Ravenhawk's Herb of the Week

Herb of the Week: Oak

This week’s herb is: Oak

Oak[ Quercus robra] Family: Fagaceae, Other Names Duir, Nuttall oak, gray oak, champion oak, Northern Red Oak0
Gender: Masculine, Element: fire, Planet: Sun

Northern Red Oak is an oak tree in the red oak group. It is a native of North America, in the eastern and central United States and southeast and south-central Canada. It has been introduced to small areas in Western Europe, where it can frequently be seen cultivated in gardens and parks. There are over 600 species of Oak trees. Northern red oak is the most common species of oak in the northeastern US after the closely related pin oak (Q. palustris). The red oak group as a whole is more abundant today than they were when European settlement of North America began as forest clearing and exploitation for lumber much reduced the population of the formerly dominant white oaks. Oak trees[ Quercus robur] are widely distributed over Europe and North America. It is of great symbolic significance in England and is one of the chief trees in most of England’s forests. The trees are very long-lived and will often live for eight hundred years or more. They grow up to 125 feet tall.

Herbal and Healing:

Healing Properties: astringent, antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, gastroprotective, antioxidant

The astringent effects of the Oak were well known to the Ancients, by whom different parts of the tree were used, but it is the bark that is now employed in medicine. Its action is slightly tonic, strongly astringent, and antiseptic. It has a strong astringent, and bitter taste and its qualities are extracted both by water and spirit. The odor is slightly aromatic.
Like other astringents, it has been recommended in agues and hemorrhages, and is a good substitute for Quinine in intermittent fever, especially when given with Chamomile flowers.
It is useful in chronic diarrhea and dysentery, either alone or in conjunction with aromatics. A decoction is made from 1 OZ. of bark in a quart of water, boiled down to a pint, and taken in wineglassful doses. Externally, this decoction has been advantageously employed as a gargle for chronic sore throat with relaxed uvula, and also as a fomentation. It is also serviceable as an injection for leucorrhoea and applied locally to bleeding gums and piles. Healing Pyorrhea/Gingivitis–tea made from equal parts of white oak bark, taheebo, and lemon grass…

MAGICAL PROPERTIES: Protection, Power, rulership, health, healing, money, fertility, luck

The Oak represents strength and protection. It teaches persistence and endurance. Known as the King of the Forest, the mighty Oak is traditionally associated with strength and courage. It grows to a huge size and great girth and is a very long-lived tree spanning centuries.
Offering its gifts of protection, strength, and courage, Oak makes wonderful magickal tools to last a lifetime or even a special heirloom to be passed down for generations.
Sacred to the Druids and the Greeks, the oak is a tree of strength, protection, and durability. It represents inner fire, courage, and nobility of spirit. At the Greek oracle of Dodoni, the god Zeus speaks by rustling the leaves of the sacred oak. Many Germanic and Celtic tribes made a truce and administered justice under the oak, and the Yule log is traditional of oak as well. As it both attracts lightning and yet seems resilient to it, the oak is sacred to many storms and wind gods, and its power to stand to lightning’s transformative power may have something to do with its meaning in the Ogham, where it is Duir, “door” an Ogham of transformation, the ability to step through the door and create change. Duir is the turning point in the Oghamic calendar, falling at the summer solstice, with Tinne (holly) in the next month, representing the transition from the oak to the holly king. The acorn symbolizes the huge potential in small things.