Ura - Heather
Physical Properties:
Heather or Calluna vulgaris, is a member of the large Ericaceae family which also includes cranberry, blueberry, huckleberry (my favorite!), and rhododendron as well as heath plants. Heather is native to Europe, commonly known as a native plant in Scotland, but it grows throughout North America as well. The most common variety has purple flowers, though there are varieties in shades of white, red and pink and they have a sweet musky floral scent. Like Onn (Gorse/furze/broom), it is also considered to be a 'fire-plant' because it regrows readily after burning. In fact, regular controlled burning of shrubs like these keeps them healthy and vigorous. Unburned it becomes leggy, woody and ragged and doesn’t seed as well without the heat to help shock the plant into germination. It is another important source of food and shelter for many animals, birds and insects such as bees. In folk medicine heather is said to help those who have a lack of empathy or concern for others, perhaps this is a reflection of the role it serves its habitats in nature. The name calluna is derived from the Greek word “kallunein”, which means to sweep or cleanse, and indeed calluna is still used to make brooms and had been used as a medicine to “cleanse” the body and restore flow.
Magical Properties & Lore:
I associate Ura with the letter U, the third Ogham along the bottom branch, and the time of Midsummer, which occurs around June 21st - 24th, the longest day of the year. It is a time of celebrating the sun and all the ways which it affects and supports life on our planet. Midsummer is also another one of the five feasts of the goddess, and the watchwords for this festival are "I am the Queen of every hive" - this is a reference to bees and to the goddess, both of which are associated with Ura. In late spring and early summer, bees swarm when a new queen is born to the colony. The queen leaves the hive in search of a mate to ultimately propagate a new hive. She tests her potential mates, ducking and weaving and dancing, and those that successfully engage in this dance qualify for the honor of mating to produce a new brood. Throughout nature females are often the ones who choose the individuals they wish to mate with – and males are the ones brightly colored and adorned – as it is they who must impress the females and prove their value as a potential mate. After all, the male is involved but it is the female that is committed to the gestation, birthing and rearing of the offspring, so should it not be her choice when and with whom she mates? Mating practices differ widely from species to species, but in any case it is the female - or rather the divine feminine within us, regardless of gender - that is the representative of the goddess who chooses. The underlying concept here is choice and sovereignty (which we also learned from Hawthorn) – and from that choice, the decision to consummate the bond between two (or more) partners. In Celtic tradition the goddess represents divine sovereignty which teaches us not only to become sovereign in and of ourselves, but also to recognize and allow it in others. This is the mystery, the energy that Ura holds for us.
Ura holds the energy of deep relational ties, and intimacy, sex, and sovereignty are key parts of it. It reminds us to be kind in our dealings with others, to bring in sweetness to combat grievance and irritability in conflict - because ultimately we are all connected. A small act of kindness will ripple out, and every time we choose kindness over cruelty, our vibratory energy changes and evolves, and changes those around us as well. This change in our vibrational energy shifts the very way that we move through life toward one of alignment and harmony rather than unaligned discordance. There is a balance to be struck here – too much sweetness becomes people-pleasing, and that undermines one's sovereignty. Too much bitterness closes one off from the synchronistic flow of life. Ura can teach us, with its sweet scent, how to live in harmony with others while still being true to ourselves; this is flow. It also teaches us that sometimes it is necessary to surrender to the fires of life that clear away all the old growth and stimulate the growth of new seeds in its wake.
There is a story associated with this ogham’s concept, that of The Wedding of Sir Gawain to Dame Ragnelle – in the story Gawain marries Dame Ragnelle for the sake of his lord King Arthur, and she appears in the story as an ugly and fetid hag – yet he happily does his duty. Upon the night of their wedding he proceeds to the marriage bed to consummate the union in good faith, and is surprised to find that the previously hideous Ragnelle has become a devastatingly beautiful woman. She offers him a choice – she can be beautiful at night and hideous by day, or beautiful by day and hideous at night. He tells her the choice is hers – and this answer breaks the curse entirely, allowing her to appear as the beautiful young woman she was before the curse.
I love this concept – do we not all become ugly and fetid things when our sovereign right to choose is threatened and taken from us? Women as a whole have been subjugated and taken advantage of for generations – it feels like a curse – and as a result over the years many of us at times have become ugly, despairing and bitter creatures. We all carry with us the generational trauma that women have endured over the years. It is my belief that Ura, with her message of sovereignty and choice, can help us come home to our sweet selves. To reconnect and value ourselves, to know on a bone deep level what we want and what we deserve. Only from this place can we make and hold appropriate boundaries with clarity and kindness, and call for the changes that must occur in our external environment to reflect that truth.
