Thorn Lore

The Thorn stands at the gateway to Faery, and can be found by wells and springs also gateway places. The flowers are said to help prayers reach heaven. Also known as the May Tree for the time of year when it's white blossom appears, the young folk would go out a-Maying to gather blossomed branches to hang above the doors, although it was considered bad luck to bring blossoming branches inside the house: Hawthorn bloom and elder-flowers, will fill a house with evil powers. 

Thorn is associated with heart health, and is considered to clear negativity and stimulate love and forgiveness. As such it is used in spells for fertility, happiness, love, marriage and good luck. Thorn is a powerful symbol of the start of summer, masculine energy, young love and fertility, as well as the union of sun and moon, the male and female principles.

The Thorn is said to be under the protection of the Fae, and traditionally bad things happen to those who disturb the Faery Thorn. As recently as 1982, workers in a Northern Ireland car plant claimed that one of the reasons the business had problems was because a faery thorn had been disturbed during construction. The management had a similar bush brought in and planted with all due ceremony!

A hundred years I slept beneath a thorn
Until the tree was root and branches of my thought,
Until white petals blossomed in my crown.
Kathleen Raine