries to treat diarrhoea, haemorrhoids, cystitis and dysentery. Or make it into a mouthwash / gargle for sore throats, sore gums and laryngitis. Personally, I prefer to make the boiled and sieved berries up into Blackberry Jelly, which is long-keeping. Just add a teaspoonful of jelly to a mug, pour over boiling water, stir and use as required. (Jelly recipe included at the end of this article).

There are lots of other traditions associated with the Bramble, including the passing of sick children, sick animals, and even adults suffering from rheumatism, through arches of prickly brambles, to “cure” them!

The most important tradition, though, warns that the Devil pisses on the berries on Michaelmas night, making them poisonous!

Another variation says that the Harvest Lord enters the Underworld at Herfest (Autumn Equinox), which is the realm of the Faerie Folk and the Bramble is given over to their care – another reason for not picking any more berries, for fear of displeasing the Faeries! The link between Bramble and Faeries is so ancient that in some countries, the locals will not eat the berries at any time of the year!

From a scientific viewpoint, the colder autumnal weather damages the berries by infecting them with mildew and bacteria and turning the fruit sour.

So, by Autumn Equinox, (or at least by the end of September!) all your blackberries should be harvested and it’s time to make Blackberry Wine! According to Druidic custom, you should drink last year’s Blackberry Wine at your Equinox celebrations, saving this year’s batch for the following year. What I do myself is to pick and freeze the ripe berries throughout the summer months, resulting in several large bags in the deep freeze, ready to make Bramble Jelly or wine in the autumn. Here are some favourite recipes.

BLACKBERRY WINE
Blackberries make one of the best country wines, with a full fruity flavour and a rich deep-red colour.

Ingredients:
4 lbs (1.8 kilos) ripe blackberries;
1 gallon (4.5 litres) boiling water;
3 lb (1.36 kilos) sugar;
yeast and nutrient.

Method: Soak the berries in salted water, to remove the tiny maggots that are sometimes found in the fruit. Wash thoroughly with clean cold water. Put them into a fermentation bin and pour over the boiling water. Stir thoroughly until all of the fruit are mashed. Cover the bin with a clean cloth and allow to cool. When lukewarm (about 70°F / 20°C), add the yeast and the nutrient. Cover and leave for about a week, stirring daily. Strain the liquid through a double thickness of muslin into a large bowl and add the sugar, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Pour into a sterilised fermentation jar (dark glass for a red wine), fit an air lock and leave to ferment out in a reasonably warm place (about 65°F / 18°C) until a sediment has settled at the bottom of the jar and the bubbles in the fermentation lock have ceased. This takes several weeks, after which the wine should begin to clear, maybe only a clear layer at the top of the jar, but the wine is now ready to be siphoned off through a length of plastic tubing into a second sterilised fermentation jar. Don’t let any sediment from the bottom of the first jar get into the siphon tube. To make up for any small amounts left behind with the sediment, top up the new jar with a little cooled, boiled water (this is called “racking” the wine). The demi-jon can now be left in a cool place for about three months, or until it has cleared completely. When clear, bottle and keep for at least six months before drinking.

Note: many Blackberry Wine recipes suggest adding Pectic Enzyme to the cooled berry-water mix, 24 hours before adding the yeast. I suppose it all depends on whether you can find Pectic Enzyme in your local wine-making store!

Here’s an alternative, 19th century Blackberry Wine recipe from Mrs. Beeton’s!

4 gallons of sound, ripe Blackberries;
4 gallons Boiling Water;
Loaf Sugar;
Cinnamon;
Brandy.

Crush the blackberries in a large bowl or tub and pour over them the boiling water. Stir well, cover with a cloth and leave undisturbed for 4 – 5 days. Without breaking up the crust, which has formed on the surface, strain off the liquid and measure it carefully. For every gallon of liquid, add 1 lb of sugar. Pour into a clean cask, reserving about one gallon of liquid to fill up the cask as fermentation ceases. This wine generally clears itself but the addition of isinglass is recommended. Let it stand for about a fortnight. Then add one stick of cinnamon and one gill of brandy for every gallon of wine. Secure the bung in the cask and leave undisturbed for 12 months! Wow!

BRAMBLE JELLY

1 lb Blackberries;
⅛ pint water;
1 medium-sized cooking apple;
sugar.

Put the blackberries, water and apple into a pan. Simmer until the fruit is soft. Strain the pulp through a jelly bag. I usually leave it overnight. Then measure the juice and allow 1 lb sugar to each pint. Stir in the sugar and continue stirring until dissolved. Boil rapidly until set. Here’s a trick taught me by my Mum. To know when the jam or jelly is properly set, have clean saucers chilling in the fridge. When you think that the jam / jelly is ready, drizzle some boiling mix onto the cold saucer. If it forms a skin when you tilt the saucer, then turn off the heat. You will also notice a skin forming on the insides of the jam pan and on the back of the wooden spoon used to stir the jam. As soon as you turn off the heat, pour the hot liquid into sterilised jars and seal while still hot. The cooling liquid helps to form a vacuum seal with the screw-top jar lids!

If you don’t have any cooking apples, you can make this recipe using the juice of one lemon to each pint of strained blackberry pulp, adding the lemon at the same time as the sugar.

Use this jelly on bread, with deserts, to accompany main courses, or make into a drink by putting a teaspoonful of jelly into a mug and pouring over boiling water. Stir well to dissolve. Drink either hot or cold.

BLACKBERRY BUTTER

Into a pan, place:
500g blackberries;
500g tart apples, chopped up but not peeled or cored;
grated zest and juice of one lemon.

Simmer gently for about 15 minutes, until soft and mushy. Rub the pulp through a sieve, to remove the skins and pips. Weigh the pulp. For every 400g of pulp, add 300g of SUGAR. Heat gently until the sugar has dissolved. Then simmer and stir until the mixture becomes thick and smooth. This usually takes about 20 minutes. Pour into sterilised jars, seal and label.

BLACKBERRY VINEGAR

This is what Pamela Michael says in her book ALL GOOD THINGS AROUND US. “Fruit vinegars were once an important item of the still room. They were taken as refreshing drinks during fever and as unfailing thirst quenchers. Two teaspoons diluted in a tumbler of water make a refreshing drink, when you feel the prickly throat symptoms at the onslaught of a cold. On a hot day, the same drink, with some ice cubes added, is wonderfully bracing and thirst-quenching and children love it!”

What you will need:
1 lb / half kilo Blackberries;
Cider Vinegar;
Sugar.

Clean the blackberries, remove any stalks and place in a china or earthenware dish, so that they lie only an inch or two deep (2½- 5cm deep). Pour on enough cider vinegar to cover the berries. Then cover the dish with a plate and leave to stand for 3 days.

After the steeping period, drip the berries through a strainer for 12 hours. Then measure the juice into a saucepan and add half pound of sugar to each half pint of juice (200g sugar to 250ml juice). Bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Simmer gently for 5 minutes. Then skim. Bottle when cold.

To conclude, brambles, which are freely available for wild-gathering, have many medicinal uses throughout the year. All it takes is the patience to harvest and then to process them. Don’t forget to ask permission of the Bramble Spirit before harvesting and to thank the Bramble Spirit after you have taken only what you need. A nice tradition (to be used for all plants!) is to leave a little gift as thank you, maybe a small pebble or feather. If you want to appease the Faerie Folk, leave a small copper coin!

REFERENCES:

THE DRUID PLANT ORACLE, by Philip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm, illustrated by Will Worthington. Printed by St. Martin’s Press, New York in 2007. ISBN: 13: 978-0-312-36977-4.

BARTRAM’S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF HERBAL MEDICINE, by Thomas Bartram, published by Constable & Robinson Ltd of London, 1998.
ISBN: 978-1-85487-586-0

HEDGEROW MEDICINE by Julie Bruton-Seal and Matthew Seal; published by Merlin Unwin Books Ltd, UK, in 2008. ISBN: 978 1 873674 99 4

HERB CRAFT, A GUIDE TO THE SHAMANIC AND RITUAL USE OF HERBS, by Susan Lavender and Anna Franklin, published by Capall Bann Publishing UK, 1996. ISBN: 1 898307 57 9.

ALL GOOD THINGS AROUND US, by Pamela Michael and illustrated by Christabel King, published by Ernest Benn Limited UK, in 1980.
ISBN: 0 510 00055-X

500 RECIPES FOR JAMS PICKLES CHUTNEYS, by Marguerite Patten, published by Paul Hamlyn, London, in 1963.

MRS. BEETON’S COOKERY & HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT, republished by Ward, Lock and Co Limited, London and Melbourne, sixth impression 1965

Author: Veronica Smith, first published on 23rd September 2022