Dreams of Yachts, Yods and Yews

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Yacht

A form of travel on the water, yachts are symbols of luxury and power. They are large and opulent, yet expensive and cumbersome. They are labor intensive and require more than one person to maneuver. Do you dream you are the owner or a passenger on a yacht? Are you carrying much responsibility or going “along for the ride” in life? Are you steering the yacht or watching it being driven? You are either in control of your destiny or simply not. Where is the yacht going? Like all dreams about transportation, the speed, power and journey all represent our trip through life.

Yew

Yew is a common name given to various species of trees. The Yew tree is most prominently given to any of various coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus Taxus: such as Canadian Yew, or Mexican Yew tree. The name also is used for any of various coniferous plants in the families Taxaceae: such as White berry yew or Plum yew.

Yew trees are very poisonus. Except for the fresh berries. The fleshy berry is edible, but the hard seed within is deadly poison. Best to leave it alone. The leaves also are poisonous. It is said that cattle who graze on yew will die within minutes.

Yew is very strong and resilience was once considered the material for making longbows. Ideally, the wood for a yew bow was taken from the juncture of heartwood and sapwood, and the bow contained both. Fine bows were traded between the British Isles and the mainland during the Middle Ages and as supplies were depleted, a tax of four bowstaves per tun was imposed on every ship coming into English ports in 1472. In 1562, the Bavarian government sent a plea to the Holy Roman Empire to stop cutting yew, siting damage done to the forests. The great, ancient yews protected other trees in the forest from severe winds. Lucky for the yew trees and their neighbors, guns began replacing bows soon after.

The tradition of planting yews in churchyards and graveyards was immortalized by Alfred, Lord Tennyson in the following poem:

Old warder of these buried bones,
And answering now my random strokes
With fruitful cloud and living smoke,
Dark yew, that graspest at the stones
And dippest toward the dreamless head,
To thee too comes the golden hour
When flower is feeling after flower.”

Yew tree poisoning seemed to have been a popular choice for honorable suicide among the ancient Celts. In their writings, Caesar, Florus and Orosius each recounted instances where Celtic individuals or groups took their own lives by yew poisoning rather than submit to their conquerors.

The Temple of Uppsala in Sweden was a temple devoted to the Norse Gods. There is little archaeological evidence for this temple, but there are a few written accounts from Adam of Bremens, the Norse sagas and Gesta Danorum. No one is sure what happened to it, though it may be speculated that the cathedral that currently stands in the town was built upon its ruins. According to legend, a great sacred evergreen stood in the temple. It is believed by some that this tree was a yew.

Yew is associated with the planets Saturn and Jupiter and with the Goddess Hecate.

Yew is a faerie plant and one of those plants that has a long association with witches. Yew is associated with death and rebirth and is appropriate for funeral wreathes and memorial plantings. Likewise, it is appropriate for decorating for Yule, as the winter solstice represents the cusp between the season of life and the season of death.

Yew is associated with divination and astral travel and anything that relates to communication or travel between realms. The wood is also very attractive in form and coloring. This makes it especially useful for making runes, Ogham sticks, frames for scrying mirrors, talking boards and other divination tools, but it should not be used for goblets or any dishes that will be eaten from. People have died from drinking wine stored in yew barrels!

Yew are sacred in many Heathen and Druid traditions. It is one of the five sacred trees of Irish mythology known as the Tree of Ross.

Yod

The yodis the 10th letter in the Hebrew alphabet. Yods represent the presence of the divine. The symbol is found in the Tarot cards including The Tower, The Moon, Ace of Wands, Ace of Cups and Ace of Swords.

 Yoke (See egg).

~ Dreams beginning with Z