Wheel of the Year - Samhain

If you follow the Wheel of the Year then most likely you will be approaching Beltane, that is if you live in the northern hemisphere. I however live in the southern hemisphere so it is Samhain and the beginning of Winter and the dark half of the year that is being experience here. You wouldn't really know it from the warm days we still experience at this this time of year, it is only because the night start to get colder that you can feel the changing seasons.

Wheel of the Year (Southern Hemisphere)

At this time of year I am drawn to more indoor pursuits like baking, because the summers are too hot to be spent standing around a hot oven and the winters are more of a cosy time to spend in the kitchen. I also tend to spend more time with my crafting project, by which I mean sewing, drawing, paper crafting, etc. Last winter I spent some time creating my seasonal beads, there are 8 in total, one for each turning of the Wheel of the Year.

At each turn of the Wheel I have been displaying my beads alongside the seasonal card, here you can see my beads with the Samhain card from the Witches' Wisdom Oracle. I tend to use the cards from this deck as more of a display for the seasons and less of an actual oracle, but its still a very nice little deck. To see how I made my Samhain beads you can visit HERE.

Witches' Wisdom oracle cards - Samhain

Ogham - A Brief Introduction

Oghams are not the easiest things to learn, not if you want to do it properly.

There are plenty of books, decks and sets readily available that will give you meanings for each ogham that are mostly just associations and interpretations linked to trees that draw from worldwide history and folklore. So if you were looking for a short cut to a quick and simple ogham set of meanings and association that could be one way to go, if your happy to accept one of many wide variety of opinions and speculations about the ogham.

However oghams are not all just trees and being an ancient Irish text, I see no relevance for history and folklore that is not directly related to Ireland. Trying to discern the meanings of these oghams is no simple task. I have spent the past few months working my way through the ogham and I have only just gotten past the first aicme. Not that I believe I know all there is to know on these first five oghams, but it is enough for me to begin to understand their meanings and associations, or at least my personal interpretations of these.

For most of my information on oghams I have been relying on the Auraicept na n-Éces: The Scholars’ Primer, being the texts of the Ogham tract from the Book of Ballymote and the Yellow book of Lecan, and the text of the Trefhocul from the Book of Leinster. There is an online version of this book found HERE. Because I can not read Irish, I have been going through the English chapters to uncover all I can about the ogham. This has been a bit of a trek as this book is not the easiest of reads.

As I mentioned above oghams are not all just trees, but reading through The Primer, the first chapter of the Auraicept na n-Éces: The Scholars’ Primer, it does associate each ogham with a tree, so it is easy to see where the confusion about the oghams being a tree oracle might have came from. However in the later chapter Ogham it describes other more varied meanings from the kennings as well as lists a number of other associations linked to the ogham, such as birds, colours, rivers and art.

In trying to decipher each ogham I have primarily used the Bríatharogam, translated as "word ogham", which are the kennings or short meanings given to each ogham found in the Auraicept na n-Éces: The Scholars’ Primer. There are three kennings for each of the original twenty oghams and these along with the meaning for the individual name of each ogham has led me to my own personal understanding of what each ogham represents and means.

According to the Auraicept na n-Éces: The Scholars’ Primer it is Ogma we have to thank for the invention of the ogham, "a man well skilled in speech and in poetry." A man who is not a man but an Irish deity of the Tuatha Dé Danann, a god of eloquence and learning, that is a reminder to me that we never stop learning. So no matter how much we think we may know about a subject there is always more to discover and no matter how much I think I may understand, or grow to understand, the ogham, where will always be more to learn. Something for me to keep in mind as I make my way through this ancient language.

The Problem with Easter

So in the midst of this Easter long weekend I find myself feeling out of touch with with the spirit of the holiday.

Not being a religious person, I do not celebrate this time of year as others may, in remembrance of Jesus and attending church. Instead I believe in following the changing patterns of the seasons in the wheel of the year. However even this is not such an easy thing for me living in Australia.

While the northern hemisphere can easily integrate celebrating Easter as the religious holiday along side Ostara as the seasonal celebration of Spring. We on the other side of the world are often times faced with images of bunnies and eggs at a time when Autumn is the prevailing season. I have even noticed that many Australian witches and pagan celebrate Ostara at Easter with the northern hemisphere. But this just doesn’t feel right to me.

So I am left with the problem of trying to decide if I should listen to what the whole world is telling me and ignore what is happening outside my window, or if I should listen to what I believe to be correct and follow the seasons where I live but feel like and outsider for doing so?

Wheel of the Year (Southern Hemisphere)