Nurse Boles: On the Magic of Decaying Trees
Something very sacred in the context of my work is the Nurse Bole; the trunk of a dead tree, which has become a source of new life as it rots. Generally speaking, there are two kinds of Nurse Bole—known as Nurse Logs and Nurse Stumps— though, they only really differ in technicality.
A Nurse Log is a fallen tree that, as it’s left to decay, provides a rich environment for the facilitation of new ecological growth. These logs often support a wide variety of synergistic flora, making them an important, if often overlooked, variable within the larger tapestry of forest ecology. Not only do they provide a growth medium for a variety of lifeforms—such as seedlings, ferns, bryophytes, and mycorrhizae—they also provide new growth with moisture, moderated access to sunlight, and a degree of protection from pathogens.
In the same vein, a Nurse Stump is a tree stump which, when left to decay, provides a similarly rich environment for new growth. As they rot, the tops of these stumps become fertile habitats for the sustainment of new shrubs and trees which, in turn, supplant their hosts with time.
Each of these are extremely significant within the context of the Wending Way for so powerfully embodying the ouroboric union of life and death. As such, offerings secreted within, and ceremonies conducted in the vicinity of, Nurse Boles are considered especially propitious. Likewise, plants and wood harvested from the body of a Nurse Bole are considered uniquely potent, as well as waters collected from within the hollows of their trunks, since all materials gathered from a Nurse Bole contain and conduct a high concentration of both zoetic and thanatic virtues. In particular, this aforementioned water—which I sometimes call Nurse Water—is quite well suited to the context of Spirit Work (beloved, as it is, by sundrie Wights) and as a fortifying agent in works of ceremonial magic. It is also powerfully well suited to acts of healing magic, which can be gleaned in the traditional beliefs surrounding Stump Water in North American folk-magic and folk-medicine.
The Wending Wayfarer 