🍒 Cherry Gum (Cat’s Gold): Magic, Customs & Incense
Many also call it cherry resin (Kirschharz), although it is not actually a resin in that sense. The sour cherry, in particular, secretes this tree gum abundantly. According to Ancestral Knowledge, if the cherry tree stands too wet, this golden cherry gum appears very frequently on its trunks and branches.
✨ The “Cat’s Gold” of the Cherry Tree
It is also affectionately called cherry gold or cat’s gold (Katzengold).
The Golden Tears: In its dried state, it strongly resembles amber, becomes very hard, and completely loses its stickiness. Cherry gum is water-soluble, which makes it wonderfully easy to remove from your hands or harvesting knives.
Ancient Healing Arts: In earlier times, great healing powers were attributed to this cat’s gold, although the cherry was not frequently used in the old healing arts and was often only accessible to wealthier classes of the population.
🌿 Cherry Gum in Old Customs
Cherry gum is said to possess disinfecting, expectorant, antiviral, and cough-relieving properties.
The Healing Tea: It can be simply sucked on or drunk as a warm tea. For the tea, a small piece of cherry gum is steeped in hot water. It has a gummy to slimy consistency and is completely tasteless.
Ancestral Remedies: In the past, cherry gum was dissolved in dark wine against bladder stones and chronic coughs, or placed in vinegar as a natural anti-dandruff remedy.
💨 The Magic of Cherry Gum as Sacred Incense
Cat’s gold is also actively used in smoke cleansing, often in sacred blends that are meant to powerfully promote peace and serenity.
Smoke-cleansing with cherry gum is not as widely known, but it profoundly helps us to regain our inner peace and strength. There are sometimes moments in life that throw us completely off track, leaving us appearing quite nervous to other people and to ourselves. A gentle incense with cherry gum calms the spirit, gives us back our deep serenity, and above all, restores our emotional balance.
🌸 The Power of the Mother Plant (The Cherry)
The cherry gum receives its profound properties directly from its mother plant, the cherry tree. She possesses loving, healing, and divinatory powers.
Love: The cherry has always stood under the sign of love and is burned in the art of incense to attract love like a powerful magnet. For this, cherry gum is carefully blended together with cherry tree leaves and smoke-cleansed.
Divination: Therefore, during a smoke-cleansing for divination, cherry gum should absolutely be burned. It is also a sacred incense ingredient when Tarot cards are read.
Protection: On Walpurgis Night, cherry branches are placed at windows and doors to ward off witches, and on this highly magical night, smoke-cleansing is performed with cherry gum, cherry leaves, and wood.
Liberation: Cherry wood was widely anchored in the Old Belief of the ninefold herbs and woods (Neunerlei-Glaube). In this Ancestral Knowledge, it stood for getting rid of everything conjured or hexed, by bathing in a bath of ninefold woods and physically pouring the dark magic out with the bathwater.
🧺 Application: Gathering & Smoke-Cleansing
Some also call the cherry gum cherry resin. However, it is a true tree gum, because it possesses absolutely no inherent scent of its own and should therefore be burned with other fragrant resins or herbs that harmonize with the themes of peace and serenity—such as sage, larch resin, and delicate rose petals.
The Right Measure: You only have to make sure that the cat’s gold, as it is also called, is burned in very small portions or finely pulverized. Everything from the cherry must be well dried beforehand.
The Dry Harvest: When you go out to gather the cherry gum, please make sure to do so only on completely dry days; otherwise, the cherry gum is slippery and soft and will smear stubbornly on your hands.
⚠️ Important Note on Application
No Healing Promise: The recipes and applications presented here are based on passed-down Ancestral Knowledge, folk medicine, and historical sources. They by no means replace a medical diagnosis or professional treatment.
Personal Responsibility: The use of the herbs, ointments, and incenses described here is always at your own risk and responsibility. Please explicitly check the ingredients for personal intolerances or allergies before use.
In Case of Ailments: In the case of persistent, unclear, or acute health complaints, I urgently ask you to consult a doctor or alternative practitioner (Heilpraktiker). Never discontinue prescribed medications on your own authority.
