BLACKTHORN BLOSSOM




Filling the hedgerows with vibrant sprays of white blossom the ambivalent blackthorn is one of the earliest bushes or trees to flower. The blackthorn has long been associated with the occult and chthonic -  both evil, as the preferred wood for the walking sticks and broomsticks of witches, but also for protection and purification as in this ancient rhyme:
With blackthorn staff
I draw the bound.
All malice and bane,
I thus confound.


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