🌿 Ninefold Wood: Ancient Warding Magic & Customs
The belief surrounding the number nine is ancient. Old historians report that the number nine is heathen, and only the number seven was Christian. And some claim the exact opposite. I think we can agree that it was the number NINE.
Ninefold wood (Neunerlei Holz) was very gladly used back then as a powerful warding charm. As sacred incense, amulet, talisman, or even as healing baths. Traveling peoples wore ninefold wood in a small linen bag around their hips or neck to be fiercely protected from wasting diseases. If one wants to craft such an amulet, the hazel must never be missing.
🛡️ What Was Ninefold Wood Used For?
People who were targeted with a negative spell were, in earlier times, smoke-cleansed with ninefold wood. This profound smoke-cleansing was also called need-fire (Notfeuer).
But house and farmstead were also protected with ninefold wood. For this, the woods were placed into the earth all around the farm. The branches were also hung up high in the animal stables so that the trude (night hag) could not enter.
Against the hexing of stable animals, strictly only the wood of these nine trees was taken:
Cherry
Plum
Pear
Apple
Fir
Pine
Linden
and the Willow.
Otherwise, according to the Old Belief, the tree species used were not allowed to end in the German word “-baum” (tree).
To see or actively recognize trudes, ninefold wood was lit on a crossroads. No funeral procession was allowed to have ever crossed this particular crossroad. Such is the Ancestral Knowledge of our forebears.
✨ Breaking the Sickness: Healing & Whispered Charms
Breaking the sickness (Suchtenbrechen) was the magical charming and whispering away of illnesses. For this, thin branches of trees were taken that did not belong to stone fruit, such as:
Pear
Apple
Beech
Alder
Ash
Fir
Linden
and from the Willow.
On Friday morning, these ninefold woods were thrown directly into the water before sunrise. While doing so, one must think intensely of the exact person one wishes to heal and charm.
🌿 Further Magical Applications:
Against Headaches: One took ninefold wood from: Apple, Pear, Lilac, Elder, Gooseberry, Currant, Hornbeam, Poplar, and the Wild Rose.
For Rashes (Children): They were bathed in ninefold woods from fruit trees, dried thyme, and reeds.
Protection from Trudes (Trouser Pocket): Woods from Aspen, Oak, Pine, Beech, Linden, Rowan, Spruce, Fir, and Birch were carried securely.
💖 The Love Oracle & Spells
In the love oracle, these sacred woods were cut into small pieces. Then a fire was kindled, and one undressed completely naked. The clothes were thrown directly outside the door. The following magical spell was recited while doing so:
Here I sit now, stark naked and bare, if only my beloved would come and throw my shirt into my lap right there!
Another beautiful custom was to place ninefold woods of apple, pear, cherry, plum, chestnut, elder, gooseberry, raspberry, and currant into water. If the branches bloomed at Yule (Christmas), then the relationship with the adored one would surely come to pass.
For Walpurgis Night, one took the nine woods from the apple tree, birch, ash, yew, beech, linden, willow, chestnut, and oak.
🧺 How Was Ninefold Wood Gathered?
The ninefold woods had to be gathered together silently in the forest and were absolutely not allowed to be cut from shrubs or living trees. Instead, one respectfully took those that already lay upon the ground.
Generally, these woods were regarded as highly witch-repelling. These included:
Spruce & Fir
Larch & Scots Pine
Yew & Swiss Pine
Mountain Pine
Juniper & Savin Juniper (Sadebaum)
Oak & Beech
Linden & Maple
Birch, Hazel, Aspen, and the Rowan.
