Speaking of myth - old wisdom/everyday observations (post 5)

I am particularly drawn to the hazel trees in the woods behind my home not only because of their connection with mythology but also because Hazel was my mother’s name.

In Irish mythology the hazel is associated with the Brighid, the goddess of wisdom and divine inspiration but it is also, of itself, the tree of wisdom and knowledge.  On the river Boyne, nine hazel trees grew around the Well of Wisdom and when the salmon, Bradán Feasa, ate nine hazel nuts that fell into the well, that fish gained all the world’s knowledge.

The poet Finegas spent years fishing for this salmon. Finally he caught it and gave it to Fionn mac Cumhail, his young servant, with instructions to cook it but on no account to eat any of it. Fionn cooked the salmon but when he touched the fish to see if it was cooked, he burnt his thumb on a drop of hot fish fat. Fionn sucked on his thumb to ease the pain … all of the salmon's wisdom had been concentrated into that one drop. Throughout the rest of his life, Fionn could draw upon this knowledge merely by biting his thumb. The deep knowledge and wisdom gained from the Salmon of Knowledge allowed Fionn to become the leader of the Fianna, the famed heroes of Irish myth.

We need that wisdom in these troubled and bewildering times. As Irish poet Seamus Heaney says so beautifully:

So hope for a great sea-change
On the far side of revenge.
Believe that further shore
Is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
And cures and healing wells.

Seamus Heaney, The Cure of Troy