published October 27, 2026
A quick announcement: If you’re looking for a tool to help establish a daily nature ritual, the Nature Journal is meant for exactly that. I hope you enjoy it!
Sometimes it’s disheartening to be a human.
We like to think we’re working on the side of “right”, but once in a while a truth comes out of left field and shows just how awful we can be to each other.
That happened to me this week, and it made me stop and assess just what it is I’m trying to do with the Plant Connection podcast and Root Stem Leaf in general.
You see, I had decided it would be fun to talk about the rowan tree this week since Halloween is coming up. What’s more appropriate than a tree that’s associated with magic, right?
Well, it turned out the most obvious story to discuss was that of Margaret Barclay, a woman accused of witch craft in the 1600s for whom a rowan twig was used as evidence of her guilt.
Not gonna lie, the details were unpleasant, and the more I researched, the more clear it became that this isn’t the kind of thing I want to focus on in my work.
Yes, it happened, and yes, we need to remember what happened to Margaret and others like her so it can’t happen again, but that is a story of human cruelty.
My work in this moment is to celebrate our connection with nature. With the rowan tree itself.
And our relationship with the rowan tree does not deserve to be defined by the horrific actions of people 300 years ago.
So I searched for a story that held a truer link to that relationship, and I found it in a woman whose family had endured its own trials at the hands of other people through their involvement in the Jacobite rebellion.
(If you’re interested in how the rowan tree came to be celebrated in song by a noble woman from Scotland, check out this week’s episode.)
My goal in seeking out a softer story was not to pretend that bad things don’t happen. In fact, quite the opposite. It was to highlight rowan’s role in helping shield people from some of the hard things life can send our way.
The thing is, the role rowan played for people for centuries, long before the witch trials became a thing, was the role of protector.
That’s right, the rowan tree was not spooky at all.
It served as a guardian for the people who sought it out or planted it by their door.
That’s the thing that hit me hard in my research. Our relationship with rowan was always one of gratitude and trust, and it made me sad that it was pushed toward fear because of the actions of a few twisted people.
So in this episode I hope we can go a little way toward reclaiming an honest relationship with rowan and show a little gratitude for the protection it offers.
See you outside!
Listen now by searching “Plant Connection” in your favorite podcast app, or click the link below.
The Protection of a Threshold Guardian – The Rowan Tree
Journal Prompt: What sort of protection would you seek if you could have a conversation with a rowan tree?
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