It is little known that the Romans, like most ancient cultures, revered the Yew and built altars to it. The one at Uppington, in Shropshire, shown here, is found beneath the ancient yew but the most interesting one by far, is at Gresford church near Wrexham, where it was found a short distance from the massive but younger yew on the east end, probably placed there at the same time as the yew was planted.

This sculptured stone altar is said to depict Atropos, a Greek god, who cut the thread of life or Morta her Roman counterpart, who were one of the 3 Fates. These female deities supervised Fate but did not determine it. Atropos was the Fate who cut the thread or web of life. She was known as the ‘inflexible’ or ‘inevitable’ one and she is always shown cutting this thread with the ‘abhorred shears’! She worked along with Clotho, who spun the thread and Lachesis who measured its length.

We come across the 3 Fates again with the yew, in the Norse mythology of Yggdrasil, the Tree of Life. Triple goddesses are always associated with the yew tree and the same properties of life, death and eternity.

The Atropos stone has 4 sides, each one still clearly incised and there is a depression on the top suggesting that something like a bowl may have been placed there perhaps for offerings. The stone holds great meaning for me and I understand it in this way: on the face to the right of the Goddess  is a chevron pattern, the yew symbol and therefore depicts the yew tree, perhaps the one in Gresford churchyard close to the stone. As the 3 Fates of which Atropos is one, are not the determiners of Fate, then perhaps the stone is saying it is the Yew that governs this and these 3 Goddesses are in service to it. On the next face after the yew symbol, is a simple archway and the last face before returning to the Goddess, depicts the same, this time with the cosmic disc inside it at the top, therefore meaning that here we are looking the other way through the arch. To me this is about the yew tree standing at the gate of life, following from the Goddess of Fate who cuts the thread of life, the Yew having determined that life, allowing the person to enter the Otherworld. The last face suggests reincarnation, which many cultures such as the Celts believed was a fact of life. To me it speaks of the way through back to this world, shown by the presence of the sun, after travelling in the other direction to the Otherworld.

If you find this is all a bit esoteric, next week we’ll be back to brass tacks with the Magna Carta Yew!

Please keep signing and sharing the petition and discovering more about the Yew. It is just so important to protect this ancient and sacred tree.