Blackberry/Muin (Rubus villosus/Rubus fruticosus)
Other names:
Bramble, cloudberry, American blackberry, goutberry
Word ogham of:
Morainn: Ardi maisi “Highest of beauty”
Tressam fedmae “Strongest of effort”
Cuchulain: Conair gothar.i. tre muin
“Path of the voice, three vines”
Oengus: Áarusc n-airlig “The proverb of slaughter”121
Description
Blackberry in all its varieties is actually a member of the rose (Rosaceae) family, along with raspberry and apple. It is a trailing perennial plant that grows well in almost any soil. Blackberry grows biennial stems, known as canes, which only flower and bear fruit in the second year. Its slender branches have sharp curved barbs or prickles, often called thorns but are in fact much smaller and more flexible. It has hairy leaves with three to five leaflets. It has white five-petaled flowers which appear from June to September, and its fruit, the blackberry is edible and a favourite for children. At first the berry is green, then reddens before turning a deep red—black when it is ripe. Blackberry propagates by sending out strong suckering roots that lend a humped, hooping shape to the plant, as it anchors itself into the soil at numerous points. Bramble or blackberry grows prolifically in Britain and Ireland, as well as across Europe and America in various forms; however, it is often considered an invasive weed. There is evidence of human consumption of blackberries in the Iron Age, and probably far earlier, as it is no doubt a highly nutritious wild food.
Lore and Legend
Muin was sometimes thought to refer to the vine. However, there are no native vines in the Celtic world, and it is now commonly agreed that muin refers to the blackberry that grows up walls and over ground with equal ease. Muin is found to have three different meanings in Old Irish; firstly and most commonly as a cognate with the Welsh mwn, possibly referring to the throat or neck.122 Other interpretations of muin are to be wily, a ruse, and love or esteem. We now enter complex visionary territory, where it is likely those originally using the ogham were aware of all three meanings and found within them poetic reference to the qualities and energies they wanted to refer to via the blackberry. This is perhaps what Cuchulain’s word oghams refer to, muin calling to mind the throat, indeed the “path of the voice” that has three “vines,” or strands of meaning. Using the voice was a primary tool of the fili (Irish poets), not only to entertain but to literally give voice to the spirits, expressing divine wisdom and prophecy. Both blackberry and the other plant most associated with muin, the vine, are both used to make wine, whose intoxicating properties were in ancient times often associated with inducing prophetic verse.
It is significant how quickly brambles can reclaim a patch of land for the wild, sending out tendrils which take root again, tethering the vine to the ground every few feet rather than growing from a single root stem. As a result, brambles grow in hoops. It was once traditional to pass babies through these brambles to secure good luck for their lives ahead. This practice is similar to the folk healing techniques associated with holey stones, because like the stones, the tethered bramble is strongly connected to the earth and its energies, drawing in the negative and emitting restorative energy. Eating blackberries is also good for the same reason. When gathered during the waxing moon, they are said to give good protection from ill will.
In folklore, blackberry or bramble patches are often linked with the faeries. In France, eating blackberries used to be considered taboo as it was kept as a food for the faeries alone. There is a still a tradition in parts of Britain that berries should not be picked after Samhain (October 31) as these belong to the fey and should not be touched. Blackberry patches are vast communities for beings of many kinds, faery and animal, as they provide excellent food, shelter, and protection due to its many thorns. It was a collective presence made up of many beings, fierce and armed, able to scratch, snag, and tear through even strong fabric; magically, the blackberry has many spears with which to protect itself and those it shelters. Oengus called muin “the proverb of slaughter” also referring to its fierceness; its berry juice is reminiscent of blood, and its extreme tenacity makes it comparable to a warrior’s stamina.
The blackberry has a very strong life force and is certainly an important “power plant” in the Celtic tradition. Blackberry winters (when the dew on the blossoms is frozen in the spring) are said to be a sign of an abundant harvest to come, revealing the blackberry’s intimate relationship to people of the land. In the Irish tale of the otherworld “The Voyage of Maelduin,” Maelduin and his men arrive at an island covered with berries that save them from starvation and bring them renewal, easing the exhaustion of their long and arduous travels. The faery tale “Sleeping Beauty” shows the significance of brambles to protect, enclose, and contain in magical ways, providing the boundary for the spell of sleep, also serving as a test for the adventurous hero. In many ways, both the prince’s quest for Sleeping Beauty and Maelduin’s voyage can be seen as quests in search of the soul. The internal treasure gained by working with such strong earth energy and the inevitable tests of endurance it brings help the hero to discover his or her innate connection to Source and wholeness. This is the paradox of the blackberry—its fruit and thorns can illustrate the often contradictory human condition.
In Christian folklore, blackberry is sometimes said to be the thorns in Jesus’s crucifixion crown, and Lucifer is said to have landed in a blackberry bush when cast out of heaven. This also illustrates the difficulties the human condition experiences in manifest reality.
Blackberry teaches the importance of harvest and gathering, as well as patience—getting through the brambles to gain the treasure, the vitamin-
rich fruit. Thus the blackberry teaches humans the importance of living in harmony with nature and acting at the right time. Muin the blackberry is a food-producing plant, far more so than the other ogham plants, apart from the apple. It is concerned with attending to the body’s needs, and the needs of the community to endure through harsh winter. It can do this only if the humans think ahead and gather when they can in preparation. It is not possible before or after the appropriate time. Many other things in life also have this quality, and it is an essential aspect of maturity for the individual to learn this. Thoughts, dreams, and talents also need to be harvested at the appropriate time and used appropriately. Conversely, all things also need to be released when their time has passed. Discernment is also required, as not all berries are safe or ready to eat; not all paths and choices in life are good to take. This discernment, timeliness and awareness of the present moment is also inherent in the seeker’s quest for the soul; it is the only way connection with the soul, or the all, can be realised. This is the hard work that Morainn refers to, the “strongest of effort” that pays off in the reaping of a bountiful harvest—the completion of projects, within and without, as well as “the highest beauty.”
The blackberry’s extremely strong life force allows it to bear flowers and fruit at the same time, an almost miraculous feat of extreme fertility, and it can be almost impossible to eradicate from an area once it has taken hold. Its powerful, determined spirit teaches the importance of tenacity and effort, providing the stamina and life force to achieve things weaker spirits would not even attempt. It can grow in almost any terrain, going wherever it wants to go. This is a valuable skill for any seeker to acquire from a blackberry as ally, for its strength is from its self-determination and mobility, its ability to be both flexible and tough differing from, say, the oak.
Blackberry also connects areas of land and other plants and habitats, showing its ability to be an excellent networker by linking with different energies, binding and uniting. When working magically with the blackberry or the vine as an ogham stick or wand, the two species can be interchanged with each other, and they can also stand in for other woods when asked with respect, energy, and intent. This teaches how essentially all things are part of the whole, and the strong connection between all things can always be felt and accessed. In asking the blackberry or other wood to become your ogham stick or wand, this connection makes the magic possible. With an act of your will, the “strongest effort,” blackberry will become your ally as surely as spring follows winter.
The blackberry or bramble is often considered to be sacred to the Great Goddess, especially to the goddess Brighid via its great protectiveness and generosity, being able to support and sustain a great variety and number of other life forms.
There is a Scottish riddle referring to the blackberry:
As white as snow but snow it’s not
As red as blood but blood it’s not
As black as ink but ink it’s not.123
Practical and Magical uses
A useful technique to try with muin is to journey or visualise yourself as becoming the blackberry or the vine, and connecting a variety of other trees in turn. When this has been practiced a few times, it is possible to extend the exercise and try with a group of trees simultaneously. This powerful exercise can actually be quite grounding and develops skills in working multidimensionally and with a whole community of energies. Its binding abilities are also useful in cord magic and binding spells of many kinds, yet its friendly uniting capacity makes it ill-suited for spells of negative intention.
Blackberry leaves are often used in spells for protection, money, and abundance, as well as healing. One simple technique is to write your name upon a leaf in felt-tip pen, wrap it in deep blue cloth, and leave it in your purse or wallet.
Dried and powdered, the leaves are also used in incense blends for prosperity and protection. If you can, crawling through a blackberry hoop will banish negative energies, illness, and hexes. Alternatively, a prickly blackberry whip, swept over your aura or around your home will have a similar effect, but it must be buried as soon as its job is done.
The fruit, leaves, or stems of blackberry are used to invoke the goddess in all her aspects, and they can be incorporated into spells and ceremonies for this purpose in a variety of ways—flowers for the maiden goddess, fruit for the mother goddess, and prickly stems and dried fruit (gathered before Samhain, October 31, but used after) for the goddess as crone.
Blackberry is an excellent fruit to make wine and preserves, and it is traditional to eat blackberry pies or crumbles during the harvest festivals of Lughnasadh (if they are ripe in time) and the autumn equinox.
Healing
Herbally, blackberry has a strong curative tradition in the British Isles; it is extremely high in vitamin C, and blackberry leaf tea is very good for coughs (again associating it with the throat), colds, and upset stomachs. Its leaves can also be chewed to relieve bleeding gums. The fruit was an essential part of our ancestors’ diet, and in medieval herbals, blackberry wine was taken to restore energy and hope—effects of its high life force and tenacity.
As stated above, crawling through a blackberry hoop is good to dispel illness, and it was once a cure for rheumatism.124
Blackberry leaves were once thought to help cure haemorrhoids, as they have astringent properties. Gerard writes:
The leaves of the bramble, boiled in water with honey, allum, and a little white wine added thereto, make a most excellent lotion or washing water, to heal the sores in the mouth.125
As a vibrational essence blackberry is excellent for breaking inertia and stirring up energy to get on with difficult or tiresome tasks. It is an important essence to take to develop initiative and mobility in the world of work and emotional or spiritual quests. Anything being avoided can be faced and moved through, and things that seem impossible at the outset can be achieved with the stamina and effort the blackberry provides. It teaches the pleasure of harvesting your own work and achievements in due time, as well as revealing the folly of sowing negativity or nothing at all.
Ogham Divination Meaning
As an ogham, muin shows that the harvest you have sown is coming in due course; the fruition of plans are always in their timeliness and in the quality given to their achievement. Muin is a kindly ogham, revealing the bounty of the goddess and nature herself, which gives out to those in need and those who have plenty, the deserving and the undeserving in equal share. Muin concerns itself with the circular nature of life on earth and human existence. All things come around, good and bad, and the things that need learning or attending to will have another chance at a later time if the present opportunity is missed. Those goals achieved now also need maintaining into the future. These are the challenges of being alive in space and time.