B – Beithe – The Birch Tree

Well the time has almost come for me to begin my year-long journey through the Ogham. For those who don’t know, Ogham (or Ogam in Old Irish) is an Old Irish alphabet that has been found inscribed into stones (vertically from bottom to top) and into wood or other materials (usually horizontally from left to right – as shown above). The message inscribed normally started with the ‘feather mark’ as shown above. Sometimes it was inscribed along a corner (especially on stones) but when written nowadays it usually has a centre line as in the example above.

There were originally fifteen consonants, divided into three groups of five. The first group, B L F S N, were signified by one to five notches below (or to the right if vertical) of the corner or line. The second group, H D T C Q, were signified by one to five notches above (or to the left if vertical) of the corner or line. The third group, M, G, nG (or GG), Z (or SR), R were signified by one to five notches diagonally across the centre line or edge.

There were also five vowels, A O U E I, which were signified by one to five notches vertically across the line (or horizontally if the edge or line is vertical).

At a later date, five further letters (known as the forfeda) were added to accommodate sounds from other languages but I will not be working with these this year.

Many people only know the Ogham as a tree alphabet (Crann Ogham), but actually most of the Ogham letters have other meanings and the trees were added later – along with a great many other, less well-known Oghams such as the bird Ogham.

I start my journey with B – Beithe, the first letter of the Ogham alphabet which is one of the letters which is believed to have the meaning of a tree – the Birch Tree. This means that for the first 18 days of January 2021, I will be working with:

• The true meaning and Inner Meaning of Beithe
• The Birch tree itself (meditating with the tree and studying it)
• Birds of the Thrush family (Blackbird, Song Thrush, Mistle Thrush, Redwig and Fieldfare)
• The Goddess Brighid or Bride

During this time, I plan to write a piece of prose and a poem, carve a stave onto a piece of birchwood (to make a full set of Ogham staves by the end of the year), make an incense from the tree’s bark and finish the work with a Shamanic-style journey with the tree.

By assigning 18 days to each of the original Ogham letters it will take me 360 days to journey through the twenty letters.

Out of Darkness

“Cá Filidecht?” (Where is poetry?)
“Ní hansa. I ndorchaidheta.” (Not hard. It is in darkness.)

As we approach the Winter Solstice, the time of the longest darkest night, I thought I might share some ideas upon the nature of darkness.

Many people are afraid of the dark. They see the blackness as the unknown and if you don’t know what is there, it could be anything. Those who fear the darkness create their own monsters to inhabit it. However, the darkness is a place of potential; the place from which things can be conceived and grow. It is the place where magick can happen. New life is conceived in the darkness of the womb when sperm meets egg. It will spend months there – gestating – waiting for the right moment to be born into the light.

Seeds also lie deep in the ground – the womb of Mother Earth – waiting for the right time to sprout open and reach for the light.

So too, is poetry born in darkness. There are few great poems (or songs) about happy times – it is pain, heartbreak and misery – the darkest of days – that give birth to the greatest works of art.

In our polarized western society, we think of the darkness as bad and the light as good, but this is just wrong thinking. Imagine a black and white photo you’ve seen – any photo – a family portrait, a country scene, a city-scape, it doesn’t matter, just imagine you’re holding this photo in your hands right now. Now imagine taking away all the darkness – all you’re left with is a white rectangle. Taking away the darkness is just the same as taking away the light – you’re left with nothing – you’re left blind.

The Yin-Yang symbol represents darkness and light, chaos and order, negative and positive. However, what this symbol really tells us is that these seemingly opposing forces are actually complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world. They give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another and each contains the seed of the other.

The symbol also represents feminine and masculine. Some may object to the idea that feminine is equated with darkness and chaos but remember that it is from the darkness of the womb that new life comes.

Darkness and light do not equate to evil and good – the darkness is just as important and necessary and the light. Returning to the Yin-Yang symbol, it is the line where darkness and light meet that really matters – this is the path that you should seek to tread. The only monsters that exist in the darkness are those that you bring there.

Every year we celebrate, around the time of the Winter Solstice (albeit this year our celebrations may be more subdued and limited to our immediate household). Isn’t it strange to be celebrating the time of greatest darkness? Of course what we are really celebrating is the beginning of the end of the darkness – the days finally begin to grow longer and the nights shorter but through this time of darkness what seeds are you sowing for the New Year?