Bernard

Bernard's tree is not Irish but is important for the food it provides and the wishes it grants. It is said if you wish on a beech stick and bury it in the ground as the stick returns to the earth the wish will be manifested in the world. 

Bernard reminds us to slow down. Although the beech tree is deciduous, sometimes the leaves remain until the new shoots eventually push them off. The brown-purple flowers of the beech do not grow until the tree is forty years old and only then are nuts produced. The nut has a small, hairy, triangular shell called a cupule. 

Beech nuts used to be a central part of a pig’s diet. Oil made from beech nuts can be used instead of butter and as a pesto. It's leaves can be eaten, smoked and used in medicine. It's wood is used to make drums and handles and in preparing foods, beers and smoking meats.

Bernard is associated with learning, wisdom and creativity. He has been connected to Ogma of the Tuatha De Dannan, who created Ogham. This may be because early books were made of thinly sliced beech wood bound together. "Boc” was the word for beech in Old English and became “book.”