There was one very obvious thing I forgot to say in the last update, that makes some people fear and want to destroy yews and that is the fact that they are poisonous. Cattle shut into a churchyard with nothing but yew to eat will die but as long as there is other greenery to eat they’re OK. I know of old yews on farmland where they’ve been for centuries as well as others as at the Holy Well of Gwenlais, where the farmer was told to cut the tree down by the Ministry of Agriculture before he could get grants for his farm. Not for nothing are yews called the Tree of Life, Death and Eternity associated with triple goddesses like Hecate and Persephone. Every part of the tree is toxic, except for the berry or aril which is therefore obviously meant to be eaten, at least by birds, who can then distribute the nut or seed inside, which is also toxic. 

The berries themselves are the sweetest of all fruit. I have eaten many pounds of them with no ill effects but it is a good idea to eat them one at a time to make absolutely sure you spit the nut out! The yew was known as the Tree of the Thrice Blessed Fruit, having the acorn (which is how the fruit first develops), the nut (which the acorn holds) and the apple which is the aril or berry which surrounds it and which was called ‘apple’ up until medieval times, hence Avalon being the Isle of Apples, that is yew apples, the fruit of the Tree of Immortality which traditionally stands guard over King Arthur in his last resting place, until he rises again. 

The male yew is equally extraordinary, producing more pollen than just about any other plant, so much so, that it resembles smoke as in the picture here (don’t worry the yew is not on fire!) and someone standing in this smoke is apt to disappear. It won’t be long (January or February) before that smoke of invisibility starts to cloak the male yew and drift with the wind towards the awaiting female. 

The yew is a tree of mystery that has been here for far longer than us, marking our history, standing guard over our ancestors. In ancient times it was seen as the only constant in a changing and unpredictable world, a tree known to our predecessors as a sacred tree, a tree of immortality and wisdom. This is why I called my book about the yew, ‘The God Tree’ It is the eternal tree that bridged the old pagan Druidic religion and the new  Christianity and will with our help continue on well into the future.

Please keep signing and sharing. The yew needs all the help we can give it.