Tag: crane bag

Iphin (Honey or Gooseberry)

(Photograph by Frank Vincentz)

“I was to go out fishing tonight,” said the younger as he came in, “but I promised you to come, and you’re a civil man, so I wouldn’t take five pounds to break my word to you. And now”-taking up his glass of whisky-“here’s to your good health, and may you live till they make you a coffin out of a gooseberry bush, or till you die in childbed.”  -J.M. Synge (The Aran Islands, 1907)

The Roots:

The fourth forfeda, and the twenty-fourth letter of the tree-Ogham, is Iphin the Gooseberry[i].

As discussed during the previous post, Liz and Colin Murray in the Celtic Tree Oracle do not ascribe the Gooseberry to Iphin. The double crossed lines are instead used for the Honeysuckle, while the Beech tree is given “the hook.” I am unsure of the reasons for this decision. These changes do not make sense to me, but I am well aware that Liz and Colin Murray were very deliberate in their choices. This differing of the order may simply be of interest, however, as many other Ogham systems follow their lead. This includes John Michael Greer as we have already stated.

Robert Graves did not discuss the Gooseberry within the White Goddess and only spoke of the forfeda in the Crane Bag and Other Disputed Subjects. He called this forfeda “the Bones of Assal’s Swine”.  The bones will be explored somewhat below as they do not effect the immediate discussion. Graves does put forward the possibility, though, that these bones were actually the discarded stems from the mushrooms that were eaten during ritual, the Aminita muscaria. In the Crane Bag and Other Disputed Subjects Graves says it is because “Assail was a lightening god and because mushrooms, called “little pigs” in Latin and Italian, were believed to be created by lightening and because hallucinogenic varieties of mushrooms were used in Greek and several Eastern religions for oracular purposes[ii].”

Nigel Pennick in Magical Alphabets does not add anything to the Gooseberry discussion either. He lists the 24th letter as the Guelder Rose or the Snowball tree. Pennick connects this plant to “the dance of life” and to the “mystic Crane Dance performed upon labyrinths throughout Europe, and to the crane-skin ‘medicine bag’ which ancient shamans used to hold their sacred power-objects.”

The Ogham tract does describe the tree as either the Pine or the Gooseberry[iii]. The Scots Pine, also called the Scots Fir at the time, has already been listed[iv]. For a separate meaning of this letter, instead of a duplication, we are then left to focus on the Gooseberry.

“Millsem feda, sweetest of wood, that is gooseberry with him, for a name for the tree called pin is millsem feda. Gooseberries are hence named. Hence it was put for the letter named pin, for hence pin, or ifin, io, was put for it.” – Word Ogham of Morann (the Ogham Tract[v])

“Amram blais, most wonderful of taste, pin or ifin, gooseberry. Hence for the letter that has taken its name from it, pin or iphin, io.” – Word Ogham of Mac Ind Oic (the Ogham Tract[vi])

Eryn Rowan Laurie in Ogam: Weaving Word Wisdom gives the Gooseberry, and the corresponding letter, the attributes of “Divine influences” and “sweetness of life”. Through this sweetness is found the association to Honey.

John Mathews in the Celtic Shaman interprets the word-Ogham “sweetest of wood” as representing “taste.” Caitlin Mathews in Celtic Wisdom Sticks uses this few to represent the direction of North. Robert Ellison in Ogham: the Secret Language of the Druids says that Iphin represents, “the Kindreds, especially of nature.”

It would seem that the Gooseberry is one of the most elusive “trees” found within the Ogham.

This plant is not often found in myth or folklore either, nor does it seem to have any direct ties to legends, beings or heroes. It is, however, used as a sympathetic magical remedy in at least two places that I am aware of.

“For a sty on the eyelid point a gooseberry thorn at it nine times, saying, ‘Away, away, away!’ and the sty will vanish presently and disappear.”  -Lady Wilde (Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms & Superstitions of Ireland, 1887)

“In Suffock and other parts of these islands, a common remedy for warts is to secretly pierce a snail or ‘dodman with a gooseberry-bush thorn, rub the snail on the wart, and then bury it, so that, as it decays the wart may wither away.” – Edward Clodd (Tom Tit Tot: An Essay on Savage Philosophy in Folktale, 1898)

The Gooseberry is a close relative of the currant-berry and can be found, in its North American form, throughout the Pacific Northwest[vii].

Iphin, the Gooseberry, has sympathetic magical properties. It represents that which is tasteful and the divine influences which surrounds us in the sweetest of ways.

The Trunk:

“As for the other miscellaneous objects found in the Crane Bag: if one thinks poetically, not scientifically, their meaning leaps to the eye.” –Robert Graves (the Crane Bag and other Disputed Subjects)

As previously stated the forfeda, or the items found in the crane-bag by poets, are listed as ‘the King of Scotland’s Shears’(the X), ‘the king of Lochlainn’s helmet’ (with his face underneath, the four sided diamond), ‘the bones of Assail’s swine’ (the double lined X out to the side of the line), ‘Goibne’s smith-hook’ (the P or hook symbol), and Manannan’s own shirt’, which “is a map of the sea showing lines of longitude and latitude.”

We now turn our attention towards ‘the bones of Assail’s swine.’ Fortunately, this is the one character listed who is easily recalled from the stories of the Celts.

“Asal, Asail (genitive), Easal [cf. Irish asal, ass] A member of the Tuatha Dé Danann who owned a magical spear, the Gáe or Gaí Assail, and seven magical pigs. His spear was the first brought into Ireland. It never failed to kill when he who threw it uttered the word ‘ibar’, or to return to the thrower when he said ‘athibar’ [cf. Irish ibar, yew tree, yew wood]. T. F. O’Rahilly observed that the Gáe Assail was a lightning spear, like the weapon of Thor, which also returned to the hand that hurled it. When Gáe Assail had been taken to Persia, Lug Lámfhota obliged the sons of Tuireann, Brian, Iuchair, and Iucharba, to retrieve it for him. Another task of those same children of Tuireann was to retrieve the seven magical pigs of Assal ‘of the Golden Pillars’, who could be killed and eaten and would be alive and ready to be slaughtered again the next morning. The bones of the pigs of Assal are in the crane bag of Manannán mac Lir. See OIDHEADH CHLAINNE TUIREANN [The Tragic Story of the Children of Tuireann].” – James MacKillop (Oxford Dictionary of Celtic Mythology)

The recovery of these pigs by the children of Tuireann is one of the tasks that was given to them by Lugh for murdering his father. It is this series of quests which kills them in the end, even after they had accomplished all of them.

“’And do you know what are the seven pigs I asked of you? They are the pigs of Easal, King of the Golden Pillars; and though they are killed every night, they are found alive the next day, and there will be no disease or no sickness on any person that will eat a share of them.’” – Lady Gregory (Gods and Fighting Men, 1904)

These pigs would not only provide a never ending source of sustenance for their owners, but they were preventers of illness as well.

(Amanita muscaria. Photograph by Onderwijsgek)

It becomes important to remember that these items, including the bones, would disappear from the crane-bag when the tide was ebbing and reappear when the tide was full.

The mystery then becomes apparent. Why would the bones only be present in the bag and never the animal whose flesh was to be enjoyed? Would these pigs, then, be considered whole when they are missing from the bag? Does this mean that the pigs would have to be eaten before a certain time of the day such as the high tide? Could this tide actually represent a moon cycle, or a time of day, instead of the literal tide?

Perhaps, it is the bag of Manannan that returns the flesh to their bones before these pigs rise from the dead again? Maybe, instead, these tales are suggesting that the eating of the flesh is a part of the ritual that takes place at high tide, or as high tide approaches?

Obviously these are questions of interest, meditation, and contemplation only. To me, they are incredibly fascinating ones to consider, though.

The Foliage:

The following portion of this blog was here from Oct 20, 2011. I decided to leave it… 

As we approach the final Ogham letter, Mor or “the Twin of Hazel”, I have been struggling to meet the deadlines I have put upon myself as far as posting these. Although this is not a heavily trafficked blog, I use this area to increase my awareness of the Ogham and to share any possible insights with fellow seekers. It’s very important to me that I maintain a sense of discipline, especially as it pertains to my spiritual practice, regardless of if I had one reader or hundreds.

I plan to continue through the next cycle of the half year, starting again with Birch, by sharing those pieces of information that I had left out the first time through – as well as recent discoveries – and will then share some of the other great Ogham minds such as Caitlin and John Mathews or Robert Lee Ellison. At some point, it would be nice to get some quotes from Charles Graves on here as well.

I do feel compelled to share, however, that I have been meeting with greater difficulties in publishing these posts and I apologize if they are not as polished as they could have been.

I have been undergoing aggressive chemotherapy treatments for a form a testicular cancer that has spread post surgery. I’ve been dealing with this for some time (the surgery was a year earlier) but only over the last month have I been getting these treatments. The outlook is very positive and a full recovery is expected. In the meantime, however, it is not the most fun I have ever had.

I will do my best to continue to post these for as long as I can. My intention is that there will be no interruption. I am usually pretty good at that one, the intention part anyways. 🙂

As of April 11, 2012, I am doing much better. I still have bad hair – or way less of it – and tire pretty easy. The chemo cycles are finished but it will be two years before they deem that I am cancer free. 

 

“What shocked them the most was his [France’s] suggestion that the awareness of plants might originate in a super-material world of cosmic beings to which, long before the birth of Christ, the Hindu sages referred as ‘devas’ and which, as fairies, elves, gnomes, sylphs and a host of other creatures, were a matter of direct vision and experience to clairvoyants among the Celts and other sensitives. The idea was considered by vegetal scientists to be as charmingly jejune as it was hopelessly romantic.”  – Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird discussing Raul France (the Secret Life of Plants, 1973)


[i] The Ogham is not just a tree alphabet. See previous posts.

[ii] Quoting Early Irish Myth and History by Rahilly.

[iii] http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/ogham.html

[iv] The Silver Fir is not the correct tree for Ailm. The Silver Fir did not exist in Ireland at the time of these writings and was introduced much later. The texts of the time, and sometimes sources later even to this day, referred to the “Scots Pine” as the “Scotch Fir.” The terms were used interchangeably Robert Graves ascribed the Silver Fir to Ailm, not likely being aware of this fact.

[v] http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/ogham.html

[vi] Ibid.

 

 

Koad (Salmon or the Grove)

(Bluebells in Portglenone Forest in spring. David Iliff[i])

“Nemeton. A Gaulish word apparently meaning ‘sacred grove’ or ‘sanctuary’ appears whole or in part in several place names. Nemetona, Nemontana [goddess of the sacred grove; see NEMETON] Gaulish and British goddess whose name appears in many ancient inscriptions.” – James MacKillop (Dictionary of Celtic Mythology)

The Roots:

The twenty first letter of the Ogham, and the first letter of the forfeda, is Koad, the Grove.

Koad can also be Ebad, representing the Aspen or Woodbine instead. Reconstructionists usually do not refer to this letter as “the Grove.”

As discussed during the last entry, the Grove seems to have been an introduction by Colin and Liz Murray in an attempt to solve the riddle of the crane-bag presented by Robert Graves in the Crane Bag and other disputed subjects. This choice may have also served a duel purpose, however, as the Aspen tree had already been listed within the Ogham in its tree form.

Whatever their intention, Grove as a separate meaning, and letter, for magical users of the Ogham has seemed to hold fast since its initial introduction.

According to Liz and Colin Murray in the Celtic Tree Oracle, the Grove is linked to all “sacred places, traditionally near springs.” It is described as the “all knowledge” or the gathering together of that which one already knows.

Nigel Pennick in Magical Alphabets adds that the Grove represents the unity of all 8 festivals[ii]. He also says that “the Grove represents the colours of the forty shades of green.” The Grove is the point of total clarity.

Eryn Rowan Laurie in Ogam: Weaving Word Wisdom calls the Ogham letter Ebad and equates it not with a tree, but with the Salmon. She says that the meanings of the letter are, “carrier of wisdom, vehicle of inspiration and spiritual nourishment.” The association to salmon and to the Aspen is common amongst reconstructionists in regards to this few. The few is described in the Tract as being “the best swimming letter.” Aspen is buoyant and the Salmon is mentioned again later in the document[iii].

John Michael Greer, like the Murrays, also associates Koad to the Grove. He says of the letter that it is, “a few of central balance and infinite possibility, symbolized by a grove of many trees; the presence of many factors, the possibility of freedom.[iv]”

Robert Graves lists Koad as “the King of Scotland’s Shears” in the Crane Bag and other disputed subjects. He does not list any of these extra letters, the forfeda, as having any part whatsoever to do with the tree calendar theory that he had first presented in the White Goddess. It was during this philosophical shift between Graves and the Murrays that various interpretations of the Ogham outside of academic areas became mainstream.

In the Celtic Shaman by John Mathews, the work kenning “most buoyant of wood” is interpreted as representing “ability.” Caitlin Mathews in Celtic Wisdom Sticks does not use the forfeda in the same way, but uses this letter to represent the direction of South.

Robert Ellison in Ogham: the Secret Language of the Druids, uses White Poplar for the letter Ebad. He says that this letter represents, “buoyancy and floating above problems.”

As the Grove, Koad can be linked to all of the other trees and to any of the stories found within the forests of Celtic myth. The Grove can also represent a meeting point of intention, a magical encounter, or even a holy place.

The Trunk:

“As for the other miscellaneous objects found in the Crane Bag: if one thinks poetically, not scientifically, their meaning leaps to the eye.” Robert Graves (the Crane Bag and other Disputed Subjects)

As previously stated the forfeda[v], or the items found in the crane bag by poets, are  listed as ‘the King of Scotland’s Shears’(the X), ‘the King of Lochlainn’s helmet’ (with his face underneath, the four sided diamond), ‘the bones of Assail’s swine’ (the double lined X out to the side of the line), ‘Goibne’s smith-hook’ (the P or hook symbol), and Manannan’s own shirt’, which “is a map of the sea showing lines of longitude and latitude.[vi]”

Thus the forfeda becomes a riddle of magical and mythological contemplation.

So who is the king of Scotland and why are his shears important? Why does Manannan possess these items in the first place? Has he vanquished the owners of these objects in battle, or does he hold the items for safekeeping? Could these artifacts be being saved for ritualistic purposes, having been set aside for their owners within the sanctity of the crane bag? Or can they, the items, be being held hostage themselves?

There may not be a good answer to any of these questions. One can only study and contemplate as to what these items may have meant to the Celts of old. The old texts leave us with riddles that may or may not really mean anything.

Interestingly enough, though, the most famous story of shears found in Celtic mythology may also have ties to Scotland as well.

Twrch Trwyth was a king who had been transferred into a mighty boar because of his previous sins. In Jeffery Gantz’s version of the Mabinogion , Arthur himself says that “he was once a king but because of his sins god turned him into a pig.”

In the tale How Culhwch won Olwen, found in the Mabinogion, the story is revealed in its entirety- at least the portions that have survived down into our present era.

Culwch is described as the son of the ruler of Kelyddon in the Gantz version, but in others he is seen as the son of Prince Kelyddon. Could Kelyddon, the place, be Caledonia or Scotland? It may be a stretch, but the frequent mention of other countries in the old tales shows a great deal of contact between the Celtic ancestors including even the transfer of these stories and legends.

Culwch is the ultimate owner of the shears by the end of the story, but it is Caw of Scotland who uses the tool. Could Caw have been a prince or a king? In other versions of the story he is Kaw of North Britain. It may even be suggested that he is one of Culwch’s own men by his lack of mention in comparison to all of the other heroes found in the story.

Regardless, Culwch falls in love with the maiden Olwen who is the daughter of the giant Ysbaddaden. Culwch seeks out the giant with the help of Arthur and his men. Culwch is revealed to be the first cousin of Arthur, who gives him a haircut at the beginning of the tale[vii]. Culwch recruits Arthur and his men and they set off to find Ysbaddaden. When the giant is found, Culwch asks for the price of his daughter. Ysbaddaden then gives to Olwen a long series of impossible tasks that he must accomplish in order to win her hand. These trials need to be completed in order to win the giant’s daughter and in order to “cut off his head.”

(Clan Carter-Campbell family crest badge. Craigenputtock[viii])

The greatest task of all of them, and the only one told in detail, is the hunting of Twrch Trwyth. The great boar holds between his ears the comb and shears[ix] (and a razor) needed to give Ysbaddaden his final hair cut before the giant is executed.

To accomplish this task an army of men, led by Arthur, must first find the Mabon[x] whose help they need to get the boar’s treasures. Only he, with the magical devices, can handle the hound needed to catch Twrch Trwyth. To find the Mabon, however, they must first locate the oldest animal in the world who should know of the Mabon’s whereabouts. The heroes interview several of the oldest of animals, eventually talking to the oldest of them all, the salmon. The Salmon of Llyn Llyw then carries some of Arthur’s men up a stream, on his shoulders, to a prisoner’s quarters where the Mabon is being held. A battle then helps them to release the Mabon from captivity.

Eventually the party is ready to go after the boar himself having procured the proper hunting dogs, magic leash, collar, chains and men with extraordinary abilities.

When the men first turn their attention on Twrch Trwyth he has already destroyed “a third” of Ireland. When they later return to engage him more directly, he has destroyed “a fifth” of Ireland. The local Irish then help the men of Arthur fight the great boar and his seven sons. Many are slain. The Boar and his offspring flee Ireland and go to Wales where they began to kill the people and attack the countryside. In a battle for each of the shaving treasures many men are lost. Eventually, however, Twrch Trwyth is dead along with all of his sons.

The time finally comes for Ysbaddaden’s haircut. As mentioned, though, in the story this is done by Caw of Scotland and not by Culwch at all.

“Caw of Scotland came to shave the giant’s beard, flesh and skin right to the bone and both ears completely. ‘Have you been shaved?’ Asked Culhwch. ‘I have,’ said Ysbaddaden. ‘Is your daughter mine now?’  ‘She is. And you need not thank me, rather Arthur, who won her for you; of my own will you would have never got her. Now it is time for you to kill me.’ Goreu son of Custenhin seized Ysbaddaden by the hair and dragged him along to the dunghill, where he cut off his head and set it on a stake on the wall. They seized the fortress and the land, and that night Culhwch slept with Olwen, and as long as he lived she was his only wife. Then Arthur’s men dispersed to their own lands.” –Jeffery Gantz translation.

In the Crane bag and other Disputed Subjects Robert Graves explains how the shirt of Manannan is really the latitude and longitude lines of a sea map. In this light Colin and Liz Murray took a closer look at the King of Scotland’s Shears.

First of all what does the letter look like? An X on a map if we’re still thinking along those lines. Perhaps we’re looking at another map key; that of a significant destination? An X certainly meant treasure by the time of the Ogham Tract or the recording of Celtic legends.

In a Celtic forest there can be only one place of treasure, and that would have been the place of the nemeton or Grove. The idea that the shears could actually create such a place, by the hands of Manannan or some other god, seems to give the idea further credence. The Grove is a holy place usually not created by the hand of man. It exists in the forest but in a sense it is separate. It unifies everything and yet seems somehow apart or above. It is where the Salmon of wisdom feasts on the nuts of the hazel.

There may be deeper mysteries here, however. This line of thinking seems to have been the path that was taken by Liz and Colin Murray as they sought the answers to the final riddles of the forfeda. If this is true, then why didn’t they also solve the riddle for the other three letters left?  Manannan’s shirt was the Sea and the King of Scotland’s Shears was the Grove. What about Oir, Uilleand and Phagos?

Other questions still need to be answered as well. What can these symbols really mean? Who are these men and why does Manannan hold these items within the crane bag at all?

There is much to be pondered.

The Foliage:

For some time I have been meaning to acknowledge the Trees For Life: Restoring the Caledonian Forest website and organization properly for the enormity of the work that they do. Their website describes this work below as follows:

“Trees for Life is the only organisation specifically dedicated to restoring the Caledonian Forest to a target area of 600 sq miles in the Scottish Highlands. We work in partnership with the Forestry Commission, RSPB and private landowners, and own and manage the 10,000 acre Dundreggan Estate.

“Each year we run over 45 Conservation Holidays. Hundreds of volunteers join us annually in planting over 100,000 trees in protected areas, and carry out other restoration work such as seed collection and propagation of young trees and rare woodland plants. We have planted over 923,000 trees since 1989.”

I have enjoyed and sourced Paul Kendall’s articles on mythology within livinglibraryblog several times[xi]. Kendall’s writing brings a certain magic to the reality of the project that the Trees for Life organization has undertaken. The website is a beautiful resource of knowledge and a testament to the times of our ancestors… and even before. The goal to reforest portions of the highlands, seemingly unachievable, has been taking place one step at a time.

The organization offers several ways to donate or help out. A person can plant a tree or even just become a member for a small fee. What is most interesting to me, however, is the option of planting a Grove.

A person can make a donation by planting a Grove in someone’s memory, or for an important landmark like a wedding or a birth. It’s an excellent way to honour someone or some event while still being able to give back something long-lasting and meaningful. It is a way in which to reconnect with the past and to offer healing to an old friend.

To check out the sight, or to consider making a donation, please visit:

http://www.treesforlife.org.uk

“In view of the fact that don Juan was acquainting me with a live world, the processes of change in such a live world never cease. Conclusions, therefore, are only mnemonic devices, or operational structures, which serve the function of springboards into new horizons of cognition.” – Carlos Castaneda (the Teaching of Don Juan: a Yaqui Way of Knowledge)


[ii] The eight turning times of the year that neopagans tend to recognize in ritual and respect.

[iii] http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/ogham.html

[iv] The Druid Magic Handbook.

[v] See blog post: An Introduction to the Forfeda.

[vi] Ibid.

[vii] Thus the story begins and ends with the same ritualistic act.

[ix] Sometimes scissors.

[x] The Mabon is often described as a mysterious Celtic Christ.

An Introduction to the Forfeda (Extra Letters)

Introduction to the Forfeda
A version of the Neolithic triple spiral symbol

Read this post first: Ogham: the Forfeda, Diphthongs, or Extra Letters

“Some students find that using the forfeda enriches their experience with the ogam. Many of them would never dream of doing an ogam reading without them. Others find them problematic at best. These additional letters are not found in any of the stone inscriptions, and were added one at a time at a much later date than the original ogam letters were developed, they were certainly a part of the medieval ogam tradition and are a legitimate part of the system. The ‘Auraicept na n-Eces includes them in some of the ogam lists, but ignores them in others. It appears to me that even the medieval ogamists didn’t agree about their use.” – Eryn Rowan Laurie (Ogam: Weaving Word Wisdom)

Ogham Vowels

The Roots:

Eryn Rowan Laurie, in the above quote, beautifully sums up both the allure and the confusion surrounding the Forfeda and their individual meanings. There seems to be little agreement, in fact, on what any of these letters represents to anyone.

These ‘extra letters’ are also sometimes referred to as diphthongs but more readily as Forfeda. Regardless of their name, they do present us with some problematic considerations.

The confusion begins with the number of letters to be included. Most lists contain five but some contain up to thirteen. These longer lists are rarer. We will be focusing here on the five forfeda that are presented most commonly by various experts.

The meanings and associations for these letters also varies widely, as do their names and letter associations[i].

The first letter Ea can also be found as Ch. It is generally referred to as Aspen or the Grove[ii] (Murray) but can also be woodbine or elecampane.

The second letter Oi can also be found as Th. It is usually listed as the Spindle Tree. Other occurrences are Ivy, Heather, Gooseberry or thorn trees.

The third letter Ui can also be found as Pe. This letter can even be drawn quite differently from time to time depending on the source. It can look like a frontwards or backwards P, a hook, or an outward single swirl. This letter is usually associated with the Honeysuckle. The other occurrences are the Beech tree (Murray), or the Woodbine and Ivy (John Mathews[iii]).

The fourth letter Io can also be found as Ph. This letter is usually the Gooseberry or the Pine. It can also be found as the Honeysuckle (Murray), the thorn, the guelder rose (Pennick) or the snowball (Pennick[iv]).

The fifth letter Ae can also be found as Xi. It is generally listed as the Witch Hazel or Mor, the Sea (Murray). It can also occur as the Beech or Pine tree. In the Scholar’s Primer it’s called “the twin of Hazel” which is where the association of Witch Hazel or Beech comes from as people try to interpret what this phrase meant.

Confused yet? Aren’t you glad there’s an introduction to the Forfeda, as opposed to us just jumping in with both feet?

The Trunk:

The Ogham Tract, or Scholar’s Primer, is the most common source used to determine the meaning of the Forfeda by reconstructionists[v]. As far as an Ogham divination or magical source the most common used list is the one that was proposed by Liz and Colin Murray in the Celtic Tree Oracle. This is the reason that I placed in brackets the expert’s names above who stood out independently from all the others. For the most part I follow the Murray’s listing despite their misplacement of Honeysuckle and Beech. ‘The Grove’ was their solution to the recurrence of Aspen[vi]. ‘The Sea’ replaced the confusing twin of hazel (maybe they were thinking of the Hazel beneath the sea that fed the Salmon?[vii]) or the Pine (this to me would be a repeat similar to the Aspen. Silver Fir was a mistaken identity and was actually the Scots Pine[viii]).

Before I confuse you any further, let me address the elephant in the blog post if you will. If you’ve been following the Ogham listing through this blog, or are aware of the Ogham at all, you’re probably wondering where the hell Robert Graves is on the matter of the Forfeda?

The White Goddess brought the Ogham out of the museums and universities, and handed it back to the bards and the mystics – where it also belonged. In the White Goddess, however, Graves barely even mentions the Forfeda and doesn’t contribute anything of significance to their meanings in a poetic sense whatsoever. A lesser known book titled the Crane Bag and Other Disputed Subjects, on the other hand, contained an essay by Graves on the Forfeda. The following passages quote portions of that essay.

“I can best make my point by quoting [Dr. Anne Ross’] three-page treatment of an important Celtic myth that of the Sea- God’s Crane Bag; and her general view of cranes in Celtic tradition. The Crane Bag, she informs us correctly, belonged in Irish legend to Manannan God of the Sea and had been made from the skin of Aoife (‘pleasing’), a woman magically transformed into a crane. In this context Dr. Ross quotes an early medieval Irish Text[ix] which she calls ‘full of interest from a mythological point of view’. It certainly startled me:

“‘This crane-bag held every precious thing that Manannan possessed. The shirt of Manannan himself and his knife, and the shoulder strap of Goibne, the fierce smith, together with his smith’s hook; and the king of Scotland’s shears; and the king of Lochlainn’s helmet; and the bones of Asil’s (Assail’s) swine. A strip of the great whale’s back was also in that shapely crane-bag. When the sea was full, all the treasures were visible in it; when the fierce sea ebbed, the crane bag was empty.’”  

Robert Graves then spends some time trying to solidify his Greek alphabet-Ogham connection that he had already dealt forth in the White Goddess. He then lists the numerous reasons why the crane was sacred to both the Celts and the Greeks. This is followed by references from Macalister’s Secret languages of Ireland and Calder’s The Scholar’s Primer. Graves tries to assure us that the poets used the Ogham as a secret code.

Introduction to the Forfeda
Picture taken from Charles Squire’s Celtic Myth and Legend, 1905

“That the crane bag was filled when the sea was in flood,” Graves continues, “but emptied when it ebbed, means that these Ogham signs made complete sense for poetic Sons of Manannan, but none for the uninitiated outsiders. The Crane Bag, in fact, was not a tangible object, but, like Athene’s Goatskin Bag, the Aegis, which contained the Gorgon’s head, existed only as a metaphor, No more than two of the regular twenty letters which it contained are described in pictographic form by the poets quoted by Dr. Ross; namely M and G, the initials of Manannan and Goibne the Smith. These consist respectively, of one, and two nicks of the diagonal letter group crossing the stem-line. They are here disguised in ridding pictorial terms as ‘Manannan’s Knife’ (stuck in his belt) and ‘Goibne’s shoulder strap’ (which crossed his belt to his sword) and are offered merely as samples of the more ancient letters. As for the other miscellaneous objects found in the Crane Bag: if one thinks poetically, not scientifically, their meaning leaps to the eye.”

These items are listed as ‘the King of Scotland’s Shears’(the X), ‘the king of Lochlainn’s helmet’ (with his face underneath, the four sided diamond), ‘the bones of Assail’s swine’ (the double lined X out to the side of the line), ‘Goibne’s smith-hook’ (the P or hook symbol), and Manannan’s own shirt’, which “is a map of the sea showing lines of longitude and latitude.”

Graves then starts to ponder over the meanings of these treasures. He thinks that the first letter, CH, may have been the beginning of the name of a Scottish King (as a mnemonic device used in much the same way that each tree was chosen to represent a certain letter) and that perhaps the King of Lochlainn (Norway or Norse settlement of Dublin) could have had a Th letter name, like Thor.

Graves then surmises that the bones of Assail’s swine are possibly the crossed stalks of sacred mushrooms (Mushrooms are ‘little pigs’ in Latin and Italian) that had been discarded, “as bones from meat.”  Graves has already explained Manannan’s shirt and he does not emphasize any further on Goibne’s fish hook.

“But I hear some conscientious reader complaining, ‘Hi, wait a bit! What about the strip of whale’s back in the Crane Bag?’ That was so easy that I left the explanation out. Ogham nicks make no certain sense without a stem line; and for a Sea-God the only possible stem line was the horizon-dark and slightly arched like the back of a whale.”

Robert Graves then puffs out his chest a bit, pats himself on the back enthusiastically, and then exits off stage to the left… thus concluding his essay.

Colin Murray, in the Celtic Tree Oracle, made it no secret that he was using both the Ogham Tract (Book of Ballymote) and the Crane Bag and Other Disputed Subjects as the two sources for his and Liz’s listings of the Forfeda found in their book.

“The knowledge of the Crane Bag as displayed in the interpretation by Robert Graves is a fine example of the poetic insight needed to relive the perception of the old poets and Bards and to understand their way of thinking.”

The book’s introduction then shares a Scottish folk poem from Alexander Carmichael’s Carmina Gadelica. In the poem, a monster is captured and forced to build a house before he will be released. This monster sings a song as he’s working, which basically says that he’s including every tree of the forest except for the wild fig and Aspen, and in a later version of the same song the Yew, the Blackthorn and the Ivy are the trees that are removed from the dwelling. According to Murray, by leaving out these trees the monster has essentially cursed the home owner from ever being reborn to a better life, as well as, “the determination and self knowledge that would be necessary for it to succeed.” Of course, again, the hidden aspects of the tale are only present for someone who has knowledge of the Ogham or the tree meanings in Celtic tree-lore. Liz and Colin Murray end part one of their introductions as follows:

“This brief introduction to the trees in the forest of Celtic knowledge should have provided an insight into the way the tree knowledge was described, revealing itself only to those with the appropriate understanding. This leads us on to actually using Ogham and its hidden meanings in the search for the inner man and woman.”

In the Ogham Tract it’s clear that the medieval experts didn’t agree on a meaning or listing for each tree found in the final set of letters. Robert Graves, on the other hand, did not suggest – even once – that the last five “extra” letters were trees at all.

Robert Graves, by defining more clearly the shirt of Manannan, left us with Mor, the sea, as the final letter of the Forfeda. At least that’s the most likely place from which Colin Murray took the meaning of  “the Sea” from.

I believe that Colin Murray, using the King of Lochlainn’s shears as a clue, decided that the first letter of the Forfeda was the Grove. In a mythological or symbolic sense, if the undergrowth of the forest were to be cut down, as a sheep would be sheared, the action could in fact create a Grove.

I also believe – and this is only a theory that cannot be verified – that Colin Murray was working on discovering the metaphorical meanings of the last few letters of the Forfeda. These were listed in The Celtic Tree Oracle as the Spindle, the Honeysuckle, and the Beech tree. Is it possible that Colin passed away before he could discover them? Perhaps he already had, and these were left in his notes unrecognized for what they really were, hidden in plain sight before the Celtic tree Oracle was ever published?

Also to be considered, John Mathews in the Celtic Shaman explores the possibilities of deeper meaning to all of the letters in the “riddling glosses” found in the Word-Oghams. He also presents clues associated with Finn or Fionn’s wheel, the Celtic Mandela diagram.

Introduction to the Forfeda
Finn’s Wheel

The Foliage:

The Forfeda offers us an opportunity for the student of Ogham. It seems clear, to me anyways, that these letters were added at a time when the Ogham had already become a magical alphabet, and when the Ogham was no longer just being used as a land marking device. The difficult nature of the Forfeda does give the Ogham student the opportunity to explore these “extra letters” and come to their own conclusions, however. These next five letters will be presented in a way that speaks to me. This is in no way the final say on anything. In fact, this section will be far more Neopagan than reconstructionist.

In the Celtic Tree Oracle the Forfeda are included as regular divination cards. These cards are, perhaps, similar to the major arcana of the tarot. Some systems use the Forfeda on a casting cloth upon the ground. The twenty letters are then thrown upon these “extra” five letters in an attempt at divination, as well.

Mythological and magically, these final letters seem to be missing their place within the myths and legends of the Celtic ancestors.  This is why the Manannan Crane Bag legend fit so nicely into my own system of study and meditation. It’s clear from the differences of opinion found in the Book of Ballymote – especially within the Ogham tract – that the truth of these letters may never be fully known. There’s a fine line to walk here then.

It’s important to remember, that this attempt at reconstruction may be nothing more than fallacy. This is especially true when one considers the historical sources and the contradictions that we’re left to work with.

There’s one final thing to consider, as well. In the Celtic Tree Oracle Liz and Colin Murray speak of Dr. Berry Fell’s discovery of Ogham carvings in America and Brenda Sullivan’s similar theories about rock carvings found in Africa in the appendix. These ideas have been thrown aside by scholars for a wide variety of reasons including time frame impossibilities and there being greater differences than similarities in the lettering[x]. Many of Robert Graves’ theories have been disproven and have not stood the test of time either. Though he came from a place of poetic inspiration he also riddled his writing with factual inaccuracies that are too many to name[xi].

I’ve always enjoyed the work of Joseph Campbell. In reading the Hero of a Thousand Faces or watching his famous interviews on the Power of Myth – taped on the Skywalker ranch – I’m reminded just how similar we can sometimes evolve as people, mythological and completely independent from one another. Dragons and little people exist within cultural beliefs found almost everywhere. So do ghosts and the undead. There are Cinderella motifs and the hero’s journey found all over the world. The shaman, and the otherworld in which he travels, is found throughout every region of our planet, as well.

It’s my personal belief, that these mystical encounters either spiritually, evolutionary or psychologically, are part of our human experience. I do not believe that because a shaman from Africa goes to a similar place (Otherworld) as a shaman from Hawaii or El Salvador that this must be because there was physical over-land or sea travel which brought the exchanging of ideas thousands of years ago. These lines many of the researchers of the past make in the sand, for similar arguments, are shaky at best. Perhaps similarities of belief are more innate than science can realize in its present infancy?

I believe that without Robert Graves the Ogham would currently be nothing more than a footnote in a legend, or a tourist attraction at the corner of a churchyard or on the back of some farmer’s field. I do not believe as he did, however, that our ancestors needed to carry the religious practices of the Greeks or Hebrews all the way to Ireland to create a new, previously nonexistent, magical system of beliefs. They already had their own[xii].

Whatever it is that I believe or look into, though, I must always be open to the possibility that my opinion may change due to new discoveries or to things that I’d previously overlooked. I feel that as we start to explore the Forfeda that this statement is an especially important one to make.

The opinions that follow, on the Forfeda, are not as fixed in my mind as most of the other letters of the Ogham.

“There is a forth function of myth, and this is the one that I think everyone must try today to relate to – and that is the pedagogical function, of how to live a human lifetime under any circumstances. Myth can teach you that.” – Joseph Campbell (The Power of Myth, 1985)

 Introduction to the Forfeda

[i] Robert Graves was a poet not a historian. Many new Ogham users make the mistake of seeing him as an academic, and assume his work is historically accurate.

[ii] Occurring in the forest, but not a tree itself.

[iii] The Celtic Shaman.

[iv] Magical Alphabets.

[v] http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/ogham.html

[vi] A partial reason?

[vii] Another partial reason? Read on to learn about the shirt of Manannan.

[viii] See the Ailm blog entry. Scots Fir was the name used for Scots Pine at the time that the Ogham Tract was written. The Silver Fir had not been introduced into Ireland at the time this tract was written. Like other variations of names in the tract (furz/gorse or Sloe/Blackthorn) the Pine and the Fir tree which were listed are actually the same tree. The variation in name is likely poetic flair, but may also have been a translation error.

[ix] MacNeill, 1904, VII, 21 (Robert Graves footnote)

[xii] We shouldn’t overlook the fact that it was most often Christian monks who wrote down the first Irish legends. Forever grateful we should be, they could not have helped but to have seen the Celtic world through their own religious paradigms, though. This would have coloured the old stories in many ways.

Saille (Willow)

“Thus, among tree species, we can recognize on sight as wind-pollinated the bulk of catkin-bearing trees, including the hazels, birches, and poplars, for in all of them there is an abundance of loose pollen, no nectar, and no conspicuous insect-attracting feature. Willows, with their large nectarines, constitute an exception and are insect-pollinated.” – Steve Cafferty (Firefly Encyclopedia of Trees)

The Roots:

Saille, the willow, is the tree of the otherworld.

The willow is the conductor of relationships. She is the bringer of love, of poetic inspiration, of the element of water, of music, the moon and of the great goddess herself. She is associated to many different creatures of the Earth and to the very idea of magic.

Willow is the builder of bridges, between this world and the next.

The Trunk:

It is said that the willow tree can return from the dead, and there may be a kernel of truth to this.

The tree responds well to cutting, pruning and grafting. In Plants of Coastal British Columbia we are told that BC Natives would use poles from Hooker’s Willow for fishing piers because they would “take root” in the floor of the waterbed. The same source states that the Variable Willow grows “in the footsteps of retreating glaciers”, thus beginning the population process of the forest beneath the shadow of the ice ages.

In mythology the willow tree can be connected to many different goddesses. Saille is also associated to many living creatures in Celtic mythology like the crane, the bull, the bumblebee, the hawk[i] and the frog.

It is no mystery that the willow is a water tree, as it grows in damp places along riverbanks and lake shores. When the willow grows close to the water her roots reach into the life-giving liquid itself. To the Celts this must have been significant.

The Celtic ancestors believed that there was a thin veil between this world and the next. It was known that in places where reality bent, the veil between the worlds was thinnest. A mountaintop was sacred because it was neither part of the earth nor of the sky, beaches were neither of the land nor of the sea, and a forest clearing was neither a part of the woods nor separated from it. When it came to time, dusk and dawn were sacred because they were neither of the day nor of the night. Samhain was an especially good time to peer between the worlds for it neither existed in one year nor in the next. It was thus believed that many spirits could wander freely at this time and that humans could just as easily become lost to the other side as well. Babies born on boats were sacred under the same philosophy as well. One can also quickly see why rowan or mistletoe growing not on the ground but on another tree may have been especially significant, or why they would be harvested halfway between the full and the new moon. The list of places, times and events where the veil was thinner than usual could be considered as inexhaustible as the imagination is long.

Creatures such as frogs were considered sacred as they were neither a creature of the land nor of the water. For this reason so were many water birds as they were neither of the air nor of the water. The crane, swan, goose and duck make repeated appearances throughout Celtic mythology.

So to the Celtic people the fact that the willow tree, Saille, lived partly in the water as well as partly on the land was of a significant importance -as it likely was to many other ancient cultures as well.

Fred Hageneder in the Meaning of Trees lists the willow as being attached to the Sumerian goddess of love, Belili and in Greece to Persephone, Circe, Artemis and Hera and to the nine muses (which gave the gift of poetry to Orpheus). Hageneder also reminds us that the Irish Bards’ harp had the body of willow wood which is also significant as the bard was no mere musician, but a mystic and an inspired messenger of the gods.

Nor should we forget that the White Goddess-which Graves attempts to establish is but one and the same goddess in many forms throughout history-is also connected to “the Willow Grove” in her original form.

Willow’s being attached to the element of water, and thus to the moon, gives us many reasons for these spiritual or metaphysical connections, for most biologists say that life on this planet would never have occurred without the tidal effects of the oceans,  which are caused by the moon.

In the Druid Animal Oracle, Philip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm point out that there are two separate surviving Celtic monuments that both show a bull and three cranes with a willow tree. These first century AD monuments show us the significance of the relationship between these three beings. The number three is extremely significant in Celtic mythology and reappears over and over again in the form of triads, in art, in legends and in the images of the triangle. The three cranes depicted on the monuments thus signify a divine group. The crane is often attached to the willow tree elsewhere as well.

Graves also points out that cranes were believed to have bred, and breed, in willow groves.

This braid of connection is significant, for it is the crane that is directly linked to the Ogham. It is the “crane bag” that carries the carved Ogham sticks and the sacred treasures of the sea god Manannan. Though the original Ogham was a gift to humanity from the god Ogma Sun Face[ii], “Greek mythographers credited Palmedes with [the additional invention of Ogham glyphs], saying that he received his inspiration from observing a flock of cranes, which make letters as they fly”. “Crane Knowledge” would then come to mean knowledge of the Ogham specifically (Carr-Gomm).

The horns of the bull are often said to represent the moon (numerous sources). The bull then is just as likely to represent us, as humans, as a singular warm blooded creature of the earth, reaching towards the heavens. It is said that if a person is changed into the shape of a crane then it is only the blood of a bull that can change them back (Heinz[iii]).

Willow can then be used as a bridge builder and a harmonizer between this world and the next. Saille can be asked to petition the goddess in matters of the heart or to make peace where discord exists between various people in a spirit of cooperation. For just as the bumblebee exchanges with her, the willow, the labour of pollination for nectar, so to can we find a place of common ground in the world of the willow no matter what our differences.

Like all of the symbolism attached to Saille though, perhaps her greatest gift is to show us that the world that we perceive as fixed and static is more fluid than we could ever have imagined, and that perhaps -as many of the mystics of the past have claimed – it is but an illusion[iv].

The Foliage:

There is an old tradition of sitting beneath the willow tree while listening to the wind that blows through her leaves create the musical speech of poetic inspiration.

“Perhaps trees are mediators between the worlds: their branches reach far into heaven and their roots reach deep into the earth.” Saibne Heinz (Celtic Symbols)

[i] In the Ogham there are also certain birds, as well as trees, attached to each letter. The bird attached to Saille is the hawk.

[ii] Ogma “Sun Face” is the son of Dagda “the Lord of Knowledge”. He is a poet warrior god who also carries the souls of the dead to the otherworld. Little is known of Ogma but he is one of the younger generation of gods, known as the Tuatha De Danann. After a great battle against the Fomorii (the previous and dark ones) Ogma claimed a magical sword that would recite all of the things that it had ever done. (the Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythology, Select Editions. 2002)There can easily be seen parallels between Ogma and Odin, who brought the runic alphabet to the Norse, or to Prometheus, fire bringer, type figures. What seems to separate Ogma from these other advancers of civilization however is that he does not seem to have been punished for giving the Ogham to humans. I have found that John Mathews description of the events leading up to the sharing of the Ogham with man in the Song of Talieson as intuitive as he describes the sacrifice and pain that was experienced by Ogma in the process of learning the Ogham in the first place.

[iii] Sabine Heinz uses German Celtic Historian Silvia Botheroyd as a reference here. As far as I know her work is only available in German.

[iv] The willow is also used in scrying and other forms of divination, dowsing, and also has healing properties. It is commonly known that aspirin is a synthetic representation of salicyclic acid found in “white willow bark”, which in its natural form does not have blood thinning properties.

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