An Appropriate Offering?

[Herne]

I need to cut a 5' piece of oak to make a staff. I've got to do it while the moon is waxing and I must cut it myself. What would be an appropriate offering/sacrifice for the harvesting of this?

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

[RedRonin]

A) Thank that tree for it's gift.

B) Plant another one in it's honor.

[Herne]

So this would be a good offering...

This past fall, my boyfriend and I went walking in the woods where he grew up. While there I found some of the largest acorns I had ever seen. They were easily 2-3 times larger than any others I'd ever seen before. I picked up about 20 of them and took them home. I live in a small town. My backyard has a large maple, but I want some oaks there. I brought them home and placed them in a large planter. I covered them with leaves to protect them from the frost and snow. I watered them when needed. When spring arrived many of them started to sprout! I was so excited. I honestly did not think any of them would grow since I have a black thumb, but grow they did. About 12 of them sprouted. Then one day I came home and found that something had been in them. I don't know if it was a bird or a squirrel or something else, but several had been uprooted and stripped from the acorn. I put the planter in a different place, and there were no more disturbances. I now have 9 sprouts about 6-12 inches tall.

So it would be an appropriate offering if I plant one of my sprouts near the tree?

[Jennie]

You would really need to take this up with the tree in question, and with whoever it is that gave you such detailed instructions on how you must make your staff (I'm assuming here that these instructions came in vision, dream, or meditation, not from a friend,book or website.)

When you say that you must cut your staff yourself, do you mean that you must take it from a living tree and not cut it to size from deadfall?

If you feel that you must have green living wood for this, be very sure to get actual permission from the tree first, and leave an offering that is appropriate for the magnitude of the gift you are taking. I don't know if planting the offspring of some other oak, for example, would please your tree. It might see it as competition against its own children, adding insult to injury - or it might be fine with it.

[Schuylar]

I brought them home and placed them in a large planter.

If you can, put the sprouts in the ground as soon as possible.  Oaks put out massive roots deep in the ground in early development so keeping them in the planter will not do them any good.

As for the offering I have to echo Jennie in asking the tree's permission first, if you really need living wood. 

I've also seen suggestions of coins buried next to the roots as an offering, but I'm not sure that would be completely good for the tree after a while.