In A Nutshell

February 1, 2012, The Feast of Imbolc, Brighid's Day

As is my many-years-long tradition this day, my draw of divination on Imbolc is not Tarot, but the Celtic Ogham. And today's Gift from My Lady Brigid is the Hazel, Coll, the tree of Hidden Wisdom for the Seeker of Wisdom.

As well as poetic skill, this Ogham card represents intuition, the power of divination leading straight to the source. Hazel twigs have traditionally always been used for divining because of their pliancy and affinity with water. So the Hazel embodies many talents: poetry, divination and powers of meditation. Through the guidance of this card, these talents can also be a channel for creative energies, especially that which allows you to inspire or increase these capacities among others, through your work, interests and pursuits.

The Hazel, in fact allows you to be a catalyst or transformer, working through the promptings of intuition to bring ideas to the surface. Inspiration from a higher source will be bestowed upon you, as the Hazel feeds you with spiritual nourishment. You are at a creative high point. Everything will proceed smoothly if you trust your intuition and proceed bravely, with the knowledge that all will going accord to plan. Through your apprenticeship, you are discovering your own power. Sometimes you will need to act quickly and change your plan as you go along, but you have all the wisdom, energy, and inspiration that you need to dance through situation with grace and power. 

From the skill and dexterity needed to crack a seamless hazelnut and remove the meat without crushing it comes the saying, "that's the whole thing in a nutshell." The Hazel encourages us to seek out information and inspiration in all things and emphasizes the value of the enquiring mind and of learning of all kinds. Just as the hazel concentrates all its goodness and its continued existence in the kernel of its fruit, so we attain wisdom by reducing knowledge down to its purest form and passing it on down the ages. 

Through meditating on the essence of wisdom, we gain creative inspiration. Like the limbs of the hazel, we must remain pliant in our approach to learning. Concentrated thought in an open mind can, like the hazel, become a connection with the divine source of all things. The hazel teaches us the noble arts of learning, teaching, communication, and healing.