08/10/2022
Ogham is such a beautiful tradition, especially at this time of year as we become more aware of the beauty and importance of our native trees.
There are 15 different species of trees that figure European folklore and which also make up part of the Celtic-Tree-Alphabet known as "Ogham" or "Ogam".
Ogham is the earliest known form of Irish writing and was probably inspired by Latin script sometimes between the first century BCE and the third century CE. There is nonevidence that this form of writing survived past the eighth century CE.
Celtic Mythology says that the Ogham was the creation of the god of eloquence and literacy, ogma. Each of the Ogham "letters" is named after a tree and each was created in a series of lines at different angles to a verticle line. Ogham script is mentioned in many Celtic myths and was probably used for divination, record keeping and magic by the druid class. Ogham seems to have been reserved for important funerary inscriptions or for God names and occasional permanent statements. While the majority of Ogham letters are found carved into stone it may be that they were also used on wood tablets that no longer exsist. We hear that in earlier times Ogham was used to write ancient stories and sagas. It was incised in bark or wands of hazel and Aspen. These rods of the fili (poets) were kept in libraries. Unfortunately these libraries and the rods of fili no longer exsist. Evidence exist from a book written around 1400 CE (Yellow book of Lecan) 180 of these ancient books burned in effort to eradicate the druid influence. While Ogham marks are found on stones in whales and Scotland the vast majority are located in Ireland and a full one third are found in country Kerry alone. The trees which are reflected in the Ogham Alphabet are the Birch, Rowan, Ash, Alder, Willow, hawthorn, oak, holly, hazel, elder, Dwarf elder, silver, fir, Heather, White poplar and the yew.
