“An Ogham Rethink” Revisited

I posted a blog named “An Ogham Rethink” a few weeks ago and I wanted to update my thoughts for three reasons:

1. I tried working with Ash connected to the Onn few and Cherry replacing Ash on the Nin few and it just didn’t work for me.
2. I have decided to spend a year working with the Ogham alphabet (Starting January 1^st 2021) – 18 days per letter/few to deepen my understanding and connection to the letters and trees.
3. I wanted this to be based on locations near to where I live on the Isle of Thanet. Some trees are not found here (or at least I don’t know where any are), some are not suitable for carving a stave (such as Reed) and some I’m not comfortable with as they are not really native species, such as Vine.

So here is a list of the twenty letters of the Ogham alphabet with the tree normally associated and my replacements.

B – Birch

L – Rowan

F – Alder

S – Willow

N – Ash

H – Whitethorn

D – Oak

T – Holly

C – Hazel

Q – Apple

M – Vine – I could only source this from someone’s garden so I am using Bramble; I think it is more authentic as a native species anyway.

G – Ivy

GG – Reed/Broom – As mentioned above, Reed is not suitable for carving and I can’t find Broom locally so I will use Wild Rose instead.

R – Blackthorn

Z – Elder

A – Pine

O – Gorse – I can’t find Gorse locally and so will substitute Sea Buckthorn which has many similar properties.

U – Heather – Not found locally and not suitable for carving, using Wild Cherry instead.

E – Aspen

I – Yew

For those I am substituting because of lack of local availability (by which I mean within a few miles of my house), I may go back and use the original if I find a source locally before the allocated 18-day period – this is possible with Broom, Gorse and possibly Vine if I can find it in the wild.

In addition to Tree associations to the Ogham there are many others, notably Birds. As a keen bird watcher I feel I should really include a bird to watch for each few but again I have made a few substitutions for much the same reasons as before.

B – Pheasant – this is not native so I’ll substitute the Blackbird.

L – Duck – I’ll use Ducks in general as the are several species around here as well as the common Mallard.

F – Gull – Gulls are so common on the coast here that this is just too easy so I’m going to substitute Waders since that’s more interesting for me.

S – Hawk – I should be able to see Kestrel and possibly Sparrowhawk and Peregrine.

N – Snipe – Hard to find here and would be included above as a Wader so I’m substituting Skylark (see below).

H – Raven – Not common here so will use Crow if I can’t find any.

D – Wren

T – Starling

C – Unknown (possibly Crane) – I’ll use Cuckoo since they should be calling at this time.

Q – Hen – Clearly not native so I’ll substitute Owl.

M – Titmouse – Archaic name for the Tit family.

G – Mute Swan – Surprising rare near me, I’m using Magpie.

GG – Goose – Quite uncommon in August when I’ll be doing this letter so doing this in Winter

R – Thrush – Seem to be very rare near me, so I’ve chosen Jackdaw instead.

Z – Rook – I feel the Crow family has been covered sufficiently so will have Robin instead.

A – Lapwing

O – Scrat – No idea what this is, some think Cormorant… that works for me.

U – Lark – The Skylark doesn’t perform in November so I moved this earlier and will replace with Pied Wagtail.

E – Swan (Whistling) – Rare here so will substitute Brent Goose (and any other Geese that are around).

I – Eaglet – Unclear what this is, young Eagle? Not likely around here so I’m suing Little Egret.

As you can see there are many more substitutions here. I think there are several reasons for this:

1. I suspect the original list was mostly of birds they could eat and so there are very few small birds, something I wanted to correct.
2. Because of the temporal element that I’ve introduced (an 18-day window) several of the birds aren’t found on the allocated dates.
3. Birds don’t stay put like trees do, if I find a tree it will very likely still be there when I look in its 18-day window – I can’t say the same for birds unless they are fairly common at the time of year.
4. Pheasants were introduced, hens are only around as a domestic (farmed bird).
5. As a bird watcher I wanted to make it interesting for me – hence no pigeons or gulls.

As I said earlier, there are a great many other associations with the Ogham alphabet but for the course of my study over the first 360 days of 2021 (20 fews x 18 days each) I will limit myself to the following in the order of priority:

1. The original meaning of each few.
2. The associated tree for each few (includes field work).
3. The associated bird for each few (includes field work).
4. Associated deities and heroes from Irish mythology – more on this later…

Update, 1st December 2020 – I found Broom. I feel pretty dumb because there are two very large clumps that I must have walked past about fifty times over the last five years. Still, I’m very pleased as I wasn’t very comfortable with Wild Rose as a substitution for GG/nG.

Update, 9th December 2020 – I have found some Gorse. Once again I’ve walked past this on numerous occasions without seeing it. I was happy enough to substitute Sea Buckthorn but this is no longer necessary.

In Search of Rowan

First of all, a quick note to my WordPress blog followers. I will continue to post here but only the longer articles that I write. Most of 2021 I will be posting about my journey through the early Irish alphabet called the Ogham and many of the shorter articles I write will only appear on my Facebook page “The Pagan Punk”, so you might want to check that out.

https://www.facebook.com/The-Pagan-Punk-111350967454901

My Ogham journey will consist of me working through the twenty Ogham letters (B L F S H D T C Q M G NG(GG) R S A O U E I) throughout the next year, starting with B – Beith (Birch tree) in January. I’ve been going on walks in my local area to locate suitable trees to work with for both meditation and to cut a stave from. I want these trees to be within walking distance of my home in Thanet so it is possible that I may have to make a few substitutions from the accepted tree associations in the Ogham alphabet, but one that I really didn’t want to substitute is the Rowan (also known as the Mountain Ash or Quicken Tree). This is connected to the second letter of the Ogham alphabet, L – Luis. The problem is that there really aren’t that many Rowans growing in Thanet, apart from those in people’s gardens.

Yesterday I had diverted my normal clifftop run to take in Ellington Park to search for suitable trees, but the area just feels wrong and the trees seem lonely and isolated – not to mention the fact that there are no Rowans. So today I set out on a walk to try to find a suitable one in a public space where I could easily work with it.

My first stop was to be the King George VI Memorial Park in Ramsgate. After an invigorating walk along the seafront, waves crashing against the promenade in the brisk wind, I climbed up the steps to the park. This place is very popular with dog walkers and very few of the trees would be suitable to work with because they are close to public thoroughfares and many are heavily clad in Ivy – mixing the energies of the two trees, especially in winter when the deciduous trees are dormant and so the Ivy would dominate. After walking around for about twenty minutes I was able to locate a small Rowan near the Italianate Glasshouse but it was on the junction of two paths so would be difficult to work with unless I went very early in the morning or after dark. All in all, not a great start.

Not far away though is the little bit of Montefiore woodland. Although a very small area it is much more natural – the trees being largely left to their own devices. It’s also pretty quiet there. I found a couple of young trees that I was pretty sure were Rowan, but identifying trees in mid-November is always a challenge.

The leaves (which were thankfully still present) certainly looked right, and the bark was smooth and grey. The deciding factor though was the buds – if they had been black then this would be an Ash tree, but thankfully these were grey.

Smooth, Silver-grey Bark

Grey Leaf Bud

So this is certainly a Rowan tree I can work with.

My third and final stop was Ramsgate Cemetery, again not a very long walk away. There are many excellent mature trees here and it is a very peaceful place. I found more Rowans here but all the low, reachable branches had been removed, so no good for staves. A feature that really did interest me though was something I may use for the very end of my journey – I – IDAD – the Yew tree, which I will be working with December next year. What better way to end my journey than to pass through this Yew arch on the Winter Solstice.