Ogham Impressions: First Aicme

A couple of weeks ago (ah, how time flies) I commented on someone else's post about ogham that some of my understandings were similar, and it spawned a brief conversation about how my understanding came about, and then I promised to share some of my insights... and then, well.  Life happened.  Samhain happened.  And now here I am in the second half of November, finally getting some of it down on paper and screen.  I'll start with a little background, though, on my personal study of ogham.

I don't recall when I first heard of ogham, but I can be almost certain that it was in the sense of the "alphabet of trees" or "tree calendar", both of which are pretty misleading. My first real contact with ogham, besides lists of trees that had more new age material than Irish material, was probably in one of Raven Edgewalker's classes at Sacred Space.  They do use the tree list pretty heavily (they're a plant witch after all) but, importantly, they explained that the tree list was only one list out of several, and that the ogham was, at its core, an alphabet of sounds, a framework from which to create poetry. That sounded much more interesting to me than just an oracle of trees, but it wasn't until I got my hands on a copy of Erryn Rowan Laurie's book Weaving Word Wisdom and found part of the Scholar's Primer (Auraicept na n-Éces) online that I started to truly understand what that meant.  Even after I'd read both books and bought a set of staves and started trying to study them on my own, however, I was still finding them to be a bit difficult to connect with. So when I had the chance to go to a ritual on connecting to Ogma and the ogham, I went.  Long story short, Ogma told me that he would not be teaching me the ogham "again", and that I'd have to put in the effort to really connect.  I think it was his nudge or guidance that helped me discover the 6 month intensive I ended up taking through the Irish Pagan School, though, and I am very grateful for that little bit of help.

In the IPS intensive, there were three parts to the study of every letter (called a "fid"): first, we read the corresponding sections in both Laurie's book (which I mentioned above) and John-Paul Patton's The Poet's Ogham.  Then, there was an hour or so of video lecture that went into the Briatharogham (also known as the "word ogham") in more depth, including some cultural nuances that might not be obvious to people who aren't immersed in Irish culture (that is to say: not the diaspora, those are two distinct cultures at this point).  The third part was a guided meditation journey to connect with the spirit of that particular fid, and it was those exchanges in journey space that really helped my connection with ogham flourish to the point that I felt I understood it enough to include it in my practice.  Each spirit helped me come up with a two-word kenning (in English, alas — perhaps in the future I'll have a good enough grasp of Irish), and gave me a staff in exchange for the gift I brought.  Many also gave me insight into other lists on that first journey — lists of plants and birds and even types of magic, that I've been developing for my own practice with their help.  I probably could have connected to the feda (plural of fid) if I had thought to try, but the curriculum developed by the IPS was really helpful for increasing my understanding of the historical materials, and actually managing to do the work in a timely manner!  I highly recommend it to anyone interested in deepening their connection to the ogham.

Back to the present, I started typing out the kennings and the descriptions of how the spirits appeared to me, and even without sharing the lists of trees and herbs and birds and types of magic, it got pretty long, so for today I'll just give you the first Aicme, the first set of 5.  If there's interest, I'm happy to share some of my personal lists later.

I associate Beithe with Imbolc personally, and from that association I associate the entire aicme with the Spring and the East, though as far as I know there is no direct historical support for that.  I'm also adding in some keywords that come from my personal understanding of each fid that I've developed in my studies, but again, these are to be taken as one person's opinion, not fact.

Beithe - Beginning Healing

Spirit: humanoid, slightly femme-of center, looked like a common depiction of a birch dryad (birchbark patterned skin, “hair” that’s twigs and moss, etc)

Keywords: new beginnings and trailblazing; cleansing and purification (and those as sources of healing); herbal healing and herb lore; conception, pregnancy, and birth both physically and metaphorically; serenity and tranquility; hope for the future

Luis – Lush Vibrancy

Spirit: humanoid, androgynous, also dryad-like, but shifting shape between several trees/plants

Keywords: lush greenery, vivid greens (physical and metaphorical); vibrant flame, shining light (again, physical and metaphorical); life force; growth, mastery; enlightenment, inspiration; intense, splendid, excellent; power and therefore also sorcery/magic

Fearn – Fierce Protection

Spirit: humanoid, something like a satyr, but from the lower leg, not the waist. I’m unclear if the hooves are bovine or cervine or what. Masculine in appearance with a broad chest, chestnut colored hair and some facial hair, but body hair not obvious despite not wearing a shirt (yes wearing pants that stopped at the knee though).  Horns also, but again unclear besides that they curled from the side of the head. Kind of a battle frenzy vibe.

Keywords: protection, defense, guarding; walls and shields (and metaphorically, boundaries and emotional walls and from there to stoicism and repression); necessary/unavoidable bloodshed or “egg cracking”; activism, reactive violence; the path of a warrior, first responders, vanguard; chivalry and also machismo in some cases.

Saille – Cyclical Currents

Spirit: humanoid, feminine – like a depiction of a “willowmaid”, so another more dryad-like spirit, drooping twig “hair”

Keywords: flowing water, tides, currents, eddies, the water cycle; rivers, underground springs, natural wells; repeated travel (esp in boats or across water, metaphorically repeated otherworldly travel); the underworld and grief; healing that happens slowly over time, grief fading in time, cycles of healing from trauma; clearing blockages and dams slowly (and metaphorically, emotional blockages); learning to let go, flexibility, lightness, unburdening your heart; emotional ebbs and flows, mood regulation and self regulation; subconscious mind; bodily cycles (such as menstruation or other hormonal cycles; also the ebbs and flows of chronic illnesses both physical and mental)

Nin – Knotted Weaving

Spirit: shifting through many forms at first, a commentary on my preconceived notions?  Settled on something that reminded me a bit of a warrior queen, vaguely like the Wonder Woman movie (2017) but with bark armour and leaves in her short hair, carrying a knotted net, a spear, and a spool of twine and had me help fix a piece of weaving on a loom, untangling and reweaving.

Keywords: fiber arts as magical arts (spinning, weaving, knot tying, knitting etc); fate-weaving, creating better futures; planning for a common future and working towards a common goal; community weaving, social contracts, networking, social support systems; negotiation, mediation, cooperation, and diplomacy; group governance, lawmaking, society-shaping.

I hope this was interesting for some of you.  Look for the next aicme next week!