The Ogham and Celtic Tree Calendar
Know your star sign? How about your birth tree?
The Ogham (or Oh-am as it’s also pronounced) is a tree language system, also known as the Celtic tree alphabet, dating back to the 4th century. It’s an alphabet of symbols that are simple combinations of straight lines, a bit like runes. When I see symbols like this I think about how they would have been carved instead of written and we take for granted how easy curves are with a biro! It’s made up of 20 letters and 5 more were added at a later date, rounding it up to 5 groups of 5 letters. Each letter represents a tree. Historians think it was primarily used to spell names and claim ownership but what fascinates me is the depth of meaning to each tree.
The idea of a tree language really excites me and although it may originally have been used for mundane purposes, it’s been adopted more recently by modern druids and neo pagans for divination and living in tune with nature.
My own take on it, based on some reading, is that the ogham alphabet is very old, and probably used by druids but no one can say exactly who it was used by, when and what for, because we don’t have written records that can clarify this. Although there’s some ambiguity around it’s origins, we do know it existed because carvings have been found across Britain and predominantly in Ireland. The calendar is a modern idea, created by British poet and scholar Robert Graves and published in The White Goddess, his book about the mythologies of Britain, Ireland, Europe and the Middle East, published in 1948.Â
The calendar is made up of 13 lunar months, each having 28 days and to each month he assigned a tree (or plant in some cases). The more I read about Graves, the more contentious the whole calendar concept became (the man ruffled quite a few feathers) but I love the way the whole thing is summed up in an article on Irish Calling.com ‘Whether we simply appreciate the beauty of the calendar or delve deeper into its symbolism, the Ogham Tree Calendar invites us to cultivate a profound connection with nature and embrace the wisdom it holds. It is a beautiful example of how modern spiritual beliefs and the customs of ancient times can be combined to form something enchanting.’
Different versions of this calendar have evolved over time so depending on the source, the trees and their assigned dates can change. There’s one calendar which begins with birch in December and another known as the Samhain ogham calendar which begins with birch in November, the pagan new year. For the purpose of this post, I’m keeping it simple and using the trees and their corresponding dates from Llewellyn’s Complete Book of Divination by Richard Webster and descriptions from Joanna Van der Hoeven’s Book of Hedge Druidry (you’ll notice the pic above is slightly different). For further insight into the Samhain system, the 25 sigils, how to work with the ogham and ways to integrate it into your own spiritual practice, click here to read an article written by Sharlyn Hidalgo, author of Celtic Tree Ogham.
Out of the original 20 trees, here are the 13 that correlate with the lunar months:
Birch: December 24th to January 20th - Very in keeping with the new year, birch is all about new beginnings, purification and growth, associated with courage, a pioneering spirit, cleansing, feminine energy and focus.
Rowan: January 21st to February 17th - Protection is a key quality of this wood, it’s known to ward off negative energy and useful to witches (its common name is witch wood). It’s also connected to the Fae and the Otherworld.
Alder: February 18th to March 17th - Associated with the Celtic god Bran, whose name means Raven, he was believed to be the guardian of Britain. Alder represents endurance and strength, confidence, power and warrior spirit, prophecy, sacrifice, masculine energy and balancing emotions.Â
Willow: March 18th to April 14th - Willow likes to grow near water and so emotions, feminine energy, fertility and lunar cycles are often associated with the willow. The tree also symbolises balance, harmony, healing, divinity, spirit and beauty.
Ash: April 15th to May 12th - Strength, courage, death, warrior, inspiration, healing and wisdom. The ash tree has been associated with healing for a long time and babies and children were once passed through the natural holes that appear in an ash tree, because it was believed the tree or tree spirits would protect and heal them.Â
Hawthorn: May 13th to June 9th - Otherworld and faery, transformation, honour, protection, challenge, love and purification. This is one of my favourite trees, it’s powerful, healing and full of faery magic. If you’re interested in hawthorn listen to my Early Spring episode, where I go into great detail about the magic, folklore, herbalism and history behind the hawthorn. To hear the podcast episode click here.
Oak: June 10th to July 7th - Fate, strength, commitment, doorway, growth, divinity, truth, knowledge, wisdom, balance, longevity, grounding, stability and protection. The oak is also sacred to Brigid, along with the Druids who revered this tree and thought of it as ‘embodying the connection between humans and the divine’.
Holly: July 8th to August 4th - Represents masculine energy and a warrior spirit. It’s associated with the Celtic god Taranis along with persistence, strength, endurance, protection, courage, justice, hope and growth.
Hazel: August 5th to September 1st - Hazel is associated with ‘awen’, a welsh word meaning muse and used by modern druids and neo-pagans to describe divine guidance and the flow of energy and life force. The tree also represents alignment, potential, protection, creativity, wisdom and perception.Â
Apple: September 2nd to September 29th - Otherworld gifts and blessings, holistic wellbeing, healing and magic. This connection with magic may also stem from the five pointed star or pentacle shape made by the pips and the apple's connection with Arthurian legend and the Isles of Avalon.Â
Bramble (or Vine): September 30th to October 27th - As this plant produces the delicious blackberry, most associations root from fruits of labour, bounty and harvest, cycles and growth, gifts and blessings. The bramble prompts us to indulge in life’s pleasures, fostering a sense of joy and the celebration of abundance in all its forms.
Ivy: October 28th to November 24th - Due to the resilience of ivy and how it can find its way up and over almost anything to reach the sun, the qualities associated with this birth month follow along the lines of tenacity, perseverance and endurance. I also have a little fact to throw in here because I can't help myself, ivy leaves stay green through the winter because they produce their own form of antifreeze! Other qualities symbolised by ivy (due to its intertwining nature) are connection, relationships and feminine energy.
Reed: November 25th to December 23rd - I know you’re going to say these last three aren’t trees but what can I say they’re in the ogham. I was surprised to discover how healing the reed plant is, our ancestors found so many ways to use this plant. Perhaps for this reason it symbolises love, family and fertility. Because of its connection to wind and water it holds many qualities of those elements. The sound reeds make also warn of high winds, so protection and preservation are noted too.Â
The remaining 7 are:
Blackthorn: Magical aptitude and skill, Otherworld influence, protection and boundaries.
Elder: Transition, death, atonement, sacrifice, equilibrium, magic, protection, faery and Otherworld connection.
Scots Pine (or Silver Fir): Quiet wisdom and contemplation, calm and peace, new perspectives, inspiration and immortality.
Gorse: Fire in the head, fire in the belly, fertility, new ideas and plans, renewal, power and purification.
Heather: Cycles and regeneration, opportunity, connection, community, tribe and good fortune.
Aspen (or Poplar): Communication, movement, sacrifice, death, a signal that change may be required.
Yew: Perseverance, quiet and calm, patience, endurance, regeneration, cycles of life and death, blessings, immortality and the Otherworld.
I can’t help but want to know more about each of these trees, so stay tuned for further posts on the folklore, magic and history behind them. If you’d like to read more about February’s trees check out my posts on Alder and Rowan.