Viscum fraxini

https://www.anthromed.org/library/2018/8/12/ash-grown-mistletoe

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b6ba36389c172b48defb20e/t/5b709b0470a6ad48d1aa9620/1534106373694/Ash-grown+mistletoe.pdf

Vergleich: Siehe: Viscum + Fraxinus + Abnoba

[Jan Albert Rispens]

‡ Ash-grown mistletoe

Characteristics of the ashtree

The ash belongs to the olive family. [W. Pelikan] “The members of the olive family are so varied and wide-ranging that it is at first very difficult to establish the family traits behind all the different manifestations. Just try and see what connects all the various members of this family: lilac, privet

(= ligustrum), forsythia, jasmine and the olivetree! Finding one and the same spiritual principle behind majestic growth, abundance of blossoms and scent and peaceful inner concentration of delicious oil is not

an easy task for there searcher. ”Oleaceae are at home in the tropical and moderate climates of the Northern hemisphere. They take their name from their best known representative: the olivetree. Alloleaceae are woody plants and the most majestic among them is the ash. It might be surprising but it is indeed correct to call

the ash the Northern cousin of the olive tree. The common ash (Fraxinus excelsior – a paradox in terms as it means“ ordinary and “outstanding”) is wide spread in Central Europea is found in mixed stands with other trees (beeches and oaks, also, less commonly now, with maple and elm trees).

Very rarely we find pur eash populations. The ash is a beautiful, strong tree of harmonious stature easily reaches a height up to 40 metres.

[Kranach] “The way the young ash grows resembles the throwing of a spear: a strong initial impact, proudly conquering space, rigidity in winter’s death. ”This powerful commanding of space -just look at the branches of an ash in winter!- is what impresses us most. One easily overlooks the ash tree because it has no conspicuous blossoms, leaves or fruit. Ashtrees prefer deep, aerated, basic, damp soil ,but their fast-rotting leaves and deep-growing roots also contribute to creating good humus.

The ash three can cope with arrange of hydrological conditions. It prefers two opposites: moist soil on the one hand and soil rich in drylime on the other.“ All attempts at proving with morphology, phenomenology or yield science that these are actually genetically different adaptation sore cotypes have failed. ”Ash seeds are reluctant to germinate and often remain dormant on the ground for at least two winters (epigeal) before they germinate. The reason is hat the embryo is not fully developed yet when the seeds have reached maturity.

After this quite mysteriously long resting time the tree germinates and shoots up swiftly. One has seen 10 metre high ash trees with stems that were only 3cm thick. Ash trees try to reach the light as fast as Ash-grown mistletoe possible. This sensitivity to light is also found in the pinnate leaves and even in the branches.

“Even in a ten-year-old branch we find, under the thin translucent bark, a green texture that absorbs and assimilates light just like the leaves. ”The leaves turn and bend to adapt to the light conditions in the best possible way. This impulse can be so strong that it gives the entire crown of the tree a twist to the left or right. The ash clearly wants both optimal light and soil conditions. It is never as shaded and dark under an ash as under a chestnut tree, for example, but it is not too bright either. The play of the leaves in the wind could also be described as“ well tempered” – neither nervous nor languid. Ashes have unique velvety black, pointed buds which no other indigenous tree has.

Not only the colour, but also the ash’s potential to form“ accessory buds” strike us as unusual. In case of damage these buds can be starting points for regenerative processes. Just before the ash unfolds its leaves as one of the last trees in late June, it develops its inconspicuous flowers in March or April. They are wind pollinated and this is -special as well- trioecious, which means that apart from female and male trees there

are trees that bear only and rogynous flowers or androgynous and unisexual flowers.

The fruit ripens in October and November, but usually only falls from the panicles in winter or in the following spring. It is astonishing to seethe dry panicles still l imply hanging from the tree in late spring. The leaves fall in October or November, before the wing-shaped seeds. They usually remain green and hardly change colour.

Only one type, the golden ash, yields golden yellow autumn foliage. “The ash has pinnate leaves. The long main stalk, as the main “nerve” of the leaf, bears two rows of pointed small leaves. Its entire nature comes to expression in this shape: the main “nerve” growing out far into space as if it wanted to cover an enormous area, while the green foliage is rhythmically drawn together and transformed into delicate, but firm leaves.

These leaflets form one big leaf which is spread out wide, but does still let the light through. The light find sits way right into the middle of the leaf”. The ray-like motif of the spear appears again in the leaf’s main“ nerve”. The “common ash” was used as animal feed in the olden days, its main use today is in the timber industry. Ashwood is ring-porous; the annual rings are easily discernible due to the rhythmic alternation

of wide-diameter springwood and narrow-diameter late wood. In old age a pale brown centre develops that reminds us of olivewood: the “olive ash”. It is only here that

we detect the close relation ship to the olivetree. Ash wood is elastic, tensile and more impact-resistant than oakwood. But because it is less weather resistant than oak it

is used for interior work, furniture, but also for gardening tools. In the past it was also used for military equipment such as spears, today more for sports equipment, where

it displays another remarkable property: elasticity and great pliancy. We have the impression that the entire power of the ash streams –as the metamorphosed warmth stream

of flower and seed- in to the wood.

In spite of its height the ash looks modest and unimposing as if it had gathered all its strength inside and

was quietly devoted to the quality of the soil below and the light above.

[E.M. Kranach]

“The ash dominates the dark earth forces like no other tree. This is expressed in its strength, its great elasticity, in the blackness of its compact buds. But it strives towards the light and once it has conquered

the heights its whole nature enters into the glory of the heavens. The dense forces of the depths and the radiating powers of the heights -the ash commands them like no other tree. I sit not the task of man to become like the ash? Weaving together the dense darkness of below with the bright light of above –would we not become true bearers of the world? All great personalities were rooted in dark depths and gathered streams of heavenly light.

”Etymology It was Linné who introduced the botanical species name Fraxinus in1737 while the name ash goes back to the Indo-Germanic root“ os ”which is closely related to springwater. It occurs in the names of towns such as Oslo and Osnabrück which express the vicinity of springs. The English name ash is derived from aesc, the Anglo-Saxon word for spear. The old German root.

The pinnate leaves of the ash tree create a rhythmically structured, enlivening, light canopy

Foliage movement is elastic but restrained.

means“ with spears” and is known from the Old High German Lay of Hildebrand. Fraxinus is the speartree.

The Latin name for ash, Fraxinus, is derived from the Indo-Germanic name of the birch. Madaus refers it back

to the Greek word phrasso (= tofencein). The old folk names for the ash so contain references to its character.

The old Latin name for the seeds (ash keys) was lingual avis meaning bird’ stongue. It refers to their tongue-likeshape. The species name excelsior is the comparative of the adjective excelsus (= eminent, majestic) and relates to the shape of the tree.

Mythology:

Like the olive tree the ash tree belongs to the olivefamily. People have worshipped it from earliest times.

The old Germanic tribes as well as other peoples all over the world believed that human beings were created from trees. According to German mythology Askr (= ash) and Embla (= elm) were the first human couple and the gods

had made them from trees. The ash is most impressively described in the epic poem Edda which contains the famous description of the giant ash Yggdrasil that represents the tripartite axis and pillar of the world.

Here, the ash symbolizes the power centre of the world. The name Yggdrasil means “bearer of Ygg”, Ygg being one of the names for Odin or Wotan, the highest and greatest of the Aesir and father of all gods. The ash Yggdrasil has three roots. According to Steiner they are the three sources of the “I”-individuality: “The “I” which had been there before but has only now risen to consciousness comes from Niflheim. But there is a serpent which continuously gnaws at the root that grows from this well. Its name is Nidhogg. Clairvoyance can indeed perceive the gnawing of this snake. Excesses of the uncontrolled sexual instinct are gnawing at this root of man.

These condroot is the heart. From here comes the new life of man. In all his doing the human being is driven by the heart. He feels what makes him happy or unhappy. He feels the present, but heal so feels the element in which he grows in to the future; the true destiny of man is felt in the heart. The initiate priests there foresaid: at the spring from which this root grows three norns are sitting and spinning the threads of fate.

They are:

Urd, the mistress of the past,

Verdandi, who knows about the present time, about that which is and that which is evolving,

Skuld knows what will be in the future. The future comes about because something goes on beyond the present which has to be redeemed. (The German word“ Schuld” also means guilt”).

At the third root we find Mimir’s well: Mimir who drinks the water of wisdom. This is what comes to expression in speech. The crown of the tree grows in to the spiritland and from the spiritual world come drops of the fertile nerve essence. The initiates put it like this: In the crown of the world ash a goat is grazing and

from its horns a continuous supply of mead is dropping.–Thus the below is continuously fertilized by the above.

A squirrel keeps running up and down the stem bearing spiteful words to and fro: the battle of lower against higher nature. “This is how Germanic mythology describes it: the new human being in the new world resembles

a tree, an ash, with three roots.

The first root goes to Niflheim, to the ice-cold, dim ‘Urland’ (= originalland). In the midst of Niflheim was the never-ceasing well-spring Hvergelmir from which twelve streams came fort hand flowed all over the world.

The second root grew to the well of the norns Urd, Verdandi and Skuld who sat at its shores spinning the threads of fate.

The third root went to Mimir’s well. Yggdrasil was called the world ash. In it the powers of the world are centred. The human being is shown at the moment when he is to become aware of his own ‘I’, when out of his innermost depth the word ‘I’ is to resound. ‘Yggrasil’ means ‘I-bearer’. An ‘I’-bearer is this tree. ‘Ygg’

is ‘ich’ (= I) and ‘drasil’ has the same root as the Germanword ‘tragen’ (to carry or bear). ”Thus the ash stands at the centre of the entire Germanic mythological world as an image of the three fold human being.

The Edda is a tragic poem: the gods are sinful and perish in the final battle, the giant Fenriswolf devours Odin. Only the ash Yggdrasil escapes the apocalypse. Among those resurrected are Baldur, the good god, who had been killed by the mistletoe and whose murder had set off the catastrophe. In this mythology the ash is the bearer of carrier resisting all powers of destruction. Like no other tree it gives strength in all kinds of catastrophes. Interestingly, its significance is not limited to Germanic mythology. In Greek mythology the

ash is also assigned important and partly similar functions: the original goddess of the ash was Adrasteia,

who nurtured the infant Zeus. “Adrasteia” means“ conciliating the jealousy of the Gods through humble deeds”.

This corresponds to the quality of the Norn Urd described above as residing at the root of one of the 3 sources

in the Edda. In Greek mythology A drasteia is equivalent to Nemesis, the relentless persecutor of any kind

of hubrisi. Excessive supercilious. She makes sure that hubris is always repayed with misfortune.

In Greek mythology the ash was consecrated to Poseidon, the god of the sea. The Aeolians, to whom the Trojans belonged, were devoted to and protected by Poseidon. According to Hesiod the Aeolians descended from the third generation, the Bronze Age, of men that had been created from ash trees. Their armour and houses were of bronze, and they worked with bronze. Hesiod writes that these men worshipped only the deeds of the wargod Ares and that they were the cause of tears and violence. Their hearts were hard as iron and their arms were unconquerable. Hesiod makes a connection between bronze and ash. This “Bronze Race” or “Ash Race” perished with Atlantis. Again, we find the power of destruction and the doom of the gods as in Germanic mythology and also in the fall of Troy.

Virgil indeed compares the fall of Troy to the cutting down of an old ash in the mountains. Another reference: the ash nymphs are said to have been created from the blood that washed when Uranus was castrated by Cronus.

The Greek word “melia” means “ash” as well as “lance”. As in the Norse language we find again a connection between as hand spear and it does not surprise us that the spear of the centaur Chiron used by Achilles to kill Hector was also made of ashwood. Phytotherapy Hippocrates and Theophrastus used ash leaves for gout and rheuma. In the14th century von Megenberg suggested their use as compresses for wounds and bone fractures. According to H.Bock ash will help with calculi and jaundice as well as with gout. Helwig called it a “European cinchona”. Matthiolus used the bark for calculi and icterus, the seeds for palpitations, as a diuretic and aphrodisiac. According to von Haller the ash should be called Guajacum germanicum. Rademacher saw it as a good muscle medicine. Other sources list its uses for fertility and reproduction problems and also for bites, stating its antipyretic properties and usefulness for tired feet and in case of haemoptysis. Homoeopathy: According to the few sources available the ash in homoeopathic dosage shows an affinity to the female abdomen. They list uteromegaly, myoma, dysmenorrhea, uterine conditions, disorders of growth and function in uterine tissues, prolapse, bleeding myoma and fluoralbus as the main indications. Other indications found in the literature include fever blisters, the use as a “homoeopathic pessary”, gout and rheumatism, fever and haemorrhage, as well as intermittent fever.

Floweressence: The ash belongs to the olive family and is therefore closely related to the Bachflower “Olive”.

This Remedy helps patients who are physically and mentally so exhausted that they feel they have no strength left at all. ‡

Case studies Looking at medical treatment our first step will be to verify the idea that any mistletoe will carry a power impulse that is characteristic for its host tree. For me this meant trying out the effect on myself and observing the changes in my body and soul in the days following the injection, as it is done in homoeopathic drug provings. As a next step these experiences have to be reflected in the wider context, and special relationships to the typical organs and cancers gradually have to be established.

Drugproving with Abnobafraxini = Ash-grown mistletoe

Day1: pain in left heel in the evening, like after a longwalk.

Day2: strong muscle ache specially in the legs. Heavy head like after a boozy night out. Tired feet. Feeling battered. Numbness inside left thumb, lateral so in the fingers. Severe exhaustion so that I had to stop surgery (for the first time in my life) and go to bed.

Feeling of heat around the leg. Strong perception of own skeleton from hips down. Despair about being urgently needed in hospital and at home but be ingunable to split myself in two.

Day4: slight “pins and needles” sensation in the fingers of the left hand. The symptoms clearly remind us of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, also of the connection between the ash and “tired” feet and the cinchona-effect which have both been known as inceantiquity. My second step was to try and find similar symptoms in patients. This is not always possible without set backs from which much can be learnt. ‡

Vorwort/Suchen Zeichen/Abkürzungen Impressum