Pine: Magical Properties & Uses

Pine is the herb of clean air and steady protection, of the long view taken from high places, and of the kind of resilience that endures through cold and darkness without complaint. Its primary magical uses are in purification (the scent of pine clears and freshens both air and energy), in protection of the home and its boundaries, and in workings of endurance and perseverance. Pine cones are carried for fertility and for the protection of creative projects. Pine needles burned as incense purify with a sharp, clear brightness different from the heavier resins. In workings dedicated to Cybele or to the Great Mother in her mountain aspect, pine is the most appropriate tree.

Pine (Pinus sylvestris and related species) has been used medicinally in European and Native American traditions. Pine needle tea is genuinely high in vitamin C and was used to prevent scurvy by indigenous North American peoples and by European explorers who learned from them. The essential oil (particularly Scots pine) has demonstrated antimicrobial and expectorant properties and is used in respiratory preparations. Culpeper recommended pine preparations for coughs and lung complaints. Pine tar has been used in skin preparations for eczema and psoriasis. Some people have contact allergies to pine resin.

Dionysus, Cybele, Attis, Pan

Tall, evergreen, scented of the cold mountains where Cybele's lover Attis became a tree: transformed by the grief of the goddess into the pine that would be sacred to her forever after. The pine's association with Cybele and with the Great Mother runs through the ancient Mediterranean world. Pine torches lit the processions of the mystery religions. The pine cone is one of the oldest symbols of fertility and divine authority in human visual culture, appearing in ancient Assyrian, Greek, Roman, and Catholic sacred imagery: the staff of the Catholic Pope is surmounted by a bronze pine cone from antiquity. The Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris) was once far more widely distributed across Britain and was a sacred tree of the early peoples of the islands.