Elder Tree Folklore: Elder Mother, Berries and Ritual Uses

What the elder is, and which elder grows near you

The black elder of Europe, Sambucus nigra, is a shrub or small tree up to about 23 feet, with pinnate leaves that smell unpleasant when crushed, flat creamy-white flower umbels in June that smell of honey and summer, and glossy black berries on red-tinged stalks in late summer. It grows wherever people are: along farm walls, railroad embankments, woodland edges, in every abandoned garden. Its stems are filled with soft white pith that can be pushed out, which is why children made pea shooters and whistles from it, and possibly where its Latin name comes from: the sambyke was a Greek instrument.

In North America the native American elder, now usually treated as Sambucus nigra subsp. canadensis, grows across the East and Midwest along creeks, ditches and fence lines, and blue elderberry (Sambucus cerulea) takes its place in much of the West. Red elderberry, Sambucus racemosa, grows on both continents. One thing to clear up: box elder is not an elder at all but a maple that happens to have elder-like leaves.

The folk names show how close the shrub was to people. In German it is Holunder, Holler or Holder in the south, Ellhorn in Lower Saxony, and in the far north, to the confusion of every newcomer, Flieder, the word everywhere else used for lilac. English has Old Lady, Old Gal and Bour Tree. Whoever knows the old names understands the old texts.

The Elder Mother, Hyldemoer and the ancestors in the bush

No other tree of Central and Northern Europe drew so much folk belief to itself. The core is the same everywhere: someone lives in the elder. In Lower Saxony it was Frau Ellhorn, in Denmark the Hyldemoer, the Elder Mother, in England the Old Lady, in much of Germany Frau Holle, the Holda of the old sources, known to English readers from the Grimms' fairy tale "Mother Holle": the spinner, the leader of the Wild Hunt, the woman who guides the dead and makes the snow fall. Jacob Grimm recorded in his Deutsche Mythologie the request people spoke before cutting: "Lady Ellhorn, give me some of thy wood, and I will give thee some of mine when it grows in the forest." It was said three times, on bended knee and with head uncovered. That is where the country saying comes from: before the elder, take off your hat. English cottagers had their own version, asking the Old Lady's leave before cutting, and waiting for her silence as consent.

The dead live in the bush, too. The elder was an ancestor tree. It was planted at the edge of the farm where the departed kept watch; a coffin was measured with an elder rod; elder twigs went into the grave; and people believed someone in the house would die if the house elder withered. Hans Christian Andersen turned the Danish Hyldemoer into a fairy tale in 1844, "The Elder-Tree Mother," in which the shrub grows out of a teapot and tells a sick boy the story of a whole life. That is the friendly side. The other side: whoever felled an elder without asking, burned its wood in the stove, or built a cradle from it risked illness, fire and death, not as the punishment of a god but as the answer of those who sat in the bush. The Elder Mother's larger role as leader of the host of the dead is told in the Wild Hunt, and the season when she rides in the Twelve Nights.

A warning at the point where most texts get sloppy: that the German name Holunder comes from Frau Holle is not established. Old High German holuntar is old, but its root is unexplained, and Grimm himself only floated the connection as a possibility. It sounds good, it fits the custom, and it can still be wrong. What is certain is that people thought of the tree and the woman together. That is enough for practice. For etymology it is not.

Guardian of the farmyard: lightning, witches, illness

The elder stood by the house because it was useful, and it became sacred because it stood there. It does in fact keep something away: the smell of its leaves repels flies, which is why people planted it by stables and manure piles and braided twigs into horses' bridles. In folk belief that grew into protection against everything that comes from outside: lightning ("lightning never strikes the elder"), snakes, illness, sorcery, the evil eye. An elder cross over the stable door, a twig by the bed, elderberries in an amulet bag: the list in the great German dictionary of folk superstition fills pages. In England the picture flipped. There the elder was a witches' tree and wood of ill luck, supposedly the tree on which Judas hanged himself: the same power, with the opposite sign. The modern Wiccan Rede, familiar to many American pagans, keeps the old warning in rhyme: elder is the Lady's tree, burn it not or cursed you'll be. And when J. K. Rowling made the most powerful and most dangerous wand in her story out of elder, she was drawing on the same double reputation.

A tree with that double face is a threshold tree. It belongs neither to the house nor to the woods, but to the boundary. It is the small wild sibling, out by the fence, of the great sacred trees such as the oak, the ash and the linden, and in many old farmhouses it had a household spirit of its own; the family of such beings is described in house spirits, from brownies to kobolds.

The elder through the year: what it gives and what you must leave

Time	What the shrub gives	What you make of it	Limit
March to April	New shoots, young leaves	Eat nothing; cut twigs for threshold work, with a request	Leaves and bark are toxic
Late May to June	Flower umbels	Syrup, fritters, tea, incense, flower water	Do not wash (pollen is the flavor); only dry umbels; remove green stems
July to August	Green berries	Nothing; wait	Unripe berries are the most toxic
August to September	Ripe dark berries	Juice, syrup, jelly, soup, always cooked; ancestor work	Toxic raw; only fully dark, soft berries; stalks out
October to February	Wood, pith	Whistle, wand, amulet; rest	Not burned (tradition); cut wood only with a request

Flowers: syrup, fritters and the mildest smoke

The flower is the friendly half of the elder. Cut the umbels on a dry morning when they are fully open and not yet browning, and do not wash them: the yellow pollen is the flavor. Shaken out and freed of the thick green stems, they go into sugar water with lemon (syrup: steep three days, strain, bring to a boil), into pancake batter (fritters: dip the whole umbel by its stem, fry, dust with sugar), or into the teapot. Elderflower tea is the one use that conventional herbal medicine also recognizes: a traditional remedy for sweating out a cold, listed by Germany's Commission E. A hot cup of elderflower tea in bed is not a medicine, but it is a very old evening ritual against the first chill in the bones.

And then the smoke. Dried elderflowers are among the quietest incense herbs I know: honey-warm, a little like hay, without any sharpness. On charcoal they burn away too fast; on a warmer with a mesh screen they open up over ten minutes. I burn them when a house has a farewell behind it, after a move, a death or a breakup, because the elder is the tree of the threshold: it holds the door open without pushing. They blend with rose for comfort, a crumb of frankincense for steadiness, and mugwort when the work is with the ancestors. Elderflowers are harmless to burn; what else from the meadow should never go on the warmer is shown with juniper and its toxic twin. Elder wood I do not burn, out of respect for the tradition.

Berries: toxic raw, a blessing cooked

Here the elder turns serious. Raw elderberries, like the leaves, bark, stems and especially the unripe fruit and seeds, contain cyanogenic glycosides such as sambunigrin, which release small amounts of cyanide in the body. A handful of raw berries causes nausea; a glass of raw juice can lead to vomiting and diarrhea, and children are more sensitive. This is not theory. In 1983 a group of people in California became ill after drinking juice pressed from elderberries along with leaves and stems, and one had to be hospitalized; the CDC reported the case in 1984. Thorough cooking reliably destroys these compounds, which is why elderberry juice, syrup, jelly and pie have been everyday food for centuries while nobody eats elderberries straight off the bush. The rule is simple: dark, soft, cooked. Red elderberry seeds are more toxic and should be removed; dwarf elder (Sambucus ebulus), whose umbels stand upright and smell of bitter almond, you leave alone entirely.

I make juice every September, and I make it with intention. The berry ripens when the year tips, around the equinox, and its juice is so dark it stains your hands. In herbal magic that is the color of the ancestors and the threshold: elderberries belong to Samhain and the night vigils, a glass of juice on the ancestor altar, a twig with berries on the door that leads outside. Whoever works with the dead in October harvested the elder in September. Ideas for that altar are in the Samhain ancestor altar; how to harvest herbs without losing their fragrance is in when to harvest and dry herbs.

What green witchcraft sees in the elder

In herbal magic the elder is the threshold tree: assigned to Venus and water, feminine, cool, sacred to goddesses of the earth and of death. Its themes are protection (of the house, the children, sleep), blessing and prosperity (the flowering branch over the door), healing in the broad sense (the tea, the bath), and above all transition: birth and death, moving in and moving out, the year tipping in September. In the Irish Ogham it appears as ruis, the letter glossed as elder, standing for the ending that contains the beginning; the letters and their sources are in Ogham, the Celtic tree alphabet.

I read these attributions from the plant outward, as always. A shrub that grows at the boundary, whose flower is sweet and whose berry is poisonous, that harms raw and nourishes cooked, that drives off flies and draws children: that is a tree that forces you to look closely and to tell things apart. That is exactly what threshold work is: knowing what may come in and what stays outside. Whoever plants a witch's garden puts the elder by the fence, not in the middle. It is the doorkeeper, not the host.

What we do not promise

We do not claim that elder cures the flu, strengthens the immune system, drives illness from the house or wards off sorcery. Elderflower tea is a traditional cold remedy, the small studies on elderberry extract are inconsistent, and there is no evidence for protection against lightning or witches; there is a tradition that we take seriously without proving it. The popular elderberry syrups sold in American pharmacies are foods, not medicines. Nor do we claim the German name comes from Frau Holle; that is folk etymology. What we do say: the elder is the tree at which Europe learned to say please, and a shrub that makes you distinguish between sweet and poisonous, raw and cooked, inside and outside. That is not a small lesson.

In practice: how to handle it

1. Ask before you cut. Aloud or silently, in your own words. Not because anyone is listening, but because it slows you down, and whoever cuts slowly cuts well.
2. Flowers in June: dry, unwashed, without thick stems. Syrup, fritters, tea, incense. Dry them fast and in the dark, and use them within the year.
3. Berries in late summer: only dark, only cooked. Nothing raw, nothing green, no stalks. Do not let children snack from the bush. Red elderberry seeded, dwarf elder never.
4. Burn the flower on a warmer, never the wood. Flowers for farewells and thresholds, with rose and mugwort, in a ventilated room away from smoke detectors.
5. Plant it at the boundary. Fence, corner of the yard, wall of the shed, and check your local extension office for which elder is native where you live. It is the doorkeeper of your garden. And in June, tip your hat. It costs nothing, and it changes something.

Frequently asked questions

What is the spiritual meaning of the elder tree?

It is the threshold, protection and ancestor tree of European folklore: home of the Elder Mother and of the dead, guardian of the house against lightning, illness and witchcraft, and a tree of transition between an ending and a new start. In the Ogham alphabet it stands as ruis.

Who is the Elder Mother?

The spirit believed to live in the elder: Hyldemoer in Denmark, the Old Lady or Old Girl in England, Frau Ellhorn or Frau Holle in Germany. Before cutting the tree, people asked her permission and promised something in return.

Are elderberries poisonous?

Raw, mildly: they contain cyanogenic glycosides that can cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, and unripe berries, leaves, bark and seeds contain more. Thorough cooking makes ripe, dark berries safe for juice, syrup and jelly. Red elderberry seeds are more toxic.

Why should you not burn elder wood?

Folklore on both sides of the North Sea says the Elder Mother lives in the wood, and burning it brings misfortune; the modern Wiccan Rede repeats it. Practically, elder is a poor firewood that spits and smokes.

Can you burn elderflowers as incense?

Dried elderflowers, yes: on a mesh screen over a warmer they give a mild, honey-warm smoke used for farewells and thresholds. The wood is traditionally not burned.

Does elderberry help with colds and flu?

Elderflower tea is a traditional remedy for sweating out a chill, and elderberry syrup is popular, but studies on elderberry extract are small and inconsistent. A hot tea is a good evening ritual, not a treatment; a lasting fever belongs with a doctor.

Sources and further reading

• Jacob Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie (1835); English: Teutonic Mythology, trans. J. S. Stallybrass (1880-1888), chapters on trees and Holda.
• Hanns Baechtold-Staeubli (ed.), Handwoerterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens, article on elder.
• Hans Christian Andersen, "The Elder-Tree Mother" (1844).
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Poisoning from Elderberry Juice, California," MMWR 33 (1984).
• Commission E monograph on elder flower (Sambuci flos), 1986; Mark Blumenthal (ed.), The Complete German Commission E Monographs (American Botanical Council, 1998).
• Scott Cunningham, Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs (Llewellyn, 1985).

The spiritual readings in this piece are tradition, not scientific findings. Nothing here replaces medical, psychological or legal advice. Questions about an order: 28@templeofdesire.com.