Forest - Celtic tree magic ogham lore and druid mysteries

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

Copyright Information

Celtic Tree Magic: Ogham Lore and Druid Mysteries 2014 by Danu Forest.

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First e-book edition 2014

E-book ISBN: 9780738744063

Book design by Bob Gaul
Chapter art by Llewellyn Art Department
Cover design by Kevin R. Brown
Cover illustration by Chris Down
Edit by Laura Graves
Interior illustrations by Dan Goodfellow

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Llewellyn Publications

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Woodbury, MN 55125

www.llewellyn.com

Manufactured in the United States of America

For Dan Goodfellowranger and a true man of the oak.

Contents

Tree Charms, Crafts,
Spells, and Potions

Appendix: The Ogham and the
Correspondances at a Glance

List of Figures

: Tree Spirit Alignment

: Combination Ogham

: Blank Ogham

: Three-Ogham Stave Reading

: Blank Five-Ogham Stave Reading

: Five-Ogham Stave Reading

: Fionns Window

: Fionns Window

: Rowan Charms

: Alder Shield

: Holly Wreath

: Blackberry Charm

: Elderflower Water

Acknowledgments

No book is ever the creation of only one person, and in writing this I am eternally grateful to so many people for their support and encouragement over many years; as I learnt my tree lore and spent hours in the woods, to those who walked with me under the trees in rain or shine, to those who spent long nights by the fire with me, and those who shared their knowledge and experience as I have grown along my own path, each of them allowing me to grow deep roots and tall branches in their esteemed company. Gratitude, honour and praise goes to Elysia Gallo for her amazing support, and to Penny Billington for opening the way. Thanks also go to Nicholas R. Mann for lending me treasure, Philip Shallcrass aka Greywolf of the BDO, Philip Carr-Gomm of OBOD, and Kristoffer Hughes of the Anglesey Druid Order. And finally I hold the greatest gratitude of all to my green kin, and to my husband and son, Dan and Gwyn, without whom I would not be.

Prayer to Ogma

Ogma sun face

shining one, illuminate my vision

that I may see the wisdom of trees.

Not hard shall be my ascent into the branches

and my understanding deep into the roots of being.

Champion my quest

bright one

light the way through the forest

that I may know the mysteries of the ogham

by hand and knife

by heart.

That I may be a wielder of knowledge

and a keeper of its secrets

upon the One Great Tree between the worlds.

Danu Forest, 2013

Introduction

Trees are distinctly mysterious and magical beings. Few people are not moved by the deep presence felt in a forest grove or by the soothing hush of wind in branches. Regardless of religion or culture, humanity has long held trees to be beloved kin. Valuable for a host of practical reasons, they also are held sacred by many ancient peoples as wise elders and homes to spirits and otherworldly beings.

My first experiences of trees as spiritual, magical creatures were when I was a very small child. There was an old apple tree in my grandparents garden, and for the first years of my life I remember it as a dear friend: long hours spent by its side, lost in conversations without words, joy bubbling in my heart. Sometimes I would see the Apple Man, as I called him, sitting in the branches, his skin green and smooth, his smile broad; at other times I knew him to be the tree itself. These were my earliest days, where reality could shift and blur with ease without rationalising or analysing, just being in easy communion with nature and its spirits, as I believe we are all truly meant to be.

There was also another tree of great significance whom I called the Wise Old Oak. The village cricket pitch was surrounded by a small woodland that opened on to a farmers fields. To me, those woods were full of faeries and mysterious shadowed dells. Ivy and elder clothed nooks and crannies fit to hide a child from the sunny glare of the open playing field, and they called to my soul in a way I couldnt explain then. When other children sought to run and shout, I wanted to climb, scramble through the thicket to spin and dance in circles around the trees, and find secret places to sit quietly and listen to the wind sighing in the leaves. Out farther in the wilderness before the farmland stretched on forever was the huge oak tree. It stood proud, marking where the woodland turned to meadows with its broad crown and furrowed trunk, its great roots stretching out like serpents, diving in and out of the soil. It marked a place of change between the dark of the woods and the golden fields beyond.

In the dappled sunlight I once saw a fox dive deep between its roots and vanish as if into another world. This image had a profound effect on me, as if it came in a dream. I remember the air tingling with power, although I couldnt have described it like that at the time. I was used to seeing spirits and was lucky enough to have a family that accepted my experiences with equanimity as nothing unusual, but this was different. I had come across the veil between the worlds. I knew it in the core of my being. It was also probably a fox den, and I knew it to be that too, but my senses told me it was so much more.

Over the years these trees became deeply formative presences, as I grew seamlessly into the spiritual path I walk to this day. To me, trees have always held great magical and spiritual significance, and I have always considered them our green kin. They have so much to teach us if we could but listen. Training as a witch in my teens and later as a shaman and druid was a natural product of my communion with trees, and they have been my greatest teachers. I believe spiritual life is inseparable from nature, and the spirit world and our own merge and flow in and out of each other with the same ease the fox dives from the earth into the sunlight and back again. Here is where the gods (and indeed a whole host of gods and goddesses) can be found in infinite variation. Priestessing the earth is for me personally the only natural response to the awe and deep love this evokes in me. Learning from and working with the spirits of nature directly is our birthright, as the land is as much our mother as theirs. While we may learn a great deal from each other, especially from the traditional lore that each land holds, it is my belief that to enter into any spiritual relationship with the earth our practice must always stem from this key experience first, must rise up from beneath our feet. For this reason, I find greatest spiritual meaning in the magical and spiritual lore of my own landsBritain and Irelandand my ancestors, those elusive people known in popular culture as the Celts.