The Celtic Oghams And Bardic Alphabet

Steven JD Beattie Moffat
31m ·











Steven JD Beattie Moffat
·
The Celtic Oghams and Bardic Alphabet
Ogham is the name given to the ancient bardic alphabet used in Ireland and the western parts of ancient Britain. It is possible that the script dates back as early as 2200 BCE, although this is by no means certain. This dating is based upon the markings
on some small chalk slabs found by Alexander Keiller during excavations at Windmill Hill in southern England. Seventeen of these inscribed pieces of chalk were unearthed, and the scratches on them have been interpreted as an early form of ogham. But some academics do not accept this. The ogham
expert, Professor Brendan O'Hehir of the University of
Berkeley, California, believes that the earliest dateable ogham inscriptions come from around the second century CE Whatever their origin, there are several hundred known ancient ogham inscriptions, on rock
faces, stones, crosses, portable artefacts and in manuscripts.
In the 1940s, R. A. S. Macalister
published 385 known inscriptions from the British Isles. Most are in Ireland (82 per cent, with 52 per cent of them from County Cork and County Kerry). The majority of the others are in Scotland and Wales, whilst a few are known from England, and mainland Europe. Although most of the ancient surviving inscriptions are on memorials, just giving names, it is
clear that the ogham alphabet also had a magical element.
But when the Roman alphabet and the runes were introduced into Ireland, they took over the function of memorial writing, and the use of ogham was marginalized. There are monuments upon which both ogham and Roman letters co-exist, but once
the Roman alphabet was established, the use of ogham became restricted to the secret and magical realms, where it remains today.
Trees and ogham.
The mystical basis of the oghams is in the trees. The
fifteenth-century manuscript known as The Book of Ballymote, which is the main source of information on traditional ogham, recounts the origin of the Irish oghams, the 'Ogaim na nGadhel'. In the question-and-answer method typical of customary teaching it asks: From whence, what time, and what person, and from what cause did the ogham spring? [It answers,] The place is Hybernia's/Hebernia's Isle, which we Scots inhabit; in the time of Breass, the son of Elathan, then king of all Ireland. The person was Ogma, MacElathan, the son of Dealbadh, brother to Breass; for Breass, Ogma and Dealbadh were three sons of Elathan, who was the son of Dealbath.
The originator was thus one of three brothers, like the Norse Odin with his brothers Viii and Ve reproducing the triadic order of things so common in the Northern Tradition. The Book of Ballymote continues:
'Ogma, being a man much skilled in dialects and in poetry, it was he who invented ogham, its object being for signs of secret speech known only to the learned, and designed to be kept from the vulgar and poor of the nation . .. It is called ogham, from the inventor, Ogma. The derivation is ogham, from "ghuaim ", that is the "guaim" or wisdom through which the bards were enabled to compose; for by its
branches the Irish Bards. sounded their verses. "Soim" was the first thing written in ogham. On a Birch it was written, and given to Lugh, the son of Etlem ... '
In the Irish language spoken today, the word 'ogham' means the ancient alphabet. But the related word 'oghum' in the Gaelic language refers to the occult sciences.
The Irish name for the month of June, which contains the summer solstice, is Ogmhios, for the name Ogma is associated with an old Celtic sun god. It is clear that in former times the knowledge of the oghams
was seen as identical with the knowledge that a ruler needed to govern his or her subjects. For example, MacLonan, the chief bard of Ireland, who died in the year 918, wrote:
Cormac of Cashel and his champions,
Munster is his. may he enjoy it long;
Around the King of Raith Bieli are cultivated
The letters and the trees.
Ogham is unlike any other European or Near Eastern
alphabet. Instead of having separate characters. the symbols of ogham are arranged along a line. This is the 'principal ridge' or 'stem line', which is known as the 'druim·. The characters are all in contact with this line, being scribed above, below or through it. Conventionally. ogham was usually written vertically,
from below to above. When written horizontally, as on
some ancient artefacts. the upper side of the druim is counted
as the left-hand side, and beneath it, the right-hand side.
Conceptually, then, the ogham script is written from left to
right. When written on a standing stone, they are inscribed
across the corner between flat surfaces, known as the arris. On
stone, the vowels are formed by indentations or dots.
Like other alphabets, the oghams are arranged in a specific
character order. But the actual arrangement is like no other.
Today, there are five basic divisions, each with five characters,
making 25 in all, but originally there appear to have been only
four divisions, making 20 characters. This is apparent in The
Book of Ballymote, which asks, 'How and what are the
divisions of ogham? Four: B and her five; H and her five; M
and her five; and A, her five .' The fifth division appears to be
a later edition to the ogham row, bringing in diphthongs. The
Book of Ballymote explains the basic form and derivation of
the oghams:
From whence come the figures and namesakes in the
explanation of B, Land N ogham? From the branches and
limbs of the Oak Tree: they formed ideas which they
expressed in sounds, that is, as the stalk of the bush is its
noblest part, from them they formed the seven chief figures
as vowels, thus: A, 0, V, E, I, EA, 01 . .. and they
formed three others, which they added to these as helpers,
formed on different sides of the line, thus: VI, lA, AE . ..
The branches of the wood give figures for the branches and
veins of ogham, chief of all. The tribe of B from Birch, and
the daughter, that is the Ash of the wood, is chief; and of
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Magical Alphabets
Fig. 33. A typical Ogham inscription: at Kilmakedar, County Kerry. Ireland.
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The Celtic Oghams and Bardic Alphabet
them the first alphabet was formed; of L, from Luis, the
Quicken Tree of the wood; F from Fearn, the Alder, good
for shields; S from Sail, a Willow from the wood; N in
ogham from Nin, the Ash for spears; H from Huath,
Whitethorn, a crooked tree or bush, because of her thorns;
D from Dur, the Oak of Fate from the wood; T from Tine,
Cypress, or from the Elder Tree; C from Coil, the Hazel of
the wood; Q from Quert, Apple, Aspen or Mountain Ash;
M from Mediu, the Vine, branching finely; G from Gort,
Ivy towering; NG from Ngetal or Gilcach, a Reed: ST or Z
from Draighean, Blackthorn; R, Graif /not explained
here]; A from Ailm, Fir; a from On, the Broom or Furze;
V from Vp, Heath; E from Edadh, trembling Aspen; I from
Ida or loda, the Yew tree; EA, Eabhadh, the Aspen; aI,
air, the Spindle Tree; VI, Vinileann, Honeysuckle; la,
lfin, the Gooseberry; AE, Amancholl, the Witch Hazel;
Pine Ogham, that is the divine Pine from the wood, from
whence are drawn the four 'Ifins', or Vineyard, thus #, per
alios, the name of that branch.
Today, Tinne is generally accepted by practitioners of ogham
to be the holly, and not the cypress. However, in Irish, the
name of the holly tree is Craobh Chuilinn, giving a letter-name
of Cuileann. Also, in the Gaelic alphabet, where it is the 16th
and penultimate character, it has an obvious and direct
meaning, Teine, which in Gaelic means fire.
The most widely accepted modern interpretations of the
ogham characteristics are those described by the seventeenthcentury
Irish bard Roderick O'Flaherty in his book Ogygia. His
information came, he claimed, from Duald MacFirbis, the clan
bard of the O'Briens. Some ogham scholars, like R.A.S.
Macalister, have claimed that the ascriptions of the ogham
characters given to them by O'Flaherty and others were late
artificialities having little bearing on the 'original' meanings. Of
course, this is important to those scholars who attempt to
determine the earliest meanings of alphabets. But, even if this
is a correct view (and there is no way of telling if it is), then it
still does not negate the use of ogham characters for divination
at the present day. We should not fall into the trap of
imaginging that the older a system is, then the more 'pure' it
must be. This is fundamentalism, the belief that the modern
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Magical Alphabets
world is but a degenerate reflection of a former golden age.
Everything must evolve from age to age , keeping itself in tune
with the spirit of the age, otherwise it becomes useless and
obsolete, and is lost. Although we study the past, we should
remember that it is the repository of errors as well as truths,
and enlightened people of the present day can make a
contribution to the understanding of divination through alphabets
as well as many a practitioner of former times.
O'Flaherty listed the ogham characters with their names as:
B, Boibel; L, Loth; F (V), Forann; N, Neiagadon; S, Salia; H,
Viria; D, Daibhaith; T, Teilmon; C, Caoi; CC, Cailep; M,
Moiria; G, Gath; Ng, Ngoimar; Y, Idra;; R, Riuben; A, Acab;
0, Ose; V, Vra; E, Esu; I, Jaichim. Two versions of this
alphabet are given by Lewis Spence in his book The Mysteries
of Britain (1928), where alternative written characters are
given. Spence's alphabets are not ogham at all, but Bobileth
and Beth-Luis-Nion, which appear to be medieval magical
alphabets based upon the old Celtic letter order.
According to the thought of the time, the oghams were seen
as relics of ancient Druidism which had been transmitted orally
by the bards down to the time of O'Flaherty. In later years,
with the adoption of Christianity and the associated Roman
alphabet, ogham had been used only for divination and not for
writing. This is corroborated in modern Irish, whose words for
people who deal with writing are all based on the root run-,
such as 'nlnaf', a secretary and 'runcleireac' (rune-clerk), a
confidential secretary. The root run- means a rune, the writing
used in Norse-founded Dublin a thousand years ago. Even by
then, the oghams were no longer used for everyday writing.
As used today in magic and divination, the standard names of
the letters in the ogham alphabet, like those of the Gaelic
alphabet, are based upon archaic tree names. In modern usage,
the first tree letter of the ogham alphabet is the birch, (Betula
pendula). Its name is Beth, which in modern Irish is Beith
(pronounced 'Be'), and in Welsh, Bedw. Its phonetic equivalent
is 'B'. Beth corresponds with the second letter of the
Gaelic alphabet, Beath, which, like its ogham counterpart,
denotes the white tree of purification sacred to the Great
Mother Goddess. In every way, the birch is a pioneer tree. It
was the first tree to recolonize the treeless wastes left after the
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The Celtic Oghams and Bardic Alphabet
!J ., k/u.. ~
L ,.
I I' 01. ~
I .. U
n H H I} H
J > .jxi. A I t t
c <
f ~
", lit
g (..
Il$ ~
It 4
r r
4 A
0 ~
" III
e ~
L Y
I@
Fig. 34. The standard Irish Ogham characters, compared with their Welsh
Coelbren counterparts.
129
Magical Alphabets
retreat of the glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age. Each year,
it is the first deciduous woodland tree to put out leaves in
springtime. In Scandinavian country lore, the appearance of
the first birch leaves marks the time for farmers to begin sowing
their spring wheat. To the Irish ogham tradition, a birch tree
provided the first wood upon which an ogham word was
inscribed. Accordingly, it is classed as the first peasant tree,
with the sacred colour of white.
Beth is one of the month oghams, of which there are 13. This
13-month year is a relic of the old way of reckoning time
according to the phases of the moon, later fixed into a year
defined by the solar phenomena of the solstices. The Beth
moon begins on 24 December in the modern calendar and runs
until 20 January. This fixes its beginning as just after the
modern winter solstice, on a former midwinter's day, a time of
purification and renewal. In Celtic symbolism, hats made of
birch are associated with the dead. This is a very ancient
tradition. When the sixth-century BCE burial mound of a Celtic
lord at Hochdorf, near Stuttgart in south-western Germany,
was excavated, a wonderfully worked conical hat of birch bark
was found on the head of the buried man. The old English
ballad The Wife of Usher's Well' also refers to the birchen
hats of her three dead sons.
Esoteric Irish numerology ascribes the number five to the
letter Beth. One of these numerical systems ascribes number
equivalents to 17 ogham characters. Another, referred to in the
system known as Ogham Consaine, an ogham alphabet which
has only consonants and no vowels, gives 12 of the 13 numbers.
Other correspondences of Beth are the birch colour, ban
(white) and the bird-ogham correspondence, besan, the
pheasant, 'the best bird that flies' . Symbolically and magically
the birch and its corresponding ogham character Beth serve to
protect one against all harm, physical and spiritual. It allows
bad things to be dealt with and cleared away so that a new
beginning can take place, unhindered by left-overs, on-lays and
unfinished business.
The second ogham character is Luis, whose phonetic equivalent
is 'L'. It is the rowan or quickbeam tree, (Sorbus acuparia,
the modern Irish, caorthann, the Welsh, cria/ol). Traditionally,
this tree, which also may be called the mountain ash, quicken
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The Celtic Oghams and Bardic Alphabet
and 'tree of life', is a magical plant. It is the second peasant
tree, a tree of hedgerows and woodland. This ogham corresponds
with the magical ninth letter of the Gaelic alphabet,
which is also called Luis. The ogham character serves to protect
its user against psychic attack and to develop the individual's
powers of perception and prediction. In a divination, it can
warn that one is subject to interference on the psychic level,
but also indicates that, if one takes the appropriate precautions,
one will not be harmed by the experience. In country
tradition, when planted outside the front door of a house,
rowan is believed to ward off harmful spirits, energies and onlays.
According to a traditional Scottish rhyme:
Rowan tree and red threid
Gar the witches tyne their speed.
Translated into standard English, this is:
Rowan tree and red thread
Make the witches lose their speed.
In this post-medieval rhyme, the word 'witches' refers to all
harmful psychic forces, and not to ancient Pagan practice, of
which it is a part, or the modern religion of Wicca. In former
times, sacred groves of rowan existed at places of sanctity as
magically protective and oracular trees. One notable rowan
grove grew on the Baltic sacred island of RUgen, and as late as
1777, in his Flora Scotica , John Lightfoot noted that this tree
was prevalent in the vicinity of stone circles in Scotland.
Another magical attribute is in the switches or whips of rowan
wood that horsemen used to subdue 'bewitched' horses. Rowan
was also considered to have an affinity for metals, and was used
for metal dowsing.
In bird-ogham, Luis is lachu, the duck, which swims on land
in this season of floods. In Celtic paganism, the duck was the
sacred bird of river goddesses. An image of Sequana, goddess
of the River Seine in France, depicts her riding in a duckheaded
barge, and the duck appears in several ancient Irish
manuscripts, upon crosses and monuments. In former times,
rowan-berry jelly was eaten with duck.
Luis's esoteric number correspondence is 14. Its Celtic tree
month covers the part of the year from 21 January until 17
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Magical Alphabets
February. In this period is the religious festival of the coming
spring, the festival of ImboIc, Brigantia or Candlemas, 1-2
February. This festival marks the 'quickening of the year',
when the days are noticeably longer after the darkness of
winter, and the promise of springtime becomes a possibility.
One of its colour correspondences is 'liath', grey, that inb~
tween colour containing white and black, the mixing of light
and dar~ness, echoing the grey skies of this part of the year.
But The Book of Ballymote describes Luis's poetic name as
'Delight of the eye, that is Luisiu' . This colour is flame, the
modern Irish luisne, a red glare, with the additional meaning
of a sheen or lustre. Magically, this is a very powerful
character, used for the development of the power of second
sight and protection against enchantment.
The third ogham letter is Fearn, with the phonetic rendering
of 'F'. This character corresponds withe the alder tree, (Alnus
glutinosa, the modern Irish fearnog and the Welsh gwernen. It
parallels directly with Fearn, the sixth letter of the Gaelic
alphabet, whose meaning is also the alder tree. But in the
Gaelic alphabet, the letter 'R', Ruis, is also associated with this
tree. In British mythology, the alder is the sacred tree of the
Celtic god-king Bran, whose mummified oracular head was
carried across Britain and finally buried at Bryn Gwyn - the
sacred White Mount of Trinovantium, now occupied by the
Norman White Tower of the Tower of London. Robert Graves
asserted that the 'singing head' of Bran was the topmost branch
- the 'head' - of the alder tree. This 'head' can be seen in winter
as, after leaf fall, the Alder retains its black cones and next
year's unopened catkins, giving the tree a purple-tinged, dense
erown.
Fearn is connected with the spirit known as the 'Fear Dearg'
(anglicized as Far Darrig), the 'Red Man' (the Irish word fear
or fir means a man). According to legend, these beings are
reputed to help human beings to escape from the OtherwoIld.
But, like many Irish sprites, the Fear Dearg is also a prankster,
and in wintertime will ask permission to warm hmself by the
fire. Bad luck will dog anyone foolhardy enough to refuse.
Fearn's esoteric number correspondence is eight, which is the
Celtic number of man, in a human rather than a gender sense.
This letter is also related to the word fearsad, which can mean
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The Celtic Oghams and Bardic Alphabet
a shaft, an axle, the ulna bone or a narrow sea passage . In its
first meaning as a shaft, it refers to the alder piles which were
used traditionally all over Europe for the foundations of
buildings in wetlands. This use is universal, as alder wood is
the best timber for this purpose . The foundations of the cities
of Venice and Rotterdam, cathedrals like Winchester, watermills
and the island crannogs of Scotland and Ireland were built
upon piles of alder. On a smaller scale, the wood was used for
making milk pans and other containers used in the dairy, and
clogs for the feet. This tree is connected also with swordmaking.
The smiths of this craft prized alder wood for giving
the best charcoal for metal smelting, and in later times it was
prized for gunpowder production . The Song of the Forest Trees
describes alder as 'The very battle-witch of all woods, the tree
that is hottest in the fight' . This second chieftain tree of Irish
tradition has the corresponding colour of flann, blood-red or
crimson. This is because when an alder tree is cut down , its sap
turns red like blood. Like the yew, the alder is a 'bleeding tree'.
Because of this, to cut down a sacred alder tree was held to be
a sacrilege which would bring fire upon one's dwelling in
retribution. In pre-industrial times, the alder was used for
dyeing fabrics . The tree was prized for the three dyes which
could be prepared from different parts: red from the bark,
brown from the twigs and green from the flowers. These dyes
were the bases for the ancient coloured plaid patterns of
Scotland which evolved into the modern tartans we know
today.
Fearn is a tree of fire used to free the earth from water. In
its use as piles in traditional building, alder symbolically bridges
the space between the lower world in the earth and the upper
world of the air. Symbolically, its month parallels this by
bridging the dark and light halves of the year, for Fearn rules
the Celtic month which runs from 18 March until 14 April. The
alder's first blooming is around the beginning of this month
which includes the vernal equinox. In bird ogham, its correspondence
is faelinn, the seagull . The gull's calls were imitated
by sea-witches in their magical summoning of the wind, and
similarly, alder can be used for making magic whistles used in
whistling up the wind. Magically, this character is best used for
personal protection in conflicts, and for freeing oneself from
magical binding of any kind.
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Magical Alphabets
The next tree-letter is Saille, phonetically, 'S' . It is the Sally
tree or white willow, (Salix alba, in modern Irish, saileach, the
Welsh helygen). This tree, whose narrow crown is silvery-grey
in colour is associated with the growth of the lunar power,
rooting in water. The character corresponds with the 15th letter
of the Scots Gaelic alphabet, Suil. In Irish, its name is allied
with the word sail!, which means 'fat', referring to its month,
which begins on 15 April and ends on 12 May. It includes the
May Day festival of La Bealtane. Its bird-ogham character is
seg, the hawk, mentioned in one of Amergin's poems referring
to this month: 'I am a hawk on a cliff. Saille is an ogham of
linking, a watery symbolism which brings itself into harmony
with the flow of events, most notably the phases of the moon.
It gives indications of the states of the tides, and, in traditional
medicine, provided protection against the diseases of dampness.
In divination, its power is greater at night than in
daytime, except when the moon is visible during the day. Its
power fluctuates with the cycle of the moon's phases. The
pliable, flexible nature of the osiers made it the preferred wood
for basket-making. In building it was also used as a bindingmaterial
in thatch and wattle-and-daub walling. Esoterically,
this eminent flexibility demonstrates Saille's harmonious amenability
to the conditions to which it is subjected. The willow
is the third peasant tree, whose colour is 'sodath', 'fine' or
'bright'. The Song of the Forest Trees: 'Burn not the willow, a
tree sacred to poets'. Numerically, its equivalent is 16.
Nuin or Nion is the fifth letter of the oghams. It has the
phonetic value of 'N'. Its tree is the first chieftain tree, the grey
and the black ash, (Fraxinus excelsior) . This is the Welsh,
onnen, and the modern Irish, fuinnseog . This ogham corresponds
with the 11th character of the Scots Gaelic alphabet,
Nuin, whose meaning is identical. Nion is the third month of
the Celtic calendar, which extends from 18 February until 17
March, a time when the budding of trees and the fresh growth
of herbs becomes apparent. The ash is the tree of rebirth,
linking that which is above with that which is below, the worlds
of the spirit and of matter. It is the passage between the inner
world and the outer world. In the Norse tradition, it is beneath
the sacred ash tree Yggdrassil, the cosmic axis linking the
underworld with the middle and upper worlds, that the three
134
The Celtic Oghams and Bardic Alphabet
Norns weave the fates of humans. The bunches of fruits that
resemble keys signify the power to unlock the future. But, just
as the seeds in these keys germinate only in the second year
after falling to the ground, unlocking of the future may take a
considerable time. The colour associated with Nion is necht,
'clear', and its esoteric numerical equivalent is 13. In birdogham,
it is naescu, the snipe.
The sixth character of the ogham alphabet is Huath, sometimes
rendered as Uath. It has the phonetic value of 'H'. Huath is
the Goddess's tree of sexuality, the whitethorn or hawthorn,
(Crataegus monogyna, in modern Irish, sceach gheal, the
Welsh, ysbyddaden or draenenwen). Another name for it is the
May tree, and Huath's month runs from the middle of the
merry month of May, 13 May until 9 June. The ogham's name
means 'terrible', referring to the 'hag' or destroying aspect of
the Threefold Goddess. Traditionally, it is unlucky to bring
May blossom into the house. It was on a thorn bush at
Bosworth Field that the crown of the slain king Richard III was
found in 1485. In folk tradition, this tree is considered a 'fairy'
tree, and hence unlucky to anyone who is foolhardy enough to
tamper with one. In Ireland, it was believed universally that
the destruction of such a sacred thorn tree or sceog would bring
bad luck to the individual who perpetrated the act. The most
recent example of this was the obliteration of such a tree to
make way for the ill-fated DeLorean car factory in Northern
Ireland. Local people ascribed the disastrous collapse of the
business to the ill luck attending the removal of this holy tree.
The death of one's children or livestock and the loss of all one's
money is the traditional fate of one cavalier enough to destroy
a sacred thorn. Vaughan Cornish's work, Sacred Thorn Trees
in the British Isles documents these sacred May trees, many of
which are , sadly, now destroyed. But it is still customary, as
part of the reverence due the holy thorn, to tie rags to their
branches as votive offerings to the Goddess. In Christian times,
this rite became assimilated into the cult of St Monica, whose
name superseded that of the Pagan goddess of the thorns.
Magically, Huath is the ogham of protection against all ills,
invoking the power of the Otherworld. The bird ogham
correspondence of Huath is hadaig, the night-crow. It is classed
as the fourth peasant tree whose colour is huath , 'terrible' or
135
Magical Alphabets
more modernly, purple, the forbidden colour of the hag aspect
of the Goddess. As a daunting ogham of the Otherworld,
esoterically it has no numerical value, and no correspondence
in the Gaelic alphabet.
Duir, the common or pedunculate oak, (Quercus robur, the
modern Irish, dair and the Welsh derwen), is the seventh sacred
tree of the oghams. This ogham corresponds directly with the
fourth letter of the Gaelic alphabet, Doir. It has the phonetic
value of 'D'. All through the European spiritual tradition, the
oak is considered to be the most powerful tree, being sacred to
the major European sky-god who goes by the names of Zeus,
Jupiter, Taranis, the Dagda, Perkunas, Thunor and Thor,
among others. In this aspect, Our is related to the Irish words
dur, meaning hard, unyielding, durable, and duranta, mysterious.
Duir is the third noble or chieftain tree, whose colour is
dubh, black. In Druidic times, the oak was grown in sacred
groves. To the Druids, every part of the oak was sacred, there
being ritual uses for its boughs, twigs, bark, leaves and acorns.
Its sacred month, which extends from 10 June to 7 July,
incorporates the summer solstice, the high point of the year,
known esoterically as 'the door of the year'. Appropriately, the
name Duir is cognate with other words for 'door' in various
European languages: the Irish doras, the English 'door', the
Greek thura, the German Tar, etc. The Nordic equivalent of
Duir, the rune Dag, has the same meanings. Duir marks the
central point of the summer, the cross-over point at which the
longest day also marks the beginning of the shortening of the
light and the ultimate onset of autumn and winter. It marks one
of the two major turning-points of the year, the other being the
winter solstice. The sacrifice of the Oak King at midsummer,
later assimilated into the Christian calendar as the day of the
similarly executed St John the Baptist, is commemorated by
this letter. According to tradition, the Oak King was burned
alive on the summer solstice, his place being taken by the Holly
King. This ogham's bird is droen, the wren, smallest of the
birds indigenous to northern Europe, one of the most sacred
birds of the ancient Druids. Magically, this important ogham
signifies strength. It can be used as a doorway to inner
experiences. Traditionally, it is the ogham that enables one to
see the invisible, and to become invisible; to allow entry of
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The Celtic Oghams and Bardic Alphabet
those who should enter and to exclude those who should not.
In a magical way, it can also refer to things of great strength
that are hidden from view at present, like the bog oaks buried
beneath the peat in Ireland and the fens of.East Anglia. Duir's
Ogham Consaine numerical correspondence is 12.
The eighth ogham letter, Tinne, has the phoentic value of 'T'.
It is usually associated with the holly tree, (flex aquifolium) ,
although The Book of Ballymote gives alternative ascriptions.
There, the Cypress, (Cupressus sp.) or Rowan, (Sorbus
acuparia) , are mentioned. But rowan is identified with Luis,
(caorthann) , and most ogham users prefer to use the holly. But
the modern Irish word for holly is cuileann, cognate with the
Welsh, celyn. But, conversely, the letter's magical name is
related to the Irish words tine, meaning fire , and teann, strong
or bold. It is this fiery meaning which is ascribed to its
counterpart in the Scots Gaelic alphabet, Teinne , the 16th
letter. Magically, the character Tinne brings strength and
power, but in a balanced manner. It has a strong male element,
more specifically connected with fatherhood and the consequent
ability for souls to be reborn. It is the ogham of
unification. Tinne's bird ogham is truith , the starling, a bird
which forms enormous flocks. The holly is the fifth peasant
tree, whose colour is lemen , a word interpreted as meaning
grey-green or dark grey. Its esoteric consonantal number is 11.
The ninth tree letter is Coli, with the phonetic value of 'K' or
a hard 'C' . It signifies the hazel tree, (Corylus avellana) , the
fourth chieftain tree. Its ancient name is the same in modern
Irish, whilst in Welsh it is collen. In the Gaelic alphabet it is
Caltuinn, the third letter, also corresponding with the hazel.
Its month runs from 5 August until 1 September. In Bardic
numerology, Coli is the magic number nine, 'by the power of
three times three', related to the three of its Gaelic counterpart.
According to country lore , the hazel fruits first after nine
years' growth.
Hazel is associated with finding out things. The druidic
heralds of pagan Ireland carried white hazel wands as symbols
of office, representing their ability to use words. In Viking
times, hazel poles were used to delimit the sacred enclosures
known as the hoslur, or 'hazelled field' in which formal combat
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Magical Alphabets
took place. Both in single combat, holmganga, and in full-scale
formal battles between armies, the area for battle was
distinguished from the normal world of everyday life by hazel
posts which formed a magical boundary around it. In warfare,
hazel was used as a magical shield. According to the ancient
Irish legend of The Ancient Dripping Hazel, this magic tree
dripped venom, and when made into a shield by Fionn
MacCumhaill, poisonous gases emanating from it slew his
enemies. Fionn's Shield is a poetic kenning for magical
protection. It alludes to the optical illusion binding knots of
Celtic interlace-patterns known as luaithrindi carried by Celtic
warriors. It also means a satirical poem which carries a curse
on the subject of the satire .
The medieval text known as The Book of St Albans tells of a
magical technique for invisibility, which involves the use of a rod
of hazel, one-and-a-half fathoms in length (9 feet), with a green
hazel twig implanted in it. Before the recent use of metal wires
virtually superseded it, the forked hazel twig was the traditional
wand of the water diviner. Here, hazel was another meaning of
'finding out'. Its colour is cron, nut-brown, the same word in Irish
as its bird ogham correspondence, cron, the crane.
Quert, the crab apple tree, (Malus sylvestris) , is the tenth
ogham, the final character of the second rubic. It has the
phonetic value of 'Qu'. Quert is a magical name, as the profane
name of the apple is aball in modern Irish, and afal in Welsh,
the seventh peasant tree . It has no Gaelic correspondence.
European symbolism tells of the apple as the tree of rebirth
and eternal life. The Greek tradition tells of the Golden Apples
of the Hesperides, the Norse speaks of the goddess Iduna and
the apples of immortality, whilst Celtic tradition has the Isle of
Avalon, to which King Arthur is taken after his last battle, to
heal his wounds. Quert thus celebrates the eternity of life. The
five strokes to the left of the stem of the ogham letter reflect
the five-fold petals of the apple flower, the five receptacles for
the seeds within the fruit itself. Unlike the cultivated species
of apple, the crab apple bears thorns, making Quert a
protective tree like the hawthorn and blackthorn. Quert's
colour is given variously as apple-green and quiar, mousecoloured.
Its bird ogham bird is another version of brown,
querc, the hen.
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The Celtic Oghams and Bardic Alphabet
Muin or Min is the 11th tree of the oghams, with the phonetic
value of 'M'. This ogham is usually ascribed to the grape vine
(Vitis alba) . However, in the Irish language, the vine is finium.
Also, this plant is not indigenous to the British Isles, but
equally it may have been introduced by the Celts from
mainland Europe. However, in the Irish language, muine
means a thicket of any thorny plant, so the correlation of this
ogham with the vine may be a late connection. As a thorny
thicket, it is nearer to a tree than a vine, for Muin is the fifth
noble, or chieftain, tree. This meaning is ascribed to the tenth
character of the Gaelic alphabet, Muin. The thicket-month
incorporates the autumnal equinox, being current from 2
September until the 29th of that month. Its bird ogham is
min tan , the titmouse, a bird of thickets, and Muin's colour is
mbracht, variegated. Its number correspondence is six. Magically,
it signifies the ability to range over a wide area and gather
together those things that might be needed. Once gathered
together, these things are assimilated, leading to inner development.
Gort is the 12th ogham character, with the phonetic value of
'G'. In the modern tree-based interpretation of the oghams, it
represents the native vine, the Ivy (Hedera helix), most
particularly in its flowering season. In Welsh, the name of this
'tree' is eiddew, eadhnean in modern Irish. But the Irish word
gort means a tilled field, not ivy. This corresponds almost
exactly with the meaning in the Scots Gaelic alphabet for the
letter G, the seventh letter, Gart, which signifies a garden or
vineyard. As an ogham of the flowering season, its appearance
in a divination indicates the second harvest, that of fruits, as
its time correspondence, 30 September until 27 October,
indicates. Because the name of this ogham is also related to the
Irish gorta, which means hunger or famine, in an unfavourable
position in a divination, Gort may be an indicator of scarcity,
the failure of the tilled field to produce an adequate harvest.
Gorm, blue, is the colour associated with Gort, and its bird is
geis, the mute swan. Its esoteric number is ten, the number of
completion of the cycle. Symbolically and magically, Gort
represents the changes that are necessary for growth, and the
requirement that all things be related to the Earth. Just as it is
necessary to till the fields in order to reap a harvest later, so it
139
Magical Alphabets
is necessary to do the 'groundwork' in any thing, and to
remember that in all things we must think of Mother .Earth.
Although it grows upon other plants or on the walls of
buildings, the ivy must remain rooted in the ground in order to
survive. But it is a tree of transformation, starting as a small,
weak, herb-like plant, which finally, after centuries of growth ,
becomes an enormously thick, woody, sepentine tree in its own
right.
Ngetal is the 13th ogham. It has the phonetic equivalent of
'Ng'. Like the previous character, Ngetal's 'tree' is not a tree
according to modern botanical definitions. It is the reed,
giolcach in Irish, the Welsh cawnen. Ngetal has no corresponding
letter in the Scots Gaelic alphabet. According to the bardic
tree classification, the reed is the first of the kiln or shrub trees.
I,t appears that the reed was classified as a tree because the
scribes of ancient Ireland used the hard, resistant stems of the
reed to make pens. The modern, scientifically based definition
of what is and what is not a tree is relatively recent. As in many
other areas of biology, the scientific definition differs from the
traditional. In former times, any plant with woody stems, such
as a reed or ivy was called a tree. The reed was also the material
from which a sort of paper or papyrus, known to the Welsh
scribes as plagawd was made. The reed was a traditional rod
of measure, used to delimit sacred enclosures. In bardic
numerology, it signifies the number 1. This ogham is equivalent
phonetically to the Nordic rune lng, which refers to the divinity
lng, whose sacred enclosure was delineated by the image of the
god being carried around it. The traditional use of reeds was
in enclosing space in covering the roof of the house with thatch,
and the patterns of the rune Ing are used in thatching to this
day. Another use was as a floor covering, especially in winter,
when reeds served as insulation. Ngetal's month extends from
28 October until 24 November. Ngetal is the thus the ogham
of La Samhain, the festival of the dead and the beginning of
the new year in the Celtic calendar. Traditionally, reed for
thatching and other weavings is cut in November. Its bird
ogham correspondence is the goose, the bird that winters in the
reedlands, its old Irish name being ngeigh.
The greatest power of Ngetal is as a preserver. As a pen, the
reed preserves memory and knowledge, as a rod, it preserves
140
The Celtic Oghams and Bardic Alphabet
measure, and as roofing it preserves the house. Above all else,
Ngetal is the ogham of written communication, and thereby
signifies conscious precision and the maintenance of order in
chaos. The many uses of the reed in traditional society are
reflected in its symbolic meanings As well as representing
preservation, Ngetal signifies flexibility . That i~ the flexibility one
must possess if one is to come to terms with the prevailing
circumstances without sacrificing one's integrity. From its use in
thatching and basket-making, and as the covert in which birds
take refuge, it is the container and protector of things, just as
writing is the container and protector of thought and culture. Its
colour is ngias. This is another colour where traditional colour
perception differs from modern colour descriptions. It is usually
thought of as 'glass green', a clear yellowish-green.
The 14th ogham, with the phonetic value of 'St', is Straif. This
is equivalent to the blackthorn or sloe tree, Prunus spinosa, the
seventh peasant tree. The modern Irish name of this plant is
draion or draighnean, the Welsh draenenwen. Blackthorn is a
shrub that produces suckers which can make a single plant the
nucleus of an impenetrable thorny thicket. It is one of the
major trees of magical power, a tree whose name has the
connotations of 'punishment' and 'strife'. Staves made from its
wood, carried by witches, warlocks and wizards, have always
been renowned for their magical power. It is no coincidence
that the Irish word for a wizard is draoi, and that of a druid,
drai, both related to the mantic turning power of the sloe tree.
On a physical level, the thorns of the blackthorn have proved
a valuable defence in hedging; walking-sticks, shillelaghs and
cudgels made from the wood are hard and durable. In magic
and divination, Straif signifies power in both the visible and
invisible worlds. It provides the strength one needs to resist and
defeat adversity, and to control or ward off supernatural and
paranormal powers. Straif is perhaps the most powerful ogham
for overthrowing all resistance to one's will. The once sacred
alcoholic beverage made from the blackthorn's fruit, sloe gin,
is a reviver and protector on another level. In bird ogham, this
character is smolach, the thrush, a bird reputed to impale snails
on the thorns of the blackthorn bush. Its corresponding colours
are sorcha - 'bright coloured' and purple-black, the colour of
the blackthorn's fruit , the sloe.
141
Magical Alphabets
The next ogham character, the 15th, is Ruis, with the phonetic
value of 'R'. This is symbolized by the elder or bourtree,
(Sambucus nigra), in modern Irish, trom, the Welsh ysgaw. In
all of northern Europe, it is another tree of great mantic power,
the second kiln or shrub tree. Ruis is cognate with the Irish
word ruisc, which means a violent attack, a blow, or a throw,
which expresses the protective but dangerous nature of this
holy tree. The bark and flowers have healing properties, but
the vapours emanating from plantations of elder are reputed to
produce disease and even bring death to those who might linger
nearby for too long. King William II (Rufus) was shot by an
archer who lurked beneath an elder tree. East Anglian folk
tradition warns against burning elder wood in the house, for
bad luck will surely follow. But branches of the flowering elder
were known to be good for keeping flies away from stables and
byres. The elder is sacred to the dark aspect of the Mother
Goddess, the Hag. In connection with this, Irish witches were
reputed to ride upon elder sticks in place of the more common
broomsticks, hurdles or straws.
Symbolically, Ruis signifies the three aspects of time
present in the Threefold Goddess, the Fates, the Parcae, the
Norns and the Weird Sisters. It represents the ever-present
threefold aspects of existence: beginning, middle and end. As
Ruis, it denotes the acceptance of all three aspects that is
necessary if one is to lead a balanced life. It is an ogham of
timelessness, or, rather, the unity of all time. Like the
blackthorn, the elder is the origin of two other sacred
alcoholic beverages which ward off the cold and illness:
elderflower wine, brewed in June and July from the creamywhite
flowers, and elderberry wine, fermented from the
purply-black fruits that ripen in August and September. The
colour ascribed to Ruis is rocnat, one of the many forms of
red formerly recognized, described in tartan ogham as
'roebuck red'. Its corresponding bird is the rook.
Ailm, the elm tree, (Ulmus minor), is the 16th ogham, the first
character of the fourth rubric, whose strokes are drawn right
across the stem. Ailm is the third kiln or shrub tree, being most
usually the so-called 'Cornish elm' (Ulmus minor, var. stricta) ,
which grows in Cornwall, Devon and south-western Ireland.
Unlike most elms, this is a wayside tree that is not found in
142
The Celtic Oghams and Bardic Alphabet
woodland. Ailm has the phonetic value of 'A'. But elm,
although clearly the correct ascription, is less commonly used.
Because, in Irish, ailm means palm tree, which is not
indigenous to northern Europe, the modern interpretation of
this ogham, based on the work of Robert Graves and Colin
Murray, is to associate it with the European silver fir, (Abies
alba). This is the tallest European native tree, the tannenbaum
of German-speaking peoples. However, this identification
produces more problems than it solves. This fir tree is not
indigenous to the British Isles, and the Irish word for a fir tree
is giuis. However, in the Gaelic alphabet of Scotland, the first
letter is the Fhailm, elm, cognate with this ogham character.
Therefore, I am convinced that the appropriate ascription for
ailm is the elm tree.
Although the 16th character in the Irish ogham order, this
letter 'A' corresponds with the first characters of other
important alphabets; the Aleph of Hebrew and Alpha of the
Greek. It also corresponds with the extremely powerful 'godrune'
of the Runic Futhark. Ailm represents the god-like
strength that one needs to rise above adversity, like the elm
tree, to create a viewpoint from a higher level: the god-like
capabilities of healing and perception of future trends.
Regeneration, like the elm, can re-grow from new shoots sent
out from the roots. When an elm is cut down, and seemingly
dead, new stems grow from the still-living roots. Its corresponding
colour is usually given as blue (but, according to Frank
McGaugh, the tartan ogham researcher, it is black and white).
Its corresponding bird is the lapwing.
On or Ohn is the 17th ogham, being the second vowel. It has
the phonetic value of '0' . Its corresponding 'tree', the gorse or
furze (Ulex europaeus) , is the seventh chieftain tree. The
modern Irish word for the gorse is aiteann, cognate with the
Welsh eithin. It corresponds with Ofr, the 12th character of the
Gaelic alphabet. This is a plant which can be found in flower
in almost every month of the year. Thus it is an ogham of
continuous fertility. It represents the carrying on of one's
activities despite the surrounding conditions, in this aspect of
'standing out' against the background, as does the gorse bush.
The word 'on' also means a stain or blemish. The gorse grows
only in open country, not in woodlands. Magically, On
143
Magical Alphnbets
represents the collecting together and retammg of one's
strength through adversity. The collection and dispersal of the
gorse seeds by ants, expresses the necessity for gathering small
and separate things together. Ohn's liturgical colour is that of
the pea-like gorse flowers: golden-yellow, saffron, dun or sand,
according to various descriptions. Its corresponding bird is a
sea-bird, the cormorant.
The third vowel, with the phonetic value of 'V', is Vr. This is
the heather (Erica sp. ), the 18th ogham and the last of the eight
peasant trees. The meaning of this ogham is problematical, for
its corresponding character in the Gaelic alphabet is Vhr, one
of the two yew tree connections there. Another problem with
this ogham is that the Irish word for this plant is fraoch, and
the Welsh grug. Vr has the literal meaning of 'fresh', 'new', or
'moist', with the associated meaning of the morning dew.
Magically, V r brings this luck and freshness to any venture to
which it is applied. It becomes the entrance-point to the inner
worlds. In everyday folk tradition, the heather is considered to
be an extremely lucky plant. To this day it is sold in the streets
by gypsies as a luck bringer. Its traditional corresponding
colour is purple, the colour of its flowers, associated with the
dark goddess; a subsidiary colour, used in the tartan ogham
system, is light green. Its corresponding bird is the skylark. The
late British druid Colin Murray linked this ogham with the
mistletoe as well as the heather. This he saw as a complementary
aspect of the ogham, the healing of all and fresh
fertilization on solid foundations.
Eadha is the 19th ogham letter, the fourth vowel, phonetically
'E'. This corresponds with the aspen or white poplar, (Populus
tremula) , the fifth kiln or shrub tree. Scots Gaelic calls this
character Eubh, whose tree is also the aspen. The modem Irish
name for this tree is pobail ban, and the Welsh, aethnen. The
aspen is very hardy, living in a range of habitats from low-lying
wetlands to exposed mountain ledges. It thus has the quality
of hardy resistance to a variety of seemingly inhospitable
conditions. Magically, it is seen as a preventer of death. It is a
facilitator of the individual's curative powers, providing access
to the real essence that underlies the sometimes misleading
outer form. It is the spirit that animates the flesh. At its most
144
The Celtic Oghams and Bardic Alphabet
powerful, it signifies the power of one's will overriding destiny,
the possibility of the power of the mind overriding the inertia
of matter, overcoming death. Its corresponding colour is
silvery-white, though in the tartan ogham system, it is ascribed
light yellow. Its bird is the whistling swan.
The 20th ogham, loho, Idho or lubhar, has the phonetic
equivalent of '1' . loho is the yew tree (Taxus baccata). after the
Scots pine, this sixth kiln or shrub tree is the other conifer tree
indigenous to the British Isles. In modern Irish, the name of
the yew tree is eo , in Welsh, yw. Its correspondence in Scots
Gaelic is lubhar, the second yew of that alphabet. This
character has a direct connection with the rune Eoh of the
Elder Futhark, which is the magic double-ended stave of death
and life. Throughout Europe, the yew is the longest-lived tree,
green throughout the year. Because of this continuity, it is a
tree of eternal life, sacred to various divinities and saints of
death and regeneration, for example, Hecate in the eastern
Mediterranean. The ogham loho has the meaning of the unity
of death and life, the rebirth which comes, figuratively or
physically, as the result of death. Ancient Irish tradition called
for the yew 'the coffin of the vine' , for it was from yew wood
that wine-barrels were made. The connection of the yew with
the bow has already been mentioned in the previous chapter.
European yew-magic is concerned with the mysteries of life and
death: loho expresses those qualities. It represents the magical
staff or sliver of yew, cut at the appropriate hour, which guards
against all evil. Shakespeare' s Macbeth tells of the '. . . slips of
Yew, sliver'd in the Moon's eclipse' which is part of this
tradition. As a time marker, it signifies the last day of the year.
Again, this expresses the dual nature of the ending and
beginning being present at the same time. Its colour is dark
greenish brown, the colour of the tree's leaves, although the
tartan ogham correspondence is given as 'royal scarlet' and
'blood red', the colour of the under-bark and resin. The
corresponding bird of loho is the eaglet.
loho is the last vowel of the conventional rubric of the ogham
script. It has the phonetic value of '1'. The last five characters
are diphthongs, and in modern usage, they can be ascribed
different meanings. Their magical correspondences are less
145
Magical Alphabets
well established than those of the first 20 characters. The first
of these last five letters is sometimes known as Koad, with the
phonetic value of 'K', but in some other interpretations it is the
diphthong 'Ea', whose equivalent is that of the Eadha, the
Aspen tree (Populus tremula). But, as ' Ea', the first of this
unconventional rubric can signify Earth, corresponding with
the Anglo-Saxon rune 'Ear', which means 'the grave'. It has
the bardic number of 13, the number of Death in the Tarot,
and the yew-rune, 'Eoh' is also associated with death.
Colin Murray saw this ogham as Koad, which signifies the
unity of all eight festivals of the traditional year. Here it is
described as the sacred grove, the location in which all things,
hitherto separate, become connected together. At such a point,
all things become clear. The associated colours of Koad are all
the 'forty shades of green', described in 'tartan ogham' as 'light
green and speckled'.
Oi or Oir has the phonetic value of 'Oi'. As Oi, it is the
gooseberry bush, (Ribes uva-crispa) . This plant is a cultivated
species, and it is probable that the Gooseberry is not
indigenous to the British Isles. The Welsh word for this fruit
bush is a name related to Oir, eirinen fair, but in the Irish
language, it is spiontin. During the 1970s, in his teachings to
the druidic 'Golden Section Order' however, Colin Murray
sometimes called this ogham Tharan', with the phonetic value
of 'Th', which would relate it to the thorn oghams, Huath and
Straif. This is associated with the spindle tree, (Euonymus
europaeus), the sacred tree of the central point, as with the
rune Gar. Traditionally, as Oi, this ogham is associated with
childbirth, being used magically to ease the passage of the baby
from the womb into the world. Its colour is usually white,
although in his tartan ogham correspondences, Frank
McGaugh sees it as red, the colour of the spindle tree's fruits.
The 23rd ogham tree is Ui or Uinllean, which has the phonetic
value of 'Ui' . According to The Book of Ballymote, this ogham
is associated with the honeysuckle (Lonicera). However,
modern ogham users connect it with the beech tree (Fagus
sylvatica), a chieftain tree. Sometimes this ogham is rendered
as 'Phagos', with the phonetic equivalent of 'Ph' or 'F'. The
European beech is a large tree which flowers in May, and
146
The Celtic Oghams and Bardic Alphabet
produces its nuts in October. Thus it marks the period between
the festivals of Beltane and Samhain (1 May and 1 November),
the markers of the summer half of the year in the Celtic
calendar. The name of this tree in modern Irish is fed, and the
Welsh ffawyddean . Fed is a version of the name of the 'F'
character in runes, 'Feoh'. Whatever it is called, the magical
characteristic of this character is hardness and resistance, the
solidity of knowledge and tried-and-tested actions. It refers to
the solidity of ancient wisdom, the cultural or physical
foundation which must be in place before any constructions can
be made, either in the physical or the figurative meaning. Its
colour is tawny, (the 'light roebuck' of tartan ogham), the
colour of the leaves of the copper beech.
Pethbol is the 24th ogham character, with the phonetic value
of 'P'. Pethbol is equivalent to the guelder rose or snowball
tree, (Viburnum opulus), a close relative of the wayfaring tree,
which does not grow in Ireland. Like its runic counterpart, it
is a character of mystery, about which little is commonly
known. Peith has been connected with the rune Peorth, with
the meaning of 'a lively tune', meaning the dance of life. Colin
Murray saw it as a special step which leads into the labyrinth
which is inner knowledge. This links it with the mystic Crane
Dance, performed upon labyrinths throughout Europe, and the
crane-skin 'medicine bag' which ancient shamans used to hold
their sacred power-objects. Its magical number correspondence
is given as 3 or 5 in the Irish bardic mysteries, and its colour is
that version of red now known as pink, after the pale,
transparent red fruits of the tree, which are ripe in September
and October.
The 25th ogham is given various names - Peine, Amancholl,
Xi and Mor. Clearly this ogham is yet another contentious
character. As the phonetic value of 'Ae', Amancholl, it has the
ascription of the witch hazel, (Hamamelis virginiana). As an
ancient ascription, this is problematical because the witch hazel
is not indigenous to Europe, having been introduced from New
England around the seventeenth century. Thus it is not possible
that this tree is the original correspondence. As • Ae', this
ogham is also connected with the sacred grid of the four of eight
' ifins'. The tree of this ogham is the evergreen Scots pine,
147
Magical Alphabets
(Pinus sy/vestris, modern Irish peine, and the Welsh, pinwydden).
With the yew, the Scots pine is the only other indigenous
conifer tree. In esoteric lore, it is a tree which shows the way.
In the countryside, it is a marker on the ancient trackways
known as 'leys', where prominently visible clumps of Scots pine
mark the path ahead. In the darkness, the pine is the tree of
illumination, and, as the eight ifins composed of pine, Peine
recalls the traditional technique of illumination employed in
central Europe until the eighteenth century. This used a
kienspan , a chip of resinous pinewood, lit at one end. Peine is
thus the bringer of illumination, both on an intellectual and on
a spiritual level. This connection with the illuminating fire is
apparent also in the ceremonial burning of the sacred pine
cone, the East Anglian 'Deal Apple' or the Irish buarcin. This
coniferous fruit signjfies the container of wisdom, the matrix
which holds together the material world according to the
universal laws of existence.
This ogham character has suffered more interpretation than
most. As the 25th, it goes beyond the conventional 24-fold
division of things customary in the Northern Tradition (as, for
example, the 24 hours in the day, the 24 half-months of the
year, the 24 characters in the Welsh bardic alphabet and the
24 runes of the Elder Futhark). Because of this, it is considered
to be outside the conventions of the other 24 characters. In
addition to its ascriptions as witch hazel or pine, this ogham
has two further interpretations. They are 'Xi', spirit, and 'Mor',
the sea, more general in descriptive terms. As Xi, this character
is seen as blue-green (or sea green) in colour, whilst in tartan
ogham it is 'black, variegated