Bramble – Growth

A shrub for recognising the beauty within.
Key phrases: Tackling problems; appreciating difficulty through self-growth; delusion, trickery and fairy magic; self harming; self-criticism.

You could be a real grump about life and say it isn't worth tackling the prickles but we all deserve a little happiness.Your generous with other people so, allowing a little pleasure for yourself will make you juicier and riper for the picking, then you can let down your branches and let everyone else have their fill. Recognise the beauty within and let it shine on.

The soft autumnal fruit is always a rare and short lived pleasure, but is all the more rewarding for it. Before the Romans brought the grape to Britain the blackberry was used to make a potent wine. The berry was used to treat anaemia, ease menstrual cycles also to cleanse and soothe open wounds.

The bramble is full of trickery and fairy magic. In fairy tales like the Sleeping Beauty it is thickets of the Bramble that quickly engulf the castle and the prince has to fight through to get to his princess. It is used in mythology like a natural trap, once entered is hard to get out without harming the self.

Persons relevant: The misconstrued, the misunderstood and the over-analytical. The hard-shelled character with a soft centre.