Ogham- the Celtic Oracular Alphabet

The Celtic Ogham alphabet dates from the fourth century. The alphabet is named for Ogmos, the Celtic god of knowledge and communication. Ogmos was associated with the Gaulish Ogmios and the Greek Hermes. The alphabet consists of twenty letters, each named for a different tree believed sacred to the Druids. Each letter is made up of one to five straight or angled lines incised on a straight base line. Because the number of letters, and the number of lines that make up each letter, some scholars have theorized that the ogham may have originated as a system of hand signs. Examples of Ogham writing have been found all over the British Isles, and even as far away as Spain and Portugal. All surviving examples exist as stone carvings, usually on tombstones and road markers. Although it is commonly used by modern Druids and other NeoPagans as a divination system, there is no real relationship between modern and historical divination systems. When used as a divination method, the letters are usually notched into straight twigs and used much like runes. In this case, I've provided a print version (MS Word) you can print and cut into small cards if you wish to try a simpler way of divining with ogham:A B The following table gives the characters of the Elder futhark and their modern divinatory meanings: modern divinatory meaning:

Stave:

letter: name:

Birch/Beth

Purification, cleansing, new beginnings

Rowan/Luis

Protection, instinctual knowledge

Alder/Fearn

Decisions to be made; contact with the spiritual world

Willow/Saille

Equalibrium, attaining balance

Ash/Nuin

Restriction or limitations

temporary Hawthorn/Huatha limitations; obstacles

Oak/Duir

Strength, endurance

Holly/Tinne

unity; courage; guidance

Hazel/Colle

Creativity, energy, "flow."

Apple/Quert

Choices, a fork in the road

Vine/Muin (blackberry)

Insight, spiritual growth

Ivy/Gort

tread carefully; caution

Ng

Reed/Ngetal

disturbance, disruption, surprises

St

Blackthorn/straif

confusion, strife

Elder/Ruis

endings, timelessness

Elm/Silver fir

Foresight, perspective

Furze/Onn

Discovery, abundance, goals met

Heather/Ura

Rest, suspension, hibernation

White Poplar/Eadha

endurance; speech or communication

Yew/Idho

change, endings, maturation

http://www.uponreflection.co.uk/ogham/alphabet.htm The alphabet consists of 20 letters, arranged in 4 groups of five, though five more letters were added at a later date. The letters themselves were constructed from a series of straight lines incised across a single stave(a.k.a druim). These were usually written using the edge of a stone as a stave from the bottom > up they would then run right over the tip and down the other side(they were read from left to right)...this sometimes makes ogam very difficult to translate. Branch ogam was usually carved on a branch of the specific tree it is related to, the way it is inscribed is in the same vein as the stave version. This is the most commonly used for divination purposes, for those of you that wish to create your own ogam set, gently collect a branch from the specific plant, stave the end of slightly and carve into the exposed wood. These would then be cast or picked from a bag. If they are cast the relation between the overlapping twigs and the ogams meanings are to be integrated. Finger ogam was perhaps the most secret, because certain fingers related to specific letters/associations druids could pass secret messages by touching anothers hand in a certain way or by holding an object. If you click on any of the tree names you will be taken to a description of the relevant tree you will then need to press the link provided to return here.

http://www.yeoldelog.com/feature/ogham.shtml

THE OGHAM ALPHABET The Tree Alphabet of the Druids

The Ogham alphabet was used in Britain and Ireland some centuries before the introduction of the Latin ABC alphabet. In the 7th century AD, the latter was brought in by Benedictine monks, whose express task it was to create a new language to replace the old. In the medieval Irish Book of Ballymote, its invention is credited to Ogma Sun-face, son of Breas, an early Goidel god. Goidels established themselves in Britain from the continent in about the 3rd or 2nd century BC and the common language of Bronze Age Britain and Ireland is thought to be an early form of Goidelic. However the accepted Irish tradition is that the alphabet originated in Greece and was brought to Ireland via Spain (not Gaul). Each letter of the alphabet was named after the tree or shrub of which it was the initial but common trees of Greece would have been the fig, olive, cypress, plane-tree, vine, pine and palm a fact that tends to refute this idea unless as Robert Graves, who explored the language at depth, suggests, its provenance was of the Southern Black Sea Coast region. Since all the trees are native to Britain excluding the vine, perhaps it is likely to have come from France/Germany after all particularly as all the trees figure prominently in European folk-lore. As presented in Roderick OFlahertys Ogygia and by OSullivan in Ledwichs Antiquities of Ireland, the original Druidic alphabet (Beth-Luis-Nion) consisted of thirteen consonants and five vowels. Coupled with strong evidence in mythology, this led Graves to conjecture that the thirteen consonants could be identified with the thirteen months of the year (a lunar month being 28 days) forming a seasonal calendar of tree-magic. In fact the hawthorn to this day still carries the name the May. The order of this B-L-N alphabet was then of great importance. More accepted versions of the alphabet of the B-L-F type consist of 15 consonants and 5 vowels. Here is one version:

In many other versions, P is replaced by Ng for Ngetal, represented by the reed.

Each letter was represent by nicks cut with a chisel along the edge of a squared stone. In the deaf-anddumb language to which the alphabet corresponded these nicks could be indicated alone by fingers or by fingers against the shin, nose, thigh and foot. Besides these 20 letters, five combinations of vowels were used to represent five foreign sounds. These were Ea, Oi, Ia, Ui and X and they represented Kh, Th, P, Ph and X respectively. In inscriptions however, elaborate characters unlike for those of the other letters were used to represent these: Kh was represented by a St Andrews cross, Ph a spiral etc. The writing of Ogham scripts was in the main reserved for public inscriptions to the dead and only when Druidism began to decline. Previous to that it had been kept a dark druidic secret. There are still numerous examples of ancient stone inscriptions on standing stones in Ireland, Isle of Man, North and South Wales, and Scotland dating from between the 4th and 7th centuries AD. Graves, Robert 1999, The White Goddess, 4th Edition.

Ogham
Origin The Ogham alphabet is thought to be named after the Irish god Ogma. One theory of its origins is that it evolved out of a system of tallies used for accounting. Ogham is also known as or ogham craobh, beth luis fearn or beth luis nion. About 500 Ogham inscriptions have been found in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England dating from between the 4th and 7th centuries AD. There are inscriptions in archaic forms of Gaelic and Pictish, which have not been deciphered. A handful of inscriptions featuring the Ogham script and the Latin alphabet have also been found. While all surviving traces of Ogham are inscriptions on stone, it was probably more commonly inscribed on sticks, stakes and trees. Inscriptions generally take the form of somebody's name and the name of a place and were probably used to mark boundaries. Notable features Type of writing system: alphabet Number of letters: 25 Writing surfaces: rocks, wood, manuscripts Direction of writing: inscribed around the edges of rocks running from bottom to top and left to right, or left to right and horizontally in manuscripts. Letters are linked together by a solid line. The names and sounds represented by some of the letters are unknown. The Eite (feather) and Eite thuathail (reversed feather) symbols are used at the beginning and end of sentences respectively.

The Ogham alphabet

Sample text in Ogham

Source: http://www.answers.com/topic/forfeda http://www.csupomona.edu/~jcclark/ogham/ogh-alph.html

The Ogham Alphabet

with variant names of the letters, and names of the associated plants
This table includes names common in modern references. Everson provides a much more complete list of variant names.

OGHAM LETTERS standard name Beith Graves Pennick Thorsson Everson English name birch

TREES Scientific name Betula pendula

Beth

Beth

Beithe

Beith

Luis

Luis

Luis

Luis

Luis

rowan

Sorbus aucuparia

Fern

Fearn

Fearn

Fern

Fern

alder

Alnus glutinosa

Sail

Saille

Saille

Sail

Sail

willow

Salix alba

Nion

Nion

Nion

Nin

Nuin

ash

Fraxinus excelsior

Uath

Uath

Huath

Huath

hath

hawthorn

Crataegus spp.

Dair

Duir

Duir

Duir

Dair

oak

Quercus robur

Tinne

Tinne

Tinne

Tinne

Tinne

holly

Ilex aquifolium

Coll

Coll

Coll

Coll

Coll

hazel

Corylus avellana

Ceirt

Quert

Quert

Queirt

Cert

apple

Malus sylvestris

Muin

Muin

Muin

Muin

Muin

vine

Vitis vinifera

Gort

Gort

Gort

Gort

Gort

ivy

Hedera helix

nGadal

Ngetal

Ngetal

Ngetal

nGtal

reed

Phragmites australis

Straif OGHAM LETTERS standard name Ailm

Straif

Straif

Straiph

Straif

blackthorn

Prunus spinosa

TREES Graves Pennick Thorsson Everson English name white fir Scientific name Abies alba

Ailm

Ailim

Ailm

Ailm

Onn

Onn

Onn

Onn

Onn

gorse

Ulex europaeus

Ura

Ur

Ur

heather

Calluna vulgaris Populus tremula

Eadhadh

Eadha

Eadha

Edad

Edad

poplar

Iodhadh

Idho

Iodho

Idad

Idad

yew

Taxus baccata

abhadh

Ebad

bad

Oir

Uilleann

Uileand

Uilen

Ifn

Iphin

Ifn

Eamhancholl

Phagos

Emancholl

Eite

Saighead

feather or arrow

Sps

Bearna

space

Graves, Robert. 1966. The White Goddess. 2nd, enlarged edition. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York. Pennick, Nigel, and Nigel Jackson. 1991. The Celtic Oracle. Aquarian Press, London.