Healing Trees and PPE

Following on from the previous blog post and talk of hanging shoes in trees (see here) I thought I'd mention Healing Trees. 

Also known as Rag Trees, Witch Trees or Clootie Trees, these are places - usually with some significance, such as at the site of a natural well - where people hang items in the hope of a cure or to ward off sickness. The tradition dates back to pagan times, and says that if an ill person hangs a strip of cloth at a holy well, and either bathes in the water or drinks it, then as the cloth disintegrates the illness will pass. It's a practice found all over Western Europe and the tradition is still very strong in the Celtic countries of Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Cornwall and the Isle of Man. It's also found in northern France where arbres à loques are still decorated today. In fact, the French trees have recently been seen to sport a very modern twist on a very old idea. People are filling the Healing Trees with PPE masks. 

'The new development is COVID masks,' says Bertrand Bosio, who runs Nord Fantastique, a Facebook page devoted to the region's ancient sites and lore. 'Tied to the branches of the healing tree in Hasnon, southwest of Lille, surgical masks can be clearly seen among items of clothing that range from socks to underwear - often left by people suffering from fertility problems. The votive masks are hung preventatively, rather than by COVID-19 sufferers who ought to be self-isolating. What's interesting is that the ritual is still very much alive in our times. People turn to the Healing Trees when medicine has reached its limits, and when science has let them down.' 

It's certainly true that the tradition is still very much alive. I was visiting my folks in Cornwall back in 2011 and, while driving through a little village near Penzance called Sancreed, I came across a Holy Well and Healing tree. It is festooned with strips of cloth or 'clouties' (clooties in Ireland & Scotland)) and other paraphernalia and it's quite beautiful to see - a living, ever-evolving work of art. Here are some photos that I took: 

There are over 600 sacred holy wells in the UK and nearly 200 of them are in Cornwall. And, sure enough,  not far from Sancreed, you come to the Well of St Maddern, in the village of Madron, which is even more striking being set in marshy lands around an ancient pond and well. 

Old habits never die and it's notable that, during this pandemic and its extended periods of lockdown, many people have developed a greater appreciation for Nature and have returned to simpler ways of living, such as growing their own vegetables, learning to bake, making art etc. that require no modern technology. 

Now, I wouldn't for a minute swap my vaccine for hanging a cloutie in a tree but I understand people's need to reconnect with the past and with the idea of wishing and magic. The simple act of doing something - even something as simple as hanging a rag on a branch - feels positive and proactive even if it is a placebo. As someone once said, we are cave people living in skyscrapers and, in evolutionary terms, our brains are no different to our late Stone Age ancestors. The veneer of civilisation is very thin and we have come so far, so fast, in the last couple of thousand years that it's been nice, in some ways, to be forced to slow down and take stock of what's important. 

And what is more important than hope and wishing our loved ones to be safe?