Post by wren on Oct 18, 2006 12:48:06 GMT -5
Coll (Hazel), pronounced CULL
Botanical name: Corylus avellana. Status: chieftain tree. Sound: c.
Elaborations on the Ogham Name Coll: Hazel, fair wood that is Hazel, everyone is eating of its nuts
Word Ogham of Morainn mac Moín: Hazel is the fairest of trees, that is hazel, owing to its beauty in woods
Word Ogham of Cú Chulainn: Hazel equals sweetest of woods, a nut
Word Ogham of Óengus: Hazel equals friend of cracking.
Enlightenment
A branching hazel spreads over a bend in a stream. A salmon leaps from the water to catch one of the hazelnuts in midair.
Coll is one of the most significant tree-letters of the ogham sequence, for from the branches of the hazel tree fall the Nuts of Wisdom. Finn mac Cumhail was a young apprentice in Irish myth who gained wisdom after eating a salmon that fed on the sacred hazelnuts and this tale points to Coll’s role as an ogham of profound insight, even enlightenment.
The hazel is a squat shrub that rarely attains heights above 30 feet (though it has been recorded to reach as high as 60 feet). Its fawn branches and lime green leaves are full of grace and charm. Clearly, its nuts distinguish hazel as a tree of special merit. Ripening in September (in the northern hemisphere), they may be eaten straight from the branches of the tree, from whose forks they spring. The value of hazelnuts as a food source is embodied in the Word Ogham of Cú Chulainn’s phrase for hazel is the ‘sweetest of woods, a nut.’ They were a prized form of protein and flavor in the diet of the Celts and are still regarded as a delicacy today.
In some cases Coll may represent a period of apprenticeship in which knowledge is being passed on to you from an outside source. You are acquiring learning vital to your material or spiritual well-being and your own powers of insight are blossoming.
As with knowledge, gaining wisdom implies effort, with many hours spent in what may have seemed like a fruitless pursuit, as you stare at the world of reflections without penetrating its depths. Suddenly, you realize that the light and the shadow and you are all one and you enter into the heart of a great mystery, as when the shell of a nut falls away and its kernel is revealed.
Of course, this perception may come unbidden and simply occur in an instant according to Nature’s own impulse, without thought or reflection. Being pure of heart and mentally unattached to the world of illusion, you see things as they are and penetrate to their inner substance. You crack the Nuts of Wisdom almost effortlessly.
This is a felicitous ogham to draw. You have reached a point in life’s quest where you sit, as if on the bank of a great river, drawing on the waters of wisdom. The river represents the immortal Goddess of Wisdom, and the waters well up from the deepest springs of knowledge. Here you are nourished and refreshed on your journey.
Reversed, Coll suggests a blockage in your search for wisdom and inspiration. You may be disillusioned and only able to perceive the faults and flaws in the world, others and yourself. Perhaps you despair of discovering any higher source of illumination and are therefore acting in darkness and ignorance. Or maybe you have simply tired on your quest and stopped in some desert land of soul, far from the waters of inspiration. Do not remain in such a state. There are well springs to be found; your quest is not fruitless.
It is no accident that Coll is the ninth letter of the Ogham, nine being the most sacred of all number in Celtic tradition. In the wisdom poetry, the flesh of the hazelnut is a metaphor for spiritual enlightenment and illumination. This universal theme has a specifically Celtic twist: the cracking of the shell relates to the penetration of the poetic kennings (puns, riddles) used by the Druids and bards, and the kernel becomes the inner truth or meaning. Thus we have the kenning for hazel ‘friend of cracking’ in the Word Ogham of Óengus.
Finn mac Cumhail’s enlightenment came as a result of burning his thumb while tending the fire that cooked the Salmon of knowledge. He sucked on the blister and then ate the salmon. From that time, he had the knowledge that came from the nuts of the nine hazels of wisdom that grow beside the well that is below the sea.
The hazel was regarded as so holy that, along with the apple, wantonly felling it warranted the death penalty under Brehon law. It was known in Ireland as ‘the food of the gods’ and was closely associated with the Druids. Twigs of the tree were sometimes used in water dowsing and as wands in magical rites. It was also, in particular, a wishing stave considered the best of all woods when used in magic to manifest wishes and desires, and as such a wand of hazel was actually known as a ‘wishing rod’.
You may wish to construct such a ritual wand of hazel or carve the Coll ogham on a wishing wand, or treat the story of Finn mac Cumhail’s enlightenment as a meditation.
Botanical name: Corylus avellana. Status: chieftain tree. Sound: c.
Elaborations on the Ogham Name Coll: Hazel, fair wood that is Hazel, everyone is eating of its nuts
Word Ogham of Morainn mac Moín: Hazel is the fairest of trees, that is hazel, owing to its beauty in woods
Word Ogham of Cú Chulainn: Hazel equals sweetest of woods, a nut
Word Ogham of Óengus: Hazel equals friend of cracking.
Enlightenment
A branching hazel spreads over a bend in a stream. A salmon leaps from the water to catch one of the hazelnuts in midair.
Coll is one of the most significant tree-letters of the ogham sequence, for from the branches of the hazel tree fall the Nuts of Wisdom. Finn mac Cumhail was a young apprentice in Irish myth who gained wisdom after eating a salmon that fed on the sacred hazelnuts and this tale points to Coll’s role as an ogham of profound insight, even enlightenment.
The hazel is a squat shrub that rarely attains heights above 30 feet (though it has been recorded to reach as high as 60 feet). Its fawn branches and lime green leaves are full of grace and charm. Clearly, its nuts distinguish hazel as a tree of special merit. Ripening in September (in the northern hemisphere), they may be eaten straight from the branches of the tree, from whose forks they spring. The value of hazelnuts as a food source is embodied in the Word Ogham of Cú Chulainn’s phrase for hazel is the ‘sweetest of woods, a nut.’ They were a prized form of protein and flavor in the diet of the Celts and are still regarded as a delicacy today.
In some cases Coll may represent a period of apprenticeship in which knowledge is being passed on to you from an outside source. You are acquiring learning vital to your material or spiritual well-being and your own powers of insight are blossoming.
As with knowledge, gaining wisdom implies effort, with many hours spent in what may have seemed like a fruitless pursuit, as you stare at the world of reflections without penetrating its depths. Suddenly, you realize that the light and the shadow and you are all one and you enter into the heart of a great mystery, as when the shell of a nut falls away and its kernel is revealed.
Of course, this perception may come unbidden and simply occur in an instant according to Nature’s own impulse, without thought or reflection. Being pure of heart and mentally unattached to the world of illusion, you see things as they are and penetrate to their inner substance. You crack the Nuts of Wisdom almost effortlessly.
This is a felicitous ogham to draw. You have reached a point in life’s quest where you sit, as if on the bank of a great river, drawing on the waters of wisdom. The river represents the immortal Goddess of Wisdom, and the waters well up from the deepest springs of knowledge. Here you are nourished and refreshed on your journey.
Reversed, Coll suggests a blockage in your search for wisdom and inspiration. You may be disillusioned and only able to perceive the faults and flaws in the world, others and yourself. Perhaps you despair of discovering any higher source of illumination and are therefore acting in darkness and ignorance. Or maybe you have simply tired on your quest and stopped in some desert land of soul, far from the waters of inspiration. Do not remain in such a state. There are well springs to be found; your quest is not fruitless.
It is no accident that Coll is the ninth letter of the Ogham, nine being the most sacred of all number in Celtic tradition. In the wisdom poetry, the flesh of the hazelnut is a metaphor for spiritual enlightenment and illumination. This universal theme has a specifically Celtic twist: the cracking of the shell relates to the penetration of the poetic kennings (puns, riddles) used by the Druids and bards, and the kernel becomes the inner truth or meaning. Thus we have the kenning for hazel ‘friend of cracking’ in the Word Ogham of Óengus.
Finn mac Cumhail’s enlightenment came as a result of burning his thumb while tending the fire that cooked the Salmon of knowledge. He sucked on the blister and then ate the salmon. From that time, he had the knowledge that came from the nuts of the nine hazels of wisdom that grow beside the well that is below the sea.
The hazel was regarded as so holy that, along with the apple, wantonly felling it warranted the death penalty under Brehon law. It was known in Ireland as ‘the food of the gods’ and was closely associated with the Druids. Twigs of the tree were sometimes used in water dowsing and as wands in magical rites. It was also, in particular, a wishing stave considered the best of all woods when used in magic to manifest wishes and desires, and as such a wand of hazel was actually known as a ‘wishing rod’.
You may wish to construct such a ritual wand of hazel or carve the Coll ogham on a wishing wand, or treat the story of Finn mac Cumhail’s enlightenment as a meditation.