death · rebirth · ancestral wisdom · deep roots · transformation
Upright
Yew is the oldest living thing in Ireland, and its roots reach down to the dead. This card speaks of endings that are also beginnings, of the wisdom that only comes from having survived. You carry your ancestors in your bones. Let their knowing rise through you like sap through ancient wood.
Reversed
You may be clinging to the past instead of drawing wisdom from it, or you are so afraid of endings that you refuse to let anything die. Yew teaches that death feeds new growth. What must you release so that something new can take root?
Irish lore
Yew (Iodhadh) is the last letter of the Ogham alphabet and the tree of death and rebirth. The ancient yew at Mucross Abbey is over a thousand years old, its branches sheltering the graves of chieftains. Yew wood was prized for longbows — death-dealing from the tree of the dead.
Read this card with Brigid →
