Thirteen trees across the year, each with its ogham letter and its month.
Celtic tree astrology gives every part of the year a tree: birch at the turn of the year, rowan after it, oak at midsummer, elder at the close. Each tree carries an ogham letter, the notched alphabet cut along the edges of standing stones in Ireland and Wales, and a character drawn from what the tree does and what was made from it.
We are careful about the provenance. The ogham alphabet and the trees named in it are genuinely old; the calendar that assigns them to months is modern, largely traceable to Robert Graves and The White Goddess in 1948. It is a beautiful system and a young one, and the difference is worth knowing.
How it is computed
Robert Graves' tree calendar of 1948, thirteen months from the day after the winter solstice. A modern construction from ogham and tree lore, not an ancient Celtic calendar; we say so.
The thirteen trees
Thirteen trees across the year, each with its ogham letter and its character.
Birch
Birch, Beith: the first tree after the solstice. You begin things and clean things; you are the new broom and the first light.
Rowan
Rowan, Luis: the tree of protection and quickening. You see far and you guard thresholds; your mind burns bright and cold.
Ash
Ash, Nion: the world-tree. You connect what is above with what is below; you are the link people did not know they needed.
Alder
Alder, Fearn: the shield that stands in water. You are brave in the wet places, the bridge others cross; you do not rot.
Willow
Willow, Saille: the Moon's tree. You bend and do not break; you know by feeling, by night, by the tide.
Hawthorn
Hawthorn, Uath: the May tree, the cleansing wait. You hold back until the moment; then you flower all at once.
Oak
Oak, Duir: the door, the strong one at midsummer. You endure and you shelter; the year turns on you.
Holly
Holly, Tinne: the challenger, the tree of the waning year. You hold your ground and keep your leaves in winter; you fight fair and to the end.
Hazel
Hazel, Coll: the tree of wisdom, the nine nuts over the salmon's pool. You know things; your work is to say them simply.
Vine
Vine, Muin: the harvest and the cup. You feel everything fully, joy and its cost; you see truth in the wine.
Ivy
Ivy, Gort: the climber, the spiral that binds. You persist; you find the way up any wall, and you hold what you reach.
Reed
Reed, Ngetal: the arrow and the wind's voice. You have direction and you keep secrets; you sound when the wind moves you.
Elder
Elder, Ruis: the end and the seed, the crone's tree. You are at home with endings and you carry the next beginning inside them.
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