The Druid Magic Handbook: Ritual Magic Rooted in the Living Earth - John Michael Greer 2008
The Ogham Alphabet
The Alphabet of Magic
The Foundations of Druid Magic
The modern Druid tradition, like most other forms of spirituality, has a wealth of symbols that can be put to work in magic. The three elements and three currents discussed in chapter 1 can be understood and used as symbols, though they also represent real forces that shape the world of our experience. From the beginning of the Druid Revival, though, one particular set of symbols has had a central role in Druid practice.
This is the old Irish alphabet called Ogham (pronounced “OH-um”), one of the world's most eccentric writing systems. Ogham letters are called “fews” (feada in Irish) and consist of four groups called aicme, of one to five tally marks each. There are also five more complex signs, called forfedha (literally “extra fews”), used for sounds that weren't part of the original alphabet. The fews are marked along a line—upward from the bottom on a vertical line, and from left to right on a horizontal one, as shown in Figure 2-1. Awkward on paper, Ogham is quick, clean, and very readable if your writing instrument is a knife and your “paper” is a stick, and even better if you're using a chisel on the edges of a standing stone. All over Ireland, Scotland, and the western parts of Britain standing stones carved with Ogham between the third and tenth centuries CE can still be read today.
The ancient Irish and the Picts—the people who lived in Scotland before the Scots got there—used Ogham fews to write names on gravestones and spells on magical objects. By the tenth century, Ogham had been replaced by the Roman alphabet in general use, but Irish bardic schools kept it alive as a branch of traditional lore for centuries longer, and wove a wealth of symbolism into it. The surviving Irish Ogham treatises connect the fews to trees, colors, and much else, giving them a wealth of possibilities as magical symbols.
Figure 2-1 Ogham Writing
As a relic of ancient Celtic tradition the Ogham found its way into modern Druidry from the very beginning. John Toland, who helped launch the Druid Revival in the early eighteenth century, included references to Ogham in his writings, and many other Druid writers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries discuss Ogham as a Druid alphabet. By the time Druids began developing the magical side of their tradition in the twentieth century, Ogham provided them with an alphabet of symbols as rich as anything in the Western world's other magical traditions.
The twenty-five Ogham fews, along with some of their meanings, appear on the next few pages. More of their symbolism occurs later in this book, and a more complete list of their meanings can be found in The Druidry Handbook. These letters are as important to Druid magic as the letters of English are to reading this book, and the time you spend learning them will not be wasted.
FIRST AICME
Beith (pronounced “BEH”): the letter B |
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Luis (pronounced “LWEESH”), the letter L |
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Nuin (pronounced “NOO-un”), the letter N |
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Fearn (pronounced “FAIR-n”), the letter V |
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Saille (pronounced “SAHL-yuh”), the letter S |
SECOND AICME
Huath (pronounced “OO-ah”), the letter H |
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Duir (pronounced “DOO-er”), the letter D |
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Tinne (pronounced “CHIN-yuh”), the letter T |
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Coll (pronounced “CULL”), the letter C |
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Quert (pronounced “KWEIRT”), the letter Q |
THIRD AICME
Muin (pronounced “MUHN”), the letter M |
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Gort (pronounced “GORT”), the letter G |
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Ngetal (pronounced “NYEH-tal”), the letter Ng |
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Straif (pronounced “STRAHF”), the letter Z (sometimes ST) |
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Ruis (pronounced “RWEESH”), the letter R |
FOURTH AICME
Ailm (pronounced “AHL-m”), the letter A |
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Onn (pronounced “UHN”), the letter O |
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Ur (pronounced “OOR”), the letter U |
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Eadha (pronounced “EH-yuh”), the letter E |
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Ioho (pronounced “EE-yoh”), the letter I |
THE FORFEDHA
Koad (pronounced “KO-ud”), the letter Ch |
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Oir (pronounced “OR”), the letter Th |
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Uilleand (pronounced “ULL-enth”), the letter W |
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Phagos (pronounced “FAH-gus”), the letter F |
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Mór (pronounced “MOHR”), the letter X |