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Beith ~ The Maiden

Divine Ogham

First of all I would like to wish a Very Happy New Year to all my followers and subscribers to Divine Ogham ~ I hope that you have all enjoyed a lovely festive season and are looking forward to the year ahead! 🙂

According to the ‘Tree Calendar’ as devised by Robert Graves, we are now well into the month of Beith or Birch which started on the 24th of December and takes us through to the 20th of this month.

Just as an aside, I came across this great website when looking for more information regarding the lunar months and Ogham ~ Moonwise Calendars and Diaries ~ regarding the lunar calendar, here is what they have to say ..

“Each month begins at new crescent moon and lasts for 29 or 30 days. The months are named after trees, in an amended version of Robert Graves’ Irish tree cycle in The White Goddess. The calendar runs from 13 December 2023 to 30 December 2024.“

So this would reflect the lunar/tree calendar in, I believe, a more accurate way, with the month of Beith finishing on the 11th of this month rather than the 20th, making me VERY late in posting this month! ;) Any rate, I have ordered both the calendar and the diary as well as signing up for their newsletter 🙂

But back to ‘Beith the Maiden’ ~ below is a piece that I wrote several years ago but never got around to posting .. wishing you all a wonderful year ahead!

Seeing the almost ethereal beauty of a grove of Silver Birch trees, it is easy to understand the connection with ‘the Maiden Goddess’. Slim silver white trunks, crowned by cascading ‘fountains’ of tiny little ‘filigree’ leaves, but don’t be fooled – ‘fair maidens’ they may be but certainly not delicate!

Birches are ‘pioneer trees’ – one of the first to appear after the last ice-age and therefore one of the hardiest on the planet. Small to medium sized they are widespread across the Northern Hemisphere, especially in the woods and mountainous areas of the temperate regions.

Thus it makes perfect sense that Birch~Beith is the first tree of the Ogham – a tree of inception, purity, renewal and rebirth – the strong little ‘Lady of the Woods’.

‘Birch’ derives from the old Germanic root ‘birka’ which in turn comes from the Proto-Indo-European root ‘bherəg’ meaning ‘white, bright; to shine’. The ancient Celts saw the Silver Birch as a portal to the ‘Otherworld’ linking with their belief that white or albino animals (and people) were of that ‘other realm’.

The Birch is considered to be the national tree of Russia and was worshipped as ‘the Goddess’ during ‘Green Week’ or ‘Semik’ in early June – now Trinity Week which corresponds to Whitsuntide in Britain. This ancient Slavic fertility festival combined aspects of the ‘cult of the dead’ along with late springtime agricultural rites.

Houses were decorated inside and out with branches from the Birch and one special tree would be selected for decorating with beads and ribbons – this tree would usually be left in the forest but sometimes it would be cut down and brought into the village where young girls would gather around it to sing and dance.

The ‘Rusalki’ – mischievous ‘mermaid-like’ ghosts – would be at their most active during this time, emerging from the waterways at night in order to swing on the branches of birches and willows.

Ivan Bilibin, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Offerings such as crosses, incense and garlic were sometimes hung on the trees so as to try and appease any who might want to bring harm – it was believed that these were often the restless souls of young unmarried mothers who had taken their own lives due to the shame bestowed on them by the villagers.

Over time the Rusalki and the ‘Birch Tree Goddess’ became associated with the Virgin Mary – the (unmarried) Holy Mother whose Son Jesus Christ died on the Cross (or Tree?)

And so we start our Ogham Journey by honouring the ‘Sacred Feminine’ – the pure and strong Maiden who will become the fertile and life-giving ‘Divine Mother’.

“I pass forth into light–I find myself
Beneath a weeping birch (most beautiful
Of forest trees, the Lady of the Woods)“

Extract from ‘The Picture or The Lover’s Resolution’ by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Featured image of Birch Trees in Finland courtesy of Percita

Respect your Elder!

Divine Ogham

Hello and welcome to the 13th (lunar month) of the year on our Celtic Tree Calendar – in fact we are now almost one week into the month of Elder or ‘Ruis’ which began on November 25th and takes us through to December 22nd – my apologies, the weeks seem to have been flying by!

Ruis represents Karma, regrets and ‘facing the inevitable’ – a little scary you may be thinking? 

Well this is the time of year when the days are getting progressively shorter, a time when most of us spend more time indoors and perhaps start to ‘look back’ over what we have achieved (or not) over the past year.   

The Elder is another ‘Goddess tree’ especially in relation to her Crone aspect – the ‘Elder Mother’ who guards the door to the ‘Otherworld’. 

Elder in a hedgerow, Greenland, Caithness, Scotland ~ I thought this looked like a doorway to a little ‘hobbity’ house! 🙂

As with a lone Hawthorn it is said to be very unlucky to cut this tree down for firewood…

“Elder be ye Lady’s tree, burn it not or cursed ye’ll be“

But the Crone is not really to be feared but rather respected for her experience and wisdom – it was the fuelling of fear that condemned so many poor elderly ladies to be burned as witches during the 18thCentury – See Janet Horne 😦

Without even wanting to try to get into the politics of it all they do say “knowledge is power” and it seems that the ‘authorities’ of the time definitely had a problem with anyone who might have some power that was beyond ‘normal comprehension’ – hence the hysteria that ensued during those terrible dark times 😦

The Elder represents evolutionary change and as with the Hawthorn, this I think, can be seen in its growth stages from the large sprays of white 5 petalled blossom(Maiden), to purple berries(Dark Mother), and then back to bare twisty branches(Crone) which really make it stand out from all the other hedgerow trees in wintertime 😉

Elder Blossom can be used to make a lovely champagne-like beverage and the berries too can be used to make syrup and wine.  Please note that the berries can be poisonous if eaten raw *

Photo Courtesy of Trish Steel

And so as we approach the ‘darkest day of the year’ we also look forward to Yuletide and the ‘return of the light’ which is represented by Ailm – the Pine or Silver Fir – the Christmas Tree 🙂

.. And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun ..

John Lennon

Wishing you ALL the Very Best of the Season and Thank You so much for all the support that you have given me with Divine Ogham over this past year X

Brightest Blessings!

Kim x

* The leaves, twigs, branches, seeds and roots contain a cyanide-inducing glycoside (a glycoside which gives rise to cyanide as the metabolism processes it). Ingesting any of these parts in sufficient quantity can cause a toxic build up of cyanide in the body.

Due to the possibility of cyanide poisoning, children should be discouraged from making whistles, slingshots or other toys from elderberry wood. In addition, “herbal teas” made with elderberry leaves(which contain cyanogenic glycosides) should be treated with high caution. However, ripe berries (pulp and skin) are safe to eat. ~  source Wikipedia 



A New Broom!

Divine Ogham

Well here we are in the month of ‘Broom’…or would that be ‘Reed’?  

Although Robert Graves’ ‘Tree Calendar’ gives us ‘Reed’ for ‘Ngetal’, Word Oghams in the Book of Ballymote seem to favour ‘Broom’.

According to Morann Mac Main…

Hence for that letter in Ogham owing to the complete identity of the name between them Luth legha, a physician’s strength; that is broom, ng, because it is strength with the physicians, and there is an affinity between cath, battle, and getal, broom. 

Etiud midach, robe of physicians, cath, panacea (?). Hence it was put for getal, broom, ng. 

The word ‘getal’ here could well relate to the Old Irish ‘gedal’ which actually means Broom but there is also the ‘healing’ connection with ‘a physician’s strength’, ‘robe of physicians’ and  ‘panacea’ and also  the Word Ogham of Cuchulain stating ‘Tosach n-echo I icce, beginning of heroic deeds, healing.’

Broom(Cytisus scoparius) has a long tradition in herbal medicine ..

see A Modern Herbal|Broom

Broom in flower, Greenland, Caithness, Scotland

Of course the name itself tells of the main use of this plant back in the days before the vacuum cleaner was invented, and this in turn puts us in mind of Witches and Wise Women – very appropriate for this time of year 😉

The old Celtic festival of Samhain – now more popularly known as Hallowe’en – hailed the start of the Celtic New Year – so once again we have a connection with ‘clearing out the old to make way for the new’.   

So now I think I rest my case – it’s definitely Broom for me! 😉

Wishing you all a great month ahead!

Kim x

Top photo of ‘Brooms for sale in a Tbilisi market’ courtesy of Vladimer Shioshvili

Strength of Ivy

Divine Ogham

Hello and welcome to the 11th (lunar) month of the year on our ‘Celtic Tree Calendar’ , ‘the month of Ivy‘ which begins tomorrow (September 30th) and takes us through to October 27th .. 🙂

Now although, technically speaking, not a tree, Ivy uses trees to support its growth by way of a ruthless tenacity and power so strong, it can sometimes even kill its host!

So tough is this plant that a very famous song was written about it keeping company with that ‘warrior of trees’ the Holly in the bleakness of Midwinter. 

Yes it is a bit early in the year to be mentioning Christmas but it is possibly not always realised that ‘The Holly and The Ivy’ has just as much Pagan imagery in its lyrics as it does Christian! 

The holly and the ivy, when they are both full grown,

Of all the trees that are in the wood, the holly bears the crown. ..

Holly here can connect to the ‘Holly King’ – see ‘Holly in July?’

Oh, the rising of the sun and the running of the deer ..

Again this can be seen as reference to the ‘Sun God’ and most probably the ‘Stag’ or ‘Horned God’ – incidentally I once read that royal crowns may have been modelled on the antler ‘crowns’ of the ancient tribal Chiefs – they also of course look rather like the Sun .. **

By this point you may be wondering where the Ivy comes into this?   Don’t worry I’ll get there (in my (for those of you old enough to remember) Ronnie Corbett (in his big chair) way) in the end 😉

Looking over the words of the whole song you will see that Ivy is actually only mentioned the once – in the very first line of the carol.  BUT notice that every second line speaks of Mary – now are you thinking what I am thinking?  Is Mary standing in for the Ivy here .. as the Christianised Goddess?

Well it seems that ‘The Holly and the Ivy’ is actually based on a much older carol ‘The Contest of the Holly and the Ivy’ which describes an ancient Yuletide ‘singing’ battle of the sexes! 

‘There are indications in other manuscripts that in ancient English village life there was a midwinter custom of holding singing-contests between men and women, where the men sang carols praising holly (for its “masculine” qualities) and disparaging ivy, while women sang songs praising the ivy (for its “feminine” qualities) and disparaging holly.’  .. Wikipedia

In an even older song ‘Ivy Chief of Trees, It is’ Ivy wins the day ..

Ivy, chief of trees, it is;
Veni coronaberis.

The most worthy is she in town;
 He who says other, says amiss;
Worthy is she to bear the crown;
 Veni coronaberis. ..

See ‘The Hymns and Carols of Christmas’

The flowers of the Ivy are white with 5 petals and so this plant is associated with ‘The White Goddess’ or ‘Great Mother’ – the ‘giver and taker of life’.  Ivy represents the Moon, female fertility and the knowledge of the Universe and therefore the subtler but no lesser strength of the Feminine Principle  😉

Photo by Samarth Singhai on Pexels.com

Wishing you All a Very Happy October!

Kim x

**see Pg 152 of ‘Natural Magic’ by Doreen Valiente 

Bird Ogham for this Month ~ the Bluetit

Divine Ogham

Hello and welcome to the 10th (lunar) month of the year on our ‘Celtic Tree Calendar’ .. which begins tomorrow (September 2nd) and takes us through to September 29th .. 🙂

Several years back I made a page on my old website for the ‘Bird Ogham’ – just those related to the ‘Tree Signs’. I am now in the process of adding them all to your ‘Tree Sign’ pages but as this is the month for Muinn/Vine I thought I would post up the bird for this month – the Bluetit.

The old Irish gaelic word for the Bluetit is Mintan .. the word beginning with the letter M as does Muinn for Vine – see All About Ogham for an explanation of these alphabetic connections 😉

In the Scholar’s Primer, the bird is actually called a ‘Titmouse‘ , which is the old-fashioned name for birds of the passerine family and is still the name sometimes used in North America.

So to sum up for this month, this gorgeous little bird symbolises for us, a fearless attitude, a powerful voice, control of the Ego and not letting praise go to the head 😉

Wishing you ALL a truly wonderful month ahead!

Kim X

Bluetit Photo courtesy of Sławek Staszczuk