Witches’ Paradigms, Part Three, Section One
The Ogham Tree Calendar and the Rune of Amergin:
Introduction through Fearn
The Ogham Tree Alphabet: In the old time, when the children of Danu still lived in the East in their cities of Falias, Gorias, Finias and Murias, the Ever- living Ones guarded their four treasures and grew and prospered.
“Ogma was the most handsome of the Children of Danu…To him fell the gift of honeyed words, of poetry and of languages, and he it was who devised how man could write in a form of calligraphy, which was named after him as Ogham” (Ellis, p. 27). The following illustrates the Ogham script, which is thought by most scholars to have been a cipher designed to elude the understanding of the Romans, who throughout their occupation of southern Britain continued to pose a threat to Ireland. The association of trees with the letters of the Ogham has been dated to around 1000 CE, but we can probably assume it was based on much older lore. The picture shows that the trees were associated with the initials of the Gaelic names of the letters.
In The White Goddess, Graves selected from the letters and modified their sequence to follow the order of each tree’s blossoming in the Irish climate. He then took in hand what is probably the oldest text in Gaelic literature, the Song or Rune of Amergin. Ireland in antiquity was subject to a series of invasions. The next to last invasion was by the Children of Danu, the Tuatha de Danaan, and the last by the Milesians. Amergin was the chief druid of the Milesians, and when they made landfall in Eire he hurled the rune out as a challenge to the chief druid of the Tuatha de Danaan. The Rune exists in many different versions, each with a sllightly different sequence. Graves has arranged it to accord with his reconstruction of the Ogham Tree calendar, and presents his reasons at great length in his book.
In the rune, Amergin claims identity with the year-god of Ireland, lunar month by lunar month, identifying himself with the secret essence of each tree-flowering. The periods themselves are not lunar but are defined by set dates in the solar calendar. They stop short of 365 days, leaving one day outside it, called by Graves ‘The Nameless Day.’ Amergin claims the right of the Milesians to conquer and settle in Ireland, based on his identification with the year-god, whom modern witches identify as the continental Celtic god Cernunnos. The Milesians then fought the Tuatha de Danaan and conquered them. The conquered went into the mounds and hills of Eire and continued to control the climate and fertility of Ireland from this underground realm.
Here is the Ogham Tree Calendar, with the Rune of Amergin, as reconstructed by Robert Graves:
Gaelic English from to Rune of Amergin tag
Beth Birch 12/25? 01/20 I am a stag of seven tines
Luis Rowan 01/21 02/17 I am a wide flood on a plain
Nion Ash 02/18 03/17 I am a wind on deep waters
Fearn Alder 03/18 04/14 I am a shining tear of the Sun
Saille Willow 04/15 05/12 I am a hawk on a cliff
Uath Hawthorn 05/13 06/09 I am fair among flowers
Duir Oak 06/10 07/07 I am a god who sets the head afire with smoke
Tinne Holly 07/08 08/04 I am a battle-waging spear
Coll Hazel 08/05 09/01 I am a salmon in the pool
Muin Vine 09/02 09/29 I am a hill of poetry
Gort Ivy 09/30 10/27 I am a ruthless boar
Ngetal Reed 10/28 11/24 I am a threatening noise of the Sea
Ruis Elder 11/25 12/23 I am a wave of the Sea *
*or, I am a returning wave of the Sea
? December 24th, or, more exactly, the day after Yule, the Winter Solstice, is regarded as lying outside the lunar year. It is the extra day of the expression ‘a year and a day,’ which added to the lunar year of 364 days brings it even with the solar year of 365 days. Graves calls it ‘The Nameless Day.’ It is associated with Ychelwydd, All-heal or Mistletoe, though that plant does not give it its name. Beth begins on the day after the Nameless Day. As we will see, it has great significance for witchcraft.
In what follows I offer suggestions for applying the above to the witch’s year, as a seasonal guide to Craft practice. I find the Ogham, as so reconstructed, to work best if taken lightly, as a series of pictures lending a special atmosphere to the time.
Beth:
Beth begins on the day after The Nameless Day, and that falls on the day after Yule or the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. The Child of Promise is born on The Nameless Day but does not receive his name, including his destiny, until the second day following Yule, the beginning of the Month of Beth or the Birch. The evening of this day is when the Child of Promise is named and his destiny for the next half-year scryed, as revealed by the Matronae or three Mothers. (These are not the Lady, who is resting in the Summerlands; these are the Fates.)
The Campanellis, in Ancient Ways, indicate that psychic tides at this time of year flow inward and recommend this period as a good time to clean out and re-stock one’s magic cupboard or cabinet. It is also traditional to burn the Yule greens by the first of February in order to prevent a miasma or poisonous magical atmosphere forming from the old year. Graves notes that birch twigs were used throughout Europe to “beat the bounds” and to drive out evil spirits from delinquents and lunatics. The birch is “the tree of inception,” because it is the first tree to bloom after the winter solstice. Birch twigs (which only harden later in the year) were used for the broom of the traditional witch’s besom, because “at the expulsion of evil spirits some remain entangled in the besom.”
This is the time of the year when the young Oak princeling is enjoying his childhood and looking forward to the mating season. The tag from the Rune of Amergin for the Celtic tree month that covers most of January, Beth or Birch, is “I am a stag of seven tines.” In declaring himself a stag, he identifies with Cernunnos, the continental Celtic stag god. Stags grow tined antlers during the mating season and later shed them during the waning year.
A gloss on this reads “I am an ox of seven fights.” This may be a reference to the seven initations of Mithraism, but as that religion never reached Ireland, we should be content to regard this as a prediction that he will reign on Middle-Earth for seven lunations, being defeated in Duir by the Holly King and imprisoned by him in the sacred oak from Midsummer to Yule. Therefore Modranacht, the Night of the Mothers, the first night of Beth, is a good time to scry for the half-year to come.
Divination is a good thing to practice at the beginning of anything new, be it the new Moon phase of the lunar month, moving into a new home, or, in this case, at the beginning of a New Year. For this reason it is important at Samhain, the beginning of the old Celtic year, and also at the beginning of our own solar calendar. Whatever guidance we gain from it will help us begin to determine the direction or focus of our own Craftwork during the waxing year ahead. Beth lasts through January 20th.
Luis:
Luis, the Rowan Month, lasts from January 21st till February 17th. This is the lunar month when witches spread their psychic nets and brood over their wishes, goals and possibilities for the year. The witch considers questions like what new thing or energy do I want to manifest in my outer life between Ostara and Mabon? What new magical techniques do I want to learn and use this year? What fruits of my private practice would be useful to share with the coven or with other solitaries? Where is my Craftwork weak or unbalanced, and what can I learn to remedy it?
The witch asks questions like these, but is in no hurry to answer them. The answer, when it comes, will come from her depths, out of the witch’s darkness; for night is still longer than day and the Oak Prince is still under the tutelage of Night at this time. So the witch spreads herself over all her thoughts and feelings about the year ahead and broods, like a mother bird on her eggs, or like a flood on a plain. The Rune of Amergin describes Luis with the tag: “I am a wide flood on a plain.”
The rowan tree is also called the quickbeam; it is the tree of quickening to new life, and blooms around Imbolc, the time of first stirrings of new life in the year. It is also called “the witch,” and its wood was used for witches’ wands employed in metal divination.
Nion:
The next tree in the Ogham calendar is Nion, the Ash Month, which runs from February 18th to March 17th. Nion’s tag runs “I am a wind on deep waters.” The ash had power over water; hence, oars in ancient Wales were made of ash-wood, and the stake of the traditional witch’s besom is of ash, which is proof against drowning.
Now wind begins blowing over the floodwaters, drying them up and letting land appear here and there. For the witch, wind is magically akin to knowledge; and this is when all that brooding, that “listening at the edges of things” done in Luis begins to pay off, as intuitions and feelings begin uncovering answers to the questions asked then. From Nion to Ostara, the Spring equinox (March 21st to 23rd), the witch becomes increasingly clear about the nature of the new Craftwork she wants to take up, particularly the character of the magical current she will release at the equinox. A magical current is a long range spell, generally to bring some quality into one’s life. It is best to launch two currents each year, one to work on the outer material plane, which is launched at the Spring equinox; and one to work on the inner planes of spirit, launched at Mabon or the Autumn equinox. [1] The current can take the form of seeds, distributed in circle at Ostara and there imbued magically with the desired quality. Planting and caring for what comes up require just the right amount and kind of focus that fosters the success of spells. As is known, after casting a spell it doesn’t do to go on thinking obsessively about it and whether or not it is working; but neither is it completely forgotten. It’s out there on the periphery, seen out of the corner of the eye, like a plant growing on the porch.
The magical current released at Ostara is a current of energy feeding the witch’s various spells from Ostara till Mabon. At Mabon the current reverses and flows inward for six months, feeding inner planes work. The witch decides, between Yule and Ostara, what quality to bring into her Craftwork. For instance, you may decide to emphasize the earth element more in your spells, to balance out the fire in your natal chart. You are going to live an earthy year.
Next, you make a symbol or sigil of your magical goal. Imagine you are a child and the teacher has asked you to draw happiness. Perhaps you pick up a yellow crayon first of all and draw the Sun with a smiling face (children assume the Sun is happy). Try to draw a symbol of your magical goal in the same innocent spirit. How would you symbolize earthiness or rootedness? By a tree, perhaps? Draw it small and then cut it out so it fits the base of a flower pot. Stare at it, imbuing it with your goal with all the willpower you can muster. Then turn the flower pot right side up and plant your seed in its soil.
The Ostara current is thus not released once and for all and then forgotten, nor is it a subject of obsession. It sets the mood and subconscious direction of Craftwork from its place in the penumbra of attention, like the plant growing on the porch.
Fearn:
Fearn, the Alder Month, begins on March 18th and ends on April 14th. Its tag in the Rune of Amergin runs “I am a shining tear of the Sun.” The tear is a single drop of dew, which Robert Graves in The White Goddess interprets as a symbol of the Child of Promise, conceived by the Lady at Ostara and born at the following Yule. This is an important image, because it suggests that the magical purpose conceived at Ostara is the witch’s child and must grow from her own substance. The potted plant or other material basis is like the tree planted by Pagans when a child was born. It was associated with that person throughout life by hanging his or her navel string from its branches. If the tree died, it was believed, the person associated with that tree would die as well. And just as the dryad or elemental spirit of a tree dies with the death of the tree itself, so the spell infused within the plant at Ostara will die if the plant dies, and with it the magical child or purpose attached to that plant.
On the Sun wheel or Wheel of the Year, Ostara corresponds to the eastern point or dawn in the quarter of Air or Knowledge. This is where we can first give verbal expression to our deeply felt desire, formulated as a magical purpose. Formulating our purpose involves knowing what the achievement of that purpose entails, so that the witch can avoid unforeseen consequences when it comes to fruition.
The southeastern point of the Wheel, corresponding to Beltane, is where the witch takes responsibility for that knowledge in his or her active life. When you plant something and water it, generally more than one thing comes up and you have to weed out your plant’s rivals. Pulling weeds means pulling up unwanted plants that, if left unchecked, will crowd out and choke what you are trying to grow. Similarly, taking responsibility for knowledge involves identifying and eliminating those pursuits which conflict with one’s magical purpose. The southeastern point is the beginning of the quarter of Fire, which is the quarter of Will and sacrifice.
Witches and magicians alike know that the Gods will only further our outward purposes if they see us working on the material plane to help bring them about. Skeptics who say that this means that we really accomplish our goals on our own miss the point. The witch waters the plant and eliminates its rivals, but does not grow the plant directly. That is done by magic, with the help of the Gods and elementals.
Just as undesirable consequences are weeded out of the expression of the magical purpose at Ostara, so from Ostara till Beltane the witch examines each of his or her other desires and pursuits and decides which of them needs to be sacrificed to the magical goal. This could involve putting less time and energy into something or eliminating it altogether, at least for the duration of the spell. Suppose you start each day by switching on the TV and listening to the news? To increase earthiness in your life and Craftwork, you might consider going outside instead, perhaps sitting out on the balcony or porch with your morning coffee and listening to the birds. Walking on the dewy grass in your bare feet first thing in the morning is another excellent way of getting the feeling of earthiness into your body.
The wood of the Alder tree, which begins blooming around March 15th, was used in antiquity for piles supporting houses built out over lakes or in areas flooded in winter, because it resists corruption by water. Graves comments:
“As one can say poetically that the ash trees are the oars and coracle-slats that convey the Spirit of the Year through the floods to dry land, so one can say that the alders are the piles that lift his house out of the floods of winter.”
(Graves, p. 172)
As floodwaters stood for immersion in meditation on one’s magical goal, so raising a dwelling for that goal on alder pilings above the waters can represent bringing one’s goal into conscious focus by examining what needs to be added to one’s life and what needs to be taken away from it in order to bring that goal to fruition. As the witch waters her plant and pulls up its weedy rivals, she reflects on what watering and weeding mean in terms of her magical goal. How can I become more intimately involved with earthiness? Which of my activities separate me from the quiet and calm that are necessary for rootedness in the Earth? Pagans used to camp out in sacred groves for days or weeks at a time to renew their connection with the Earth, especially around Midsummer. The alder is sacred to Bran, so as you build a solid foundation for your magical house for the year you can invoke the aid of that God.
Bibliography
CAMPANELLI, Pauline and Dan, Ancient Ways; Reclaiming Pagan Traditions, St. Paul, MN, Llewellyn Publications, 1992.
ELLIS, Peter Beresford, Celtic Myths and Legends, New York, Carroll and Graf, 1999.
FRAZER, Sir James, The Golden Bough, A Study in Magic and Religion, Abridged. Hertfordshire, Wordsworth Reference, 1994.
GRAVES, Robert, The White Goddess; A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth, New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 27th printing, 1993.
RYALL, Rhiannon, Celtic Lore and Druidic Ritual, Berkshire, Capall Bann, 1994.
SARTRE, Jean-Paul, Nausea, New York, New Directions, 1964.
[1] The Autumn current set out here is standardized, being designed to visit the ancestors in spirit and invite them to visit during October. It can be various and private, like the Spring current, if so wished.