|
Tearmunn |
|
The Ogham
The Celtic alphabet is known as Ogham (pronounced "Oh-m" or "Oh-wam") and was created by the Celtic god of
literature and eloquence, Ogma. He was known as "honey mouthed" and "eloquent" and has been linked with the Gaulish God Ogmios.
In the Book of Ballymote, the invention of Ogham was achieved when "Ogma Sun-Face raised four pillars of equal length", and
it was upon these pillars that the characters of the letters were etched. The primary manuscript sources for information on
Ogham are The Scholars Primer (Auraicept Na nEces), Values of the Forfeda (De Duilib Feda na Forfid), and the Book of Ogham
(Leber Ogam). There are 369 verified examples of Ogham writing surviving today. These exist in the form of gallán (standing
stones) concentrated in Ireland but scattered across Scotland, the Isle of Man, South Wales, Devonshire, and as far afield
as Silchester in Italy. Similar markings, dating to 500 BC, have been found on standing stones in Spain and Portugal. The
discovery of similar carvings in the state of West Virginia in the United States, has caused some speculation that the Celts
may have come to the New World as early as 100 BC. There are numerous accounts in the ancient literature which suggests that Ogham was a type of writing and
signalling that was used only by the bards , druids and warriors. The druid could use the ridge of his nose or arm and stroke
across it in different ways with his fingers to denote the different symbols. One Ogham symbol could mean many different whole
words for example 'B' meant Birch, Beginning, White, Pheasant(Besan), Birth, Fertility as well as others. The type of object
it was carved into had symbolism also. Such as if it was carved into Alder, it was a "bad" omen, thus it was used for funerary
measuring and was much feared. The most famous Ogham system today is the Tree Ogham, which was split up into: Eight Chieftain trees, eight
peasant trees and eight shrub trees. The letters are constructed using a combination of lines placed adjacent to or crossing
a midline. Vowels were sometimes described as a combination of dots. The midline was, most often, the edge of the object on
which the inscription was carved, this is called a 'Druim' which means ridge or spine. An alphabet of twenty-five characters
used for stone and wood inscriptions in Celtic Britain and Ireland. An alphabet of twenty characters reportedly used for divination
and hand-signing in paganism. Each of the Ogham's twenty letters bears the name of a tree-- A: 'Ailim' (Elm), B: 'Bithe' (Birch),
C: 'Coll' (Hazel), for example. The Ogham alphabet is read up and down on megaliths and boundary markers or horizontally left to right in
manuscripts. Using The Ogham for divination The Ogham (pronounced owam) alphabet, like the Futhark alphabet, contains a great amount of hidden significance.
Each letter is a month in the lunar year, and has a color and a meaning associated with it. Each letter, represented by a
tree, also has a classification to show the importance of that tree. This classification, of chieftan, peasant, or shrub,
has little or nothng to do with he meaning. Two symbols, the Grove and the Sea, have no classification, because the Druids
knew these things to be powerful in their own right. Class: Peasant |
|
|
