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On the bank of the river he saw a tall tree: from the roots to the crown half was on fire and the other half was green with leaves. (Peredur Son of Evrawg, The Mabinogion)

For they also built temples (high places), sacred stones (images) and maypoles (groves) on every high hill and under every green tree. 1 Kings 14:23.

The worship of trees goes far back into the history of man. The origin of the importance of trees in worship is that they provided shade from the hot sun.1 So during rites and rituals it was simply more comfortable to be in the shadow of a tree. During the wintertime the trees also blocked the cold wind.

Trees have magickal roles too! They are used today in the burning of the Yule log, mayday bonfires, the maypole, kissing under the mistletoe, the ever-famous Yule tree, wands and staffs.

The Celts viewed certain trees as sacred. From the ancient Battle of the Trees (c. 400 BC) the following trees/plants are mentioned: beech, fern, tongue root, alders, willow, rowan, holly, oak, ivy, hazel, fir, ash, birch, poplars, the vine, elms, blackthorn, whitethorn, reed, broom, furze, yew, elder, apple, privet, woodbine, heath, and pine. The battle also mentions certain fruits: plum, quince, whorl, mulberry, raspberry, pear, black cherry, white cherry, and sorb. The apple appears in many other myths and is considered the most sacred of all.

In ancient times the Celts made it a crime to harm the sacred trees. This respect for trees survives today. When I was stationed in Germany, I learned that it was a crime there to harm a tree.

Every tree has its own spirit and that spirit can exit from the tree and contact you. The tree spirit is called a dryad. Dryads are mortal. Many of you have felt the dryad. It's that uncomfortable-while-walking-in-the-forest-feeling!

Trees can talk to us. Folklore gives us many examples, the best of which are the apple trees in the Wizard of Oz. Even the prophets of Zeus would listen for answers in the leaves of an oak tree.

Tree magick: just go to a forest, to a tree you feel drawn to and tell the tree the problem. You also can ask a tree a question and listen for the answer in the whispering and rustling of the leaves. You may not know what the tree has told you consciously, but you have received it subconsciously and it will reveal itself in time.

You can extend the life of a tree spirit and make her a good familiar by making a wand or staff of a tree and asking the spirit to remain within it. Be very careful to pick a tree that is already felled. That is, cut down by someone else or the tree was felled by natural causes such as high winds. The tree should still have some green (life) left in it, if it doesn't the tree spirit has departed and the wood is of no magickal value. If you chop down a tree to get a staff or wand, the spirit of that tree will never ally with you! These restrictions make it very difficult to find a suitable staff or wand, but who ever said magick was easy.

Jeremiah 10:8 writing about Celts says, "the stock is a doctrine." The Celts (ancestors of today's Wiccans) wrote on stocks of wood in a language called ogham. Ogham is likely to have developed in prehistoric Europe. Ogham is older than the Egyptian writing.

Ogham’s development is theorized in the following. Long ago before there was writing, people used objects to communicate with others. For example, a rose was given to express love. Over time the ancient people gave a meaning or word to a tree leaf. Why a trees’ leaf? Because there were plenty around, different colors and species and most importantly they were easy to transport. Soon several leaves were given meanings also. Then someone thought of connecting several leaves together to form a sentence. Then the leaves were attached to a stick to keep them in order. The stick could be transported to deliver a message or act as a reminder. There was a problem however, as the leaves became old they fell off the stick. So to preserve the writing, someone had to continuously replace the old leaves with new ones. Even today we still call the page of a book, a leaf.

Then one day, someone improved the process! Instead of using leaves they would mark lines on the stick to represent the leaves, and the meaning of a particular leaf. These marks are called ogham. Thus to the ancient people, the first paper was wooden sticks. Now sticks or staffs could be preserved for generations and transported without having to maintain the leaves.

To further improve the process, someone began writing ogham on stones. Thus preserving the writing almost indefinitely.

Much later, people developed ogham into a sign language. To sign ogham, just find a line or edge and with your fingers draw the ogham. For example, on a wood table there is a natural line, use your finger to draw the ogham characters.

Using ogham in magick has two benefits. One, it ensures your privacy, not anyone can just read it. Second, when used in spells it keeps them concentrated. If a spell is cast and it is talked about or read about, the spell losses some of its power. Even if the spell is read by yourself, it losses potency. Having your spell in ogham would require translation in order to read it, thus preserving the power of the spell.

Ogham magick is to write, engrave, or carve a sentence describing what you want in ogham onto an object. Ogham magick in part comes from the effort put into the drawing or carving of the ogham characters. The more effort applied the better the spell. For example, to heal a sick friend, write "heal my friend Dreama" or even better "Dreama is healed" in ogham on a small stick (a pencil works fine). Then give it to your friend. Ogham carved onto small sticks is usually for short-term magick. Once the ogham spell is no longer needed you may throw away the sticks or if you used a pencil, sharpen it and use it. You can carve ogham onto wands, staffs, just about anything.

To use long-term ogham magick, engrave the ogham on to a rock. For example, engrave "protect this home" on a garden stone and place it in a flowerbed by the front door.

The most popular American form of ogham is displayed. It is read from top to bottom and left to right. However, you can invent your own form of ogham if you choose.

1 The bible in Hosea 4:13

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