The Rowan

The Rowan is the second tree of the year, and it stands in the hardest part of the northern winter. If you were born in these four weeks you were planted under the tree the old country people trusted to keep harm away from the door. You are the one who watches over.

The tree itself

The rowan is a slim, graceful tree with feathered leaves, clusters of creamy flowers in spring and bright red berries that hang on into the cold. In the Scottish Highlands and across Ireland it grows in high, exposed places where almost nothing else will, clinging to rock faces and the sides of gullies, taking wind and thin soil in its stride.

Its other name is the witch tree, though the name cuts the opposite way to what you might expect. Rowan was planted by the door and at the crossroads to keep ill will out. The old lore has twigs of it tied with red thread above the byre and sewn into a coat, the berries held to be holy and the wood carved into small charms. The rowan protects by being there.

Red berries against snow is the image to keep. Life holding on through the dark, and feeding the birds while it does.

Who you are

You notice. You walk into a room and know within a minute if something is off, whether it is a person being quietly belittled, an agenda nobody has spoken aloud or a risk that everyone else is playing down. You often say nothing at the time. You simply know, and the knowing is what lets you act when it matters.

Your intuition runs deep and it came with you. You read atmospheres and people, and you know things you were never told. You can tell what is real from what is being performed, and sound timber from rot. That is discernment, accurate seeing, though it can tip into harsh judging if you let it.

You are independent in a quiet way. Group pressure slides off you. Your truth is your own, and people sometimes read that as aloofness when it is simply a rowan rooted in its own bit of hillside.

Strengths

Your first strength is protective presence. The people under your care, your partner, your children, your friends, your clients, are safer than they would be without you, in body, in feeling and in spirit. Your watchfulness is an active form of love, even when it never says a word.

Your second is clear perception. You see what is actually happening in a room, in a situation, in a person, and your assessments are usually right. In my experience people learn to come to a Rowan for the read on a situation before they do anything about it, and they are wise to.

Add endurance. The rowan survives on the rock face, and you survive the seasons that flatten other people, with your essential vitality intact.

Challenges

The shadow of discernment is suspicion. The same faculty that reads a room accurately can harden into a wariness that never switches off, and then it keeps out the very connection your nature also needs. A mature Rowan has learned to recognise when trust has been earned and to let it in, without asking everyone to pass the test again every year.

The second shadow is severity. Seeing clearly is a gift. Seeing clearly and being unkind about it is a habit, and the two are easy to confuse. The ongoing work for a Rowan is to hold charity alongside the clear sight, to say the true thing gently, and to remember that most people are doing their best with what they have.

Both shadows are the gift with the lights turned down, and neither cancels it.

In love and work

In love you are fiercely protective. You notice when the people you love are being hurt, undermined or taken advantage of, and you act on it. You are slow to open fully. A Rowan trusts after assessment, and assessment takes time, and the people who have your full confidence have usually earned it over years.

Your love is loyal and quiet. You do not broadcast affection. You show it by being there, by remembering, and by standing up for someone when it would be easier not to. A partner who needs a constant stream of spoken reassurance may struggle with that. A partner who understands what your steadiness costs and means will feel, rightly, that they are being guarded.

In work you belong where perception and protection are the job. Psychology, counselling, healing, teaching, law, investigation, advocacy, anything that asks you to see what others miss and to stand in front of people who cannot stand in front of themselves. You are drawn to the vulnerable, and the vulnerable are drawn to you.

The Ogham letter

Luis is the second letter of the Ogham, two notches on the edge of the stone. It is the letter of protection, of inspiration and of the quiet fire of spiritual insight, the flame in the hearth that others warm themselves by. The rowan tree was tied to that fire in the old lore because of its red berries, the colour of life held through the cold. That is your letter. Guard what deserves guarding, and keep the fire lit.

Across the traditions

The Rowan month sits almost entirely inside Aquarius in Western astrology, so nearly every Rowan is an Aquarius Sun sign, and the Signs pages in the Western Astrology section will take you to Aquarius. The two pictures agree more than you might expect: the independent thinker and the independent tree, both at a slight distance from the crowd and both looking out for it. Your Chinese animal lives in the Chinese Astrology section and your Mayan day sign in the Mayan Astrology section, and Find Your Numbers and Signs will show you your tree alongside the rest when it opens.

Who in your life is safer because you are in it, and have you told them?

If you would like your own chart read, my readings are here.