Post by wren on Jan 24, 2007 10:43:14 GMT -5
The great trees of the Ogham are mentors and guides into a deep pool of traditional wisdom but how do we know exactly what each tree signifies and teaches? In what forms has the tradition of Ogham interpretation been preserved? There is actually a vast body of lore surrounding each of the tree-letters. Medieval manuscripts such as the Book of Ballymote set down correspondences attached to each of the Tree Alphabet fews. Similar to the Rune poems, which are used in interpretation of the meaning of the Scandinavian runestaves, they are valuable clues to unlocking the outer doors of the inner secrets of the Ogham.
First comes the brief ‘Elaborations’ on the Ogham. This basically consists of a set of explanatory notes attached to the names of each ogham few, preserved in the Auricept. By itself, this list may not appear to be the most enlightening. However, used in conjunction with the other materials drawn from the wider written sources – including the later branches of tree-wisdom found in Celtic folklore – you will find that it gives sound counsel. The Elaborations are also useful to set alongside the three bríatharogam or ‘Word Oghams’: the Word Ogham of Morainn mac Moín, The Word Ogham of Cú Chulainn, attributed to the great Irish hero, and finally the Word Ogham of Óengus, After Óengus, the so-called Celtic god of love. These materials also give rather cryptic associations or kennings (puns, riddles) for each few.
The Word ogham significations relate in some cases to the physical characteristics of the trees of the Tree Alphabet, yet often they touch on the more metaphoric, mythological – and thus magical and divinatory – qualities of each tree-letter. For example, when duir (oak) is described as the ‘highest of bushes’, we can hardly believe this to be a purely literal statement. Oak is certainly not the tallest of trees in forestlands in the British Isles, though it has long been considered the most illustrious, was a so-called ‘chieftain tree’ and, as ‘king of the forest’, was considered the highest in status. Beth (the birch tree) is accompanied by this gloss in the Word Ogham of Morainn: ‘faded trunk and fair hair, that is for birch’. This is a naturalistic enough description of the birch, perhaps. But the Word Ogham of Morainn mac Moín tells us that birch ‘equals browed beauty, worthy of pursuit’. It is notable that the hero Diarmaid of the Fenian Cycle is famous for his beauty spot, and that he woos the wife of the aging Finn mac Cumhail – who is constantly referred to as gray and aging – in a bundle of birch twigs. This is no coincidence, as that the Word Oghams often invoke mythological doublets for each tree – in case of birch, its associations with the replacement of the old, gray and withered with the new and verdant.
Yet Ogham scholars have suggested that the Word Oghams may refer to the characteristics of the Ogham letters which pre-date the Tree Alphabet. Holly, for example, is named in Gaelic ‘Tinne’, originally derived, according to some, from the Old Irish words ‘tend’ (strong) or ‘tind’ (brilliant). The Word Ogham which accompanies Tinne would thus suggest not the holly tree but a ‘bar, rod of metal, ingot, mass of molten metal’. This might seem like a dead end, but looking deeper we can see that these allegedly earlier meanings are still perfectly compatible with the supposedly later tree-letters. Holly is a tree-letter of defense, linked to the ancient drama of the Oak and Holly Kings, and thus to weapons made by the metalworker. Furthermore, its thorns suggest the image of the sharpened sword. In fact, in every case, even if the Word Oghams refer to earlier times, they still illuminate the tree-letters concerned.
Such riddling speech, full of kennings, accords perfectly with the Celtic sensibility, for as the Roman observer Diodorus Sicilus (21 BCE) put it: ‘They express themselves in riddles…’ This riddling speech is, furthermore, a feature of oracular language across the ancient world. The Oracle of Delphi spoke in riddles and the ‘gnomic verses’ of the Rune tradition, like the ‘divinatory poems’ of I Ching, are often enigmatic. The Word Oghams are indeed tricky keys to Ogham interpretation, and we must ultimately go well beyond these fragments to find the fuller significance of the individual Ogham. But they are a useful gateway to the ‘path of Ogham’ and in them one may catch the echoes of the ancient lore of the Druids, bards and their tradition of tree wisdom.
The first of thee Word Oghams, the Word Ogham of Morainn mac Moín, corroborates much of what is found in the Ogham Elaborations, and adds to our understanding of the meaning of the tree letters. Morainn, its reputed author, was a great judge known for the fair and wise nature of his decisions. The law of the Dark Ages was the Brehon Law. So Morainn may have been a Druid of the judiciary or Brehon class. Ogham is also said to have been used in divining the guild or innocence of criminals and perhaps the attribution of a Word Ogham to Morainn, whether factual or symbolic, reflects this fact. His keys will help decide the signification of the Ogham fews drawn.
The second list is known as the Word Ogham of Cú Chulainn. The great Cú Chulainn is best known for his role as the arch-champion of the Ulster Cycle of ancient Irish literature, revived as a symbol of Ireland’s nationalist aspirations at the turn of the twentieth-century. But Cú Chulainn is in essence a semi-divine character, a magically charged hero, who has solar associations, linking him to such sun-god figures as the Irish Lugh and Welsh Mabon. Legends associated with him further reveal that Cú Chulainn was a master of Ogham, using it in a ceremonial manner to thwart enemies in battle. So when an Ogham few is drawn, in effect, one has in spirit Cú Chulainn’s assistance in arriving at an interpretation.
Finally, there is the Word Ogham of Óengus. Now Óengus mac in Og (also known as the Macc Oc) is more commonly known as Aengus. He is the son of the Dagda (supreme god of Irish mythology) by the Goddess Boánn (the great Mother Goddess). Óengus comes to take his mother’s place as a ruler of the famous Sidhe once named Bruig na Bóinde in Ireland and the site of Europe’s largest Neolithic earthen tumulus. Bruig na Bóinde, now called Newgrange, is in the Boyne Valley of County Meath, site of the Tara Stone, and is the ancient omphalos or mystical center of ancient Ireland. The Newgrange tumulus is aligned to the Winter Solstice sun and has all sorts of mythological solar associations connected with its role as a type of sun-temple. On Midwinter’s day a shaft of light penetrates its entry passage and strikes the inner sanctum. Thus Óengus, too, is a great and worthy guide.
Óengus is sometimes described as a god of love and he is indeed an amorous character who once shapeshifted into the shape of a swan for the sake of abiding with his chosen sweetheart. However, he is more properly described as a god of beauty, whose radiant countenance reveals him as another solar deity. Some commentators have noted a resemblance between him and the Welsh god Mabon, known in Gaul as Maponos, and indisputably associated with the sun and its light. These solar associations connect Óengus not only with the bright figures of Ogma (the sun face) and Cú Chulainn (who possessed the ‘hero-light’) but also the bardic figure of Taliesin – a name meaning ‘radiant brow’. Óengus’ supposed authorship of a Word Ogham would tend to reinforce a common theme: the relationship between Ogham and divine or semi-divine solar heroes and sages.
It must be admitted that the Word Oghams have presented challenges to interpreters. They cannot be used in isolation to determine the divinatory character of the tree-letters, for many of their kennings are now obscure to us, and often we cannot be sure if our trouble in interpreting them stems from our own ignorance or the medieval texts’ corruption of older, oral traditions. But, they have several virtues. First, they provide further indication that the tree-letters of the Ogham have associations which are not purely naturalistic. How else does a blackthorn tree, for example, equal ‘increasing of secrets’? Second, the lists give kennings on the names and associations of the fews and there is a subtle system allusion here, most likely steeped in late bardic and Druid lore. Their greatest value is that they intersect with what we know of Celtic treelore – and its we of mythological significations – from elsewhere, confirming and strengthening our insight into the central meaning of the Ogham.
First comes the brief ‘Elaborations’ on the Ogham. This basically consists of a set of explanatory notes attached to the names of each ogham few, preserved in the Auricept. By itself, this list may not appear to be the most enlightening. However, used in conjunction with the other materials drawn from the wider written sources – including the later branches of tree-wisdom found in Celtic folklore – you will find that it gives sound counsel. The Elaborations are also useful to set alongside the three bríatharogam or ‘Word Oghams’: the Word Ogham of Morainn mac Moín, The Word Ogham of Cú Chulainn, attributed to the great Irish hero, and finally the Word Ogham of Óengus, After Óengus, the so-called Celtic god of love. These materials also give rather cryptic associations or kennings (puns, riddles) for each few.
The Word ogham significations relate in some cases to the physical characteristics of the trees of the Tree Alphabet, yet often they touch on the more metaphoric, mythological – and thus magical and divinatory – qualities of each tree-letter. For example, when duir (oak) is described as the ‘highest of bushes’, we can hardly believe this to be a purely literal statement. Oak is certainly not the tallest of trees in forestlands in the British Isles, though it has long been considered the most illustrious, was a so-called ‘chieftain tree’ and, as ‘king of the forest’, was considered the highest in status. Beth (the birch tree) is accompanied by this gloss in the Word Ogham of Morainn: ‘faded trunk and fair hair, that is for birch’. This is a naturalistic enough description of the birch, perhaps. But the Word Ogham of Morainn mac Moín tells us that birch ‘equals browed beauty, worthy of pursuit’. It is notable that the hero Diarmaid of the Fenian Cycle is famous for his beauty spot, and that he woos the wife of the aging Finn mac Cumhail – who is constantly referred to as gray and aging – in a bundle of birch twigs. This is no coincidence, as that the Word Oghams often invoke mythological doublets for each tree – in case of birch, its associations with the replacement of the old, gray and withered with the new and verdant.
Yet Ogham scholars have suggested that the Word Oghams may refer to the characteristics of the Ogham letters which pre-date the Tree Alphabet. Holly, for example, is named in Gaelic ‘Tinne’, originally derived, according to some, from the Old Irish words ‘tend’ (strong) or ‘tind’ (brilliant). The Word Ogham which accompanies Tinne would thus suggest not the holly tree but a ‘bar, rod of metal, ingot, mass of molten metal’. This might seem like a dead end, but looking deeper we can see that these allegedly earlier meanings are still perfectly compatible with the supposedly later tree-letters. Holly is a tree-letter of defense, linked to the ancient drama of the Oak and Holly Kings, and thus to weapons made by the metalworker. Furthermore, its thorns suggest the image of the sharpened sword. In fact, in every case, even if the Word Oghams refer to earlier times, they still illuminate the tree-letters concerned.
Such riddling speech, full of kennings, accords perfectly with the Celtic sensibility, for as the Roman observer Diodorus Sicilus (21 BCE) put it: ‘They express themselves in riddles…’ This riddling speech is, furthermore, a feature of oracular language across the ancient world. The Oracle of Delphi spoke in riddles and the ‘gnomic verses’ of the Rune tradition, like the ‘divinatory poems’ of I Ching, are often enigmatic. The Word Oghams are indeed tricky keys to Ogham interpretation, and we must ultimately go well beyond these fragments to find the fuller significance of the individual Ogham. But they are a useful gateway to the ‘path of Ogham’ and in them one may catch the echoes of the ancient lore of the Druids, bards and their tradition of tree wisdom.
The first of thee Word Oghams, the Word Ogham of Morainn mac Moín, corroborates much of what is found in the Ogham Elaborations, and adds to our understanding of the meaning of the tree letters. Morainn, its reputed author, was a great judge known for the fair and wise nature of his decisions. The law of the Dark Ages was the Brehon Law. So Morainn may have been a Druid of the judiciary or Brehon class. Ogham is also said to have been used in divining the guild or innocence of criminals and perhaps the attribution of a Word Ogham to Morainn, whether factual or symbolic, reflects this fact. His keys will help decide the signification of the Ogham fews drawn.
The second list is known as the Word Ogham of Cú Chulainn. The great Cú Chulainn is best known for his role as the arch-champion of the Ulster Cycle of ancient Irish literature, revived as a symbol of Ireland’s nationalist aspirations at the turn of the twentieth-century. But Cú Chulainn is in essence a semi-divine character, a magically charged hero, who has solar associations, linking him to such sun-god figures as the Irish Lugh and Welsh Mabon. Legends associated with him further reveal that Cú Chulainn was a master of Ogham, using it in a ceremonial manner to thwart enemies in battle. So when an Ogham few is drawn, in effect, one has in spirit Cú Chulainn’s assistance in arriving at an interpretation.
Finally, there is the Word Ogham of Óengus. Now Óengus mac in Og (also known as the Macc Oc) is more commonly known as Aengus. He is the son of the Dagda (supreme god of Irish mythology) by the Goddess Boánn (the great Mother Goddess). Óengus comes to take his mother’s place as a ruler of the famous Sidhe once named Bruig na Bóinde in Ireland and the site of Europe’s largest Neolithic earthen tumulus. Bruig na Bóinde, now called Newgrange, is in the Boyne Valley of County Meath, site of the Tara Stone, and is the ancient omphalos or mystical center of ancient Ireland. The Newgrange tumulus is aligned to the Winter Solstice sun and has all sorts of mythological solar associations connected with its role as a type of sun-temple. On Midwinter’s day a shaft of light penetrates its entry passage and strikes the inner sanctum. Thus Óengus, too, is a great and worthy guide.
Óengus is sometimes described as a god of love and he is indeed an amorous character who once shapeshifted into the shape of a swan for the sake of abiding with his chosen sweetheart. However, he is more properly described as a god of beauty, whose radiant countenance reveals him as another solar deity. Some commentators have noted a resemblance between him and the Welsh god Mabon, known in Gaul as Maponos, and indisputably associated with the sun and its light. These solar associations connect Óengus not only with the bright figures of Ogma (the sun face) and Cú Chulainn (who possessed the ‘hero-light’) but also the bardic figure of Taliesin – a name meaning ‘radiant brow’. Óengus’ supposed authorship of a Word Ogham would tend to reinforce a common theme: the relationship between Ogham and divine or semi-divine solar heroes and sages.
It must be admitted that the Word Oghams have presented challenges to interpreters. They cannot be used in isolation to determine the divinatory character of the tree-letters, for many of their kennings are now obscure to us, and often we cannot be sure if our trouble in interpreting them stems from our own ignorance or the medieval texts’ corruption of older, oral traditions. But, they have several virtues. First, they provide further indication that the tree-letters of the Ogham have associations which are not purely naturalistic. How else does a blackthorn tree, for example, equal ‘increasing of secrets’? Second, the lists give kennings on the names and associations of the fews and there is a subtle system allusion here, most likely steeped in late bardic and Druid lore. Their greatest value is that they intersect with what we know of Celtic treelore – and its we of mythological significations – from elsewhere, confirming and strengthening our insight into the central meaning of the Ogham.