Muin Symbol: 
Sound value: M
Literal meaning: Back
Pronounced as “MWIN”
Northwest Europe
Features: Deciduous climbing vine, with lobed leaves, and grapes (Grape Family)
Uses: Grapes for wine or fruit
North Central Florida
Features: Deciduous vine with grapes (Grape Family)
Uses: Plants grown on trellises or arbors for their fruit or for screening effect. Fruits: used for juice, wine, jellies and fresh eating.^
Muscadine Grape, Starke & Gainesville, Florida
Muscadine Grape vines, Starke & Gainesville, Florida
Muscadine Grape leaves, Starke, Florida
Northwest Europe
Features: Deciduous thorny bush with mounding or rambling growth habit, with berries (Rose Family)
Uses: Berries for wine or as fruit.
North Central Florida
Features: Deciduous thorny bush with mounding or rambling growth habit, with berries (Rose Family)
Uses: Berries as food.
Sand Blackberry (Rubus cuneifolius), Starke, Florida
Sand Blackberry (Rubus cuneifolius), Starke, Florida
Modern divinatory meaning: Harvest, strong effort, releasing prophecy
Animal symbolism (based on traditional lore): sow
Bird symbolism (based on traditional lore): titmouse
Color: variegated (or plaid)
Calendar: Muin is associated with the tenth lunar month of the Celtic year, August. (Using the Celtic tree calendar system that has 13 ‘months’ starting in November, as popularized by Liz and Colin Murray. Other calendars are also used, most notably the calendar devised by the poet Robert Graves in his 1948 book White Goddess.)
Folklore
- In Greek mythology Dionysus (a son of Zeus) is the god of the grape harvest and winemaking. He was also known as the vinegod, and as Bacchus by the Romans. His worship was typified by ecstatic cults and the release of constraints. The cult of Dionysus was associated with trees, with some of his names being Endendros “he in the tree” or Dendrites “he of the tree.
- In ancient Greece Ampelos was the the nymph of the vine, including the wild grape. (She is one of the Hamadryades nymphs- eight daughters of the forest spirit Oxylos (“Of the Forest”) and the Dryad, Hamadryas (“With the Tree”). When the Hamadryades were born trees sprung up from the earth, trees to which their lives were closely tied.)
- Shezmu was the ancient Egyptian deity of blood, execution, and wine (among other things). The goddess Hathor in her fierce Sekhmet form can be mollified with beer and wine.
- Grape vines were known to grow over yew trees (per Virgil) , and over elm trees in great Britain.
The Green Man is a vegetative deity often depicted in Europe with ivy or grape leaves about or making up his face. He can represent personal transformation, or rebirth.
The Green Man appears in many forms, with the three most common types categorized as- the Foliate Head (completely covered in green leaves); the Disgorging Head (spews vegetation from its mouth); and the Bloodsucker Head (sprouts vegetation from all facial orifices).
The - Crawling or being passed under a new bramble arch (long looping and rooted offshoots) was believed to be a remedy for a variety of ailments. This was often done 3 or 9 times to effect the cures.
- Bramble was classed as one of the bushes of the wood in the Old Irish Brehon Laws on trees and shrubs, and you could be fined for cutting it.
- Vines can
represent the (first) harvest, celebration, and successful completion. The vine was used as a decorative design on Bronze Age items, and is still common. The picture here is of an early 20th century ‘wedding basket’ from my grandmother.
represent the (first) harvest, celebration, and successful completion. The vine was used as a decorative design on Bronze Age items, and is still common. The picture here is of an early 20th century ‘wedding basket’ from my grandmother.