New Cycle of Ogham Study Group?

[MiriamSPia]

If there is enough current interest, I would enjoy doing some interactive work with others about the Ogham.

There are diverse trees where I currently live and it would seem a fitting way to get more intimate with the spirit of this place.

[wolf560]

I am interested in studying the Ogham script and the potential for using them as divination devices and/or just studying them individually.

I have read the Ogham for about the past 5 years and the Tarot since about 1980.

Not sure which one I prefer

[skydove]

Yes I would like to join an ogham study group, I think I am starting to understand trees a little more and have read the ogham books but would to make it more personal.

[D'Arzhur]

I would be interested too

[Susanne]

Ah yes. An answer received so soon!
Only yesterday I was browsing through this thread & was wishing that it was active. Thanks for the suggestion MiriamSPia. I guess you could say it's a wish come true!
I live in the mountains surrounded by trees & would also like to have a deeper relationship with them. It would be great to do with an interactive group. Consider me in.
Blessings
Susanne

[skydove]

Ok so what do we have to do

[Susanne]

Very good question!
Is there a moderator that starts things up or is it just up to the group?

I would call myself a beginner with the Ogham so maybe one of the folks with experience could start things off. Just a thought....

[wolf560]

I'm reading a book currently; 366 Celt by Carl McGolman...The section I got to yesterday was "Path of the Ogham"...

According to legend; Ogham script was created by Ogma. Many believe now that Ogham script arose from earlier Roman script. Ogham script begins to appear about the 3rd century A.D. roughly similar in time to when Norse runes can be dated as well.

Although the order of the scripts is still under debate, I can place here what Mr. McColman lists and just quote some of his salient points.... Each could be started as a separate discussion thread and could start as our discussion point.


Example-

Birch "Beith" (pronounced be-yeh)- ... often grows at the edges of the forestland and thus stands for a tree that stands between two worlds. It is the first tree in the list of Ogham and also is also known as the "tree of beginnings"

If there are other ideas for how to start, I don't mind other methods either

[skydove]

Yes I think its a good idea to work our way through the trees and shrubs, perhaps we could put a 2 or 3 week time limit on each tree and each work with it gathering experiences and meditation or other insights or experiences which we could post and share, thus increasing our individual and group knowledge, perhaps this could not be auto pruned for as long as this group is going so that we can refer back to each tree, and for people who come along in the future they would have a good insight into what we had been doing. Having Wolfs starting point will give us a framework to build the knowledge within. Does this sound acceptable, has anyone else got other ideas?

[Susanne]

It sounds like a good starting point to me. What a better place to begin than with Birch!
I have a beautiful birch tree right in front of my house which faces East, directly into the rising sun from my front windows. It is where I put a bird feeder in the winter & where the chickadees gather for their daily conversation & snacks.
Blessings for the day to all!
Sue

[D'Arzhur]

Working as an ovate with the Ogam I have come to realise that there are so many facets to the Ogam such as the relationships we perceive with the different trees/shrubs (throughout personal experiences and /or with the help of the books on the subject ), but also the signification and possibilities of the Ogam alphabet in communication, rituals as well as in Magic (as for example in the books from Greer), the Ogam trees and shrubs in relation to healing etc... There are quite a lot of good books references on the Ogam and on trees in the ovate grade and maybe this would be of interest to everyone if it is judged appropriate to talk about it ?

[Serpentia]

Here's another candidate who has a hard time with the Ogham - but not with trees, so in my last mail to my tutor I asked, which is more important? I have active relationships with most trees, but the scratches on paper or wood mean nothing to them - or to me.

But I'm willing to give this another start with a group, in a more ordered manner maybe. One tree and Ogham per week, maybe? And I know well what happens to be able who ask "who will start?"....

So, where's the Birch?

Serpentia and her Yew

[DaRC]

I would be interested but 1 per week is going a bit fast for me
I just wouldn't be able to fit everything in.

Just to comment on the Runes - current thinking leans towards Runes coming from more an early italian, possibly etruscan script, several centuries earlier. This would be different to current thnking on the Ogham which is thought to have it's roots in Latin.

[wolf560]

Hello All,

I looked over what was already on this board with respect to just Birch...
.... there are 20 replies on a thread already...
........the wealth of informations there should somehow be incorporated I believe...


As to the trees themselves I have spent most of my adult life amongst the trees. I always wanted to know which one was what but never really had the time. I learned to recognize a few (Ash, Oak and Fir mostly) but am now living in Arizona where few of these trees are nearby.

As to the Ogham, I read Tarot for decades and had just begun learning to read the Ogham when I was deployed overseas. Although I took the sticks with me I soon had no time for anything else but my job.

I am more eager to learn the Ogham script and their meanings rather than the trees themselves, and I do realize that it is both somewhat.

Is this what we are going to be talking about or a bit of both?

[skydove]

I think it has to be a bit of everything and that we should at this stage gather in peoples knowledge,opinions and views into a cauldron and see what happens, obviously some will have more experience in certain aspects but hopefully everyone will feel they can contribute something to the study. As Ogham is a divinatory system its use must be pertinent to the person doing the divining and perhaps one of the benefits of this study will be to give us confidence to use it as such on a personal level, but any background information on the trees and shrubs we are studying makes it more useful and interesting and builds up our awareness of those trees. Hopefully our own personal inner work with trees and their ogham meanings to us as individuals supplemented by any gathered information will make for a more rounded study and those who are a bit anxious or new to inner work will gradually get the hang of what can happen by reading of others experiences and the insights gained.

[Serpentia]

Well, I can certainly contribute "tree-stuff", that is tree lore, pictures and stories about the various types of trees. I'm in Germany, so I will be talking about our trees here. I feel very close to them and even in winter, they have much to share. For divination, though, I use the Runes and I'm curious to see how people use the Ogham for this purpose.

Serpentia

[Heddwen]

I'd be really interested in joining this group. I've not studied the Ogham before and I think that a group discussion situation would be better for me as a learning tool. Although, I think that I can offer some info regarding trees and tree lore it's great to be able to bounce ideas around.

[wolf560]

OK,
So are we going to post to each of the Ogham message threads that are in this section or do we want to start brand new ones?

[DaRC]

I think a structure is important but, as others have pointed out, there is already a wealth of tree-lore under the sticky topics which it seems a shame to not use.

So perhaps we need to keep the tree-lore to the stickies and the Ogham study discussions in it's own thread?

[skydove]

How do we get hold of the "stickies" Darc? Can you tell me what to do