yew tree |
Since
I live in an urban area in the Southeastern United States, many of the trees from
the Oghams are foreign to me. To find out
if any of these trees lived near me, I used a field guide to look up the
taxonomic names of the local trees to discover if they were the same species. For the remainder, I followed the advice of
Caitlin Matthews, in her book “The Celtic
Wisdom Tarot”, to look for a native tree that had similar qualities to a
tree of the Oghams. I had reasonable
success with that but did find that substitution could be a problem. For example, Muin, the “Vine” of the Ogham generally is associated with grapes,
but the major vine where I live is kudzu.
However,
I did find some similar species that did make a connection:
Beith: European Birch: River Birch
Fern: Alder: Smooth Alder
Saille: Osier Willow: Weeping Willow
Nion: Ash: Green Ash
Uath: Hawthorn: Cockspur
Dair: English Oak: White Oak
Tinne: Holly: Holly
Ceirt: Crab Apple: Crab apple
Gort: English Ivy: English Ivy
Ailm: Silver Fir: Balsam Fir
Eadhadh: Aspen:
Bigtooth Aspen
Eamhancholl: Witchhazel:
Witchhazel
To
acquaint myself with the “foreign” trees of the Oghams, I read about their
natural history on the Internet. In
addition, I used “The Meaning of Trees”
by Fred Hageneder, which features “magical” photos of various trees with their
spiritual properties. Looking at the
photo of “Yew”, I could feel the ancient wisdom of yew as the tree of
endings. I also used my collection of
books about the trees of the Oghams, and compared each author’s experiences to
gain an essence of each tree. Moreover,
two authors, each, featured guided meditations of the trees, which I used in
conjunction with various tree photos. Using
a form of Yantra meditation, I then introduced
myself to each of the trees.
Works Used:
Hageneder,
Fred, “The Meaning of Trees,”
Chronicle Books: San Francisco, 2005.
Hidalgo,
Sharlyn, “The Healing Power of Trees,”
Llewellyn: Woodbury MN, 2010.
Hopman,
Ellen Evert, “A Druid’s Herbal of Sacred
Tree Medicine,” Destiny: Rochester VT, 2008.
Matthews,
Caitlin, “The Celtic Wisdom Tarot,”
Destiny: Rochester VT, 1999.
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