Frau Wacholder is a spirit of magic, healing, prosperity, and abundance. She is invoked to prevent ghosts and Demons from bothering you as well as to facilitate communication with loved ones who have passed on to other realms. (She can open or shut those portals.) Frau Wacholder is petitioned for fertility and protection.
Frau Wacholder is German for “Madame Juniper”: she is the goddess of juniper trees. Junipers are significant, special trees with unique properties, and so Frau Wacholder is a significant goddess.
Frau Wacholder may or may not be the same spirit as Hulda, also closely associated with junipers.
Junipers have many uses—culinary, medicinal, and magical:
• Juniper berries are used to season food and craft intoxicating beverages. (Gin derives from juniper.)
• Junipers serve as portals between realms; Frau Wacholder, a threshold spirit, oversees these gateways.
• Junipers are a staple of traditional herbalism with various medicinal uses.
They potentially exert a profound effect on fertility: sometimes enhancing it but also sometimes used to terminate pregnancy, depending on use, method of administration, and dosage. In Central Europe—where Frau Wacholder comes from—one local species, Juniper savin, is, amongst other medicinal uses, a powerful abortifacient, meaning it can theoretically be used to induce miscarriage. (It is potentially a very dangerous method unless administered by a trained, skilled herbalist.) During certain eras, a juniper savin in the backyard was considered the sign of a midwife as surely as three gold balls over a door indicate a pawnbroker. Local authorities went on juniper hunts, eradicating the trees (and sometimes the people who owned them).
Wacholder, the German word for “Juniper” derives from the Old High German wachal (“awake”) and tar (“tree”), literally “the awake tree.” Frau Wacholder is a vigilant watcher. As she allegedly sees everything, she is invoked for the return of stolen goods:
FRAU WACHOLDER STOLEN GOODS RETURN Spell
This spell involves a juniper tree, a rock, and strong but gentle hands.
• Write your request to Frau Wacholder on paper or leaves. Her assistance may also be invoked silently or verbally.
• Very gently bend a lower branch of a juniper down to Earth, and then secure it with a stone. Place written petitions beneath the stone. Petitions may also be written on the stone with invisible ink or blood pricked from your smallest finger. (Women may use menstrual blood if deemed appropriate.)
• Be extremely careful not to break the branch or otherwise harm the tree, lest your spell backfire on you. (Brings lots of water for libations and gifts for Frau Wacholder, just in case.)
• Demand that the thief hear your call and return your property now.
• Allegedly the thief and/or property will be brought to you via Frau Wacholder’s intervention. If and when this happens, return to the tree, remove the stone, and release the branch. Bring water for the tree and gifts for Frau Wacholder.
OFFERINGS:
Gin, jenever (Holland gin: the Dutch beverage from which gin derives), craft necklaces for her using dried juniper berries as beads, plant juniper trees or care for them
SEE ALSO:
- Hulda
SOURCE:
Encyclopedia of Spirits: The Ultimate Guide to the Magic of Fairies, Genies, Demons, Ghosts, Gods & Goddesses– Written by :Judika Illes Copyright © 2009 by Judika Illes.