Beth (Birch) - December 24 to January 20
Luis (Rowan)- January 21 to February 17
Nion (Ash) - February 18 to March 17
Fearn (Alder) - March 18 to April 14
Saille (Willow) - April 15, to May 12
Uath (Hawthorn) - May 13 to June 9
Duir (Oak) - June 10 to July 7
Tinne (Holly) - July 8 to August 4
Coll (Hazel) - August 5 to September 1
Muin (Vine) - September 2 to September 29
Gort (Ivory) - September 30 to October 27
Ngetal (Reed) - October 28 to November 24
Ruis (Elder) - November 25 to December 22
December 23 is not ruled by any tree because it
Birch
Magickal Associations: Protection of children, purification, creatation
Rowan
Magickal Associations: Healing, personal empowerment, divination
Ash
Magickal Associations: Prosperity, protection, healing
Alder
Magickal Associations: Spirituality, teaching, weather magick, duty, mental prowness
Willow
Magickal Associations: Romantic love, healing, protection, fertility,
magick for women
Hawthorn
Magickal Associations: Fertility, peace, prosperity, binding
Oak
Magickal Associations: All positive purposes, magick for men, fidelity
Holly
Magickal Associations: Protection, prophecy, magick for animals, sex magick
Hazel
Magickal Associations: Manifestation, spirit contact, protection,
fertility
Vine
Magickal Associations: Fertility, inspiration, prosperity, binding
Ivy
Magickal Associations: Healing, protection, cooperation, exorcism
Reed
Magickal Associations: Fertility, protection, love, family concerns
Elder
Magickal Associations: Exorcism, prosperity, banishing, healing
**About me**
is the "day" of the proverbial "year and day" in
the earliest courts of law.
The Birch stands out as a graceful, slender tree with a characteristic
white bole. The white indicates cleanliness and determination in overcoming
difficulties. This tree starts the celtic tree calendar, and so represents the
energies associated with new beginnings.
The Rowan has long enjoyed its reputation to protect against
enchantment. It name is linked with the Norse 'runa', a charm, and
the Sanskrit 'runa', meaning a magician. Rune staves, sticks upon
which runes were inscribed, were cut from the Rowan tree. Rowan
played a central role in Druid ceremonies. Even in more recent times,
these beliefs have been upheld in practices from different parts of
Britain. In the North, for example, sparys of Rowan were fixed to
cattle sheds to protect the animals from harm, and in Strathspey
farmers drove their goats through hoops framed from branches of Rowan.
Sprigs were also placed over the main door of the house and also worn
on the person to ward off false enchantment -- the 'evil eye'. In
Wales or Cymru, Rowans used to be planted in churchyards to watch over
the spirits of the dead, as Yew is elsewhere.
The Ash of the Ogham alphabet is the Cosmic Ash, or World Tree.
It also appears in Norse mythology as Yggdrasil, the tree of Odin, or
Woden, who hung from it in order to gain enlightenment in the secrets
of the Runes, and whose Celtic equivalent is Gwidion. The Ash tree has
deeply penetrating roots and sours the soil, making it difficult for other
vegetation to grow beneath it. Its twigs are thick and strong. In Norse
mythology, this tree spans the universe -- its roots in hell, its
branches supporting the heavens and with Earth at its center. In Celtic
cosmology in particular it connects the three circles of existence -
Abred, Gwynedd and Ceugant - which can be variously interpreted as
past, present and future, or as confusion, balance and creative force;
there being no hell, but only continual rebirth as passage is made from
circle to circle until the Land of the Blessed is finally reached.
The Alder, like the Willow, is a water-loving tree. Its timber is
oily and water resistant and therefore used extensively for underwater
foundations: parts of Venice and many medieval cathedrals were built
on Alder piling. Bran the Blessed, or Benegeit Bran, is the god linked
with this tree in the Ogham alphabet. He is reputed to have used his
body to raise his followers above the dangerous waters, as the wood
does when used as a building material. Mortally wounded in the battle
whith the Irish, Bran prophesied the events that would follow his death,
instructing his followers to cut off his head and carry it with them.
They travelled to Harlech, where the head sang for seven years; then to
Gwales, he head remaining uncorrupted and prophesying the while.
Eventually, they came to rest in London, Caer Llyndain, and buried
Bran's head at the White Mount, or Bryn Gwyn, now the site of the
Tower of London. It was held that as long as the head remained
concealed it would give protection against plague from across the sea.
King Arthur, it is said, once dug it up; an unwise action, since the
Saxons then invaded the country.
The Willow in the Tree alphabet stands for the female and lunar
rhythms of life. She is water-seeking, thriving from preference on the
damp margins of lakes and streeams or across the low-lying water
meadows. Water and the tidal movements of the sea are governed by the
pull of the moon. The moon in its monthly rhythms is female, contrasting
with the male sun's daily and yearly turnings. In several ways, the
Celts held women in higher regard than we do today. On the material
level, women were property owners, and whoever controlled the property
controlled the marriage. Women of all types and ages appeared in the
Celtic pantheon, the spiritual strength and life-giving qualities
given by both female and male recognized equally. There were may colleges
of Druidesses - learned women and teachers - respected equally for
their gifts of see-ship, often expressed through dreams, or night
visions.
According to the Ogham calendar, May, the month of the female
Hawthorn, leads up to the fertile Oak month following on from Mayday,
or Beltane. The Hawthorn is a small tree that grows with a dense, many
branched and twisted habit. Due to its impenetrable growth, it is mainly
used as hedging, and the origin of her present name comes from the
Anglo-Saxon 'haegthorn', meaning hedge-thorn. Other common names are
whitethorn and may. Whitethorn originates from the contrast of her smooth
grey bark with the powdery black bark of the Blackthorn; the name may
from the time of her flowering, when the blossom is used to form garlands
on houses and maypoles for Mayday. She also has thorns for defense.
Every house has a front door. If you wish to enter, the door must
be approached and your presence made known. The door may then be opened.
The very word 'door' comes from the Gaelic and Sanskrit 'duir', a word
for solidity, protection and the Oak tree. In the essential forest,
the Oak is King. He stands mightily solid with great branches, matched
only by still greater roots. He is often struck by lightning. The force
of the strike and the heat bursts the sap and stem apart leaving the
trunk gnarled and withered. Yet he still manages to survive, over the
years, decades and centuries. His growth is slow but sure. His children
grow into magnificient replicas of himself and he is a marker point,
a cornerstone and a refuge in the forest.
The Holly is male, and so symbolizes paternity and fatherhood.
With the Ivy and the Mistletoe, the Holly has always been regarded as
a potent life symbol, both for his year-long foliage and for his winter
fruits. Concealed within the verses of the 'Song of Amergin', chanted
by a chief Bard as the landed on the shores of Ireland, is the line
"I am a battle-waging spear" - the wood of the Holly was used in
fashioning spear shafts.
According to Celtic lore, Fintan 'the White Ancient' was able to
take the form of animals, one of which was the salmon. Salmon are
associated with the Hazel in Irish legend, swimming in the River Boyne
under the overhanging hazel tree from which the nine nuts of petic
wisdom fell. These were eaten by the salmon who absorbed the inspiration
they encapsulated. The Hazel is also strongly associated with meditation
and mediation. The Druids were the inheritors of the knowledge of
measurement and calculation of the earlier 'dodmen', the prehistoric
surveyors of the ley lines and trackways portrayed in the ancient
chalk-cut figure of the Long Man of Wilmington, shown holding staves
or rods. Also skilled in the law, the Druids were called upon to
mediate in disputes concerning property and land bounderies, much as
present-day surveyors.
The Vine of the Ogham alphabet is the grape vine. Though
obviously a more recently imported, cultivated species, unlike the
other Ogham trees and shrubs, there is no doubt that the Vine has
been known and propagated in the British Isles for a long time, its
distinctive fruits and foliage appearing frequently on Bronze Age
artifacts.
The Ivy grows, spreads and flourishes in many conditions -
cultivated land and wasteland, in light or in near darkness, in
fertile soil or on rubble and stones. It will push its way through
tiny cracks and crevices to reach the light and it is strong and
difficult to destroy. Since ancient times, the Vine and the Ivy have
been regarded as enemies. If the Vine, through intoxication, releases
prophetic powers, the Ivy, in contrast, puts you in touch with your
own inner resources, giving you the ability to see through the eyes
of the soul beyond the everyday world.
Thin and slender is the Reed. He stands in clumps at the edge of the
river and between his feet hides the swift pike awaiting an unsuspecting
minnow to come his way. In his thiness the reed resembles arrows that
fly, silver-tipped, up into the unknown air to land at the very source that
one had searched for all these years. Firing arrows off into the unknown
is an expression of the desire to search out basic truths. If you loose
off without direction, the place of landing will be random. If the firing
off is carried out with the correct conviction, determination and sense
of purpose, then the act becomes secondary to the event that comes
both before and after the moment.
The Elder is linked to the eternal turnings of life and death,
birth and rebirth. It represents the end in the beginning and the
beginning in the end; life in death and death in life; the casting
out of devils of the old year and the renewal and creativity of the
new; the timelessness of the cycle by which the fading of old age is
always balanced by the start of new birth.
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