The purposes the ogham was developed for was as a letter-series, like the alpha-bet of the Greek letters, though ogham's use was not for keeping records, other than showing to other Druids who historically owned a certain piece of land. Other than that, ogham is described as being used for satire when carved into four-sided sticks hung up for display, and in surreptitious hand use as a sign-language. This is some of what we are sure ogham was used for...though it is sure that St. Padraic was burning many piles of some kind of Druidic writing. One way the ogham differed very much from other "alphabets" was that it was designed so that it could be easily carved along the edge of wood or stone, in addition to being written across a line. Another difference is that ogham was likely used in a secretive manner, in various ways.
But it seems that there are other attributes of the ogham letter-series that imply the tree-ogham had double, or perhaps, triple meanings. This would actually be par for the course in Celtic recitation, since double-entendre and triple-meaning is one of the elements of the magic of Gaelic poetry.
To get to the heart of the matter, there is another thing that seems to be described by the tree-ogham. It appears that when the tree-ogham known as the beith-luis-fern is formed into a loop or circle, and aligned with certain obvious seasonal harvests and festivals, the flora of the tree-ogham correlate. Each tree-ogham correlates with a historical European folk custom, an important harvest or a historically important seasonal event.
This is only done with the consonants, and since there are fifteen, at least four of them have to be "compressed" together, or associated by like sound. Since there are two sets of letters which exhibit these characteristics, this is easily done. The letter sail, that is, willow, has almost the same sound as straif, that is blackthorn. The letter coll, that is, hazel, has almost the same sound as cert, that is apple, also referred to as quert. Within the string of tree-ogham letters, this yeilds s/str and c/c.
In the case of coll/cert, the two are already next each other, so the placement is assured. In the case of sail/straif, either straif can be brought down to sail, as Robert Graves did long ago, or sail can brought up to straif. In actuality, this one simple act allows the whole loop of tree-ogham letters to synchronize with the seasons' historical folk events.
In addition, the Celtic calendar was a solar/lunar calendar, and as such, must have been inherently Metonic. This means about every third year there would have been a year with thirteen complete lunar months. The tree-ogham letter that falls into place as the thirteenth month is that of n-getal, that is, broom. As a result, broom is poised as a month that sweeps out the old year and sweeps in the new year, about every three years. Incidentally, history records that the Celts reorganized their land use every three years.
During a twelve-month the year would be ended with the tree-ogham gort. Every single year would begin with sail/straif, with the beginning of winter weather, that is with the turning of willow and blackthorn, as they were harvested at Samhain.
There are too many associations to go into with detail here, and that is better served by the temperate climate seasonal lunar calendar description on this website. So, without further description, the tree-ogham letters are shown below, correlating with with certain historical European folk customs, important harvests or historically important seasonal events.
As the reader may have noticed, two of the trees in the tree-ogham have been switched here, transposed. You might ask with perplexity, "Why?" The answer is this. Multiple people have noted, including myself, that the correlation of elderberry with midwinter, and holly with midsummer is very off-kilter. Do we not still hang wreaths of holly at Yuletide, even today? And, in addition, try to find an elderberry bush in the dead of winter, let alone harvest elderberries or blooms from it at any time but summer.
But once the tree-oghams are looked at in this arrangement, comparing them to the plant's seasonal occurrences, the tree-oghams can be easily corrected and reassociated; recalibrated as it were.
It becomes obvious that certain discrepancies have cropped-up in the usage of the tree-ogham. These discrepancies have existed in the zodiacal Celtic calendar popularized by Robert Graves, and these probably started when Robert Graves first noted that the Druidic ogham might describe a Celtic calendar.
To be fair, no one man or woman can be completely right or completely wrong in his or her lifetime. In fact, the descriptions of the tree-oghams themselves are often confusing and misleading, possibly on purpose. The Celts always did, do, and will love verbal puzzles.
But again, the most obvious mistake that has been made is the ascribing of elderberry to midwinter and holly to midsummer. These two oghams, and so, the months, are obviously transposed. There is much Celtic lore, to various to list, in various books and legends regarding the midsummer associations of elderberry and the midwinter associations of the holly tree.
Many recent calendars and books, probably originating from Robert Graves conception of the Celtic calendar, describe associations to the trees. And yet, even with the ogham transposition mistake, all of the books seem to wax long about the midwinter aspects and uses of holly. These same books also wax long about the midsummer aspects and associations of elderberry. The same books that use the error, also contain the information revealing the natural alignment of the tree. Quite ironic actually.
However, there are one or two other discrepancies. Those discrepancies relate to the actual meaning of the names ascribed to the tree-ogham. Gort is the most glaring of all. When I translated that Scottish-Gaelic word and compared it to the lines that describe the tree-ogham for Gort, I was astounded and amazed. But, I will continue discussing that line of investigation on another page.
Copyright © J. G. Jones