Juniper Tree (Magical Protection) Powers

Juniper trunk or carving found in a tomb dated to 4,540 BCE. Thia tomb found in the hills overlooking the Red Sea resort city of Eilat, Israel. The excavators of this tomb also found beads from afar, made of exotic materials including the earliest-ever examples of faience and of steatite found in the Levant. Photo from: https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/2022-05-16/ty-article/7-500-year-old-burial-in-eilat-contains-earliest-asherah/00000180-e9ef-dc12-a5b1-fdff17540000

Oldest Archaeological Evidence for Juniper Protection (c. 5450 – 4250 BCE)

(May 28, 2023) Juniper was used as wood supports and aromatic protection totems in tombs and elsewhere. The earliest tomb example was found in a 5,500 BCE tomb found in the hills overlooking the Red Sea resort city of Eilat, Israel.

First discovered in 1978, the site was only excavated in the late 1980s as a salvage dig ahead of Eilat’s westward expansion. The excavation was carried out by Israel Hershkovitz and Uzi Avner, who found 11 simple graves, 20 tumulus tombs, two areas identified as open-air sanctuaries, and a cultic installation. It would take three decades for analysis to be pursued and papers published, in 2018.

The word juniper comes from Latin iuniperus which is from Akkadian IN.PR or Inu.Paru meaning "Moon-Eye's sweat" where "moon-Eye" is an epithet for the dark new moon god Su (also corresponding to eye pupil) who was the source of astrological motion powers, that is, all motion powers not generated by emotions.

The cemetery overlooking the modern city had been in use for over a thousand years, in the sixth and the fifth millennia B.C.E. (c. 5450 – 4250 BCE), according to finds and radiocarbon dating of charcoal found at the site.

References

Viktoria Greenboim Rich (May 16, 2022) 7,500-year-old Burial in Eilat Contains Earliest Asherah in Haaretz. Online at:https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/2022-05-16/ty-article/7-500-year-old-burial-in-eilat-contains-earliest-asherah/00000180-e9ef-dc12-a5b1-fdff17540000

Tombs at Eilat, Israel With Cooking Fires Between Them (5450–4250 BCE)

These tombs were also places of the community building ritual of eating together.

Tomb Complex Similar To That Found at Malta (in Eilat, Israel 5450–4250 BCE)

More evidence of a single Mediterranean/European wide culture at this time.

Skull at Base of Massaba (Standing Stone) in Tomb (in Eilat, Israel 5450–4250 BCE)

Druid tombs were centers of ancestral powers

Old Juniperus excelsa Tree from Turkey

"Juniperus excelsa M.-Bieb. subsp. excelsa occurs in the hills and mountains of the Eastern Mediterranean Basin, the Black Sea and a range of mountains arching around the southern end of the Caspian Sea. It becomes increasingly rare eastward along the latter chain of mountains. It does not occur in regions with an annual precipitation much below 500 mm. It is especially common in Anatolia (less so in its central part) and on the Crimea, with annual precipitation between 500-1000 mm. Its altidudinal range is from c. 100 m (e.g. Crimea) to 2300 m in the Caucasus and Turkey. It forms the tree-limit in several mountain ranges. It is resistant to summer drought and warmth, but less so than the subsp. polycarpos (discussed below). It grows mainly on stony, rocky calcareous or non-calcareous slopes.

From Mersin, Türkiye. Photo from Wikimedia Commons at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Juniperus_excelsa_-_Greek_juniper_01.jpg

Young Green and Mature Purple Juniper Berries On Same Plant.

A juniper berry is a seed cone with unusually plump and merged scales. The cones from a handful of species, especially Juniperus communis, are used as a spice, particularly in European cuisine, and also give gin its distinctive flavour. Juniper berries are among the only spices derived from conifers.
Photo from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Juniperus_communis_at_Valjala_on_2005-08-11.jpg

Juniper For Protection and Cleansing

Junipers have a resinous sap that makes it combustible. If used with caution it can used as a replacement for white sage in cleansing rituals. It was apparently used as the source of such cleansing is Slavonic cultures in Europe and Navajo culture in America.
Juniper is usually a shrub, though it can grow into a small tree. It has flat, scaly needles. Rather than cones, it has a “berry” that is small and bluish in color. It has a pleasant evergreen smell.
"After harvesting, wrap it, trim the excess off the sides and top, and then hang it to dry for about two weeks. Be prepared for a decently large flame when lit. It’s easy to blow out though. It smokes very nicely, giving off a lot of smoke in a short amount of time and then dying out after roughly 30 seconds of smoldering. I find this is the perfect amount of time for a self-cleanse or for cleansing one or two tools. " https://www.reddit.com/r/witchcraft/comments/fbkj60/on_juniper_as_an_alternative_to_white_sage/

Roman Herbology About Juniper Berries

(February 16, 2024) The Roman medical author Pedanius Dioscorides wrote this about Juniper berries around 60 CE in chapter 1, section 103 of his book.

1-103. ARKEOTHOS MEGALE, ARKEOTHOS MIKRA

Some juniper is bigger, some smaller. Either of the junipers [the bigger and the smaller] are sharp, diuretic and warming, and when burned the fumes drive away snakes. One type of the fruit (called the juniper berry) is the size of a hazelnut, the other equal to a bean — both round and fragrant, sweet, and a little bitter to chew. It is mildly warming and astringent, good for the stomach, good taken in drink for infirmities of the chest, coughs, gaseousness, griping, and the poisons of venomous creatures. It is also diuretic; as a result it is good for convulsions and hernia, and those who have congested or blocked wombs.

It has sharp leaves, as a result applied as a plaster and taken as a drink (or the juice taken with wine) they are good for those bitten by vipers. The bark (burned and rubbed on with water) removes leprosy, but the scraping of dust of the wood (swallowed down) kills. There is a great juniper too, which some call cypressus sylvestris, some mnesitheus, some acatera, and the Romans juniperus, and it is known to most like cypress growing for the most part in rough places and near the sea. It has the same properties as the former. The lesser juniper some call archeuthis, some, mnesitheus , others, acatalis, the Africans zuorinsipet, the Egyptians iibium, the Romans juniperus, and the Gauls jupicellusum.

Reference

Pedanius Dioscorides (60 CE) Materia Medica. Online at: https://archive.org/details/Dioscorides_Materia_Medica

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