THE TREE ALPHABET

WRITING SYSTEM

The Tree Alphabet acts as the primer for learning about the Ogham characters, their meanings, and their tree associations.

Trees were of great importance to the Celts of ancient Ireland, and not only provided shelter and sustenance but were sources of magic and power. The word 'Druid' itself comes from the Celtic name for the oak - 'duir'.

Druids gave the trees symbolic importance, and by understanding the trees, and the solar and lunar cycles, the Ogham characters not only allowed communication between each other, but the associated symbols and meanings were ways to tap into the subconscious, the other world, the land of the fae, to divine your way in this world.

THE 5 AICMES

The original 20 letters are formed with simple shapes of straight and diagonal lines. They could be easily formed with fingers, used as a secret language, and carved into wood or stone, for navigation, passing of knowledge, and marking territories.

These 20 letters were split into 4 groups, with each group (aicme/family) named after the first tree in that group: Beith, Huath, Muin, and Ailm.

Five additional letters called Forfeda were introduced mainly in the manuscript tradition several centuries after the peak of ogham usage. They appear to have represented sounds felt to be missing from the original alphabet