The ruler of the seventh lunar month and Ogham letter “D” is Duir which is the Ogham for the Oak tree. Duir is also the Ogham of those born between 10 June and 17 July. The grand Oak is the King of the forest and he grows slowly, taking in and processing everything… he is the Protector and the doorway [the word Duir means door] to all mysteries. The Oak teaches us strength. It decrees justice. When you draw the Duir Ogham, do not take your intuition lightly for you will do yourself a great disservice if you do.
Divination Meaning: Whatever your query, when you pull Duir, you know you must take a “hands-on” approach to the answer. This will nurture the skills you wish to have. You must be brave; step through the door. As with all Ogham divination, you will learn by doing. Because you do, you will be wiser.
How to Mend the Problem: You have accumulated acorns of wisdom. If you have not, it is time to do so. You will be called upon to share this wisdom with others. Whether you are a teacher or student, you are called upon to be tough and resilient despite life’s unpredictability as an Oak is to a bolt of lightning. Strength and Wisdom are your mission and you know deep down you can achieve these.
This is your first lesson as the first drawing of Duir. As you progress with your strengthening intuition you will be able to read this Ogham much easier in relevance to your query. Always remember the Oak’s representations and learn how they come through to you each time. Never forget that Duir is the doorway to every knowledge.
The Ogham alphabet was derived from sacred glyphs and it is mainly associated with Ireland and the Irish Gaelic language. It is, of course, often claimed by others, such as the Welsh traditions which says that Hu the Mighty invented the Ogham ‘for he first applied vocal song to strengthen memory and record’. This is even more plausible than where, in The White Goddess, author Robert Graves claims the tree alphabet as partly his invention. I don’t suppose he would ever think that people would learn, if they had not already, that the Ogham alphabet would turn up marked on trees and stone monuments, dating back as early as the first century AD. It is also plausible to understand that the Ogham alphabet was used all over the British Isles by Druids and the Bards alike so it could have been a collaboration of Irish, Welsh, Scottish, and English people. And, there are other claims that the Ogham was around before the first century AD, some saying it goes back to the first century BC. I suppose we will never really know definitively but it is enough to know that it is part of a much more ancient language than Robert Graves may have claimed.
All we need to be concerned with is understanding the Ogham…at the very least, in layman’s terms, so that when you see something regarding the Ogham you can understand how it fits in with the trees used and its basic meanings. If you wish to learn to cast the Ogham for divination, there are a good many books which are very thorough.
You’ll often see the Ogham called the “tree alphabet” and so it is. That is because each Ogham is assigned to a tree/shrub/bramble. It is a form of encoded wisdom which was once strictly passed on by initiation only. The Ogham itself is very magickal; it aided healing, science, divination, and initiatory learning through its potent wisdom based on trees, plant, and animal growth by their seasonal energies, not to mention its great spiritual power. Each Ogham letter has its own sound[s] to convey its meaning…it is said to be multi-layered in that it represented the sounds of nature, the air, the earth, animals and plants…all the sounds which veritably create music… can you imagine? The learned ones in their time communicating in this way? It lifts my spirit to imagine it. Music is recorded when written on an Ogham stave. Timeless.
It would be difficult then to imagine only one person creating the Ogham alone, so it is of my highest opinion that many are responsible for its being.
To understand why each Ogham ‘letter’ is so assigned, we must see the tree groups as the people whom invented this magickal communication did. There are four main groups: Chieftain, Peasant, Shrub, and Bramble. The Chieftain trees are Oak, Holly, Yew, Ash, Pine, and Apple with Apple being most frequently the host of Mistletoe, Mistletoe is known as the ‘hidden tree’. The Peasant trees are Alder, Willow, Hawthorn, Rowan, Birch, Elm, and Beech. Sometimes Silver Fir is included, depending upon whom is writing. Then, there are the Shrubs which consists of Blackthorn, Elder, Aspen and the Poplars, Juniper, and Reed with the possibility of Maples. Lastly, the Brambles: Dog-Rose, Bramble, Broom, Heather, Ivy, Vine, and possibly Honeysuckle, Fern, ‘Traveller’s Joy’, and The Spindle Tree. Each tree, shrub, and bramble and its associations, which I have not listed at this time, were created by the authors of the Ogham. The Irish Gaelic letters shown in the below illustration are in alphabetical order but not in their seasonal order.
The Ogham Alphabet ~ Sacred Chaotic Geometry on Tumblr
As room did not allow, I did not attach the tree name to each of the twenty oghams on the chart which are mainly used for divination purposes, therefore, I shall list them here: Beith – Birch tree, Luis – Rowan tree, Fearn – Alder tree, Saille – Willow tree, Nuin – Ash tree, Huathe – Hawthorn tree, Duir – Oak tree, Tinne – Holly tree, Coll – Hazel tree, Quert – Apple tree, Muin – Vine, Gort – Ivy, Ngetal – Reed, Straif – Blackthorn, Ruis – Elder tree, Ailim – Pine tree, Ohn – Gorse, Ur – Heather, Eadha – Poplar tree, Ioho – Yew tree. I have drawn a red line around those which are used in divination, leaving the five combination vowel letters to the side for another time. You may be familiar with this if you have read my blog, What’s Your Birth Tree is the New What is Your Star Sign.
My Celtic Tree Oracle and personal Ogham set
There is so much more to be said about the Ogham but in this writing, I am only presenting what is used in divination because so many people ask how they are used for this purpose. ***Of course, if I had a lot of time, I could explain it all, however, I do spend much of my time writing or creating things for our shop and simply can’t write about it all. In olden days the Ogham alphabet was a way of communicating – people even created a sign language with it – and for recording. It was a secret language of the Druids and the Bards. Nowadays, it is used nearly exclusively for divination. In this respect, the trees themselves, whilst providing anchorage for the whole system are regarded as doorways through which to enter deeper wisdoms. If you want to learn how to divine using the Ogham, it would be a good start to buy or make a set of Ogham for yourself and buy a book or two such as Ogam: Weaving Word Wisdom, by Erynn Rowan Laurie or a less expensive option would be to purchase The Celtic Tree Oracle: A System of Divination, by Colin Murray, where you can divine with oracle cards.
I hope this has clarified a few things for some of you who queried. *** This is an update to my original blog – beginning this week, I shall begin posting my blogs from 2019 where I explain how to divine with the Ogham, spread over twenty easy lessons, one each for the Ogham you would use in divination. Many thanks for reading and warmest blessings to all whom wander this way.. x
WytchenCrafts 