Lesson Sixteen ~ The Ogam Alphabet

The Ogam is an ancient Irish alphabet. It consists of twenty symbols or letters called feda (singular)/feadha (plural.) In a later version an additional five were added, called the forfeda, to enable the spelling of Greek letter sounds that were creeping into Gaelic. These symbols are intended to be written in vertical columns, usually starting from the bottom and writing upwards. They lack the aesthetic beauty of runes or hieroglyphs, being simply horizontal and diagonal lines cutting across a central stem (called a druim, or ridge.) The twenty symbols are divided into four sets called aicme (meaning ‘tribe’) with five symbols in each set. The oldest ogam symbols date from some 1,700 years back, appearing on stones in Ireland, Scotland and those parts of Wales and Cornwall colonised by the Irish. Nearly all of these examples are grave markers (“here lies Conal son of Fergus”) or boundary markers (“this land belongs to the Ui Neill tribe”.)

There is literary evidence to suggest that ogam existed long before then – legends refer to the Druids using them carved on wood, and mythically they are linked to the god Ogma. No wood carved oghams have yet been found, though given the damp climates involved this is not surprising.

Some contention arises as the exact nature and purpose of the ogam. Some writers cite them as a Christian invention, mostly due to the fact that the stone carvings date from the early Christian period and are not used in an overtly Pagan manner (e.g. there are no surviving invocations to Pagan deities written in ogam.) This claim fails to address one simple question ~ why bother? Missionaries favoured the use of Latin as the language of the Church. Why go to the trouble of inventing a whole new alphabet, and such a clumsy one at that? It is not as if the stone examples convey any secret or mysterious messages between monks. They are quite prosaic in nature. We know that the Druids survived for several centuries alongside the Church, so even to refer to the 3rd to 8th centuries in Ireland as “the Christian Period” is misleading ~ it was a mixed faith period. Why then place the ogam only in the hands of the Church? Or, for that matter, only in the hands of Druids. It may well have been used by both faiths at different points.

The contention that the alphabet was a secret one seems also dubious. Grave stones and boundary markers, by their nature, are public signs intended to be read by the literate. Why write a public message in a language most people cannot read? It would be like putting British street signs in Chinese ~ pointless. The ogam may have started out as a secret alphabet, but by the 3rd century it was probably fairly commonly understood. The Irish were regarded as a highly educated and intellectual society during this period, so more people may have been literate than we suppose.

Sean O’ Boyle suggests that it started as a means of musical notation for the harp. Celtic music is pentatonic, and the ogam is arranged in sets of five letters, so there is a certain appeal to this idea. We are inclined to think that Shin Ogam (or something similar) was the earliest form. It started out as a sign language, with words communicated by placing the fingers either side of the shin, or a sword/staff/straight object of some description. When a written language was required scribes simply wrote symbols that were a direct copy of the hand gestures. The awkwardness of the written alphabet suggests to us that it was never intended for writing sentences of great length. It was, perhaps, either just for shorthand, or mostly for magical/symbolic use.

Of greater interest to most modern Pagans than basic alphabets or musical scores, is the use of ogam in magic. Each ogam is associated with a set of meanings described in a medieval text, the Auraicept na nEces. This tome gives 150 variants for each letter ~ some of these are just differing written symbols for the same letter, some are forms of sign-language for non-verbal communication, and some are later Christian inventions, such as Saint Ogam. Mastering these 150 types was intrinsic to the fili (a poet-seer) progressing through the seven grades of accomplishment. Those variants that are of use to modern Pagans include animals, trees, weapons of war, colours etc. Though often referred to as ‘the Tree Alphabet’, trees are but one of the set of meanings attributed to them.

There is some debate as to how the ogam originated. Did it start out as a system of hand signals, only later becoming a form of writing, or vice versa? Were some of the letters named after trees, or the other way round? From a pragmatic point of view the system can be used magically without ever needing to resolve such questions. Academics frequently look down their noses at any suggestion of magic or mysticism, seeing such ‘nonsense’ as a distraction from arid studies of linguistics. To extract the ogam from their spiritual context is to somewhat miss the point. Legends frequently refer to their use in the casting of spells, and do not relegate them to the exclusive role of an alphabet. There are accounts of them being carved onto branches and then being hurled at people to release their magical effect.

There is less direct evidence of their use in divination, which seems to be their most popular function amongst modern Pagans. One incidence shows the identity of a headless corpse being established through use of ogam and other magical techniques. Such incidents tend to suggest that the ogam was not used for predicting the future so much as for elucidating the past and present. The modern way of divining with ogam is clearly heavily influenced by the use of the heathen runes. Twenty wooden lots are cut, each depicting one feda. These are then either drawn blind or are cast on to a cloth and the pattern divined. Although this seems a logical way to use them for divination, it cannot be said with any certainty that this was the way the ancient druids used them. These days the chronically lazy can buy sets of pre-chopped sticks with ogam burnt into them, or even have ogam cards ~ which are pretty, but seem to miss the point rather. The ogam staves referred to in myth are often on yew wood, a particularly hard wood to get hold of these days. A number of the feadha, if inverted, look like other feadha. To avoid this confusion the staves can be pointed at one end to tell which way is up. From a divination perspective, this also allows the possibility of reading inverted symbols. While there is no indication that the original Druids did this, it certainly allows for a greater degree of subtlety in the reading. Magical systems are organic, they must be allowed to live and grow rather than being artificially stunted into some Golden Age now long gone.

None of the surviving texts so far translated give detailed information on how to use ogam in divination or magic. However, Peter Beresford Ellis notes that there are at least 400 untranslated Irish manuscripts, so who knows what could be in those! Whilst we await further translations, the ogam can be understood from references in myth and (more importantly) from direct experiences with the Gods and with the energies in question. The letter (Duir ~ D) represents the oak tree. To understand this feda one need but sit under a few oak trees and open one’s psyche to their influence. Of course the trees (or birds, herbs, colours etc) may not relate to each person in exactly the same way. So there must always be room for individual interpretation. There cannot be an “official” set of meanings ascribe to the symbols, only the result of personal experience. Though we have tended to find that most people come to very similar conclusions at the end of the day.

There is no ogam equivalent of the Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem to guide the magical practitioner. The closest we get is the Word Ogams of Morann mac Main, mac Ind Oic and Cuchulainn, which do offer some commentary, though it is often obscure and confusing. Many people have interpreted the Welsh Cad Goddeu (Battle of the Trees) poem as relating to the ogam, though many academics consider this unlikely and some see the Cad as satirical rather than mystical. There are a number of ways of using the ogham for magic, attested to in legends. The commonest way is to carve them on some object, imparting the power of the symbol to that object. Another is the use of forcain, a technique in Irish magic whose literal meaning is to “sing over”. Any word or verse can be sung, including the names of the feadha to raise the energy linked to the sound and direct it, for good or ill, at a desired target. As the word implies, this is normally done with the target present rather than as a form of distance magic. This practice can be combined with O’ Boyle’s ideas around harp scales, to consider the tone that a particular word should be chanted in.
Taking the ogam to a deeper level, they are not just to be studied as individual symbols. Each of the feadha comes in a set, and these sets are gathered for a reason ~ the interlinking meanings must be sought. The Auraicept contains a mandala called Fionn’s Window (though the word ‘window’ would be better translated as ‘smoke hole’ ~ the chimney at the top of every roundhouse.) This arranges the symbols on five concentric circles, reminiscent of the rings on a tree stump. Each of these rings links four feadha, and again there is a reason underpinning this. So the ogam contains countless layers, taking one ever deeper into an understanding of the Iron Age mind set, and what it can teach us now.

In creating a set of ogam staves for divinatory use it is best to start with an invocation to Ogma (Ogmios to the Iron Age peoples), creator of the alphabet, to ask for his consent and assistance. This secured, it is time to find the wood. Different modern Druids give varied advice on this matter ~ some will carve each stave from the appropriate tree or bush (though some of the woods are brittle and unsuited to such use.) Others favour making the whole set from yew, oak or rowan. If you have no strong feelings, meditate and see what Ogmios advises. If you don’t believe in Ogmios, or have no desire to work with him, then there is no point studying the ogam any further. Next you must go to a forest where the type of wood you desire grows ~ forests are preferable to harvesting from roadside or city trees, which usually have a thick covering of exhaust fumes and other pollutants. Speak to the spirit of the forest, ask for its guidance in finding suitable branches. I favour fallen wood, rather than cutting live wood. Having fallen the branch is already offered up, and taking it will not damage the growth of the tree. None of the surviving myths tell how ogam sets should be made, so this advice is based on experience rather than legendary precedence. Having acquired a suitable branch, take it home and dry it out ~ if the branch is recently fallen it may need several months to season. When ready cut the branch into twenty sections about the length and thickness of your index finger. Bigger than this they will be awkward to handle. Strip the bark or leave it on as your artistic sensibilities dictate. Point one end of each stave, so you know which way is “up”. Slice a strip from the other end to make a flat plain on which the ogham symbol can then be burned with a pyrography iron. Paint it on if you prefer. Having completed the whole set, dedicate them to Ogmios and whichever other deities seem appropriate. Then you are ready to start divining.

There is some dispute as to which trees represent certain letters, and you will find three or four alternate versions of the tree ogam. Our understanding is that the Druids of old were pragmatic people who would have sought inspiration amongst whichever trees grew in their locale that most embodied the qualities the feadha represented. So a Druid in the Scottish Highlands would probably have used different trees from one in Cornwall. For now let us just use the trees that we find most suitable. The alphabet only has 20 letters, so many modern letters do not appear in it. If you wish to write words in modern English (such as your name) using the ogam, try using those feadha that are phonetically most similar to the missing English letters.

Using these points as guides, it may easily be extrapolated how the ogam can be used in magic ~ burning birch leaves during a banishing ritual, chanting the Iodho feda at a funeral, carving the Muin symbol in a talisman to expose a secret etc. As well as being used for magic and divination, the ogam were also used in poetry and storytelling as a means of allusion and metaphor. If in a tale a character falls asleep under an apple tree, the implied meaning is decidedly different from if he sleeps under an oak tree.

Ogam divination is growing in popularity, and many general New Age books will give a few pages over to it these days. Most of these books seem to be written by people who (one assumes) have never actually tried using the ogam, or done more than just gawp at a tree. It is possible to use the ogam for divination without practising or even having more than a superficial interest in Iron Age Celtic religion. However, to do so is to loose an awful lot, for it takes the ogam out of their context. To study the staves in any great depth one really does need to have a great interest in Gaelic spirituality and, ideally, be a follower of those Gods. Their greatest use comes in magic, rather than exclusively in divination ~ though due to brevity of space we have only focussed on that here.

Some questions for you to think about:

Have you ever tried using an alphabet (ogam, runes, hieroglyphs etc) for magical or ritual purposes?

Have you ever created your own (or purchased, or been given a) divination set? Do you divine much for yourself, or for other people?

Have you ever thought about how magic works? Is it simply a matter of getting into the right frame of mind, or do such things as ogam-chants have a power all of their own? How might reciting a spell actually effect someone?

Practical exercise:

Create a set of ogam staves, if you do not already possess such a thing. If you do own one already, find a suitable time and place to sit and chant the names of the ogam. Try chanting in different tones to see which “feels right”. Keep a record of any sudden insights, visions or experiences gained whilst chanting.